The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, has appointed Virginia Stadler Majewski, Ph.D., as chair of the Division of Social Work. She had been an associate professor of social work at the University of Wyoming. She officially began her new duties on March 1.
Majewski attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she received her B.A. in Spanish and a certificate in Latin American studies in 1970. She earned an M.A. in Hispanic languages and literatures in 1973, also at Pitt. She returned to the university and earned a master of social work degree in 1983 and then earned a Ph.D. in public policy research and analysis in 1993.
“Dr. Majewskis decision to come to WVU is based not only on her love for the Appalachian Region, but on her interest in the strengths and the concerns of the people in this part of the country,”said M. Duane Nellis dean of the Eberly College.
As division chair, she plans to capitalize on the unique opportunities for collaboration that exist in the WVU School of Applied Social Scienceswhich also
includes divisions of public administration and sociology and anthropologyto help enhance the role of faculty research, instruction, and service in the state.
“We will strive to be proactive in designing our educational programs to reflect the state-of-the-art in social work practice with individuals, families, groups, and communities. I am excited to be part of a diverse faculty that will have an active research agenda to contribute to all areas of social work. We can have a significant role to play in the rural communities of West Virginia,”she said.
A native of southwestern Pennsylvania, Majewski was chairperson of the Department of Social Work and baccalaureate program director at the California University of Pennsylvania from 1993 until 1998, when she moved on to the University of Wyoming.
Her teaching focuses mainly on social work practice in rural settings, research methods, and public policy, and her research activities have focused on human rights and international social work, with emphases on indigenous populations, economic self-sufficiency and sustainable development, and ethnography.
The School of Applied Social Sciences, a unit within the Eberly College, offers the bachelors degree and the masters degree in social work, a bachelor of arts in sociology and anthropology, a master of arts in sociology (with a focus on applied social research), and the master of public administration degree.