Taking social work to the next level
It takes a volunteer
Preparing Servant Leaders. Improving Communities. Lighting The Way.
As Tennessee’s #1 social work program, the UT College of Social Work, is preparing the professionals who hold Tennessee together — and the scholars who are solving its toughest problems. Through the It Takes a Volunteer campaign, we’re investing in the students, the research, and the spaces that will define the future of our college and our communities.
The Volunteer Spirit in Action
At the University of Tennessee College of Social Work, being a Volunteer isn’t just a tradition — it’s a calling.
Every day, our students, faculty, and alumni step forward to serve the people who need it most. They sit with families in crisis. They shape the policies that protect children. They walk into communities others have overlooked — and they make change happen.
Now, through the It Takes a Volunteer campaign, we have the opportunity to take this college to the next level — expanding access for students, accelerating research that changes lives, and building the spaces our people deserve.
Tennessee Volunteers step forward. We push past the limits. We light the way.
#1
Social Work Program in Tennessee
158%
Growth in Research Funding
2021-2025
Top 25
Social Work Program in the Nation
Over 500
Field Agency Partners
47%
of Tennessee Social Workers are UTCSW Alumni
67%
Increase in Community Agency Partnerships
Creating an Unparalleled Student Experience
We meet students where they are — and we take them further than they imagined.
From the moment they enter the College of Social Work, our students are supported by a dedicated success team staffed by professional social workers. The result? The highest retention and graduation rates at the University of Tennessee — at both the undergraduate and graduate level — and a 96% employment rate within six months of graduation.
“We will prepare tomorrow’s leaders to carry the Volunteer spirit into Tennessee and around the globe.“
How You Can Support Our Students
Reducing Student Debt
Endowed scholarship funds will reduce debt across all programs — BSSW, MSSW, and DSW — and help us reach our goal of reducing student debt by 10% by 2030.
Set Students Apart
Donor-funded scholars tracks in health social work, gerontological social work, and social work and public policy give students specialized experiences, mentorship, and financial support in fields where Tennessee needs them most.
High-Impact Experiences
Study abroad. Research alongside faculty. Presenting at national conferences. Career readiness training. These are the experiences that transform students — and right now, we can’t offer them at scale. An endowed high-impact practice fund ensures every generation of students has access.
New Programs That Expand Access
We are launching a Nashville BSSW degree-completion program in Fall 2026, bringing face-to-face social work education to Middle Tennessee for the first time. New graduate certificates in Health Social Work and Community-Engaged Data Science, along with dual degrees such as MSSW/MBA, position our graduates for careers of tomorrow. Partnerships with Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt Divinity School are broadening pathways even further.
Innovation in the Classroom
We are integrating AI and virtual reality into our curricula — preparing students not just for today’s practice settings, but for the future of the profession.
Paid Placements That Reduce the Burden
Social work students complete 16–20 hours a week in field placements — most of them unpaid — while juggling coursework and jobs. We are expanding paid and employment-based placements through targeted field office outreach and agency partnerships, so students can gain the experience they need without the financial strain that drives too many out of the profession.
Advancing Research That Improves Lives
We turn bold ideas into real solutions — for Tennessee and beyond.
Our faculty don’t study problems from a distance. They embed in communities. They partner with state agencies. They sit at the table with the families, clinicians, and policymakers who are doing the hardest work. And they bring the rigor of a Top 25 research program to every question they ask.
The results speak for themselves: a 158% increase in research funding over four years. $38 million in active grants and contracts. A national ranking of #19 among public universities in social work R&D spending. 89 faculty publications in a single year. 30+ specialized areas of research — from substance abuse treatment to veterinary social work to disaster response.
Our Social Work Office of Research and Public Service — SWORPS — holds more than $37 million in contracts with state, local, and agency partners, making it the university’s front door to Tennessee’s health and human service systems. 60% of our tenure-track and research faculty are grant-funded, and community partnerships grew by 67% in the last year alone.
“It takes a Volunteer to build the future of Tennessee.”
What Your Support Makes Possible
The Nashville Center for Child and Family Health & Well-Being
A new research center launching in Fall 2026, anchored by endowed faculty, focused on one of our greatest areas of strength — and one of Tennessee’s greatest areas of need. The center will partner with local agencies, research universities, and state-level organizations to drive community-engaged scholarship with real impact.
The Center for Behavioral Health Research — Reimagined
We are expanding this established center to take on a broader role in mental health, substance misuse, and system change — meeting the moment in Tennessee and beyond.
Implementation Science Training
In partnership with the Center for Implementation (Canada), we are training faculty in the science of putting what works into practice — closing the gap between research and the communities that need it most.
Endowed Chairs and Professorships
Senior faculty drive research programs, mentor the next generation, and attract external funding. Additional endowed positions will help us recruit and retain scholars at the top of the field — and support promising early-career faculty with the resources they need to grow.
A Post-Doctoral Program
By 2029, we aim to hire 2–4 post-doctoral researchers — building the pipeline of the next generation of social work scholars.
Scholarship Challenge Grants
The college is investing $550,000 over three years in tiered internal grants — from $5K planning grants for interdisciplinary teams to $40K advanced grants for faculty approaching major federal applications. These seed investments are designed to generate exponential returns in external funding.
A Home for Social Work
“To compete with our peers for the best faculty, doctoral students, and funding, we need to present as a strong, independent, well-resourced College of Social Work with our own building.“
Dean lori messinger
Every other professional college at the University of Tennessee has its own building. Business. Law. Education. Nursing. Architecture. Veterinary Medicine.
The College of Social Work does not.
In 2024, we were displaced from our longtime home in Henson Hall to make way for a new business building. Today, our Knoxville faculty and staff work out of two floors of temporary space in Stokely Management Center — with inadequate offices, fewer classrooms, persistent HVAC problems, and no room to grow. Our research staff is scattered off-campus.
In Nashville — where we are building a nationally recognized research center and launching a new undergraduate program — our campus shares a warehouse-district building with unrelated businesses, far from any UT amenities, with ongoing facility challenges that make it hard to recruit top faculty.
We are not included in the university’s campus master plan. We are the only professional college in this situation.
Meanwhile, nearly every peer program we compete against — Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Alabama, Wisconsin-Madison, Kansas, VCU, and every top-10 public school of social work in the country — has its own building.
We are doing extraordinary work in spaces that don’t reflect who we are or where we’re going. That has to change.
Ready to Carry the Torch?
Tennessee Volunteers light the way for others. Your investment in the College of Social Work will prepare the next generation of leaders, accelerate research that improves lives, and build a home worthy of the work we do.
