Laura Abrams announced as next dean of Social Work school

Vassilios Papadopoulos has served as the interim dean for the school since 2022.

By ADAM YOUNG
Laura Abrams’ appointment as dean coincides with a new Bachelors of Social Work launching Fall 2026. (Charles McCollum / Daily Trojan file photo)

BREAKING: Laura Abrams will become dean of the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work starting July 1, 2026, according to a campus-wide email sent Tuesday. 

Vassilios Papadopoulos, the dean of the Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, has served as the interim dean for the school since 2022. 

Abrams is a professor in the Department of Social Welfare at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA. In 2016, she was elected as a Society for Social Work and Research Fellow, as well as an American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare Fellow in 2020. In 2025, Abrams received the California Social Welfare Archives’ Frances Lomas Feldman Award for excellence in social work education. 


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Her appointment coincides with a new Bachelors of Social Work launching Fall 2026.  

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