Dexter R. Voisin is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Dean of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. He is a licensed psychotherapist with more than 30 years of clinical, research, teaching and administrative experience. He earned his PhD and master's in philosophy from Columbia University and his master's in social work from the University of Michigan.
Before joining Case Western Reserve in January 2022, Voisin was dean of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and the Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair in Social Work at the University of Toronto. Prior, he was on faculty at the University of Chicago for two decades where he was director of the STI/HIV Intervention Network and co-director of the Chicago Center for HIV Elimination.
Voisin is an internationally-recognized expert on how racial and structural inequalities influence health behaviors and outcomes among minoritized populations. As principal or co-investigator, he has secured more than $20 million in extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health and the W. T. Grant Foundation, among others. He has also authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. His book, America the Beautiful and Violent: Black Youth and Neighborhood Trauma in Chicago, was published by Columbia University Press in 2019. In 2020, he was recognized as among the top 2% of scientists in the world within his field.
He is a frequent keynote speaker at national conferences, and his expertise and research findings have been cited by numerous members of the international and national media. His research has also informed public health policy in Illinois, where he was appointed to two Illinois state boards by Governor Pat Quinn.
Voisin is a Fellow and former Board Member of the Society for Social Work and Research, a Fellow and Board Member of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, and President of the National Association of Deans and Directors. In 2024, he was named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Workers.
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The phonetic spelling of “Voisin,” which means “neighbor” in French, is waz-zin or vwah-zan. Listen to the phonetic pronunciation here.