Spotlight
 Chicago
Social worker, educator, dean, chancellor
 Paula Allen-Meares, selected as
the new chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago pending approval by the
Board of Trustees, is a distinguished social work scholar and educator.
Dr. Allen-Meares would assume the position of chancellor, the chief executive officer
of the campus, in mid-January 2009.
Dean of the school of social work at the University of Michigan since 1993,
Allen-Meares' research interests include the tasks and functions of social workers
employed in education settings and premature parenthood.
Allen-Meares is the Norma Radin Collegiate Professor of Social Work at Michigan as well as
a professor of education at the university. Prior to joining the University of Michigan,
she was a professor and dean of the school of social work at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her master's and Ph.D. degrees. Her bachelor's degree
was earned at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
UIC's Jane Addams College of Social Work, where Allen-Meares will have an appointment
as professor, continues to carry out the mission of American social work pioneer and
Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams and the Hull House movement, adapting it to contemporary
needs and the realities of today's urban settings. The college's commitment to social, racial,
and economic justice is reflected in the racial and cultural diversity of the faculty, staff,
and student body, curriculum of the degree programs, community service projects, and
research and evaluation projects and initiatives.
The new chancellor will also have a faculty appointment in the UIC College of Education,
which enrolls more than 750 students in four departments: curriculum and instruction,
educational psychology, policy studies, and special education. The college has spent more
than two decades building a pipeline of teachers, administrators, researchers and policymakers
who work with Chicago-area schools as part of the institutions commitment to the urban education system.
The University of Illinois at Chicago, with 15 colleges and schools and more than 25,000 students,
is an urban university intimately connected to its home in one of the nation's largest and
most diverse cities. A noted research center, particularly in urban affairs, medicine and the
health sciences, UIC is committed to creating and disseminating new knowledge. Renowned for
strong academic programs in medicine, pharmacy, nursing and public health, UIC yearly graduates
more physicians than any university in the nation at the College of Medicine in Chicago
and at sites in Peoria, Rockford and Urbana-Champaign. The campus employs 13,000 and has a total
annual budget of about $1.7 billion.
A hallmark of the UIC campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty,
students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds
of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. UIC, which the first
Mayor Richard Daley considered his finest accomplishment, aims to be the nation's best urban university.
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Paula Allen-Meares biography
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Paula Allen-Meares CV
Chancellor search
and announcement website
UIC Jane Addams College of Social Work
UIC College of Education
UIC colleges and programs
UIC home page
Great Cities Commitment
June 2008
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