Rowena Fong, Ed.D.

Rowena Fong, Ed.D., is the founding co-chair of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare’s Grand Challenges Executive Committee and the Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative. She has served nationally as a past president of the Society for Social Work and Research (2009-2013) and is an inaugural Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research. A former member of the Children’s Bureau’s, Child Welfare Evaluation Workgroup, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Fong served as a board member of the North American Council on Adoptable Children and the National Advisory Board of In-Home Services.

Fong’s research focuses on post permanency preservation and supports in public child welfare systems and on transracial and intercountry adoptions. She has morethan 100 publications, including the following books: Fong, R., Lubben, J., & Barth, R. (Eds.). (2018). Grand challenges for social work and society. New York and Washington, D.C.: Oxford University Press and NASW Press; Dettlaff, A. & Fong, R. (Eds.). (2016). Immigrant and Refugee Children and Families: Culturally Responsive Practice. Columbia University Press;  Fong, R. & McRoy, R. (Eds.). (2016). Transracial and intercountry adoption practices and policies: A resource for educators and clinicians. Columbia University Press; Fong, R., Dettlaff, James, J., & Rodriguez, C. (2015). Eliminating racial disproportionality and disparities: Multi systems culturally competent approaches. Columbia University Press; Dettlaff, A. & Fong, R. (Eds.) (2012). Child welfare practice with immigrant children and families. New York: Taylor & Francis Books; C. Franklin & R. Fong (2011). The church leader’s counseling resource book: A guide to mental health and social problems. New York: Oxford University Press; R. Fong, R. McRoy, & C. Ortiz Hendricks, (Eds.). (2006). Intersecting child welfare, substance abuse, and family violence: Culturally competent approaches. Washington, D.C.: Council on Social Work Education; R. Fong, (Ed.). (2004). Culturally competent practice with immigrant and refugee children and families. New York: Guilford Press; M. Smith & R. Fong (2004). Children of neglect: When no one cares. New York: Brunner-Routledge Press; R. Fong, & S. Furuto (Eds.). (2001). Culturally competent social work practice: Skills, interventions and evaluation. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon; and E. Freeman, C. Franklin, R. Fong, G. Shaffer, & E. Timberlake (Eds.). (1998). Multisystem skills and interventions in school social work practice. Washington, D.C.: NASW Press.

She has received the 2014 Diana DiNitto Peer Faculty Mentor Award of the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin; the 2008 Distinguished Recent Contributions in Social Work Education Award of the Council on Social Work Education; the 2007 Texas Exes Teaching Award of the University of Texas at Austin; the 2001 Regent’s Teaching Award of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the 2001 Social Worker of the Year in Education and Training of the National Association of Social Work, Honolulu Chapter.

She received her BA in Chinese Studies and Psychology from Wellesley College, her MSW in Children and Families from UC Berkeley, and her Ed.D. in Human Development from Harvard University