Dr. Rubén Parra-Cardona, Associate Dean for Global Engagement and Professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHS), has accepted a position at the University of Tennessee College of Social Work (UTCSW) as the school’s first-ever endowed Chair.
Since arriving to SHS in 2017, Dr. Parra-Cardona has made significant contributions to the academy of social work through robust research and deep relationships with international collaborators. He will begin his duties in Knoxville as the Roger and Carol Nooe Endowed Chair at UTCSW beginning in August 2024.
“Rubén is an extraordinary colleague and friend whose presence in our school will surely be missed, but he is also celebrated as the inaugural Roger and Carol Nooe Endowed Chair at the University of Tennessee,” said Allan Cole, Dean of SHS. “Dr. Parra-Cardona has made significant contributions to our community — intellectually and instructionally — but more importantly, he did so through his kindness and generosity of spirit. I am grateful for his many contributions to the SHS community, and I know that he will bring excellence to UT with his scholarship, teaching, service, leadership, sense of humor, and humanity.”
Dr. Parra-Cardona’s ground-breaking research in parenting programs among Latinx populations has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for 15 consecutive years, and he was recently celebrated with the inaugural Adrian Blow Outstanding Innovation in Research award by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Award, has collaborated with esteemed institutions such as the World Health Organization, and cultivated significant relationships between SHS and international universities such as the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, Chile.
“It is an exceptional honor to be the inaugural Roger and Carol Nooe Endowed Chair at the University of Tennessee, and to focus on incredibly important social justice issues found on Rocky Top, in the State of Tennessee, and around the world,” Dr. Parra-Cardona stated. “This is a critical time in our country to focus on mental health practices, and as the Nooe chair, I look forward to building upon the many successes of a top college of social work. I am deeply grateful to the donors who provided the support for this position, to Dean Lori Messinger, to the UT School of Social Work, and to the University of Tennessee for this opportunity, and I am eager to get started on the work ahead.”
Additional information on Dr. Parra-Cardona’s new appointment can be found at the University of Tennessee’s website.