E. Delores Dungee-Anderson, formerly the M.S.W. program director at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Social Work, is serving as interim associate dean for academic affairs and visiting professor in the Wayne State University School of Social Work for the 2012-13 academic year. Her research is focused on dissociative correlates of childhood and adult trauma with emphasis on substance dependence, homelessness and personality disorders. Since 1985, Dungee-Anderson has taught at VCU and maintained an independent practice specializing in clinical hypnosis, personality disorders, and complex trauma such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), military PTSD and dissociative disorders.

Dungee-Anderson brings to the WSU School of Social Work an excellent record of ongoing service and professional leadership at the national, regional and local levels of professional social work. Since 2006, she has provided a broad range of accreditation services for the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the nation’s only accrediting agency for social work education. She is a member of the CSWE Commission on Accreditation, and was on the national steering committee that developed the CSWE social work practice competencies for advanced clinical practice. She is a member of the national task force that recently completed the development of trauma practice competencies in collaboration with the National Center for Social Work Trauma Education and Workforce Development, founded by Fordham University and Hunter College and sponsored by SAMHSA, and CSWE.

While at VCU, Dungee-Anderson was a University of Washington John Hartford Foundation Gerontology Grant-funded Mentor to social work programs in five states, supporting the infusion of gerontology content in social work curricula. She is now a CSWE Gerontology Education Consultant. Dungee-Anderson has held leadership roles with the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work, and she was vice president of the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social (ABE).  

Dungee-Anderson has been active in promoting standards and providing licensure training at national and local levels. She has written standards of clinical supervision for the state of Iowa. She is a credentialed trainer for NASW-Virginia and provides ongoing clinical licensure preparation training and clinical supervision training for licensure applicants.

Leaving VCU for the interim associate dean position at Wayne State represented a “life-changing decision” that Dungee-Anderson said captures a core task of social workers, which is to facilitate change. She said, “As a longtime social work practitioner and educator, I have consistently shared my own personal mantra with clients and students alike, which is, ‘One cannot lead where one is unable to go.’ I strongly believe that the consideration of substantial change in the interest of meeting challenges is always infused with the hope of making positive contributions in a new venue.”

She praised the WSU School of Social Work faculty and staff for a warm and generous reception. “Having had the wonderful opportunity to join the Wayne State School of Social Work has truly been for me nothing other than positive,” said Dungee-Anderson. “It is my hope to utilize much of the knowledge and experience I have gained over the years to ‘give back’ in contributions to the School of Social Work and to the university. I am both excited and humbled to be here!”

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 29,000 students.