Ann Rosegrant Alvarez, former associate dean and faculty member at the Wayne State University School of Social Work, has returned to the school after an eight-year absence and will contribute to the community practice and leadership concentration.

Alvarez was a member of the Wayne State Social Work faculty from 1993 to 2005, serving as associate dean from 2002 to 2005. Before returning to Wayne State this fall as an associate professor, she served from 2005 to 2009 as director of distance education at the School of Social Work at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, and from 2009 to 2012 as director at the Eastern Michigan University School of Social Work.

Alvarez's scholarship and teaching focus on community practice, intersectionality and social work, social work education, the development of critical consciousness through praxis, community-based participatory research, group work and social action, and feminist social work history. She has published and presented on these topics in professional journals and at international and national conferences.

Alvarez has also served in a number of national leadership roles, most notably with the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). She was a member of the Executive Committee of the CSWE Board of Directors, a two-term member of CSWE Commission for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice, and a member and subsequent chair of CSWE's Commission/Council on the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education. From 2002 to2007, Alvarez was an editor of the Journal of Community Practice, originating and editing the "From the Archives" feature.

Alvarez said she is pleased to see at the School of Social Work "curricular innovations that reflect vibrant programs and effectively link practice and theory."

"I look forward to reconnecting with community partners and the many people who are working to improve life for themselves and their neighbors in Detroit," Alvarez said. "Through my work, I hope to contribute to positive change and help share results of actions and approaches as part of the global information exchange through which we are all connected."

Alvarez's professional recognition includes the Award for Best Faculty M.S.W. Project in the Influencing State Policy National Contest, the Emerging Scholar Award from the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration, the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Wayne State University School of Social Work, and the Hali Giessler Volunteer of the Year Award for her work on the board of Detroit's Franklin-Wright Settlements, Inc..

Her board participation and practice experience in community organizing and social work administration have included work with and on behalf of youth, the elderly and homeless families in the Philippines, Louisiana, Michigan and Hawaii.

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