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Pioneering Contributions
Dexter R. Voisin, PhD, MSW, LCSW, as an early pioneer, provided vital clinical services for individuals dealing with co-occurring HIV, drug use and mental health challenges during a time when stigma and accessibility barriers were prevalent. He currently serves as dean of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.
Voisin’s trailblazing research illuminates the fundamental structural causes of violence and health disparities, particularly how they disproportionately affect Black youth and adults. He effectively advocates for the recasting and redefining of structural violence as trauma, shifting the focus towards empathy rather than blame. He is a public intellectual and has made numerous national and international media appearances to amplify the significance and impact of his research, effectively disseminating his findings to a wide audience, and elevating the voices from communities that are often overlooked.
Career Highlights
He is among a handful of persons who have held deanships at two major institutions. Alongside his role as dean, Voisin holds the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Endowed Professorship at Case Western Reserve. Previously, he was dean and the Sandra Rotman Chair in Social Work at the University of Toronto's (UofT) Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW), ranked the number two school of social work globally.
He has excelled as an innovative administrator, researcher, educator and institution-builder, over two decades, fostering collaborations across prominent public and private academic partnerships and institutions. Additionally, he has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications illuminating structural inequalities, which have been featured in numerous prestigious and impactful journals. As a principal or co-investigator, Voisin has secured over $16 million in extramural funding from major organizations including the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the W.T. Grant Foundation.
Biographic Data
Voisin, a Trinidadian American citizen, earned a BA in Psychology from St. Andrews University, North Carolina (1991), an MSW from the University of Michigan (1992), and both an MA in Philosophy (1998) and a PhD in Social Work (1999) from Columbia University. He is licensed as a social worker in the U.S. and Canada.
Significant Achievements and Awards
Throughout his storied career, Voisin has been a pioneering leader in research, practice and policy. His scholarship has informed health policy in Illinois and influenced the field of prevention science. As an applied scholar, he has also shattered barriers and achieved several historic firsts, including becoming the first Black dean appointed in the University of Toronto’s 189-year history. While there, he played a critical role in leading the Anti-Black Racism Task Force, championing 56 action-oriented recommendations to address structural disparities and racism. To date, UofT has now appointed five Black deans, partially as a result of Voisin’s trailblazing efforts, the work and recommendations of the Anti–Black Racism Taskforce and other efforts.
In 2023, he was elected president of the National Association of Deans and Directors (NADD) of Social Work, and inducted as a Society for Social Work and Research Fellow. In 2022, he was ranked among the top 2% most-cited scientists worldwide within his field by the prestigious Stanford University/Elsevier List. In 2021, was elected as an American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare Fellow.
In 2020, Voisin was selected as the Carl A. Scott Memorial Lecturer by the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission for Diversity and Social Justice in recognition of his lifelong anti-racism work. He was also appointed by Governor Pat Quinn to the Illinois African American Family Commission. Voisin continues to be a trailblazer in academia and serves as an inspiration for the next generation of scholars.
Significant Publications
- Voisin, D., Takahashi, K, Walsh, J., DiFranceisco, W., Johnson, A., Dakin, A., Bouaca, N., Brown, K., & Quinn, K. (2024). An exploratory study of community violence exposures and HIV care engagement among Black Gay and Bisexual Men. AIDS Care, 1-8.
- Voisin, D., Edwards, T., Takahashi, L., Valadez-Tapia, S., Shah, S., Oselett, C., Oselett, N., Darkin, A., Quinn, K. (2022). COVID-19 and aspects of the HIV care continuum engagement among young Black men who have sex with men. AIDS and Behavior, 27(2), 535-544.
- Voisin, D. (August 2019). America the Beautiful and Violent: Black Youth and Neighborhood Trauma in Chicago. Columbia University Press. Reviewed in Journal of Urban Affairs
- Voisin, D. (2019). America the beautiful and violent: Black youth and neighborhood trauma in Chicago. Columbia University Press.
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