Pioneering Contributions
Diana DiNitto, PhD, MSW, has made pioneering contributions to the social work profession as an academic and policy advocate, focusing on social welfare policy and addiction issues, through scholarship, teaching, and activism. The eight editions of her social welfare policy textbook, first published in 1983, were among the first of its kind by a social worker, and became a standard in the field. They have been used by thousands in the fields of social work, government/political science, public affairs, and sociology. The four editions of DiNitto’s chemical dependency textbook (with C. Aaron McNeece), first published in 1994, have been widely used as well, preparing and inspiring students to engage in this field.
DiNitto has presented testimony to the U.S. Sentencing Commission on addressing alcohol and drug problems in the criminal justice system. She has drafted alcohol, tobacco, and other drug and mental health policy statements that were passed by NASW’s Delegate Assembly. In addition, she advocated for better-informed drug policy through the speakers’ bureau of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas and has lectured nationally and internationally to prepare instructors to teach about social policy and substance use.
In 1981, she was a founding member of the Florida School of Substance Abuse Studies. Since 1993 she has been a board member of the interdisciplinary Texas Research Society on Alcoholism (TRSA) and currently serves as president. She has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions (JSPA) since its inception.
DiNitto has reviewed substance use grant applications for the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She participated in developing the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s curriculum project Social Work Education for the Prevention and Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorders.
DiNitto has also served the Council on Social Work Education as a board member and member of the Educational Policy Commission. She was an inaugural Executive Committee member of the Grand Challenges for Social Work. She currently serves on the Special Commission to Advance Macro Social Work.
The Social Betterment blog named DiNitto one of the 20 most influential social work professors. DiNitto has been a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Sydney (Australia), and Tallinn University (Estonia) and has lectured at the University of Tampere (Finland).
Since 1973, DiNitto has been a member of NASW and since 1976, a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers. She has served NASW at the national level in many capacities and was a member of the Delegate Assembly and has served state NASW chapters in Florida and Texas.
Career Highlights
In 1974, DiNitto’s first post-MSW position was in the Special Services (substance use programs) of Apalachee Community Mental Health Services (ACMHS), a nonprofit mental health agency headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida. She began as a caseworker at ACMHS and advanced to assistant area director and in-service training director of Special Services. She also supervised staff and wrote grants to support and expand services.
In 1978, she become an instructor at the School of Social Work, now the College of Social Work, at Florida State University (FSU). At FSU she complemented her MSW degree by earning a PhD in government with an emphasis in public administration while teaching full-time at the School of Social Work. She became an assistant professor at FSU in 1980 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure before moving to Austin to become an associate professor with tenure and BSW Program Coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work (now the Steve Hicks School of Social Work) in 1984. She has been a professor at the Steve Hicks School since 1989.
Biographic Data
DiNitto was born in Boston, MA, in 1950. DiNitto’s involvement in the substance use field began during high school when the Mayor of Hollywood, FL, invited her as one of a group of students to discuss emerging drug use. She became a public speaker on the topic.
She received her BA from Barry College (now Barry University) in 1971. She earned both her MSW (1974) and PhD (1980) degrees from Florida State University. She served on the faculty at FSU from 1978-1984 and has been on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin since 1984,
Significant Achievements and Awards
In 1997, DiNitto was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teaching Professors at the University of Texas at Austin – one of the first women to receive this recognition. In 1998, she was named the Cullen Trust Centennial Professor in Alcohol Studies and Education at UT Austin. For her exceptional mentorship of faculty, the Diana M. DiNitto Peer Mentorship Award was established at the UT Austin School of Social Work in 2004 and is awarded annually. She twice received a Texas Excellence Teaching Award from the Texas Exes (alumni association) at UT Austin.
The nationally known career center at the UT Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work is named after her. This honor was given in conjunction with a gift from the University Cooperative Society (UT Co-op) to honor DiNitto’s service on its board of directors.
In 2012, DiNitto was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. In 2019, she received the Donna Harrington Mentorship Award from the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work, and in 2020, Florida State University presented her with its Distinguished Social Work Educator Award. In 2003, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Social Welfare Policy Practice Group, and in 2022, the Capital Area Branch of NASW-Texas also awarded her its Social Work Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2023, the Journal of Social Work Education named her Best Reviewer of the year.
Tallinn University (Estonia) recently presented her with an honorary doctorate, in particular, for her contributions to social work doctoral education: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDBRBByyMvI and https://www.tlu.ee/en/honorary-members.
Significant Publications
DiNitto is the author, coauthor, or co-editor of 19 books (including multiple editions of her widely used textbooks) and author or coauthor of 32 book chapters/encyclopedia entries and 174 peer-reviewed articles, as well as invited articles and editorials. Her Google Scholar h-index is 43. Examples of her key works are:
Begun, A. L., DiNitto, D. M., & Straussner, S. L. A. (Eds.). (2018). Implementing the grand challenge of reducing and preventing alcohol misuse and its consequences. New York: Routledge.
DiNitto, D. M., & Johnson, D. H. (2016). Social welfare: Politics and public policy (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
McNeece, C. A., & DiNitto, D. M. (2012). Chemical dependency: A systems approach (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Spence, R. T., DiNitto, D. M., & Straussner, L. A. (Eds.). Neurobiology of addictions: Implications for clinical practice. Binghamton, NY: Haworth.
Uehara, E., Flynn, M., Fong, R., Brekke, J., Barth, R. P., Coulton, C., Davis, K., DiNitto, D., Hawkins, J. D., Lubben, J. Manderscheid, R., Padilla, Y., Sherraden, M., & Walters, K. (2013). Grand Challenges for Social Work. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 4(3), 165-170.