BINGHAMTON, NY – Binghamton University Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Donald Nieman has announced that Laura Bronstein will be the next dean of the College of Community and Public Affairs. A highly influential social work scholar who has served as interim dean since June 2013, Bronstein will assume her new role on Jan. 2, 2014.

Bronstein said she is excited about the opportunity because of the college’s excellent faculty, limitless potential and commitment to community engagement, diversity, social justice, and cutting edge scholarship. "I am thrilled to lead CCPA in its next stage of development and build on the work that Dean Patricia Ingraham began," said Bronstein. "I very much look forward to supporting our students, staff, faculty and community partners in a range of exciting opportunities we have yet to discover as we move forward together." 

Nieman said that Bronstein’s strong record of scholarship and external funding, successful collaborations with community partners and academic leadership brought her to the top of a very competitive field.

"Laura has distinguished herself as a high-profile scholar who is successful in working closely with community partners on projects that address critical community needs," Nieman said. "Her success as a scholar, collaborative approach to leadership and commitment to the community will make her an outstanding dean."

President Harvey Stenger described Bronstein as a great fit for the college. "She is smart and collaborative," Stenger said, "and understands CCPA’s enormous potential to raise Binghamton University’s profile in research, graduate education and community engagement."

Bronstein joined the Binghamton University faculty in 1999, and was a founding member of the Department of Social Work, also serving as chair from 2006 until her appointment as interim dean in June 2013.  

Her research focuses on interprofessional and interagency collaboration as well as social work practice with aging populations. She is not only a prolific scholar, but has published articles that are highly influential among her peers. Her 2003 article, "A Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration," published in the journal Social Work, is the eighth most cited work in professional social work literature in the past decade.

Bronstein has also brought insights from her scholarship to a number of successful collaborations with community partners, including providing leadership for SHARE, a federally funded, $3.2 million collaboration among BOCES, Broome County schools and Binghamton University designed to develop safe school environments and improve mental health services in schools.