George Warren Brown School of Social Work


The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis is one of the world's leading schools for the training of social science researchers. The Brown School offers a Master of Social Work, a Master of Public Health, a Master of Social Policy, a PhD in Social Work, and a PhD in Public Health Sciences. The social work school and public health programs are top-ranked by . As one of the academic units of Washington University in St. Louis, the Brown School was founded in 1925 as the department of social work. The school was endowed in 1945 by Bettie Bofinger Brown and named for her husband, George Warren Brown, a St. Louis philanthropist and co-founder of the Brown Shoe Company. The school was the first in the country to have a building for the purpose of social work education, and it is also a founding member of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. The school is housed within Brown, Goldfarb, and Hillman Halls.
The school has many nationally and internationally acclaimed scholars in social security, health care, health disparities, communication, social and health policy, and individual and family development. Many of the faculty have training in both social work and public health, as well as policy engagement.

History

1925
Washington University introduces a social work program under the leadership of Professor Frank Bruno. This program was initially named the Washington University Training Course for Social Workers and was part of the Department of Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts.
1926
The social work training program transfers to the School of Commerce and Finance, which was then renamed the School of Business and Public Administration.
1928
The George Warren Brown Department of Social Work is established with monies from the estate of George Warren Brown, a prominent shoe manufacturer.
1937
The Washington University community and alumni of the George Warren Brown Department of Social Work dedicate Brown Hall. Brown Hall is the first building in the nation constructed to house a program of social work education. George C. Throop, then chancellor, opened the first evening’s dedication ceremonies with a tribute to George Warren Brown and his wife, Betty Bofinger Brown, whose bequest in memory of her husband had made the building possible.
1937-1945
Brown Hall is home to the Department of Social Work as well as the departments of history, political science, anthropology and sociology. As the program, grew the school expanded to occupy the entire building.
1945
The University establishes the George Warren Brown School of Social Work as a separate school with Benjamin E. Youngdahl as its dean. Years later, the estate of George Warren Brown donated $1 million to the University to create a permanent endowment for the school.
1998
The Brown School and Washington University celebrate the dedication of Alvin Goldfarb Hall, a four-story building that doubled the capacity of the school.
2009
The Master of Public Health program enrolls its first class, and collaborates with the new Institute for Public Health. Students are able to obtain a dual degree with the MSW. The Institute for Public Health is designed to be multi-disciplinary, and has collaboration from the School of Engineering's Technology for Environmental Public Health and International Development program, the Olin Business School's undergraduate major in healthcare management, and the College of Arts and Science's undergraduate minor in public health.

Research Centers

The Brown School is home to several research centers with distinct areas of emphasis, among them: