Biography

Joan R. Rycraft is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) School of Social Work. She received a BA in Social Welfare and Criminal Justice from California State University, Chico, a MSW from California State University, Fresno, and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver. Prior to joining the faculty at UTA, she taught at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she was a Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs Teaching Scholar. Her academic career builds upon twenty years of casework, supervision, and administrative practices in public child welfare in the State of California.

Joan was born and raised in the far northern portion of California in a small resort town on the mouth of the Klamath River. The family homestead was a working cattle ranch with the towering Redwoods as a backyard, and the Pacific Ocean as a front yard. With education a top priority with her parents, Joan attended a private elementary school twenty miles from her home and high school as a boarding student at Dominican College in the Bay Area.  Personal interests include travel, reading, games of chance, and gourmet cooking.

Joan teaches in all three degree programs (BSW, MSSW, PhD) in the areas of research, administrative and community practices, and child and youth policy. Committed to enhancing the knowledge base of the social work profession by preparing competent social work practitioners, in addition to teaching, she chairs a number of theses each semester and serves on several Ph.D. diagnostic and dissertation committees. Her research and publications focus on child welfare policy and administration. Joan has conducted numerous studies on various aspects of child welfare programs and administrative issues. She is currently Co-Principal Investigator on a Children’s Bureau grant to develop web based training to enhance CPS decision making using national data. Additionally, she is Co-Author on a forthcoming book on Child Welfare Policy and Practice to be published by Peacock.

Joan is an active member of several national social work organizations and is active in the university and the community. She has represented the School of Social Work on the Faculty Senate for the past four years and has served on several university special committees. She currently provides consultation to community based agencies on program evaluation and administrative issues.