The Ph.D. Program in Social Welfare
The primary purpose of the Ph.D. program is to produce scholars who can use systematic methods to develop through research, and disseminate through teaching and writing, knowledge concerning social welfare problems and policies.
Drawing upon the social, behavioral and health sciences as well as social work knowledge and experience, the graduates of this program will have the skills to expand the base of tested knowledge that can guide the profession of social work in its efforts to address major social problems.
A second purpose is to develop leaders and educators who can effectively contribute to contemporary social work practice as defined in this school’s mission statement, which can be found at: socialwelfare.stonybrookmedicine.edu/mission.
The core of this program is education for scholarly research leading to careers as teachers, researchers, and policy analysts with a focus on the content areas of health, mental health, and substance abuse. The strength of such a program lies in its location within the Health Sciences Center. This is a natural setting in which to bring together the basic sciences and theoretical disciplines in applied policy/program analysis and thereby contribute to research in the social dimensions of health and mental health.

