School of Social Work

Denise Burnette, Ph.D., is the Samuel S. Wurtzel Professor of Social Work at VCU and also serves as the director of international social work collaboratory. Her research focuses on global mental health, with an emphasis on health and psychosocial problems and related service needs of older adults in resource-constrained settings. She has held Senior Fulbright fellowships in India and Botswana, and served as an International Scholar with the Open Society in Central Asia and the Balkans for a decade. Burnette’s program of research focuses on the development and delivery of effective, appropriately targeted services in low-resource countries and communities. Her current research examines the knowledge, attitudes and practices toward COVID-19 among older adults in Puerto Rico.

Burnette has taught extensively across M.S.W. and Ph.D. curricula and in related disciplines. A core component of her research agenda in low- and middle-income countries is capacity-building with faculty and students in collaborating schools of social work and public health. Examples include dissertation supervision, classroom teaching, community lectures, seminars, training workshops, and individual and departmental faculty development initiatives.

She has held several academic administrative appointments, most recently as director of the VCU School of Social Work's Ph.D. Program and immediate past president of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE). She currently serves as director of the school’s international initiatives.

Burnette has extensive direct social work practice experience in medical and public psychiatric settings. She holds a certification in Management Development for College and University Administrators from Harvard University and is Professor Emerita at Columbia University School of Social Work.

Areas of expertise

• Aging and Mental Health
• International Social Work
• Research Design
• Qualitative and Quantitative

Education and credentials

M.S. Mental Health Policy & Services, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
M.S.S.W., University of Tennessee
B.A., University of Tennessee
B.S., University of Tennessee

View Denise Burnette's curriculum vitae.