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Dennis R. Falk
"I view graduate students as adult learners who have valuable life and professional experiences. I work to create a cooperative environment in each class, validating students’ experiences, but encouraging them to think critically and to learn more from these experiences."

Without Professor Dennis Falk’s leadership, according to colleagues, the Master of Social Work program would not exist—or have flourished. Falk is credited with nearly single handedly resurrecting the program after severe budget cuts. He played a key role in developing its innovative distance education program and was a major factor in the department becoming a national leader in generalist social work practice, especially with American Indian communities.

A colleague calls Falk "truly the most outstanding educator that I have ever encountered." He teaches research courses many students consistently judge to be the most difficult of their graduate studies, yet they always give him the highest evaluations in the department. Falk "helped me to think more critically than I believe I ever had before," recalls a former student.

In more than 30 years in graduate education, Falk has served as an academic adviser to 165 students and a research adviser to 160. He embraces technology as a learning tool and helped develop interactive materials to address issues social work professionals are likely to encounter in their practices. Falk "has been the single most influential person in my career development," claims a former student.

"I developed ways of thinking I had not considered until that point in my life," says another former student, calling Falk’s class the first step "in a journey of personal enlightenment, without which, I do not believe I would be able to view the world as I do today."