Alan Dettlaff

Alan J. Dettlaff is dean of the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston and the inaugural Maconda Brown O’Connor Endowed Dean’s Chair. Prior to entering academia, Dean Dettlaff worked in the child welfare system as a caseworker and an administrator. He received his bachelor’s degree in social work from TCU and his master’s in social work and PhD from the University of Texas at Arlington. Dean Dettlaff’s work focuses on addressing and eliminating the impacts of structural and institutional racism on Black children and other children of color impacted by child welfare system intervention. He is co-founder of the upEND Movement, a collaborative movement that seeks to end the involuntary separation of children from their parents through abolition of foster care and the child welfare system.