Gary L. Bowen, Ph.D., joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work in 1988 and was named dean of the School in 2016. He is a Kenan Distinguished Professor and has been recognized as one of 40 “high impact” social work scholars in a study published by the journal Research on Social Work Practice. Bowen has served as president of the National Council on Family Relations (2009–2011). He has been named a Fellow of NCFR (2001) and of the Society for Social Work and Research (2017). He has published extensively on the social environmental antecedents of school engagement and academic success of middle and high school students, as well as on the nature of the work and family interface in branches of the U.S. military. Bowen is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MSW) and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Ph.D., family relations and child development).