Paula Allen-Meares

Norma Radin Collegiate Professor Emerita of Social Work, Professor Emerita of Education and Dean Emerita

Paula Allen-Meares served as dean of the University of Michigan School of Social Work from February 1993 to August 2008 and became dean emerita in January 2009, when she was appointed chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dean Emerita Allen-Meares' research interests include the tasks and functions of social workers employed in educational settings; psychopathology in children, adolescents, and families; adolescent sexuality; premature parenthood; and various aspects of social work practice. She is principal investigator of the School's Global Program on Youth, an initiative supported by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation; principal investigator of the Skillman Good Neighborhoods Grant and the NIMH Social Work Research Center on Poverty, Risk, and Mental Health; and a co-investigator on an NIMH research grant.

Dean Emerita Allen-Meares serves on numerous editorial boards and has served as editor-in-chief of many important journals. Additionally, she has served on numerous national professional and scientific committees promoting the intellectual and empirical advancement of the profession. She is a past member of the Institute for Advancement of Social Work Research, treasurer of the Council on Social Work Education, chair of the Publication Committee for the National Association of Social Workers, and vice president for the National Association of Deans and Directors of Social Work. Allen-Meares served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the William T. Grant Foundation, and has served as president of the Society for Social Work and Research and as a University of Michigan Senior Fellow.

Dean Emerita Allen-Meares is a New York Academy of Medicine Trustee and Fellow and a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine. She was inducted as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2005 and served on its Membership Committee as Chair of Section X. She is currently a member of the Institute’s Member Awards Committee. In addition, she has become active as a Board Member of the Civic Consulting Alliance, as a member of the American Council on Education’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Equity, and as a board member of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities. Other areas of research/scholarly interest: school social work, racial issues, social work practice, mental health

Research Interests

Schools, adolescents, parenting.

Curriculum Vitae

Contact Information

  • [email protected]

  • 3752 SSWB
    University of Illinois, Chicago
    Dept of Medicine
    373 CMET, MC735
    Chicago, IL 60607University of Michigan
    School of Social Work
    1080 S. University
    Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Education

  • 1975 PhD Social Work and Educational Administration
    University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • 1971 MSW Child Welfare
    University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • 1969 BS
    State University of New York at Buffalo
  • 1990 Cert
    Harvard University Graduate School Management Development Program
  • 1993 Cert
    Management of Managers, UM Business School

News

Activities

Publications

Molina, K., Tan, K., Chen, J., Durazo-Arvizu, R., Gallo, L., Perreira, K., Sanchez-Johnsen, L., Zeng, D., Pulgaron, E, Delamater, A., Kim, S., Allen-Meares, P., Daviglus, M., Isasi, C., & Hernandez, R. (2025). Profiles of structural violence in Hispanic/Latino immigrant and non-immigrant parents: The Hispanic community health study/study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) youth study. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health.
Dickens, C., Suarez-Balcazar, Y., Allen-Meares, P., & Brazil, E. (2025). Using ecological systems theory to enhance community health literacy. Health Literacy and Research Practice, 9(1), e29-e36.
Beeler, S., Allen-Meares, P., & Slavic, L. (2025). Triple Jeopardy: Substance use, incarceration, and low health literacy. NASW Health & Social Work.
Kelley, M. A. & Allen-Meares, P. (2025). Reimagining food equity: A multilevel health framework. NASW Health & Social Work.
Tayal, A., Salunke, D., Di Eugenio, B., Allen-Meares, P. G., Abril, E. P., Garcia-Bedoya, O., Dickens, C. A., & Boyd, A. D. (2025). Towards conversational assistants for health applications: Using ChatGPT to generate conversations about heart failure. In Proceedings of the 26th Annual Meeting of the Special Interest Group on Discourse and Dialogue, 527-537. Avignon, France. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Tayal, A., Di Eugenio, B., Salunke, D., Boyd, A. D., Dickens, C. A., Abril, E. P., Garcia-Bedoya, O., & Allen-Meares, P. A. (2024). A neuro-symbolic approach to monitoring salt content in food. arXiv.
Suarez-Balcazar, Y., Allen-Meares, P. Dickens, C., Brazil, E., Bedoya-Garcia, O., & Biggers, A. (2024). Enhancing the education of community health workers on health literacy and cultural humility in times of COVID-19. American Journal of Health Education, 1-10.
Allen-Meares, P., Suarez-Balcazar, Y., Garcia-Bedoya, O., Khare, M., Brazil, E., & Ford, C. (2024). Promoting health literacy and cultural humility: CBOs and wraparound services. Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved, 35(3), 47-61.
Hong, J. S., Zhang, S., Espelage, D. L., & Allen-Meares, P. (2023). Dimensions of parenting and children's bullying victimization. Journal of Genetic Psychology.
Salunke, D., Dickens, C., Garcia-Bedoya, O., Allen-Meares, P., Di Eugenio, B., & Boyd, A. D. (2023). Learnings from pilot testing HFChat, an interactive dialogue agent that can assist Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino patients with heart failture. Journal of Cardiac Failure, 29(4), 563.

Honors and Awards

Year Description
2025 Distinguished Bachelor of Science in Social Work Alumni Award, University of Buffalo, School of Social Work
2020 2020 Society for Social Work and Research Fellow
2016-2018 National Academy of Medicine Nominating Committee
2008 Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award
2008 Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors (BPD) Award
2006-2007 Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare
2006-2007 Who's Who Among American Teachers & Educators
2006 Knee/Wittman (NASW) Lifetime Achievement Award
2006 OUTstanding Ally of the Year Award-UM TBLG
2004 Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Buffalo
2004 The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies
2003 Who's Who Among African Americans
2003 One Thousand Great Intellectuals
2003 Who's Who in American Education
2001-2003 Who's Who in America
2001-2003 Who's Who in the World
2001-2002 America's Registry of Outstanding Professionals
2001 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 21st Century, 1st Edition
2000 Woman of the Year in Leadership Award, Women of Color Task Force, University of Michigan
1997-1998 Who's Who of American Women
1996-1997 Who's Who in the Midwest
1996-1997 Who's Who Among African Americans
1995 Who's Who in American Education
1994 Who's Who Among Human Services Professionals
1994 Presidential Award for Excellence in Social Work Education-NASW
1993 Delta Kappa Gamma, XI Chapter, International Honor Society of Women Educators
1993 Career Achievement Award, National Coalition for School Social Work
1993 Alumna of the Year, School of Social Work, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1993 Who's Who in the Midwest
1992 Social Worker of the Year, NASW Illini District
1990 Medallion of Honor Recipient, University of Illinois
1990 Phi Delta Kappa
1989 Committee on Institutional Cooperation Professional Fellow, University of Illinois
1981-1982 Who's Who of American Women
1979 Outstanding Young Women in America
1975 Illinois Education Association Human Relations Award
1969-1971 Fellowship, University of Illinois
1966-1969 New York Regents' Incentive Award
1966 Mothers Club Scholarship, Buffalo, NY

Presentations

Year Description
2026 Allen-Meares, P., & Slavic, L. (May 2026). Navigating the Health Information Ecosystem: Lessons for the Future from Community Residents and Stakeholders [Poster Presentation]. IHA Health Literacy Conference.
2025 Salunke, D., Tayal, A., Di Eugenio, B., Allen-Meares, P. G., Dickens, C. A., Garcia-Bedoya, O., Abril, E. P., & Boyd, A. D. (May 2025). Preliminary findings from a comparative study of GPT and neuro-symbolic models in salt content information delivery. AMIA 2025 Clinical Informatics Conference, Anaheim, CA, United States.
2025 Tayal, A., Salunke, D., Di Eugenio, B., Allen-Meares, P., Abril, E. P., Garcia, O., Dickens, C., & Boyd, A. (April 2025) Conversational Assistants to support Heart Failure Patients: comparing a Neurosymbolic Architecture with ChatGPT [Abstract]. Midwest Speech and Language Days (MSLD) 2025.
2024 Ford, C., Khare, M., Suarez-Balcazar, Y., Garcia-Bedoya, O., Weidenbacher-Hoper, V., & Allen-Meares, P. (2024). Diverse Perspectives of Lessons Learned From The COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Future Public Health Efforts [Poster Presentation]. UICOM Rockford Annual Research Day.
2023 Salunke, D., Tayal, A., DiEugenio, B., Allen-Meares, P. G., Dickens, C., Garcia-Bedoya, O., Abril, E., & Boyd, A. D. (2023). Poster Presentation, Assessing Bias in CHATGPT’s Simulated Clinical Responses. American Medical Informatics Association 2023 Annual Symposium.