Professor Michele Hanna joined the faculty at GSSW in 2005 and currently serves as the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Previously, Dr. Hanna served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2014-2018. Currently, Dr. Hanna is the Principal Investigator for the CLIMB Stipend Programs federally funded (HRSA) training grants that provide stipends to students interested in pursuing a career in Integrated Behavioral Health or working in OUD/SUD prevention, treatment, or recovery. The CLIMB Stipend Programs seek to expand the healthcare workforce in Colorado and the Four Corners region, focusing on medically underserved communities. Dr. Hanna teaches social work values courses including Cultural and Linguistic Competency in Integrated Behavioral Health, Power, Privilege, and Oppression, Disproportionality and Disparities Across Systems, Critical Race Theory Praxis and Social Work, and the doctoral qualitative research sequence.

Prior to pursuing her Ph.D. at The University of Texas at Austin, her professional experience included working as an adoption birth parent counselor, a child protective service worker, child welfare adoption specialist, child welfare supervisor and program field representative for a statewide special needs adoption program.

Hanna's research focuses on child welfare, foster care, and adoption. From 2008-2014, she was the Principal Investigator for the evaluation of Denver's Village: Wrapping Families with Community Support. This City and County of Denver project was funded as part of the Children's Bureau's Diligent Recruitment of Families for Children in the Foster Care System grant cluster.  Dr. Hanna is the first editor and contributing author to the 2021 child welfare test book entitled Introduction to Child Welfare: Building a Culturally Responsive, Multisystemic, Evidence-Based Approach (Cognella Publishing). 

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