Lisa Reyes Mason
Lisa Reyes Mason
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Dean

Research Description

Lisa Reyes Mason, PhD, MSW, is Dean and Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Social Work. Her leadership is grounded in care for community, dedication to social justice, and a vision for public-serving research universities to create knowledge and partnerships that inform policy, practice, and societal change.
 
Dean Reyes Mason’s scholarly expertise is in climate change as a social justice issue. Nationally and internationally recognized for her climate justice work, she has received external funding from the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for interdisciplinary, community-engaged research addressing socio-environmental issues including stormwater flooding, nighttime tornado safety, and urban environmental health. Dean Reyes Mason also co-edited the book People and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Social Justice—a collection of lived experiences and case studies of climate injustice from the Global South and North—and served as co-lead of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare’s Grand Challenge to "Create Social Responses to a Changing Environment" for five years.
 
Dean Reyes Mason received her MSW and PhD from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was a Chancellor’s Fellow for advancing diversity in the professoriate and Olin Fellow for exceptional women to become leaders in society. Her BA is from the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in Folklore and Folklife, or the everyday knowledge of people and how wisdom and ways of living are passed from one generation to the next.

Education

BA, University of Pennsylvania
MSW, Washington University in St. Louis
PhD, Washington University in St. Louis

Awards and Honors

Established Faculty Service and Leadership in Social Work Education, Council on Social Work Education, 2025
Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research, Society for Social Work and Research, 2022

Additional Campus Affiliations

Dean, School of Social Work

Highlighted Publications

Mason, L. R., & Rigg, J. (Eds.) (2019). People and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Social Justice. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190886455.001.0001

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Recent Publications

Olaitan, A. M., Egbogah, I., Osuolale, K. A., Esiaba, C., Mason, L. R., & Ekenga, C. C. (2026). Perceived impacts of extreme heat on health and livelihoods in Nigeria. Environmental Research: Health, 4(2), Article 025020. https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ae73a7

Kang, J., Gounder, B., Weatherly, C., Jankowski, A., & Mason, L. R. (2025). Rethinking Academic Conferences: Carbon Footprints and Sustainable Alternatives in the Climate Crisis Era. Advances in Social Work, 25(1), 219-230. https://doi.org/10.18060/28138

Mattocks, N., Rao, S., Ncube, N., & Mason, L. R. (2025). Climate and Environmental Justice: Introduction to the Special Issue. Ethics and Social Welfare, 19(3), 213-216. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2025.2550094

La Torre, J. C., Sevillano, L., Mason, L. R., Trinidad, A. M. O., & de Leon, C. (2024). Weaving Our Kuwentos (Stories) toward Ginhawa (Aliveness): Pilipinx American Social Work MotherScholars Enacting Praxes of Survival and Thrivance in the Academy. Genealogy, 8(4), Article 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040127

Mason, L. R., Coye, S. R., Rao, S., Krings, A., & Santucci, J. (2024). Environmental Justice and Social Work: A Study across Practice Settings in Three U.S. States. Sustainability (Switzerland), 16(19), Article 8361. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16198361

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