Social Work Faculty Tenured in 2023
Two Social Work professors joined Columbia's tenured faculty in 2023. Tenure is a distinction that recognizes scholarly excellence, demonstrated capacity for imaginative, original work, and great promise for continued contributions at the leading edge of one's field.
Courtney Cogburn
Courtney Cogburn, Associate Professor of Social Work, is a social work scholar whose research identifies and conceptualizes racism as a crucial factor behind poor health and seeks to measure and mitigate racism. Cogburn uses emerging technologies to examine patterns and effects of racism, and her work has explored how virtual reality can be leveraged to combat racism.
An immersive virtual reality experience she lead the creation of, titled 1,000 Cut Journey, leads users through three moments of a Black male protagonist’s life. The production was launched at the Tribeca Film Festival and was featured at the Los Angeles Festival. Cogburn is also Chief Equity Officer and Knowledge Transfer Director for the LEAP Center (Learning the Environment through Artificial intelligence and Physics), an NSF Science and Technology Center supported by a grant of $25 million, for which she is co-PI.
Cogburn earned her PhD at the University of Michigan before joining Columbia’s faculty in 2014, earning tenure in 2023.
Courtney Cogburn’s Faculty Profile
Victoria Frye
Victoria Frye, Professor of Social Work, is a leader in social and behavioral science who studies intimate partner and sexual violence as well as the socio-structural factors associated with it, especially among gay, bisexual, same gender-loving, and other men who have sex with men.
In both research streams, she examines individual and environmental factors that shape risky sexual health-related behaviors. A hallmark of her research program is an intellectual process that applies critical social and psychological theory to empirical data to inform the design of social and behavioral prevention interventions.
Frye has led the design and testing of multiple HIV prevention interventions as well as media campaigns to reduce HIV stigma and other forms of discrimination, such as homophobia.
Frye received her DrPH from Columbia University and held appointments at the City University of New York School of Medicine and Hunter College before joining Columbia’s tenured faculty in 2023.