Rate My Professor Denise Burnette

Denise Burnette, Ph.D., serves as the Samuel S. Wurtzel Endowed Professor of Social Work and director of the international social work collaboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Social Work. She joined VCU in 2016 after a distinguished career at Columbia University School of Social Work, where she was Professor from 2000 to 2016, Associate Professor from 1995 to 2000, Assistant Professor from 1990 to 1995, and Associate Dean from 2003 to 2006; she holds Professor Emerita status there. Burnette began her professional journey with over a decade of direct practice as a social worker and supervisor in geriatric psychiatry, oncology, and hospice at East Tennessee Baptist Medical Center from 1979 to 1986. Her academic credentials include a Ph.D. in Social Welfare (Social Gerontology) from the University of California, Berkeley (1991), M.S.S.W. (Clinical Practice, Dean’s Distinction) from the University of Tennessee (1980), B.A. and B.S. degrees summa cum laude in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Tennessee (1973), an M.S. in Mental Health Policy & Services from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2013), and certification in Management Development for College and University Administrators from Harvard University.

Burnette’s research program centers on global mental health, emphasizing the health, psychosocial well-being, and service needs of older adults in low-resource settings. Her projects address psychological distress and quality of life post-disasters like Hurricane María and COVID-19 in Puerto Rico, flourishing and life satisfaction in Mongolia, social cohesion in China, and age-friendly communities in the U.S. Notable publications include “Gender-related measurement invariance on the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) for global mental distress with older adults in Puerto Rico” (Burnette et al., Archives of Public Health, 2024), “Living alone, social cohesion and quality of life among older adults in rural and urban China” (Burnette et al., International Psychogeriatrics, 2020), and “Varying appraisals of elder mistreatment among victims” (Burnes et al., Journals of Gerontology Series B, 2017). She has received the Career Achievement Award from the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (2023)—the first also to receive its Faculty Achievement Award (1999)—Fellow status in the Society for Social Work & Research (2023), American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (2013), Gerontological Society of America (1998), Senior Fulbright Scholarships in India (2006-07) and Botswana (2012-13), Fulbright Specialist (2021-2025), and served as International Scholar for Open Society Foundations (2008-2015). Burnette has led as director of VCU’s Ph.D. program, immediate past president of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work, and conducted extensive international capacity-building through teaching, mentoring, and workshops.