Dean Emerita Gail Steketee Honored as Professor Emerita
As former dean and professor Gail Steketee celebrated her official retirement from the BU faculty just before this fall semester, the SSW faculty voted overwhelmingly to award her the honorary title of professor emerita. Judith Gonyea, associate dean for faculty affairs, shared the news with Steketee by stating, “This title, joining your current title of dean emerita, reflects the faculty’s deep respect and appreciation for your many contributions to social work academia, not only at BU, but nationwide.”
“I’m delighted by the vote of my colleagues, and very pleased to join my fellow emeriti faculty who have supported the School for many years. I’m also very pleased that the School has a fine new Dean in Dr. Jorge Delva. Meanwhile, I am enjoying my retirement, with time to pursue other interests, even as I remain committed to my roles on the Boards of several professional organizations. It has been especially fun to help launch the new mentoring program within the Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare where we have matched accomplished Fellows of the Academy with early career faculty members who requested mentors.”
Steketee joined BU in 1986 and made significant scholarly contributions to the School of Social Work during her tenure. As BU Today noted on her retirement as dean, “Steketee greatly expanded teaching and research, but to the outside world, she’s probably best known as an expert on hoarding, having been interviewed many times about her book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.”
Steketee was named associate dean for academic affairs in 1996 and co-chair of the clinical practice department in 2000. As a researcher, she received several grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, including a $1.17 million award in 2005 to study compulsive hoarding. She conducted numerous studies of the psychopathology and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic, and obsessive-compulsive spectrum conditions, which include body dysmorphic disorder and hoarding. She also authored numerous articles and chapters on OCD, related anxiety disorders, and compulsive hoarding, and published three books on OCD for clinicians, sufferers, and their families.
She co-chaired the Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group, a large group of international researchers developing and testing cognitive assessment strategies for OCD using multisite research methods. She was co-principal investigator on a project to develop and test a cognitive therapy for OCD, and she collaborated with colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital and Butler Hospital in Rhode Island to develop cognitive and behavioral treatments for body dysmorphic disorder, which is characterized by an excessive preoccupation with a real or imagined defect in one’s physical appearance.
Steketee also served on the scientific advisory board of the International OCD Foundation and has been a board member of the National Association of Deans and Directors of MSW programs. She is an elected Fellow and Vice President of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) and was elected president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) for 2016-17.
Steketee earned an undergraduate degree from Radcliffe College and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.