Professor Deborah Padgett Honored With NYU's Distinguished Teaching Award

New York University has named Professor Deborah Padgett as a recipient of the 2012-13 Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor bestowed by the University. The Award recognizes faculty who have contributed significantly to the intellectual life of the University and who have demonstrated their excellence as educators over a sustained period of time.

Padgett teaches in the School’s doctoral program. She was a founding faculty member of the Global Masters in Public Health Program, where she also teaches, serving as its interim director in 2011-12. Known for her advocacy and practice of qualitative and mixed methods research, she serves as a mentor to social work scholars across the country.

Padgett is the principal investigator of the New York Recovery Study, which uses ethnographic methods and in-depth interviews to examine the role of housing in mental health recovery of formerly homeless adults. The project is funded by a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Padgett was also the principal investigator of the New York Services Study, a four-year study of homeless youth with dual-diagnoses funded by the NIMG. She is also pursuing a project on Street Epidemiology of Homeless Mentally Ill in Delhi, India, for 2014. Her research career has focused on the mental health needs of homeless mentally ill adults with substance use disorders, cancer prevention and control, and qualitative and mixed methods.

“I am deeply moved and grateful to all the students and colleagues who made this happen,” she said. “Some of the highest gratification in my career has come in recent years with research grants that allowed me to support and mentor doctoral students in social work and public health.”

Besides her role as an educator and researcher, Padgett is an author and editor of several books. Among her publications, she is the author of Qualitative and Mixed Methods in Public Health (2012) and Qualitative Methods in Social Work Research (2008, 2nd ed,), and editor of The Qualitative Research Experience (2004).

The Silver School congratulates Deborah on her well-deserved award and for her commitment to research and student education.