John Graham, Ph.D. RSW, is Professor of Social Work and former Director of the School. Prior to coming to UBC, he was Director of the School of Social Work at Florida Atlantic University, and before that at The University of Calgary for 17 years where he held a 10 year research chair as Murray Fraser Professor, and served successively as MSW International Concentration Program Coordinator and PhD Program Coordinator. Further details are at https://ourstories.ok.ubc.ca/stories/john-graham/

Graham has held over $35 million in research funding, has published over 140 journal articles, 51 book chapters, and is completing his tenth book. He has published on international development (with a particular focus on Bedouin-Arab communities in the Middle East),  social policy, diversity and social work, spirituality and social work, multicultural social work, and employee well being subjective well being (happiness) in and out of the workplace. He is currently working on homelessness reduction research, in relation to the Journey Home initiative, Kelowna, British Columbia. His writing was recognized among the top 50 most frequently cited for his discipline in the English speaking world, 2000-2009. A longstanding mentor to junior faculty and to graduate students, Graham has sat on over 100 graduate student committees at the masters and doctoral levels, and in 2014 received a teaching award for graduate student mentoring. Graham heads the Kelowna Homelessness Research Centre, an interdisciplinary team of community based researchers which currently has over $1 million in funding and is greatly involved in tier one publishing, positive social impacts, student training, and community engagement. In 2022,  he was made a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.

John is a frequent commentator in legacy media, and his team on social media. His opinion articles have been published in the Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Lethbridge Herald; he has been interviewed and cited by various media including the New York Times and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), as well as various regional sources.