Ismael Dieppa

PhD ‘73

Ismael Dieppa began his social work career with the Department of Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Social Work in Fresno, California and became politically active with the Mexican American community in the area. The war on poverty movement soon commanded his interest in organizing and advocacy, and he became director of the Economic Opportunity Commission in Santa Clara County, and subsequently director of the Countywide Office Economic Opportunity in neighboring Santa Cruz County. Dieppa went on to become the first executive director of the East Los Angeles Chicano Mental Health Training Center, a joint project of the University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles to train Latino social workers to provide services in their own communities.

Dieppa served as associate dean for the University of Denver School of Social Work and was a tireless advocate for providing underrepresented students a pathway into the profession, recruiting a large number of Latino and Native American students into the Master of Social Work (MSW) and PhD programs. As dean of the Arizona State University (ASU) School of Social Work he extended the MSW program into Tucson, developed a Native American component to the curriculum, developed and implemented the doctoral program and increased financial support for the school from $600,000 to $2.3 million in only four years.

He was recruited back to California as dean of the College of Social Work, San Jose State University and was instrumental in developing a generalist practice program for Spanish speaking populations, expanding diversity in the student population, and providing the foundation for a transcultural social work curriculum, including community-oriented departments in African American studies, Mexican American studies, and urban and regional planning.