Diana R. Garland School of Social Work

Baylor University is well-represented on a prestigious list compiling the top 2% most-cited researchers in the world. In a database compiled by Stanford University, 43 current or retired Baylor faculty members and postdoctoral researchers appear among the top 2% of the most-cited researchers across into 22 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields according to the standard Science-Metrix classification.

“We don’t want those people at our church.”

When people from the community began to walk through the doors on Sunday morning, I heard this grumbling from church members who had just participated in outreach to them...

“Those people” were my friends, my community and as Jesus refers to them, my neighbors. Sadly, these grumblings continue in many churches.

Baylor University has been awarded a nearly $1 million grant from the EPA’s Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants Program (CCGP) to drive transformative local initiatives aimed at bolstering food security, advancing sustainable agriculture and enhancing climate resilience in Waco’s underserved communities. 

"I listened from two perspectives–the social work researcher and the person who had grown up in and deeply loved this church. We learned a lot about collective trauma and how it impacts congregations through that study, but hearing from people I love about surrendering to death has stuck with me to this day."