By Valerie Fields Hill
School of Social Work
Randy Basham
Randall “Randy” Basham, who guided dozens of UTA students to complete their terminal degrees and once led the Master of Social Work program, will retire in August.
Dr. Basham has taught Dissertation, Thesis and Thesis Research, for the last five years. He also taught Applied Social Work Practice II, Advanced Research Methods and Stress, Crisis and Coping since the early 2000s.
He guided 35 students to earning their doctoral degrees. He also served as MSW Program director from 2012 to 2015.
Dr. Basham will retire effective Aug. 31.
“He has been an outstanding faculty member, colleague, mentor and friend to us all,” School of Social Work Dean Scott Ryan wrote in an email announcing Dr. Basham’s retirement. “It has been an honor having him as part of our School of Social Work.”
Earlier this month, the School recognized Dr. Basham for 19 years of instruction and leadership by honoring him with a plaque.
“The quite beautiful large glass…award will find a special place in my home and will serve to recall my many years as faculty with the School of Social Work and University,” Dr. Basham wrote to peers after receiving the award in the mail. “It is greatly appreciated.”
Dr. Basham is among five Social Work professors who will leave at the end of the spring and summer semesters. All have taught or served as administrators for years within the School.
Professors James Langford, Catheleen Jordan and Maria Scannapieco and Assistant Professor of Practice Pamela Fox each will retire by summer’s end.
The School’s administration plans to formally recognize the five professors during an end-of-year faculty and staff gathering May 4. They will be celebrated for their service to students, the university and the community.
Dr. Basham earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology in 1977 at West Liberty University in West Liberty Virginia. He earned a Master of Social Work in 1981 at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, and a doctorate in Social Work in 2002 at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
After working two decades as a clinical and mental health social worker in Ohio, Dr. Basham joined the staff of the University of Texas at Arlington as an assistant professor in 2002.
He researched and published 55 journal articles exploring the use of emerging technology to deliver services to aging adults and other groups.
At the time, in the 1980s and 1990s, technology companies were reluctant to share their technology resources with professionals in clinical practice,” Dr. Basham said.
“As I transitioned my career in 1996 into full-time, private practice with multiple office locations, necessity became the mother of invention,” he said. “I created methods of accessing records from various locations and created complex digital assessment and reporting forms with primitive hardware and software programming.”
“I also used my early 1-gigabyte laptop to input clinical diagnostic information and for billing,” Dr. Basham said recently.
He also tackled contemporary “hot button” topics through his research: U.S. Medicare policy, human trafficking, E-Professionalism and online reputation management, depression among elderly Korean immigrants, among others.
For years, he has worked to assist community organizations, including United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, Catholic Charities and the Diocese of Fort Worth, Safe Haven, to develop needs assessments and refine their service delivery.
Dr. Basham plans to travel during retirement, he says.
“I am looking forward to…over the next few years becoming a ‘snowbird’ who spends more time in the North with family and friends and other time in warmer places.”
