School of Social Work

Kimberly S. Compton, Ph.D., M.S.W., is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Social Work, where she also serves as director of Macro Initiatives and macro content coordinator for the M.S.W. curriculum.

In her director role, she cultivates the ecosystem macro social work needs to grow. Since 2024, Dr. Compton has launched the Macro Fellowship, weaving community across student groups, expanding hands-on skill-building opportunities and convening scholars, students, alumni and community members across the nation to learn, dream and reshape practice together. As macro content coordinator, she takes care to shape the intellectual and pedagogical backbone of macro social work across the M.S.W. Program, ensuring that students encounter the field of macro social work as something living, iterative and full of possibility.

Her classrooms are spaces where students encounter who they are and who they wish to become. Teaching face-to-face, she creates conditions where students practice advocacy, sit with complexity, and imagine the future of social work, and what skills we need to cultivate to get there. Her teaching philosophy centers compassion, creativity and transformation, grounded in the belief that macro social work is the practice of naming the world as it is and building the skills to create the world we need.

Dr. Compton works at the edges of scholarship, practice and community. Prior to joining the faculty, she served as executive director of ReEstablish Richmond, a refugee-focused nonprofit, and worked on community-based food access initiatives in Richmond's East End — experiences that continue to animate her teaching and her research. As a scholar, she investigates environmental justice advocacy through a critical race lens, and seeks out the unexpected intersections of social work in interdisciplinary spaces.

She is a 2021 graduate of the School of Social Work's Ph.D. Program and a 2013 graduate of the VCU M.S.W. Program with a concentration in social work administration, planning and policy. She also holds a certificate in Nonprofit Management from the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Dr. Compton earned a B.A. from The College of William & Mary in Middle Eastern studies and a minor in studio art. She loves living in a city on a river and can be found spending her free time on hiking trails, in her garden, at a bagel shop or with family.

Areas of expertise

• Communities and Neighborhoods
• Environmental Justice
• Participatory Action Research
• Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice
• Pedagogy and Course Design

Education and credentials

Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth University
M.S.W., Virginia Commonwealth University
Certificate in Nonprofit Management, Virginia Commonwealth University
B.A., The College of William & Mary

View Kimberly S. Compton's curriculum vitae.