Biography
About Neil Gilbert
Neil Gilbert is the Milton and Gertrude Chernin Professor of Social Welfare and Social Services at the University of California, Berkeley. He is director of the Center for Comparative Welfare State Research and was the founding director of the Family Welfare Research Group.
He served as the School’s acting dean (1994–96) and as chair of the doctoral program for five years. His University service includes posts as vice-chair and chair of the Berkeley Senate Faculty’s Graduate Council, and membership on the Senate Divisional Council, the Committee on Privilege and Tenure, the Statewide Senate Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs, the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects, the Committee on Committees, the Committee on International Education and the L&S Executive Committee.
International scholarship
Dr. Gilbert was a senior research fellow at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva. A Senior Fulbright Research Fellowship enabled him to study the changing structure of social services in the British welfare state, and he served as a visiting Fulbright lecturer at Tel Aviv University. A second Fulbright took him to the London School of Economics and the University of Stockholm Social Research Institute. He was a visiting scholar at the International Social Security Association in Geneva (1993, 1997), Oxford University’s Department of Social Policy (2010), and a visiting professor at the University of Hamburg (2016), UNED in Madrid (2020) and Charles University, Prague (2025).
Publications
His publications include 15 books, 20 edited volumes and over 145 articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Public Interest, Society, Commentary, The American Interest, The Atlantic and leading academic journals. Capitalism and the Welfare State was a New York Times notable book; Welfare Justice, Transformation of the Welfare State, A Mother’s Work and, most recently, Never Enough: Capitalism and the Progressive Spirit drew wide review. See all books →
Editorial and public service
He has served on editorial boards including the Journal of Social Policy, Social Work, The Journal of Social Service Research, Children and Youth Services Review and Gender Issues. He chairs the editorial board of the International Journal of Social Welfare and is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford University Press Library on International Social Policy. He was US Delegate to Oxford University Press for Social Work and Sociology, a trustee of the Head-Royce School, and chairman of the board of Seneca Family of Agencies.
Honors
University of Pittsburgh Bicentennial Medallion of Distinction (1987); UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare Teacher of the Year (2000); Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (2014); Doctor Honoris Causa, Spain’s National University of Distance Education (2026).
Beyond the university
An avid skier and mountaineer, his climbs include Pingora, the East Ridge of Wolf’s Head, the Matterhorn and the Grand Teton. He is also a certified Class I paraglider pilot.