Roni Strier

In 2012, Strier founded and developed this program, together with Dr. Dassi Postan-Itzik and Professor Corey Shdaimah of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The program is based on parallel and collaborative courses on social justice at the University of Haifa’s School of Social Work, and the Schools of Law and Nursing at the University of Maryland, attended by a diverse group of American and Israeli students. The program aims to advance the development of knowledge and raise awareness about social rights-based practice.

In 2011, Strier founded this program, and served as its academic supervisor until 2019. This university-wide initiative aims to promote academic involvement in the struggle for an inclusive and solidarity society in Israel.

In 2005, Strier joined the University of Haifa's School of Social Work, where he teaches community work, critical approaches in social work, poverty and exclusion, and research on fatherhood. He was a partner in the establishment of the Israel Forum for the Struggle against Poverty, led by Professor Yona Rosenfeld. Strier is a member of the Forum's leadership team, advancing public engagement activities, education and lobbying with and on behalf of people living in poverty. He serves as a senior consultant for various government offices in developing models for addressing issues of poverty and exclusion.

In 2005, Strier co-founded this initiative, together with the University of Haifa's School of Social Work, and the city of Haifa's Department of Welfare and Community Services. The program is based on the principle of partnership between academia and public welfare services, with and on behalf of people living in poverty. Active for over 13 years, this unique program assigns social work students, social works, and activists from distressed communities in Haifa side by side, in order to advance community projects, educational programs, and legislation to advance social justice and decrease poverty. As part of the program, community activist groups work to increase public awareness on the issue of poverty. The program has also convened national and international conferences on the subject of poverty.

Strier has held numerous professional, academic and public service positions. In 1972, a year after immigrating to Israel, he served as a centralizer of new immigrant students through Hillel International and the University of Haifa Dean of Students. He was also active in the "Yesh" movement, a Jewish-Arab student movement elected for the University of Haifa Students' union. In 1973, he continued his studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, joining the student commune "Beit HaBonim" in the Katamon 9 neighborhood. Members of the commune were active in working with children and in helping community residents organize a Mizrahi community movement called “Aholaim”. After serving as the commune's coordinator, Strier was named the Director of the University of Haifa's Dean of Students Social Engagement Unit. There he worked to establish other student communes in distressed communities in Jerusalem. At the same time, he was among the founders of "CAMPUS" (Hebrew acronym for "Student Group for Political Involvement"), an organization of Jewish and Arab students that was active on the University's campus for many years.

Strier was born in Lanús, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. He moved to Israel in 1971 at the age of 18, after graduating from high school. He studied at a preparatory program for new immigrants at the University of Haifa. He completed a B.A. and an M.A. degrees in Sociology and Anthropology at the Sociology and Anthropology Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. in Social Work at the School of Social Work and Social Policy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His doctorate, supervised by Rivka Bar-Yosef and Avraham Doron, was a comparative study on the perceptions of poverty of clients and social workers in the public welfare services of Jerusalem. Strier completed a post-doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education at the National Center on Fathers and Families (NCOFF). He has held various executive positions in the fields of education, community and welfare.

Roni Strier (born December 13, 1952 in Argentina) is a social work researcher, educator, and activist. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Haifa School of Social Work, Founder and Head of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Poverty and Social Exclusion.