Hope Matters

About the Editors
About the Contributors

Introduction: Holders of Hope
Elizabeth J. Clark and Elizabeth F. Hoffler

Part One: Personal Hope

Chapter 1: The Changing Mosaic of Hope
Elizabeth J. Clark

Chapter 2: Persistence of Hope and Dreams
Freddie L. Avant

Chapter 3: One Small Lady and One Big Hope: A Holocaust Survivor’s Narrative
Raymond M. Berger

Chapter 4: Finding Hope after Surviving Gun Violence
Noam Ostrander and Katie Augustyn

Part Two: Professional Hope

Chapter 5: Choosing the Profession of Hope
Elizabeth F. Hoffler

Chapter 6: Restoring the Hope of Social Work Students through an International Service Learning Program to Cape Town, South Africa
Lucinda A. Acquaye

Chapter 7: Hope in the Midst of Reality: How Regulatory Law Helped Claudia Find a New Direction
Mary Jo Monahan and Dorinda Noble

Chapter 8: Hope and Leadership
Stella V. Pappas

Chapter 9: Instilling Hope through Social Work Mentoring
Benjamin R. Sher
`
Chapter 10: Borrowing Hope
W. Patrick Sullivan

Part Three: Fostering a Community of Hope

Chapter 11: The Power of Presence: Finding Hope in an Oncology Group Setting
Julie Berrett-Abebe and Mary Susan Convery

Chapter 12: Hope for a School
Dante de Tablan

Chapter 13: The Power of Hope, Resilience, and Collective Efficacy: The Rainmakers’ Story
Tania Alameda-Lawson and Katherine Briar Lawson

Chapter 14: Restoring Hope through Shared Medical Appointments
George A. Godlewski

Chapter 15: It Gets Better with Age: Vibrant Older Adults Redefine Aging
Wendy A. Wilson

Part Four: Using Hope Clinically

Chapter 16: Hope for an Afghanistan Veteran
Julie Barbour Mellman

Chapter 17: Hope beyond Oneself
Nancy F. Cincotta

Chapter 18: My Body, My Biography: The Use of Narratives of Self-Injury as a Path for Hope
Susan A. Conte

Chapter 19: Symbols of Hope: Healing through the Creative Arts
Holly C. Matto

Chapter 20: Writing and Self-Reflection Nurture Hope
Marie Schaffner

Chapter 21: Human-Animal Bond: Trauma Victims Help Each Other Heal
Clarissa Uttley and Gary Cournoyer

Part Five: Hope and Transformation

Chapter 22: Hope for Homeless Clients
Ellen Bartley

Chapter 23: Hope and Resiliency: Reframing Living Well with Chronic Illness
Gauri Bhattacharya

Chapter 24: Preserving Hope for Oncology Patients
Lacy Fetting and Corey Shdaimah with Judith Fruchter Minkove

Chapter 25: The Tapestry of Hope
Rosa M. Hamilton

Chapter 26: Employment Hope: A Path to Empowering Disconnected Workers
Philip Young P. Hong

Chapter 27: Healing after Adversity: The Power of Hope
Sheridan Quarless Kingsberry, Natalie M. Fountain, Judith C. Quarless, and Leah Gilliam

Chapter 28: Social Skills Contribute to Resilience
Michael D. Luginbill

Chapter 29: Against All Odds: The Power of Hope and Resilience
Frederic G. Reamer

Part Six: Hope and Culture

Chapter 30: A Glimmer of Hope Is Enough
Tricia Bent-Goodley

Chapter 31: Building Hope in Survivors of a Traumatic Boat Escape: Community Reintegration of Alleged Perpetrators of Violence on the High Seas
S. Megan Berthold

Chapter 32: Hope and Resiliency in a Mexican Refugee
Mark Lusk

Chapter 33: Race and Resiliency
Kristen Marie (Kryss) Shane

Part Seven: Families and Hope

Chapter 34: A “Hopeless” Case
James J. Kelly

Chapter 35: Kaleidoscope: The Treatment of Severe Obesity in Adolescence
Barry Panzer and Sarita Dhuper

Chapter 36: Resiliency and Reclaiming Family
Jennifer L. Taussig

Part Eight: Researching the Concept of Hope

Chapter 37: Restoring Hope through Coparenting for Mothers Involved with the Criminal Justice System
Christina Tomacic (with Faith Johnson Bonecutter and James Gleeson)

Chapter 38: From One to Many: Hope and the Lessons of Perspective
Michael Stein, Dana Klar, and Jeanie Thies

Part Nine: Hope and Human Rights

Chapter 39: Hope through Partnership in Human Rights Advocacy
Mary Bricker-Jenkins, Rosemary A. Barbera, and Rebecca S. Myers

Chapter 40: Hope for a Socially Just Economy
Rory Truell and Rene Schegg

Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH, is the former chief executive officer of the National Association of Social Workers, a position she held from 2001 to 2013. She also served as the president of the NASW Foundation and as director of Social Workers Across Nations. Her background is health care with a specialization in oncology. She has worked in direct clinical practice and has held academic positions, including an associate professorship in health professions at Montclair State University (NJ) and an associate professorship of medical oncology at Albany Medical College (NY). Dr. Clark has published articles about the social work and health care workforce, social policy, and public health, as well as clinical topics such as illness and loss, hope and survivorship. She is coeditor of Social Work Matters: The Power of Linking Policy and Practice. Dr. Clark serves as vice chair of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and is on the board of directors of C-Change, Collaborating to Conquer Cancer and the National Hospice Foundation. She is a member of the advisory council for the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education at the University of Minnesota and is the Social Work Advisor for the Case Management Society of America. She is the recipient of the Brudny Social Work Award in Mental Health and the Cecil and Ida Green Honors Professorship at Texas Christian University. Dr. Clark holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work and a masterÕs of public health from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree and doctorate in medical sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also holds an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Wartburg College (IA).

Elizabeth F. Hoffler, MSW, ACSW, is currently director of Policy and Advocacy at the Prevent Cancer Foundation, a national nonprofit organization that seeks to save lives through cancer prevention and early detection. Ms. Hoffler engages lawmakers, policymakers, key opinion leaders, and grassroots advocates to stop cancer before it starts through the promotion of issues such as cancer research funding, patient access, and health care equity. Ms. Hoffler was previously Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer and Senior Policy Analyst at the National Association of Social Workers where she advised the CEO on key planning, strategic, and policy issues and managed special projects within the association. She also worked within the advocacy and social policy department, serving as a federal lobbyist, supervising the association’s federal political action committee, and managing the Social Work Reinvestment Initiative, which sought to secure federal and state investments in professional social work to enhance societal well-being. Ms. Hoffler is coeditor of Social Work Matters: The Power of Linking Policy and Practice and served as coeditor for the special issue of Health & Social Work focused on social work with service members, veterans, and their families. She is currently a doctoral student at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, where she is focusing on public policy and political decision making. Ms. Hoffler has an MSW from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a BSW from the University of Kentucky. She is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers.

Lucinda A. Acquaye, MSW, obtained a master’s degree in social welfare from Stony Brook University while working as senior study abroad advisor in the university’s Office of International Academic Programs. She was subsequently awarded a one-year fellowship through the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help to develop sustainable graduate-level education programs at Bahir Dar University in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Currently a doctoral candidate in the Howard University School of Social Work (HUSSW), Ms. Acquaye has continued her dedication to internationalization through publications and professional conference presentations domestically and internationally. Ms. Acquaye helped develop and serves as administrative coordinator and teaching assistant for the HUSSW International Service Learning program to Cape Town, South Africa. Ms. Acquaye’s dissertation research, “The Internationalization of Social Work Education: A Focus on Transformational Leadership and Institutionalization,” measures social work educators’ attitudes toward internationalization, identifies champions of international education, and examines the institutionalization of international experiential learning program activity within social work education. Ms. Acquaye also holds research interests in international social work, displaced populations, second-generation Americans, and attitudes toward mental health among Ghanaians.

Tania Alameda-Lawson, PhD, is assistant professor in the Department of Social Work, College of Community and Public Affairs, at Binghamton University (SUNY) in Binghamton, NY. Previously, she served as an associate professor of social work at California State University, Sacramento. She received her PhD in social welfare policy from Florida International University in 2003. Her research interests and expertise include empowerment and strength-based practices with disadvantaged children, youth, families, schools, and communities; community development with special emphasis on asset-based neighborhood and community development; transformational leadership in service systems; interprofessional education; and university-community engagement. Dr. Alameda-Lawson has also enjoyed a distinguished professional career as a practicing social worker who serves vulnerable and special needs populations. She directed and developed the nationally recognized “Rainmaker” parent engagement model in Miami Beach, Florida. As a part of her work with the Rainmakers, Dr. Alameda-Lawson served as a consultant for the Center for Social Policy, the Danforth Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. She also served as a participant in President Clinton’s White House conference, “Comprehensive Strategies for Children and Families: The Role of Schools and Community-Based Organizations.” More recently, Dr. Alameda-Lawson served as consultant for UNICEF in Guatemala.

Katie Augustyn, MSW, is a licensed clinical social worker with over 14 years of clinical experience working with children, adolescents, families, and adults. Ms. Augustyn has a private practice that serves children, adults, and couples. Previously she worked at various hospitals, where she provided therapeutic services to children, individuals, and families dealing with chronic illness and disability. Ms. Augustyn received her master’s degree in social work from Loyola University Chicago. She is also a founding member of a nonprofit organization that provides services to disabled children, KT’s Kids.

Freddie Avant, PhD, LMSW-AP, C-SSWS, is a professor, associate dean, and director of the School of Social Work at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He received his bachelor’s in social work from Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas, a master’s in social work from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and a doctorate in social work from Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi. He has been teaching social work and engaged in social work practice for more than 25 years. His social work practice background and research interests are in the areas of mental health, developmental disorders, school social work, rural social work, social work leadership, and health care. He is a member of many professional social work organizations and has served nationally in numerous leadership roles.

Rosemary A. Barbera, PhD, MSS, has worked in the human rights field for over 25 years both in the United States and in Latin America. She has worked with community leaders, social workers, and youth leaders organizing around issues of human rights. She is a resident of a Santiago, Chile, shantytown, where she has been a human rights worker since 1987. She has been teaching social work with a focus on community and international practice and human rights since 1996 and brings students to Chile with her each year to work in a Colonia Urbana based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Also in Chile she works with the Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos, Grupo de Acción Social y Juvenil Concierto y Cultura, and with a health committee fighting for the human right to health. In the United States, she works with Juntos—an immigrants’ rights organization in Philadelphia—and in the solidarity economy. She previously worked with the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights campaign and the Liberty Center for Survivors of Torture. She is an associate professor of social work and MSW director at Monmouth University.

Ellen Bartley, PhD, LMSW, earned her BSW and MSW, with a clinical concentration, at Wayne State University. After moving to Washington, DC, she began working with homeless individuals who were diagnosed with serious and persistent mental illness. Two years later, she entered a doctoral program at the Catholic University of America School of Social Work, where she earned a PhD. Ms. Bartley continued to work for many years with those who had serious mental illness in a community mental health setting. For two years, she worked in employee assistance and prevention programs with military families before returning to a community mental health setting at an agency in Michigan. She also recently earned a certificate in public health at the University of Michigan.

Tricia Bent-Goodley, PhD, LICSW-C, is an experienced practitioner, professor, scholar, author, and advocate. Serving in numerous local and national capacities, she believes in the power of service working in areas of male and female development, violence against women, HIV/AIDS intervention, and fatherhood. Dr. Bent-Goodley is a professor of social work at Howard University and received funding to establish and serves as director of the Campus Safety First Project, the university’s office to address dating and domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Dr. Bent-Goodley is the chair of the National Committee on Women’s Issues for NASW; chair of the Howard University Women as Change Agents, an entity dedicated to the development of women at the university; board member of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community; and a member of the Prince George’s County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team. Dr. Bent-Goodley has a passion for advancing social justice and human rights. She is the recipient of the Council on Social Work Education Award for Distinguished Recent Contributions and the National Association of Black Social Workers Award for Excellence in Social Work Education. Dr. Bent-Goodley received her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD from Columbia University.

Julie Berrett-Abebe, LICSW, received her MSW at Boston College School of Social Work. She also holds a master of arts in pastoral ministry. Ms. Berrett-Abebe is currently pursuing a PhD in social work at Simmons College in Boston. In addition, she is a clinical social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Gillette Center for Breast Cancer, where she has worked for the past eight years. Ms. Berrett-Abebe is actively involved in the hospital’s social work intern program, where she supervises master’s-level clinicians and lectures in the student seminar program. Ms. Berrett-Abebe also has experience in elder home care and hospice. Her most important role is as a mother to Hannah (5) and Jacob (3).

Megan Berthold, PhD,  LCSW,  CTS, is an assistant professor at the University  of Connecticut’s School of Social Work. She is a certified trauma specialist and has worked with diverse refugee and asylum-seeking survivors of torture, war traumas, human trafficking, female genital mutilation, and other traumas since the mid-1980s. She was a clinician and educator in several refugee camps in Asia and at the Program for Torture Victims in Los Angeles. Dr. Berthold conducts federally funded clinical outcomes research with torture survivors and National Institute of Mental Health– funded research examining the prevalence of torture and its mental and physical health consequences among Cambodian refugees. She frequently testifies as an expert witness in U.S. Immigration Court and has trained numerous social workers and other professionals about trauma-informed care, vicarious trauma and resilience, and self-care. Dr. Berthold was selected as the 2009 NASW Social Worker of the Year.

Raymond M. Berger, PhD, MSW, earned MSW and doctoral degrees at the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Dr. Berger served as assistant professor in the Department of Social Work at Florida International University, associate professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and professor in the Department of Social Work at California State University, Long Beach. He conducted research and published in the areas of sexual orientation, older gays and lesbians, social work theory, writing for scholarly journals, and coping with traumatic loss. He authored the first book on older gay men, published by the University of Illinois Press. After its publication, the book received various awards, including the Evelyn Hooker Research Award. It was reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews and was later published as a trade paperback by Alyson Press and reissued a few years later by the Haworth Press. He coauthored two popular social work research methods textbooks. While at Long Beach, Dr. Berger began his “Getting Published Program” to help minority and women faculty publish in scholarly journals. In retirement, Dr. Berger has conducted advocacy work for immigrants and taught English as a second language through a local school district.

Gauri Bhattacharya, DSW, LCSW, ACSW, has focused her research on achieving health equity in the areas of health care access and utilization and health care outcomes. Her current health service research centers on two critical issues: first, how to sustain self-management practices of chronic illnesses and enhance quality of life and, second, how to effectively integrate the trajectories of health care use and health care outcomes in a community’s sociocultural and environmental contexts. Her ongoing community-based study on living well with Type 2 diabetes chronic illness among African Americans in the Arkansas Delta is designed to develop interventions in the contexts and circumstances within which individuals live and manage Type 2 diabetes. Her study findings on acculturative stress and health behaviors among South Asian immigrants in New York City have contributed to development of prevention services. Dr. Bhattacharya has a multidisciplinary education and background in social work, economics, and public health. She has extensive clinical practice experience, particularly with substance abusing adolescents and families. She is a professor in the PhD program at the School of Social Work, College of Public Service, at Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and presents papers in national and international multidisciplinary  conferences.

Faith Johnson Bonecutter, MSW, LCSW, is associate dean for academic affairs and student services and clinical associate professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has over 25 years of clinical experience working with families in the child welfare system and served as co-principal investigator on the Achieving Permanency in Kinship Foster Care Project funded by the Children’s Bureau. Ms. Bonecutter completed advanced externships in family therapy and family therapy supervision and provides clinical consultation to social service agencies concerned with the needs of children and families.

Mary Bricker-Jenkins, PhD, LCSW, began her career 50 years ago as a New York City welfare worker. Through the decades of practicing, teaching, and publishing in child welfare, feminist social work, community organizing, social welfare history, and economic human rights, she has continued to build on the lessons learned on the streets of the deindustrialized North and, later, in the “hills and hollers” of Appalachia. Retired from Temple University, Dr. Bricker-Jenkins has returned to her home in Tennessee, where she continues her work to end poverty, convenes the USA-Canada Alliance of Inhabitants, co-coordinates the Poverty Working Group of the U.S. Social Forum, conducts workshops on poverty and human rights, and teaches part-time. She has held local, state, and national positions with the National Association of Social Workers. For her work to end poverty, she was named the 2004 Social Worker of the Year in Pennsylvania and, in 2007, received an NASW Lifetime Achievement Award in Tennessee.

Nancy F. Cincotta, MSW, MPhil, LCSW, has been a social worker for over 30 years, having begun her professional career as a child life specialist. As a clinician, manager, and educator, she has focused on the needs of families of children with cancer, related illnesses, and bereaved families. Ms. Cincotta is the psychosocial director of Camp Sunshine in Casco, Maine.

Camp Sunshine is a nationally based retreat program for families of children with life-threatening illnesses and bereaved families. Ms. Cincotta is interested in demystifying the emotional journey faced by children with cancer and their families and exploring the burdens encountered by and resilience of professionals working in this area. Her current research centers on the role of hope in the lives of families with seriously ill children. Ms. Cincotta is highly sought after for her skill in group work. Her expertise in this area has been cultivated over a distinguished career. She is internationally recognized and gifted in the art of group work and the development of small- and large-group work models. Ms. Cincotta has published many articles, authored two children’s books, and serves on two editorial boards. She is the recipient of numerous grants, with more than 350 presentations to her name, and has held leadership roles in many national organizations. She is on faculty in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine (Social Work and Behavioral Science) at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She earned master’s of science and philosophy degrees from the Columbia University School of Social Work.

Susan Conte, PhD, LCSW-R, holds a doctorate in clinical social work from the New York University School of Social Work (2004) and an MSW from Fordham University. Her doctoral dissertation, “Speaking for Themselves: A Qualitative Study of Young Women Who Self-Injure” (2004), reflects her years of clinical work with adolescents in the general population. A member of the National Association of Social Workers, the American Association of University Women, and the Westchester Group Psychotherapy Society, Dr. Conte presents widely at professional conferences, including at the Society for Social Work and Research, NASW New York’s Power of Social Work Conference, and NASW’s national conference (July 2012). Dr. Conte has shared her research on self-injury with social work faculty and students at New York University, Yeshiva University, Fordham University, the College of Mount St. Mary, and the College of New Rochelle and is a consultant for school counselors, administrators, and faculties of middle schools and high schools in the New York metropolitan area and in Wilmington, Delaware. Dr. Conte is an associate professor in the Graduate School of the College of New Rochelle (CNR) and a member of CNR’s Counseling and Health Services Center. She has a private practice in New Rochelle, New York.

Mary Susan Convery, MSW, LICSW, attended Salem State University’s Graduate School of Social Work. She has extensive clinical experience working with patients and families affected by trauma, illness, and end of life. Currently, Ms. Convery is a clinical social work specialist in the Department of Social Service at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She has worked as a clinical social worker with various MGH services since 2006, including the Cancer Center Thoracic Oncology Clinic, inpatient burn unit, plastics/reconstructive surgery, and orthopedics. Her previous clinical work was with hospice patients, women veterans, sexual assault survivors, and victims of domestic violence. Ms. Convery is a member of the MGH PACT Team (Parenting at a Challenging Time).

Gary Cournoyer, MSW, LICSW, is a strong believer in the power of pet-assisted therapy. He has been working with therapy pets in his social work positions for about 10 years and has seen the impact that pet-assisted therapy has on clients. Mr. Cournoyer is currently the administrator of Children Intensive Services at Newport County Community Mental Health Center. He also has a private clinical practice in Newport, Rhode Island. Prior to this, Mr. Cournoyer was the school social worker at the Rhode Island Training School for Children and Youth. In this position, with the help of his chocolate lab Cisco, he developed his first pet-assisted therapy program, “Cisco’s Kids,” which helped the most seriously behaviorally challenged youth in this facility function at a more acceptable level. Since leaving this position, Mr. Cournoyer, with his new therapy pet, Iko, a yellow lab mix, has worked with children in the mental health center’s day treatment program, as well as in their private clinical practice. He also teaches a one-credit workshop at Salve Regina University on pet-assisted therapy.

Dante de Tablan, MSW, serves as a community school resource coordinator providing wraparound services at a turnaround school. Concurrently, he is a fieldwork instructor with the Social Work Community Outreach Service at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and supervises graduate-level social work interns working in community schools. Using the community schools strategy, his turnaround community school now has a mental health program, school-linked health clinic, family stability program, food pantry, parent engagement program, and more than 100 internships provided by some 60 community partners for the high school students. Mr. de Tablan graduated from the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, and served at the U.S. Department of Labor as a presidential management intern and then a wage and hour investigator, charged with enforcing child labor regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. He currently serves as a member of the Family League’s Community and School Engagement Strategy Steering Committee. He earned his undergraduate degree in sociology from the University of California, Davis, studied architecture at Morgan State University, and is currently a doctoral candidate in social work at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Sarita Dhuper, MD, founded the Live Light Live Right program for childhood obesity in 2001. Under her direction, the organization has won numerous awards and received recognition for its work in the fight against childhood obesity. Dr. Dhuper is the director of pediatric cardiology and pediatric obesity at Brookdale University Hospital and clinical associate professor of pediatrics at SUNY Health Science Center of Brooklyn. An inspiring speaker, teacher, and children’s advocate, Dr. Dhuper has given presentations at major medical conferences and community forums, including Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Foundation and the Congressional Black Caucus conference on health disparities, was keynote speaker at the SUNY Downstate obesity symposium, and has spoken at the Brooklyn Food Coalition and Brooklyn Cable Network. She is a medical expert for ABC News. Dr. Dhuper is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology; fellow of the American College of Cardiology and American Academy of Pediatrics; member of the Obesity Society; and diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine. Dr. Dhuper’s research interests and publications are related to obesity-related cardiovascular risk and metabolic syndrome, echocardiographic studies of diastolic function in obesity, and other related cardiac conditions.

Lacy Fetting, LCSW-C, is a senior clinical social worker at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Ms. Fetting works with individuals and their families on the Inpatient Bone Marrow Transplant Unit as part of the Harry J. Duffey Patient and Family Services Department. Ms. Fetting is on her second career, having left the world of retail department stores in pursuit of her master’s in social work. She graduated from Temple University in 2003 and joined Johns Hopkins in 2004. Her undergraduate degree is in social and behavioral sciences from the Johns Hopkins University in 1975. Ms. Fetting is proud to have two sisters as practicing clinical social workers and grateful that her late mother—also an LCSW-C—had passed on this legacy. Ms. Fetting has extensive experience as a clinical supervisor to not only licensed social workers but also master’s students. She has nationally presented at the annual Association of Oncology Social Work conferences and at many local venues.

Natalie M. Fountain, BA, is president of Fountain Consulting Services, a broad-based firm specializing in organizational development, communications, and project management for nonprofit organizations and small to medium-sized businesses. A principal client is the HOPE Project: A Community Partnership. Prior to forming her consulting company, Ms. Fountain had followed her passion (and in the footsteps of three generations of educators within her family) to embark on a second career as a teacher in both Title 1 and National Blue Ribbon schools in the state of Florida school system. She began her career in marketing communications, where she progressed to the executive level at one of the most historic brokerage firms on Wall Street. Natalie earned her BA in business, graduating cum laude from Eckerd College in Saint Petersburg, Florida.

Leah Gilliam, MSW, is a social worker for a nonprofit agency in Delaware, where she is passionate about working with youth and strengthening families. Ms. Gilliam is a native of Long Island, New York, and comes from a large family of educators and social workers. Her family’s culture and interest in social phenomena affecting the African American community led her to study Black American studies and sociology at the University of Delaware, where she received her bachelor of arts. Ms. Gilliam worked with the HOPE Project as a graduate assistant for two years and was actively involved with the family depicted in the case study. She received her master’s degree in social work from Delaware State University in May 2013.

James P. Gleeson, PhD, ACSW, is an associate professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago. He has extensive experience as a child welfare practitioner, administrator, consultant, and researcher. He has been principal investigator for a number of federal- and state-funded child welfare research, curriculum development, and training projects, including a number of projects funded by the U.S. Children’s Bureau. His research and publications focus on informal and formal kinship care, kinship care policy and practice, coparenting in kinship care, how child welfare workers learn, and evaluation of child welfare programs and practice.

George Godlewski, PhD, LCSW, ACSW, is currently employed by the Geisinger Health System, Danville, PA, as vice president for the Division of Psychiatry and the Division of Quality and Safety. Dr. Godlewski possesses over 30 years of health care experience, with an emphasis on mental health and appreciating health care delivery and design from a comprehensive perspective reflecting the mind, body, and spirit. Dr. Godlewski has been a steadfast promoter of integrative health care, striving to assure the connection of mind and body. In addition, he has focused on improvement in health care delivery with an aim toward improving outcomes and increasing value and has an interest in qualitative research. Dr. Godlewski was recently elected to the American Hospital Association’s Governing Council of Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Services. Understanding that all social work practice exists contextually within social welfare policy, Dr. Godlewski has served as adjunct professor at the Marywood University School of Social Work, instructing primarily in the social policy and social justice curriculum, with additional involvement in field education. Dr. Godlewski earned his doctorate from Marywood University, Scranton, PA; his MSW from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Rosa M. Hamilton, MSW, LMSW, CCM, is a military spouse and social worker committed to helping others and being a voice for military families, service members, and veterans. Mrs. Hamilton has over 25 years of experience as a social worker. Mrs. Hamilton began her career as a social worker with the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she served in a variety of clinical roles facilitating change, encouraging resiliency and hope in women veterans who were sexually traumatized while on active duty, as well as assisting World War II, Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf veterans adjust to medical and behavioral health challenges. After serving 12 years with the Department of Veterans Affairs, she joined the Department of Army in 1999 as a social worker, where she served in several clinical and leadership positions across the United States and internationally. Mrs. Hamilton’s advocacy significantly contributed to increased programing for military families in the areas of family violence and family services. In 2008, she returned to the Department of Veterans Affairs to continue her advocacy for the wounded warrior population. Mrs. Hamilton earned a BA from North CarolinaCentral University and received her MSW from the Worden School of Social Work, Our Lady of the Lake University.

Philip Young P. Hong, PhD, is associate professor in the School of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago and faculty associate of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis. He earned his MSW and PhD in social work from Washington University in St. Louis and also holds an MA and PhD in political science from the University of Missouri—St. Louis. His main academic interest is in poverty and workforce development. As principal evaluator, Dr. Hong is currently partnering with local workforce development initiatives to develop bottom-up strategies for empowering low-income individuals and families in their quest to achieve self-sufficiency. His work examines the models of self-sufficiency employed by social service agencies and the subsequent programmatic expectations they hold of their clientele in comparison to how social service clients view the term self-sufficiency. Findings from his studies suggest that the standard agency models of self-sufficiency do not often reflect clients’ more empowerment-based psychological path to economic success. He has developed the Employment Hope Scale and the Perceived Employment Barrier Scale, which together make up psychological self-sufficiency and have an impact on economic self-sufficiency. His research program promises to improve social service efficacy and inform social policy development.

James. J. Kelly, PhD, MSSW, is the president of Menlo College, Atherton, CA, and the immediate past president of NASW. For 27 years prior to joining Menlo, he worked as a professor of social work, provost, associate vice president, dean, and director in the California State University system. His areas of expertise include social work; continuing, international, and business education; gerontology; program development; and higher education administration. Dr. Kelly earned his PhD from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, his MSSW from the University of Tennessee, and his BS from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. He is a fellow of the American Gerontological Society of America.

Sheridan Quarless Kingsberry, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor of social work at Delaware State University (DSU), where she serves as principal investigator and project director for the HOPE Project: A Community Partnership. Prior to joining DSU, she served as executive director of the Division of Programs for the New Jersey Department of State and held various administrative positions in higher education and nonprofit organizations. Dr. Quarless Kingsberry has served on several boards, including that of the National Association of Social Workers—Delaware Chapter (as president and treasurer) and the YWCA Delaware (as fund development chair). She also serves as a site visitor for the Council on Social Work Education. Dr. Quarless Kingsberry received her BA degree from Douglass College, her MSW from Rutgers University School of Social Work, and her PhD from the Graduate School, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Dana Klar, JD, MSW, is an associate professor of social work and serves as the department chair and program director of the Baccalaureate Social Work Program at Lindenwood University. She earned her JD and MSW degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and her BA in psychology from Louisiana State University. In her professional career, Ms. Klar has served as a forensic interviewer for cases of child sexual abuse, as a child and adolescent therapist, and as a guardian ad litem and staff attorney for St. Louis County’s Family Court and Court-Appointed Special Advocate programs. She loves teaching and sharing about cultural and human diversity and social justice, is trained in restorative justice practices, and is a member of the St. Louis Restorative Justice Coalition. She has published on the topics of native urbanization and economic development and is an enrolled member of the United Houma Nation of Southeast Louisiana.

Katherine Briar Lawson, PhD, MSW, is dean and professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University of Albany, State University of New York. Among her books (coauthored) are Family-Centered Policies and Practices: International Implications and (coedited) The Children’s Bureau: Shaping a Century of Child Welfare Practices, Programs, and Polices; Innovative Practices with Vulnerable Children and Families; Evaluation Research in Child Welfare; Charting the Impacts of University–Child Welfare Collaboration; Social Work Research; Social Work Practice Research; and Globalization, Social Justice, and the Helping Professions. She cochairs the Gerontological Task Force for the National Association of Deans and Directors and has served as a past president of the association. In addition, she is co-principal investigator of the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute.

Michael D. Luginbill, ACSW, LCSW-C, has been a social work supervisor in child welfare services, adult protective services, and hospital emergency department services. He was the director of the public mental health system in Charles County, Maryland, for five years. He has taught undergraduate sociology and served as a social work field instructor. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Social Work. He has served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including NASW— Maryland Chapter. He has degrees in social work (MSW), political science (BS), music (AA), and business administration (AA).

Mark Lusk, EdD, ACSW, LCDC, is professor of social work in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Lusk studies migration and mental health in the U.S.–Mexico border region. He has been Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Catholic University of Peru and Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

Holly C. Matto, PhD, LCSW-C, received her MSW from the University of Michigan and her PhD from the University of Maryland. She is currently an associate professor in the College of Health and Human Services Department of Social Work at George Mason University, where she teaches human behavior and the social environment (HBSE), direct practice, research methods, and an elective on art therapy methods for social work practice. Before coming to George Mason in 2011, Dr. Matto was at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work for 10 years, where she taught research methods in the doctoral program and HBSE and direct practice in the MSW program. Dr. Matto has over 15 years of research and practice experience in the field of addiction science and holds clinical social work licenses in Maryland and Washington, DC. Her research focuses on both assessment practices and interdisciplinary treatment interventions with diverse substance abuse populations. She has conducted treatment intervention studies with substance abuse populations, recently completing a clinical trial that used functional MRI to examine brain structure and function change related to participation in two different relapse prevention treatment protocols, a study conducted in collaboration with Georgetown University’s Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging and Inova Fairfax Hospital’s substance abuse program.

Lieutenant Julie Barbour Mellman, MSW, graduated with  a  master’s  of  social work from Smith College in 2003. Lieutenant Mellman worked at Johns Hopkins Community Psychiatry for four years. She accepted a position at Duke University, where she co-facilitated a class on practical psychotherapy, supervised provisional social workers, and provided outpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy. After five years at Duke, she resigned to aid the underserved Marine Corps. One year later, at age 33, she became the first uniformed clinical social worker to serve at the largest marine air station in the world and the 33rd clinical social worker in the navy. Lieutenant Mellman was selected to fill a position in the Operational Stress Control and Readiness (OSCAR) Team in Japan. Designed to address combat stress, this embedded team includes one psychiatrist, nurse practitioner, and a clinical social worker. These teams operate under the Marine chain of command, participate in trainings, and deploy alongside Marine battalions to which they have been assigned. The goal is to increase approachability, reduce mental health stigma, and provide on-the-spot treatment in combat zones. Lieutenant Mellman is currently the first female clinical social worker to be assigned to an OSCAR team. She is married to Marine Harrier pilot Maj(sel) Alexander Mellman.

Judy Fruchter Minkove is a senior writer/editor at Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Department of Marketing and Communications, in Baltimore, and freelance writer. With more than 35 years of editorial experience, she manages several Johns Hopkins Medicine physician newsletters and serves as assistant editor of Dome, Johns Hopkins Medicine’s flagship employee newsletter. Previously, Ms. Minkove held positions as transplant outreach coordinator at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive  Transplant Center; manager of public relations at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital; and as medical textbook copy editor for Williams & Wilkins. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Stern College/Yeshiva University. An award-wining journalist, Ms. Minkove has published articles in the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Jewish Times, New York Jewish Week, among other news outlets. In 2011, as her daughter Rachel’s cancer progressed, Ms. Minkove was invited to join the Johns Hopkins Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Council, where she continues to participate in discussions and projects aimed at improving the patient experience. Rachel—featured in chapter 24— died in July 2012.

Mary Jo Monahan, ACSW, LCSW, became executive director of the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) in January 2013. ASWB focuses on social work professional regulation and works closely with NASW and CSWE to establish and maintain standards for safe and competent social work practice. Ms. Monahan earned her MSSW from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee and practiced clinical social work for 21 years. She worked as adjunct professor of social work at the University of South Florida for 22 years and throughout her career has been an active volunteer with NASW. For 14 years, Monahan held increasingly responsible management positions at Family Service Centers in Clearwater, Florida, culminating in leading the organization for six years as president and CEO. Monahan has been active in social work regulation for over 20 years, serving on the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling from 1991 to 1996 and was board chair in 1995 and 1996. She also served in a volunteer capacity with ASWB from 1994 to 1997, chairing ASWB’s Disciplinary Action Reporting System Committee (now the Public Protection Database, or PPD) in 1995 and cochairing ASWB’s Model Law Task Force (1996–1997).

Rebecca S. Myers, LSW, ACSW, Mdiv, was the executive director of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers from 1997 to 2006, at which time she took a position as the special assistant to the executive director at the national office. In 2009, she became the director of external relations at NASW. She left in 2010 to pursue a master’s of divinity degree and is an ordained episcopal priest. She currently serves as the executive director of St. Agnes’ House in Lexington, KY, and as Priest-in-Charge at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY. Although much of her social work career was spent managing nonprofit organizations, she also worked as a social worker in hospice, rape crisis, and a traumatic brain injury outpatient clinic. She has cowritten an entry in the Encyclopedia of Social Work on political social work and cowritten a chapter on global palliative care for the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work. She coedited a teaching guide for social workers, Leadership Lessons from Whitney M. Young, Jr. She has always believed in working for systemic change and served as an elected school board member in Harrisburg, PA.

Dorinda Noble, PhD, LCSW, earned her MSW at Tulane University and her doctorate at the University of Texas—Austin. She began her social work career as a child welfare worker and later as a supervisor. After serving as BSW program director at Texas Tech University, she served the social work faculty of Louisiana State University for more than a decade. She joined Texas State University in 2001. Dr. Noble, who is professor at and director of the Texas State School of Social Work, has been influential in building that school, which has developed a vibrant online MSW program and has doubled in number of faculty and students during Dr. Noble’s tenure. Dr. Noble has also been active in social work regulation for about 20 years, chairing the Louisiana Board of Social Work Examiners, and serving as vice-chair of the Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners. Currently, she is president-elect of the Association of Social Work Board of Directors and has served that organization in many capacities over the last two decades. A board-approved supervisor, she was a member of the joint ASWB/ NASW Task Force on Supervision Guidelines, which NASW published in 2013. She frequently teaches and writes on the topic of supervision as well as ethics. Dr. Noble is active in the National Association of Deans and Directors, the Council on Social Work Education, and NASW.

Noam Ostrander, PhD, LCSW, is the director for the Master of Social Work Program at DePaul University and the coeditor of Disability Studies Quarterly. He received his AM from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and his PhD in disability studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Ostrander’s research interests include the intersections of disability, violence, and masculinity, community health interventions, and social work pedagogy. Dr. Ostrander has published in journals spanning the fields of disability studies and social work. He has also coedited a book titled Understanding Disability Studies and Performance Studies (2010). Dr. Ostrander’s previous work in the field included both clinical and policy positions at social service agencies.

Stella V. Pappas, LCSW-R, ACSW, is a proven operations executive with a well-rounded set of experiences in the hospital, behavioral health care, and managed care industries. Currently, Ms. Pappas is with Optum as the executive director of the New York City Behavioral Health Organization, providing leadership as the public behavioral health system transitions the care of the most vulnerable New Yorkers into managed care. In addition, Ms. Pappas is the principal of Stella Pappas Associates, LLC. The Pappas Paradigm is to strengthen organizational capacity by integrating mission and practice into a synchronized, value-driven, evidence-based model for local and national replication. Ms. Pappas will provide executive-level expertise to enhance organizations’ administrative effectiveness and efficiency through structure and process improvements. Most recently, Ms. Pappas was the chief operating officer and executive vice president for a large New York City human service agency responsible for providing daily operational leadership to a workforce of over 1,200 staff members. She successfully integrated operational and programmatic practice and for over 13 years acquired and honed leadership and organizational development skills, specifically in the areas of strong strategic partnerships, outstanding regulatory compliance, person-centered consumer impact, ethical financial management, staff development, and skills enhancement. Ms. Pappas’s most important roles are wife and mom.

Barry Panzer, PhD, ACSW, is a practitioner with more than 35 years of clinical experience with children, teens, adults, and families. Dr. Panzer is currently the mental health consultant to the Live Light Live Right Pediatric Obesity Program at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He received a PhD with distinction in social work from Columbia University and has served as a clinical instructor at Downstate Medical Center (at State University of New York) and adjunct professor at Columbia University. His postgraduate training includes family therapy, cognitive–behavior therapy, and child and adolescent nutrition. He has published in the areas of sudden infant death syndrome, crisis intervention, and attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder. Dr. Panzer’s interest in childhood obesity dates to 2003, and since then he has published articles in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, ICAN: Infant, Child and Adolescent Nutrition, and ADHD Report. He has also made presentations at major conferences, including for the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the National Association of Social Workers. Dr. Panzer is passionate about educating and motivating colleagues to become involved in caring for families of obese youths.

Judith C. Quarless, MS, is a school psychologist with the Fulton County School District in Georgia, where she provides evaluation and counseling services to elementary, middle, and high school students and consultation to parents, teachers, and administrative staff. She has worked as a school psychologist in the DeKalb County Schools Shadow Rock Psycho-educational Center in Georgia, the Kitt County Schools in North Carolina, and the Nutley public schools in Nutley, New Jersey. Her career has always entailed working with infants, children, adolescents, and their families in pediatric units in hospitals, children’s mental health centers, and Head Start programs, where she has provided counseling and evaluation services, training, and supervision. Ms. Quarless obtained a BA in psychology from Rutgers University, an MS in family and child development with a specialization in counseling from Kansas State University, and a Level 6 certificate in school psychology from Seton Hall University. She has also completed work toward a doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Seton Hall University.

Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, is professor in the graduate program of the School of Social Work, Rhode Island College, where he has been on the faculty since 1983. His research and teaching have addressed mental health, health care, criminal justice, and professional ethics. Reamer received his PhD from the University of Chicago (1978) and has served as a social worker in correctional and mental health settings. He has served as director of the National Juvenile Justice Assessment Center of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; senior policy adviser to the governor of Rhode Island; and as a commissioner of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, the state housing finance agency. Since 1992, Reamer has served on the State of Rhode Island Parole Board. He also served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Social Work Education and as associate editor of the National Association of Social Workers’ Encyclopedia of Social Work (20th edition), and he currently serves on the editorial board of the online Encyclopedia of Social Work. Reamer is the author of many books and articles. He chaired the national task force that wrote the current Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers.

Kristen Marie (Kryss) Shane, MSW,  LSW,  LMSW, earned  her  bachelor’s  of  science at the Ohio State University and her MSW at Barry University. She holds social work licenses in the states of Ohio and New York and numerous certifications. Her professional social work foci are in the areas of LGBT counseling, training, and education; animal-assisted therapy with youth, adolescent, and adult counseling; couples counseling; family counseling; group counseling; and local, state, national, and international activism work. As an activist and social worker, Ms. Shane has conducted professional trainings on teaching key members of agencies and companies how to make their workplace and workforce more inclusive, and she continues to actively advocate for LGBTQI rights on the local, state, federal, and international levels. As a writer and public speaker, she is a consistently publishing author whose work has appeared in the Huffington Post, books, magazines, and blogs. She has appeared regularly on major market radio, has been seen on national television programs, has presented numerous times at high-ranking colleges and universities, has spoken at national and international conferences throughout the nation, and was a symposia panelist at the 2012 NASW national conference.

Corey Shdaimah, PhD, LLM, is associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Dr. Shdaimah’s research and writing focuses on how people respond and adapt to policies and programs that they perceive as ineffectual or unjust. Her current research focuses on alternative criminal justice responses to prostitution. She has published numerous articles in journals and edited volumes and is the author of Negotiating Justice: Progressive Lawyering, Low-Income Clients, and the Quest for Social Change and, with Sanford Schram and Roland Stahl, Change Research: A Case Study of Collaborative Methods for Social Workers and Advocates. Dr. Shdaimah uses primarily qualitative research methods, which elicit the important insights that people have about improving the systems in which they work and interact. Rachel Minkove was a studen in Dr. Shdaimah’s qualitative cross-cultural research class, where she was exploring how oncology nurses work with young adult patients coping with cancer. Ms. Minkove hoped to use the knowledge she gained to help improve the experiences of others.

Benjamin R. Sher, MA, LMSW, is currently the associate vice president for training and staff development at the Institute for Community Living, Inc. (ICL). He has held this position for one year, when he was promoted from director of training, a position he held for 10 years. Previously, Mr. Sher held several housing program director positions with ICL. Mr. Sher is an adjunct faculty member for numerous schools of social work, serving in the capacity of field instructor. He is also the educational coordinator and chief social worker for ICL. He has 20 years of public speaking experience and has presented at several national and international conferences. Mr. Sher is also an adjunct faculty in the Graduate School of Public Affairs and Public Administration at Metropolitan College of New York, where he serves as constructive action thesis professor. He also teaches at CUNY/Queensborough College. Mr. Sher was an NASW—New York City Chapter (NASW-NYC) delegate to the 2011 NASW National Delegation. He was recently awarded the 2012 Mid-Career Leadership Award by NASW-NYC and is now the treasurer of NASW-NYC

Marie Schaffner, MA, MSW, LCSW, is a semiretired clinical social worker. Her main professional interest is on the effects of psychological trauma. From both agency and private practice settings, she has worked in the areas of domestic violence, disability studies, and suicide bereavement. She has volunteered in community projects, and as with the client in the chapter 20 case example, she has provided pro bono services in her private practice. In her current role as independent researcher, she is exploring the response of army clinical social workers to the unprecedented epidemic of military-related suicides

René Schegg, MA, has held the position of International Federation of Social Workers policy and communications officer since 2008. He also works in universities, focusing on educational development. He has a strong interest in developing communication strategies that are inclusive and enable dialogue between diverse groups and that result in a high level of engagement and participation.

Michael Stein, PhD, MA, is a professor of sociology at Lindenwood University. He earned a BA and MA at Southern Illinois University and a PhD from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. Dr. Stein’s research and teaching interests include deviance, qualitative methods, and aspects of place, both public and private. In addition to published articles and chapters, he has helped conduct policy and other funded research for the United States Department of Education, Bureau of the Census, National Institute of Justice, and the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

W. Patrick Sullivan, PhD, serves as professor at the Indiana University School of Social Work. He was also the director of the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction from 1994 to 1998. While earning a PhD at the University of Kansas, Dr. Sullivan helped develop the strengths model of social work practice and has extended the model in mental health and addictions treatment and policy. He has over 70 professional publications on a diverse range of topics. He received the Distinguished Hoosier award from Governor Frank O’Bannon in 1997 and earned the Sagamore of the Wabash from Governor Joseph Kernan in 2004 for his work in mental health and addictions. Dr. Sullivan currently serves as a steering committee member for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/Council on Social Work Education (SAMHSA/CSWE) Recovery to Practice initiative and also serves on the SAMHSA/CSWE Integrated Behavioral Healthcare project.

Jennifer L. Taussig, LCSW,  earned a BA from Wheaton College and an MSW  from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. She is privileged to be a hematology/oncology social worker at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. It is the only pediatric medical center in the state and therefore serves a wide variety of populations, many of them from rural areas. Prior to this position at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, she spent several years as a mental health professional at Ascent Children’s Health Services, a developmental early intervention day treatment facility in rural northeast Arkansas. She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Childhood Cancer Organization of Arkansas for the past four years. She is also active in grief and bereavement work. She has been a field instructor for MSW students and has been committed to improving the health and well-being of children and families for many years.

Jeanie Thies, PhD, is the dean of institutional research and an associate professor of criminal justice at Lindenwood University. She earned her PhD in political science and master’s degrees in political science and psychology from the University of Missouri— St. Louis and her BA in psychology from the University of Missouri—Columbia. Dr. Thies began her professional career as a criminal psychologist and spent 10 years working in corrections, as a therapist and director of Missouri’s sex offender program. She has an additional 15 years of experience as a consultant and trainer for criminal and juvenile justice agencies, with expertise in treatment program design and evaluation, offender risk assessment, sex offending, and family violence, and has published articles on the topics of prison siting, juveniles in residential setting, and domestic violence. She has taught courses in criminology, criminal justice systems, corrections, criminal behavior, program evaluation, research methods, and psychology.

Christina Tomacic, MSW, LCSW, is the research specialist for the Coparenting Pilot Study at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has over 10 years of clinical and supervisory experience in community mental health settings, schools, and home therapy visitation. She has provided clinical and supportive services to diverse populations, including women involved in the criminal justice system.

Rory Truell, DrHSc, accepted the position as International Federation of Social Workers secretary general in mid-2011. Prior to this, he held a number of chief executive roles in large social work and educational organizations. He has also worked as professor of social work. His essential focus is on community development and supporting sustainable well-being through people having the ability to take control over their own lives and communities.

Clarissa M. Uttley, PhD, is a professor of early childhood studies at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. Her main area of research includes the impact of animals on human development throughout the lifespan and assessment in early childhood. Recently, she has published work on animals as curriculum supports in early childhood classrooms and parent perceptions of social development child assessments. She has presented and published her work nationally and internationally and is always interested in exploring collaborative projects that advance the study of human–animal relationships. Dr. Uttley has also worked with her dog, Nina, and pet rats, Millie and Minkie, in therapeutic settings with young children and in the university classroom. She is a certified therapy animal handler through the nationally recognized Pet Partners program.

Wendy A. Wilson, LCSW, has been running a practice of psychotherapy and supervision for 37 years. She was a former adjunct faculty member at the Adelphi University School of Social Work. At the NASW national convention “Restoring Hope” (July 2012), she spoke about the negative effects of social stereotyping being reversed by participation in a peer group for older adults. The New York Times featured an article called “Therapy of a Different Sort” about her work with this group (May 4, 2012). Social Work Today published her article “Redefining Aging,” which detailed how the face of aging is changing. “It Gets Better with Age: Vibrant Seniors Redefine Aging” is her book in progress. It details group formation, the leader’s role, and topic-centered questions for use in elder peer groups as well as responses from older adults to these questions.

Hope is a critical, yet rarely mentioned, aspect of who we are and what we do as social workers. This book explores the complexity and power of hope and the intimate relationship between the role of helping and hope.

The 58 social workers share case studies in which they describe the many ways to instill and restore hope to individuals, families, communities, human rights advocates, and leaders during times of transitions, pain, confusion, and loss. Also, we are reminded of the importance of nurturing our own personal and professional hope as a barrier against compassion fatigue.

This collection of compassionate, healing, sad, and humorous stories reveals why social work is called the profession of hope. Reading this inspiring, compelling, energizing, and engaging book will transform our capacity as social workers to provide hope for others and ourselves.

Harriet L. Cohen, PhD, LCSW
Associate Professor, Department of Social Work
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX

Hope is an important concept, not only for individuals, but for society. We all use and rely on hope, but we may not understand it fully. Hope is an essential experience of the human condition. It is a psychological asset; a guard against despair; a way of coping; and a quality-of-life enhancer. Hope is not simple optimism, nor is it wishing. Hope does not equate with denial, and by definition, hope can never be false. Hope is a way of thinking, feeling, and acting (Clark, 2012b). Hope is flexible, evolving as situations and realities change. It is not static but has a time aspect and a consideration of the future.

Vaclav Havel, the human rights activist, playwright, and president of the Czech Republic, who spent many years in prison because of his efforts against Communist oppression, frequently used the concept of hope in his activism and in his work. He said, “Hope is a dimension of the soul, and it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world, or estimate of the situation. It is a state of mind” (Havel, 1990, p. 120).

In his book The Anatomy of Hope (2005), physician and researcher Jerome Groopman emphasized that there is an authentic biology of hope and that belief and expectation are key elements of hope. Although there are common elements, hope is not a uniform variable. There is a tendency to think that everyone hopes in a similar fashion, but as a coping characteristic, hope is individualistic, and persons have various capacities for hoping and different approaches to maintaining hope (Clark, 2012b). Personal hope is embedded in a broad social context, and a person’s hope develops within a particular family culture and within a historical framework and set of experiences. In addition, there are different types of hope. There is generalized hope, and there is hope for achieving a particular goal. Professionals, perhaps too often, may narrow their view to think in terms of therapeutic hope – hope based almost solely on the outcome of therapy (Nuland, 1995).

In contrast, there is transcendent hope – hope that transcends reality – according to which the seemingly unreachable may sometimes become reachable. Also, we now know that hope may have larger-scale applications in reducing risks, inoculating segments of society from despair, and fostering resiliency.

Greene (2012) defined resiliency as a balance between stress and the ability to cope with repeated stress. A presidential commission on mental health reported that “resilience means the personal and community qualities that enable us to rebound from adversity, trauma, threats, or other stresses – and to go on with life with a sense of mastery, competence, and hope” (New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003).

There are high-hope individuals and low-hope individuals (Snyder, Cheavens, & Scott, 2005). People’s level of hope can be strengthened by caring social networks or diminished by neglect, abuse, and traumatic events. Some people – those who experience significant trauma – may become hope-lost.

An acute loss of hope – what some refer to as the “death of hope” – is very serious because a hopeless person becomes a helpless person. Hopelessness is a condition of inaction that affects psychological, social, physical, and spiritual health and overall quality of life. It is easier to prevent a person from becoming hopeless than to help a hope-lost person find hope again (Farran, Herth, & Popovich, 1995). Preventing hopelessness and helping low-hope and hope-lost individuals reframe and regain hope is the goal of the therapies and efforts of social workers.

In the face of even the direst situations, social workers remain hopeful. We understand how difficult it is for people to change and maintain, how hard it is to overcome suffering, setbacks, disappointments, loss, and just plain bad luck. Even knowing this, social workers do not give up when trying to help those in poverty, those with severe dysfunctions, those who are addicted, or those on parole. We believe that families can be functional, workplaces can be healthy, and communities can be safe. Despite threats of terrorism and world unrest, we believe that peace is always preferable to war and that we have a global obligation regarding world resources and all other peoples.

This singular capacity – to be hopeful about future change – allows social workers to practice in prisons, in drug rehabilitation clinics, in domestic violence shelters, in suicide prevention centers, in child protective services, and on the battlefield. It is hope that prevents the school social worker from giving up on the difficult teenager or the probation officer from giving up on a repeat offender. It is hope that encourages social workers to practice in populations struggling with great challenges and areas struggling with unrelenting poverty, such as Appalachia, American Indian reservations, and inner cities. Because of hope, social workers choose to work in health and mental health settings despite the prevalence of incurable diseases or chronic conditions.

As social workers, we do not live or work by denying the reality of the world today. Instead, we recognize that our collective hope transcends reality and that our combined efforts will continue to improve the world in which we live. Social workers have a passion for social justice, for fairness, for making this world a better place. It is this purpose that forms the bedrock of our careers, but it is possibility and hope that keep us moving forward.

Does this mean that social work can lay claim to the profession of hope? We believe they can (Clark, 2012a). Social workers are the holders of hope for clients, communities, and society – dispensing hope as a physician dispenses medicines or as a judge dispenses justice.

Social workers fully understand the power of hope. We recognize its utility, its essential function in solving both individual and community problems. Hope provides the framework and underlies most, if not all, of our social work interventions. We all came to the profession of social work to make a difference – to bring about positive social change – to better society (Clark, 2009). We could have chosen other professions, but we did not. We chose social work. If we ever doubt the importance of our work or the importance of the profession, we simply need to take only a moment and think what the world would be like without social workers.

If the profession of social work ended this decade, would it matter? Would it matter to those who are marginalized and devalued? Would it matter to those who live in extreme conditions and yet are invisible to the greater society? Would it matter to children who are being abused and mistreated or to the elderly who are trying to overcome obstacles to aging well? Would it matter to all of those who have lost hope and see no way forward?

As this book so aptly illustrates, those questions can be answered in the affirmative. It would matter, and matter greatly. The world would be a much less hospitable and less caring place without social work.

We recognize there are some days, weeks, and even months when our own professional hoping capacity seems low, when we are discouraged and feel ineffective. If this is your situation, we believe you will be inspired by your colleagues and their hopeful examples in the following chapters. The content will leave you energized, with your own level of professional hope restored.

The 58 authors in this text address the continuum of hope from the individual to the global. Some describe transformation through hope; others used hope as a catalyst for change. Still others write about restoring hope at the client, community, or organizational levels. Also included are descriptions of strategies for using hope clinically, for researching the concept of hope, and for exploring hope and human rights. Of particular significance for professional social workers are the chapters that describe how social workers maintain their own professional hope.

What is equally important and unique is that social workers intertwine hope at all levels and in all instances with advocacy and social justice. This linkage is what sets social work apart. We can only conclude that, as a profession, we have the potential – the social work potential – to make a great difference.