Biographies

Dennis Michael Dailey (1938–2023) was a scholar, prolific writer, educator, practitioner, change agent, and passionate advocate. As a social work practitioner and educator, Dailey’s pioneering contribution to the profession was to educate and help bring balance between the social work practitioner’s personal and professional conceptualization of masculinity and femininity.

William Neal Brown (1919–2009) was a social work educator who began his professional career after service in World War II as a Tuskegee Airman. The son of an African American father and Native American mother, in 1956 he became the first black professor at Rutgers University, where he taught in the School of Social Work for the next 33 years.

Donald Granvold, PhD (1943–2013) was a social work academic, a practitioner, and a trend setter in social work theory and practice innovations. In 2013, Dr. Granvold retired as a full professor after 40 years on the faculty of the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work. He was an innovator in the cognitive treatment methods and a visionary in promoting constructivist psychotherapy in social work settings. His research and practice focused on depression in adults, couples treatment, divorce, and sexual dissatisfaction.

Octavia Hill (1838–1912) was an important 19th century English public figure and social reformer, a social entrepreneur renowned worldwide for her system of housing management, which she transposed into ideas influencing early social casework practice within the London Charity Organisation Society and more widely, especially in the United States. She campaigned for working people and people in poverty to have access to open spaces and the countryside, becoming one of three founders of the National Trust, which preserves valuable historic buildings and landscapes. She opposed government responsibility for housing and social welfare, leading her to espouse centering social work in charitable organizations. This conflicted with influential Fabian thought, which was progressing toward significant state pension and social provision.

Harriet Jakobsson (1926–2010) was an international social worker was active in three central areas: activities in the voluntary sector (NGOs), training of social workers, and her own practical work in the field. Her driving force has been to work for the best interests of the child and ensure the child’s rights in society. Curiosity, creativity, and perseverance characterized her professional life.

Mildred “Mit” Joyner, DPS, MSW, LCSW (1949–2023), the former president of the National Association of Social Workers, the Council on Social Work Education Board Chair, and Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors (BPD), was a champion for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion for more than three decades. She was a visionary who served extensively across various social work organizations domestically and internationally. She was also a champion of peace and justice at the community level.

Linda S. Moore was an inspirational and impactful social work educator and leader, particularly in the area of undergraduate social work education. Throughout her 39-year career as a faculty member in Texas Christian University’s Department of Social Work, she held multiple leadership roles, including program director, director of field education, and department chair. She also held multiple national leadership roles, including serving as president of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors. In 2020, she was the recipient of the National Association of Social Worker’s Social Work Pioneer Award. She will be largely remembered by the hundreds of social work students she influenced through her dedication and commitment to social work and social justice.

Donald Everard Chambers (1929–2023) was an influential proponent of the systematic analysis of social policies and social programs. His personal life experiences and professional practice and education shaped his work. For example, he was born at the beginning of the Great Depression. Throughout childhood, he was mainly in the care of his mother, Ruth Swenson. Her work in human services led them to live in several Midwestern states in early childhood. She obtained a master’s in social work at New York University around 1938. Her subsequent work for United Service Organizations brought them to several other midwestern and western states, including California. During this period, Chambers gained experience living with people of various social classes impacted by economic hardship and World War II. He also learned to be flexible and adaptable to changing life circumstances and to challenge health and mental health inequities and injustices in social policies. Chambers obtained a BA degree at Stanford University in biology and psychology in 1950 and an MSW at the University of Nebraska in 1952. He was a social work practitioner for about 15 years in the fields of rural social work, mental health, and health in Nebraska, Idaho, and Iowa. Chambers attended Washington University’s Doctor of Social Work program, obtaining his degree in 1967. He was on the faculty of the University of Kansas from 1967 to 1996, where he taught graduate courses on social policy and program analysis. His research and service focused on issues of poverty, child welfare, and analysis of social programs and policies. In 1977–1978, he studied the British Workman’s Compensation system and social policy at the British Library in London. In 1990–1991, he studied child welfare and adoption in Central America as a Fulbright scholar. His most influential book was Social Policy and Social Programs: A Method for the Practical Public Policy Analyst.

Helen Kivnick (1950–2020) was a clinical psychologist and social worker at the University of Minnesota. Her early research was on the meaning of grandparenthood to grandparents, which inspired her interest in working with older adults. Kivnick became well known for her work with Erik and Joan Erikson, where she helped them to revise Erik Erikson’s theory of life-span development by changing the oldest stage of development from emphasizing reminiscence to emphasizing vital involvement in life, which is defined as finding meaningful ways to interact creatively with other people. Vital involvement was a major theme in her life’s work. Kivnick was also a musician interested in social justice, and in the 1980s, she visited South Africa to study and promote the choral music of Black South Africans during apartheid. She produced two albums of African music and was nominated for a Grammy for one of them. Kivnick was known for her belief that even frail elders can lead meaningful lives and be role models for younger folks. She was also a promoter of the arts. With Linda Davis, she developed arts and strength-related interventions to improve health and well-being in at-risk inner city young adults and frail older adults. Finally, she believed that the humanities and arts were important means of understanding the meaning of late life. She increased the visibility of the arts and humanities as the first associate editor for the Humanities and Arts section of The Gerontologist, the flagship journal of the Gerontological Society of America. Helen Kivnick was a woman who was able to integrate her different interests into one marvelous career. She was a clinical psychologist, a gerontologist, a social worker, a musician, and a patron of the arts. She was equally interested in theory about adult development and aging and in practical methods to improve older adults’ lives. She was also proficient in both qualitative and quantitative research. Although best known for her early work with Erik and Joan Erikson, her contributions expand upon and go far beyond the early work.

Alice Garrigue Masaryková (1879–1966) was a prominent figure who played a key role in the early days of social work in Czechoslovakia. She laid the foundations of social work education, maintained and developed international professional contacts, organized and attended international conferences, implemented her foreign experience in the Czechoslovak environment, emphasized the scientific foundations of social work, and developed social work associations. Her activities also included roles as a teacher and translator. She focused, in particular, on the topics of alcoholism and education. She was the President of the Czechoslovak Red Cross and also the daughter of the first President of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.