NYU President Linda G. Mills has been inducted into the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW), the nation’s leading honorific society of scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in social work and social sciences. She was one of eight Fellows selected for membership this year. Additionally, the academy named NYU Silver School of Social Work Dean Michael A. Lindsey to be its president.
In addition to serving at the helm of the nation’s largest private research university, Mills is the Lisa Ellen Goldberg Professor of Social Work, Public Policy, and Law at NYU. In her role as a professor, she carried out groundbreaking research funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Justice that is helping reshape the field of domestic violence treatment.
At the AASWSW induction ceremony convened in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 13, President Mills emphasized how important it is that the social work profession continue to generate leadership, scholarship, and work that advances the social good. She congratulated the seven other new Fellows.
People enter social work because they are compelled to address society’s most pressing needs, rarely with much recognition, said Mills, who called the ceremony one of those occasions that puts a deserved spotlight on the field and the unstinting work of the academy’s fellows to serve, educate and uncover knowledge that can help improve people’s lives. She said she was honored to join the academy’s ranks of Fellows. And when introducing Dean Lindsey to the gathering, she stated: “There is no one better right now to elevate social work and our values.”
A nationally recognized scholar in the field of child and adolescent mental health, Dean Lindsey received the mantle from outgoing AASWSW President Mary McKay of Washington University in St. Louis. He offered brief remarks highlighting the need to further develop the pipeline of social workers to meet the needs of people in the post-pandemic world.
"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,” he noted, “projects that the gap between the supply of social workers focused on mental health and substance abuse and the demand for them will be as much as 31% by 2025.”
Lindsey lauded contributions from Fellows of the academy in addressing society’s pressing problems and voiced a desire to amplify Fellows’ visibility and impact and to connect them to other thought leaders and policymakers.
“We must never forget the power of what we do and our ideal position to lead critical conversations about the many challenges that our world faces,” he said.
