Dr. Irwin Epstein, '63
Irwin Epstein occupies the Helen Rehr Chair in Applied Social Work Research at Hunter College School of Social Work and has taught at the University of Michigan and Howard University in the United States and at the University of Warwick and the University of Wales (Cardiff) in Britain. He has conducted practice-based research workshops at universities and social agencies in the United States, Australia, Europe and Israel. He has served as a consultant to a myriad of constituents including Columbia University School of Social Work, the Brooklyn Veteran’s Administration Hospital, United Neighborhood Centers of America, National Child Leadership Center, and Administration for Children’s Services.
Dr. Epstein is the co-author of several books and numerous articles on social worker professionalization and research utilization. His current interest is in exploring clinical data-mining as a practice-based research methodology. His most recent books on the subject are: Clinical Data-Mining in Practice-Based Research: Social Work in Hospital Settings, and Clinical and Research Uses of an Adolescent Intake Questionnaire: What Kids Need to Talk About. Another collection of data-mining studies was based on multi-disciplinary data-mining studies conducted by Australian allied health practitioners. It was published as a special issue of the Journal of Social Work Research and Evaluation. Most recently he co-authored a second edition of Research Techniques for Clinical Social Workers. His particular professional interest is in promoting practice-based research and engaging practitioners in research on their own practice.
Dr. Epstein’s many awards and honors include Visiting International Scholar at the University of Melbourne; Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine; Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Professor Award, University of Melbourne, Australia; and Distinguished Visiting Professor, Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Sarah B. Greenblatt ’81
For over thirty years Sarah B. Greenblatt has worked with and on behalf of vulnerable children, families and their communities. She has engaged in foundation and government-funded reform initiatives promoting empowerment-based practice with children and families, and integrated lessons learned to support systems advocacy. As a child welfare practitioner, she has been driven by the belief that all children—regardless of age, background or ability—deserve and need to grow up with a family they can count on.
Upon graduating from CUSSW, Sarah joined a team of social workers, attorneys, and concerned citizens to expand the Court of the Court Appointed Special Advocates’ Program in the Manhattan Family Court. She recruited, and trained an increased number of citizen volunteers to be effective advocates for children in foster care. She worked at the Child Welfare League of America assisting in a grant-funded initiative to learn more about and promote Family Preservation Services to prevent the unnecessary placement of children in foster care. In 1989 she was invited to work at the Center for the Study of Family Policy at Hunter College, and then served as the Director of the National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning at Hunter College. She has helped state child welfare leaders in the several states find financing for many post-adoption services, and has written extensively about effective family-centered permanency planning practice and policy development. She currently serves as the Director of the Casey Center for Effective Child Welfare Practice at Casey Family Services in New Haven, CT where she coordinates national consultation reflecting Casey’s successful child welfare program experiences.
Sarah graduated from CUSSW in 1981 with a Dean’s Award of Distinction. She also holds a master’s degree in Educational Administration from Leslie College and a bachelor’s degree in Child Development and Family Relations from the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Arthur Katz ‘52
Dr. Katz was the second and very early Dean in the development of Adelphi University School of Social Work and Founding Dean at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. In Kansas he designed and developed a Doctoral program (of which he also served as Director and Professor), and developed an upward mobility program for social service aides to advance on a continuum to BSW and MSW degrees. He was named Social Worker of the Year by the Kansas chapter of NASW.
Dr. Katz served as a NASW national Board member and as NASW national President. During his tenure as President of NASW he gave leadership to the NASW emphasis on clinical social work. In this role, he also represented the social work profession to both domestic and international social welfare public and private organizations. He put strong emphasis on the value of diversity in the social work profession supporting multi-cultural issues such as the increased recruitment of minority populations to social work education and the profession. As Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Social Work Education, he strongly supported the diversity focus of minority social work professional groups.
During World War II while in the U.S. Army Air Corps, he supervised regional development in northern Luzon (the Philippines) to meet the needs of the civilian population after the Japanese occupation ended. This work included the creation of a job corps and food distribution programs.
In addition to his many teaching roles, Dr. Katz has served on numerous Committees including Editorial Committee of the National Conference of Social Welfare, and Inter University Consortium on International Social Development.
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