Bio:

Dr. Lens worked as a public interest lawyer for fifteen years, combining her social work and legal skills. As a legal aid lawyer she provided legal services to the poor in the areas of public assistance, Social Security disability benefits, SSI, and Medicaid. Dr. Lens brought several class action lawsuits on behalf of welfare recipients and homeless families, establishing a right to shelter and expanding entitlements to public assistance. As an assistant attorney general under New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams she established the Suffolk County Public Advocacy Unit, which was responsible for prosecuting businesses for civil fraud and protecting the public from economic exploitation. Dr. Lens has also served in various administrative positions, including as Director of Investigations and Complaints at the Suffolk County Executive's Office of Consumer Affairs. Her primary interest is in exploring the intersection between law, social work and social policy.

Research Interests:

• Administrative justice in public welfare bureaucracies
• Welfare reform
• Advocacy, community organizing and social change

Current Projects:

• Welfare fair hearing system
• Implementation of work sanctions under TANF

Recent Publications:

Journal Articles
Lens, V. (in press) Welfare and Work Sanctions: Examining Discretion on the Front Lines. Social Service Review.

Lens, V. (2007). Administrative justice in public welfare bureaucracies: When citizens (don’t) complain. Administration & Society 39 (3), 382-408.

Lens, V. (2007). In the fair hearing room: Resistance and confrontation in the welfare bureaucracy. Law & Social Inquiry 32 (2). 

Lens, V. (2006) Examining the administration of work sanctions on the front lines of the welfare system. Social Science Quarterly 87, 573-590.     

Lens, V.  (2006) Work sanctions under TANF: Are they helping women achieve self-sufficiency? Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy 13, 255-284.

Lens, V. (2005). Advocacy and argumentation in the public arena: A guide for social workers. Social Work 50, 231-238.

Lens, V. (2005). Bureaucratic disentitlement: Are fair hearings the cure? Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy 12, 13-54.

Lens, V. and Vorsanger, S. (2005). Complaining after claiming: Fair hearings after welfare reform. Social Service Review 29, 430-453.

Lens, V. (2004). Principed Negotiation: A new tool for case advocacy. Social Work 3, 506-513.

Lens, V. (2004). Social Work and the Supreme Court: A clash of values; a time for action. Social Work 47, 327-330.

Lens, V. (2004). Supreme Court Narratives on Equality and Gender Discrimination in Employment: 1971-2002. Cardozo Women's Law Journal 10, 501-576.

Lens, V. (2003). Examining the role of expert in policy debates: An analysis of the expert opinion on welfare reforms in the New York Times. Chicago Policy Review 7, 61-76.

Lens, V. (2003). The Supreme Court and women's rights: A new challenge. Affilia 18, 120-132.

Grube, B., & Lens, V. (2003). Student to student harassment: Impact of Davis v. Monroe. Children and Schools 25, 173-185.

Lens, V. (2003). Reading between the lines: Analyzing the Supreme Court's views on gender discrimination in employment, 1971-1982, Social Service Review 77, 25-50.

Lens, V. and Gibelman, M. (2002). School choice: How will children with disabilities fare? Social Policy Journal 1, 37-50.

Gibelman, M., & Lens, V. (2002). Entering the debate about school vouchers: A social work perspective. Children and Schools 24, 207-221.

Lens, V. (2002). Sound bites, spin and social change: Analyzing the news media in the classroom. Journal of Teaching in Social Work 22, 39-53.

Lens, V. (2002). TANF: What went wrong and what to do next. Social Work 47, 279-290.

Lens, V. (2002). Welfare reform, personal narratives, and the media: How welfare recipients and journalists frame the welfare debate. Journal of Poverty 6, 1-20.

Lens, V. (2002). Managed care and the judicial system: Another avenue for reform? Health and Social Work 27, (1), 27-36.

Lens, V. ( 2002). Public voices and public policy: Changing the societal discourse on "welfare." Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 24, 135-152.

Lens. V. (2001). The Supreme Court, federalism, and social policy: The new judicial activism. Social Service Review 75, 318-336. 

Lens, V. (2001). When the personal and political collide. Journal of Social Work 11, 361-363.

Lens, V. ( 2001 ). Welfare reform and the media: Why AFDC was eliminated. Journal of Applied Social Sciences 24, 79-89.

Lens, V. (2000). Protecting the confidentiality of the therapeutic relationship: The Supreme Court decision in Jaffee v. Redmond. Social Work  45 , 273-276.

Lens V., & Pollack, D. (2000). Advance directives: Legal remedies and psychosocial interventions. Death Studies 24, 377-399.

Lens, V., & Gibelman, M. (2000) Advocacy be not forsaken: Retrospective lessons from welfare reform. Families in Society 81, 611-620.

Lens, V. & Pollack, D. (1999) Welfare reform: Back to the future. Administration in Social Work 23, 61-78.

Lens, V. (1998). Welfare reform and the family cap: Rhetoric vs. reality. Journal of Children and Poverty 4,19-37.

Lens, V. (1997). Consumer fraud and the elderly. Journal of Law and Social Work  7, 159-175.

Lens V. (1997-1998). Welfare mothers and work: Myth versus reality. Jewish Social Work Forum 33, 15-22.

Pollack, D. Steinmetz , C. & Lens, V. (1997). Anderson versus St. Frances- St. George Hospital: Wrongful death actions from an American and Jewish legal perspective. Cleveland State Law Review 45 (4), 621-637.

Last updated December 03, 2007.