Lens on the Law and Social Work
Dr. Vicki Lens was a public interest lawyer for 15 years before earning a PhD in social work. So she saw firsthand the inequities in welfare services.
In her scholarly research, the newly tenured associate professor at the School of Social Work focuses on issues of administrative justice in public welfare bureaucracies. She seeks to measure levels of fear, skepticism, powerlessness, and stigmatization that clients may feel when they seek public assistance and other benefits.
Dr. Lens has published nearly three dozen articles on administrative fair hearings, welfare reform, and other policies, procedures, and processes.
Dr. Lens’ research utilizes qualitative analytical methods. Her analysis of the administrative, social, and legal processes that impede or ensure the distribution of public benefits exposes all-too-common fears and doubts that keep clients from pursuing appeal denials when benefits are denied. It is not uncommon for clients to reveal that they felt mistreated by workers. Such feelings, even if misperceived, influence whether clients choose to appeal denials.
Dr. Lens has been instrumental in developing the policy practice method offering for second-year students, in which students learn to collect and analyze relevant data and develop policy options. “One of the most important things I have learned from her is the value of using case studies to illustrate policy dilemmas and how a policymaker resolved them,” says her mentor and colleague Dr. Jane Waldfogel. “The method is used widely in policy schools but less often in social work schools.”
In addition to her classroom teaching, Dr. Lens has helped master’s and doctoral-level policy students prepare for the School’s annual Capstone Competition. She is the faculty coordinator for dual-degree law and social work students. She co-teaches a qualitative methods course to doctoral students with Dr. Denise Burnette, a professor of social work.
Dr. Allen Zweben, associate dean for research and academic affairs, says, “The topic of fair hearings has not been given much attention in policy research and she made a compelling case for National Science Foundation funding.”
With her extensive background in legal aid, public advocacy, and consumer affairs, Dr. Lens is now training a new generation of researchers interested in the intersection of law and social work.