The George Warren Brown School of Social Work will honor five distinguished individuals for outstanding school service during its annual alumni banquet May 2 at the YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Heritage Center.
The Distinguished Alumni Award recipients will be Alvin L. Schorr, William F. Siedhoff and Bernarda (Bernie) Wong.
Gautam N. Yadama, Ph.D., associate professor and director of international programs in the School of Social Work, will receive the Distinguished Faculty Award. The Dean’s Medal recipient will be Sima K. Needleman.
Schorr, professor emeritus at Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, is one of the pioneer planners, activists and writers on social policy in the United States. Throughout his long and distinguished career, his focuses have remained the same: children, family, poverty and inequality.
Schorr has been on the faculty at Case Western since 1979 and is the former dean of the Graduate School of Social Work at New York University. A prolific author, his latest book, Passion and Policy: A Social Worker’s Career, combines autobiography with professional reflections and insights into life and the social work profession.
To help with the education of future social work leaders, Schorr has established an annual scholarship for a WUSTL social work student with a demonstrated commitment to child welfare.
Siedhoff, director of the Department of Human Services (DHS) of the city of St. Louis, has dedicated his career to advancing the delivery of social services both statewide and most recently in the St. Louis region. Under his leadership, DHS and its five divisions coordinate the programming and funding necessary to deliver a wide range of social service and housing programs to St. Louis residents.
Siedhoff sits on 32 boards and committees. He is one of the founders of the Council on Child Abuse and Neglect and helped establish the Family Support Network, an organization committed to strengthening families and preventing child abuse and neglect in the St. Louis area.
Committed to social work education, Siedhoff serves on advisory boards for all four of the social work schools in the state of Missouri.
Wong, founder and president of the Chinese American Service League (CASL), has grown CASL from a one-person initiative to one of the largest multiservice social service agencies in the nation supporting the Asian-American community. CASL’s staff provides a variety of professional services including counseling, employment and placement, child care, elderly programs and advocacy and leadership development.
Universally lauded as a leader in the Asian community both in Chicago and nationwide, she has received numerous recognitions, including the United Way of Chicago’s Executive of the Year Award.
Committed to community service and dedicated to promoting the interests of the Asian community, Wong has chaired the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Asian Affairs in Chicago under mayors Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley. She serves on the board of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.
Yadama has been a valued scholar, teacher, collaborator and mentor since joining the School of Social Work in 1991.
Much of his work focuses on not only training graduate students but also in building new research and policy initiatives to foster greater participation of underserved populations in shaping social service delivery and social policy infrastructure.
Yadama’s field research and international collaborations have taken him to India, Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, the post-Soviet Republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus and, most recently, China. In 2000-01, he was awarded a senior Fulbright scholarship to Nepal.
In addition to his significant service to the School of Social Work, Yadama is actively engaged in the University community through his work with the McDonnell International Scholars Academy, the Center for New Institutional Social Sciences and on the executive committee of the Program in International and Area Studies in Arts & Sciences.
Needleman has been an active contributor to the School Social Work and the St. Louis community. She has been a member and president of the school’s alumni board as well as chairperson for the school’s annual fund.
As a member of the school’s national council, Needleman also has been providing input and guidance on the future of the school for more than a decade. In 2000, she conceived the idea for and led the development of the school’s Healing Racism Group.
Needleman’s professional expertise is in medical social work with significant experience in helping women address infertility issues. The first 16 years of her career were spent working with OB-GYN patients at Jewish Hospital. She had her own private practice until 1998.
Needleman has a long history of volunteerism and has worked with numerous agencies and groups in St. Louis.