2023 Social Work Hall of Distinction Induction Ceremony

SOCIAL WORK HALL OF DISTINCTION 2023 CTION INDU CEREMONY

O c , t y ober 2 a d r u t 1 Sa

California Social Work Hall of Distinction Committee Gary Bess Committee Member

James Kelly Committee Member

Suzanne Dworak-Peck Committee Member

Peter Lee Committee Member

David Foster Committee Co-Chair

Nancy Lim-Yee Committee Member

Anita S. Harbert Committee Member

Victor Manalo Committee Member

Virginia Rondero Hernandez Committee Co-Chair

Catharine Ralph Committee Member

Maurice Hudson CSWA President

2023 Program Dr. Virginia Rondero Hernandez

Welcome Special Remarks

Kimberly Warmsley

Special Message

Heidi McIntosh

Opening Remarks

Maurice Hudson

Induction Joseph A. Nunn Presented by Dr. Colleen Friend Jacquelyn McCroskey Presented by Mónica García, LAUSD Board (Retired) Jorja Leap Presented by Kevin Greene and Elder Michael Cummings

Intermission Acknowledgements

Maurice Hudson

Siyon Rhee Presented by Hon. Victor Manalo Arturo Rodriguez Presented by Senator María Elena Durazo Closing Remarks

Dr. Virginia Rondero Hernandez

California Social Work Hall of Distinction Roster of Inductees 2002 Emory Bogardus Zdenka Buben Gardner Bullis Milton Chernin Norris Class Arlien Johnson Joe Maldonado Biddy Mason George D. Nickel George Nishinaka Lydia Rapoport Charles Schottland 2003 Bob Benedetto Thomas Brigham Genevieve Carter Martha Chickering Al Feldman Walter Friedlander Harry Kitano Margarita Mendez Mary O’Day Elizabeth Robinson Virginia Satir Harry Specht 2004 Bernice Augenbraun Elsie Herman Rose Kleiner Dorothy Miller Royal Morales Effie Robinson Lorenzo Traylor

2007 Diana Ming Chan Simon Dominguez Richard Ford Lillian Hyatt Marianne Pennekamp John Wax

2012 Helen Boardman Teresa DeCrescenzo Celeste Strack Kaplan Consuelo Gomez Lopez Rino J. Patti Ann Shaw

2018 Wilfred “Bill” Coggins Kathleen Kubota Dr. John Oliver Yasuko Sakamoto June Simmons Diane Takvorian

2008 Nathan Cohen Maurice Hamovitch James Karls Marie McNabola Helen Northen Patricia Pickford Kurt Reichert Maria Sardinas Beverly Yip

2013 Sai-Ling Chu Chan-Sew Ismael Dieppa Barbara Lee Joe Solis Judith Wallerstein Mariko Yamada

2019 Salvador E. Alvarez Peter A. Breen Benjamin Cuellar Jewelle Taylor Gibbs James Midgley Linda L. Wang

2014 L. Georgi DiStefano Marilyn L. Flynn Marilyn Montenegro Alex J. Norman Helen Ramirez Fernando M. Torres-Gil

2020 Shirley J Better Jillian Jimenez Robert “Bob” Ketch Annette Smith Monika White Marleen Wong Tetsu Sugi

2009 Manuel F. Fimbres Jeff Jue Ben J. Kelley Percy H. Steele, Jr. Kunitake Morgan Yamanaka 2010 Tessie A. Cleveland Jeanne M. Giovannoni John G. Milner Jim Yukihiro Miyano Dolores I. Rodriguez Barbara J. Solomon John M. Wedemeyer, Jr.

2015 Sandra Baker Ellen Russell Dunbar Nancy A. Humphreys Terry Jones Kenji Murase Richard O. Salsgiver

2021 Gary Bess Bart Grossman E. Jane Middleton Chia-Chia Chien Lillian Iida Matsumoto Janlee Wong Virginia Rondero Hernandez

2016 Janet E. Black Howard H. Carey 2023 David Kuroda Joseph A. Nunn Jane Kurohara 2011 Jacquelyn McCroskey 2005 Richard Masato Aoki Armando Torres Morales Jorja Leap Chauncey Alexander Terrence J. Roberts Ronald V. Dellums Siyon Rhee Dana Bartlett Herman Gallegos 2017 Arturo Rodriguez Marsena Buck Ed Nathan Doreen Der-McLeod Frances Lomas Feldman Janice Kay O’Donnell Bernice Catherine Harper Mary Julia Workman Kermit T. Wiltse Rebecca Alicia Lopez Myldred Jones Ken Kaoru Nakamura Anita Mackey Barbara Needell Faustina Solis Benny Max Parrish Ernest Witte

Joseph A. Nunn

A tri-alumnus from the University of California of Los Angeles and Professor Emeritus of UCLA’s School of Public Affairs Department of Social Welfare, Joseph A. Nunn has been recognized for pioneering a standardized practicum education in the field of social work and his dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion ranging from the university system to statewide and national levels.

Nunn served two decades as a Los Angeles County juvenile parole officer where he was first introduced to social workers who were assisting the youth and their families. Nunn returned to his alma mater to complete his Master of Social Work and PhD degrees. There, he focused on juvenile justice and soon after became an advanced practice instructor. He taught courses in social work and was one of the first few instructors to lead a seminar course on cross-cultural awareness.

Nunn’s service as an educator extended to promoting social work practicum education and recognizing the importance of mentors who took on roles as field instructors for emerging social work students. Nunn was one of the founding members of the California Social Work Education Consortium (CalSWEC) and its Title IV-E program. It links together a multitude of social work schools and all 58 county social services departments throughout the state as an educational and professional network on behalf of graduate level social work students.

Nunn continued to share leadership roles in wider communities and was an active member of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). He was also an active member of the California Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and was once its elected Vice President.

His post-academic career has continued through contributions as a sitting board member for professional social welfare councils and leaving his university a legacy through a prestigious award known as the Joseph A. Nunn Social Welfare Alumni of the Year Award.

Jacquelyn McCroskey

Jacquelyn McCroskey spent decades pushing efforts to enhance child and family well-being through improving government systems at the county and state level. McCroskey serves as a John Milner Professor Emerita of Child Welfare at the University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and continues her role as the Co-Director of the Children’s Data Network in Los Angeles.

McCroskey pivoted from early consideration of becoming an actress to her social work calling following two years as a probation officer at Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles. She believed that she could use her acting talents to help the juvenile population. She soon recognized many of the underlying systemic issues that complicated direct work with young people and their families. This, along with experiences with close family members whose unmet mental health and substance abuse needs contributed to detention and incarceration, led her to social work.

McCroskey pursued masters and doctoral degrees in social work to better understand how policy and practice were interwoven with (or disconnected from) institutional cultures and structures. During her 40-year career as a USC professor and researcher, she has worked closely with state, county and city leaders to increase collaboration among the many systems that serve children and families, using data to inform practice and policy changes, creating and testing new programs, and bringing the voices of families, young people and community-based organizations to decision-making tables.

Throughout her career, McCroskey has worked to connect social workers with other professionals working in direct practice, administration, and policy, laying groundwork for interprofessional and community collaboration that will contribute to better futures for children and families. She continues that work today through service on commissions, committees and working groups, bringing lessons learned from the past to bear on current issues.

In 2003, McCroskey was named “Social Worker of the Year” by the California Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Jorja Leap

Jorja Leap’s roots lie within the Watts area of South Los Angeles. She is a trialumna from the University of California of Los Angeles with an undergraduate degree in Sociology, Master of Social Work degree, and a PhD in Psychological Anthropology.

Leap is a professor from the Social Welfare Department at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and serves as the Executive Director of the UCLA Social Justice Research Partnership. Using a non-traditional teaching approach, Leap is known to take her doctoral students out of the classroom and into the city environment to question how their observations impact their research and future policy efforts.

Leap has made contributions in teaching, research, and community engagement with dual foci: advocacy work with gangs and community justice reform. Leap was involved in the development of the City of Los Angeles Gang Reduction Youth Development Initiative and is a member of the Standing Committee on Gangs for the California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) to advocate for alternatives to incarcerating juveniles.

Leap co-founded and became the director of the UCLA Watts Leadership Institute, a community-based initiative to work with residents of Watts towards positive change, political advocacy, and organizing strategies within their own community.

In 2019, Leap received one of the highest university honors with the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award.

Siyon Rhee

Siyon Rhee is a professor and serves as the current director of the School of Social Work in the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Humans Service at the California State University at Los Angeles.

Influenced by the rapid economic changes that impacted child poverty occurring in South Korea, Rhee studied sociology in Seoul as the only female-identified student at Seoul National University in 1969. Rhee continued her educational path at UCLA’s School of Social Welfare where she completed her Masters of Social Work and doctoral degrees.

Rhee spearheaded the Advanced Standing in Social Work Program at Cal State Los Angeles in 2016. It continues to welcome several hundred diverse social workers into the workforce through its accelerated program. Additionally, to continue advocating for those who contribute to the child welfare workforce, she assisted in both securing grants for students through the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC) Title IV-E Program and a partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Rhee’s research focuses on the health, mental health, intimate partner violence, and culturally sensitive social work practice with children of Asian immigrant families. She was recognized by the Korean American Social Work Educators Association in 2019 and honored for her excellence in teaching and outstanding achievements during the CSU-LA University Convocation in 2022.

Arturo Rodriguez

In 2018, Arturo Rodriguez retired from the nation’s largest farm worker union, the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), after 45 years of service. For the last 25 of those years, he succeeded his mentor, the union’s co-founder, César Chávez, as UFW president, following Chávez’s death in 1993. Rodriguez continued and expanded Chávez’s work to empower farm workers to secure their civil rights. Even after his retirement, Rodriguez helps the union maintain key employer, retailer, and political relationships, and focus on immigration issues.

Among Rodriguez’s UFW achievements was pressuring non-union employers to lift farm workers’ pay above minimum wage in some of California’s largest agricultural regions, including overtime pay after eight hours a day, allowing workers to use neutral state mediators when growers wouldn’t negotiate with them, and the first state regulations in the nation protecting farm and other outdoor workers from heat-related deaths and illnesses. He has since shepherded dozens of negotiated and re-negotiated union contracts for many agricultural, dairy, and poultry workers in three states. Under Rodriguez, the UFW also became a leader in the national movement for immigration reform, crafting a bipartisan-supported Farm Workforce Modernization Act which allows immigrant field laborers to earn legal status by continuing to work in agriculture.

Rodriguez was first introduced to César Chávez in 1996 by his parish priest in San Antonio, Texas and became active with the 1969 UFW grape boycott as a St. Mary’s University student. Later, he obtained an advanced social work degree at the University of Michigan. While there in the 1960s70s, he participated in boycott campaigns in the Midwest which led to the first contract to protect the national safety and livelihood of farm workers, allowing them to organize in the US, and establishing human standards that addressed their civil rights, food insecurity, housing, and health benefits.

In 2020, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda nominated Rodriguez as Secretary of Agriculture for the United States. He now co-chairs President Biden’s USDA Equity Commission where he continues his advocacy for achieving equity for marginalized agricultural workers and their families throughout the United States.

This Program was Sponsored by Allied Sponsors National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter

First 5 LA

Dr. Virginia Rondero Hernandez

Agency & Friends Sponsors (Schools)

Azusa Pacific University Department of Social Work California State University, Los Angeles School of Social Work Loma Linda University, Department of Social Work UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

This Program was Sponsored by Agency & Friends Sponsors (Individuals) Peter A. Lee Barbara Hitchcock Nancy Lim-Yee Catharine Ralph

Other Sponsors CSWA Hall of Distinction Committee CSWA Diversity, Outreach, and Development Committee

MY SINCERE CONGRATULATIONS TO JACQUELYN McCROSKEY ALWAYS A GREAT CONTRIBUTOR TO PUBLIC POLICY AND SERVICE DELIVERY FOR THE CHILDREN OF LOS ANGELES TO JOE NUNN A STRONG VOICE FOR JUSTICE A LEADER IN THE SOUTH CENTRAL COMMUNITY AN ADVOCATE FOR EFFECTIVE MH SERVICES ARETA CROWELL ,PhD DIRECTOR EMERITUS, LA COUNTY DEPT. OF MENTAL HEALTH

The University of Michigan School of Social Work congratulates alum Arturo Rodriguez, MSW ’73 on being inducted into the California Social Work Hall of Distinction!

Today, we celebrate and honor your unwavering advocacy for farm workers and your tireless efforts in immigration reform. You have created an enduring impact, and inspired countless lives.

Congratulations on this wonderful recognition of your service!

Dr. Joseph A. Nunn Congratulations on your induction into the 2023 California Social Work Hall of Distinction, a well-deserved honor. We commend you for your never-ending contributions to the social work profession. Thank you for all that you do!

With love and adoration from your family, Denise Nunn Dara Nunn Tex Archer Tonea Songer Ephraim Woods

Congratulations Jacquelyn!

We are so proud of you and the meaningful impact you have had on countless children and families.

With great love and admiration Marc and Maura

Congratulations McCroskey for recognition!

Dr. Jacquelyn the well-deserved

Your legacy is firmly established by the impact of your work on communities, students, and colleagues.

I, like many others, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your mentorship.

Omar López Professor of Social Work, Practicum Education Assistant Dean, Recruitment and Workforce Development

The Faculty, Staff, and Students of the Cal State LA School of Social Work want to honor Siyon Rhee, PhD, MSW Director and Professor School of Social Work Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services We honor her dedication to our school as well as her commitment to the social work profession and its principles. Her tireless advocacy on behalf of our students has been demonstrated through her work on establishing an Advanced Standing Program (ASP). Through her exceptional grant writing skills, she secured grants to expand our social work student base and subsequent workforce. Her passion for social work can be found in her many publications on multicultural social work practice in child welfare, evidencebased research, human rights for persons with disabilities and the health of Korean immigrants. On the basis of her scholarship and teaching, she was named an Outstanding Professor across all Cal State LA. Siyon Rhee, congratulations on your induction to the Social Work Hall of Distinction!

Congratulations to our Professor Emerita

Jacquelyn McCroskey We honor your pioneering career dedicated to improving the lives of diverse children, families and communities.

Congratulations HOD Class of 2023 And especially Jaqueline McCroskey Whose Advice, Counsel & Friendship Helped So Much Throughout My Career with DCFS Mitch Mason, MSW CSWA Board Member

We commend, applaud and celebrate you and your many illustrious accomplishments CONGRATULATIONS DR. JOSEPH A NUNN on your induction to the 2023 Social Work HALL OF DISTINCTION Heather Halperin, Debbie Winters, Jolene Swain, Martha Watson Darlene Woo

To you Dr. Joseph A. Nunn.

As we reflect on the past and look to the future, we feel inspired to continue striving for excellence, knowing that we have had the privilege of learning from the very best.

Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition!

From Larthia Dunham and Toby Hur.

Congratulations Joe Nunn on your induction to the CSWA HOD Class of 2023

You have created and cultivated a legacy of educational communities so that brilliant social work students will continue to leave their footprints.

In 1675 Sir Issac Newton said “If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” Dr. Joseph A. Nunn is one of the giants on whose shoulders many have stood.

With deep appreciation, The Association of Black Social Workers- Greater Los Angeles Diane R. Griggs, President

First 5 LA

congratulates this year’s class of 2023 California Social Work Hall of Distinction Inductees: Jacquelyn McCroskey, Joseph A. Nunn, Jorja Leap, Siyon Rhee, and Arturo Rodriguez

First 5 LA is a leading public grantmaking and child advocacy organization.

Dr. Virginia Rondero Hernandez Congratulates Arturo Rodriguez on his induction into the California Social Work Hall of Distinction Class of 2023 and his work advocating for those who produce our fruits and vegetables

Thank you to all of our community for supporting our inductees, and the California Social Work Hall of Distinction!