Janet Black

MSW ’71

Janet E. Black spent her career striving to make the social work profession a less competitive and more collegial place. Over the course of 40 years, she worked to increase the collaboration in curriculum development, training and treatment delivery systems. Black’s goal was to establish social work as an inclusive, cooperative, noncompetitive network of programs, agencies, faculty, staff and students that work together to serve the greater good.

Black served as the director of the Department of Social Work at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) where she helped found the social work program and obtain its accreditation. She consulted for the mental health initiative of the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC) for 10 years, developing the mental health curriculum competencies which allowed social work students to intern in the California public health system.

Black was an early advocate for distance education, and part of a national distance education grant that enabled social work programs to be accessed in California’s rural and more remote urban areas, leading to more qualified social workers and more universities developing their own Master of Social Work programs. A community service activist, she served on the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE) National Commission, the Los Angeles County Area Agency on Aging Task Force, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Older Adults Task Force, and as a board member for the Campfire Boys and Girls of Los Angeles.

Black is the recipient of the Meritorious Performance and Promise Award from CSULB, 1991 and 1992, and was inducted into the California Social Welfare Archives Hall of Distinction in 2016.

Millie McClelland Charles greatly impacted the field of health and mental health through her leadership and commitment to social work education. She led the founding of the School of Social Work at Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO), a historically Black institution (HBCU), at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, and expertly directed the development of both the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) programs into full accreditation. She was appointed as dean of the School of Social Work in 1982.

Charles’ ability to expand on a handful of social work courses taught at the University of New Orleans and develop them into fully accredited BSW and MSW programs at SUNO is considered somewhat of a miracle in New Orleans. These programs have attracted a culturally diverse faculty and student population to SUNO, and educated a workforce of highly skilled and credentialed social workers.

She was a member of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum Standards, a site visitor for the CSWE Accreditation Commission, and served as consultant on curriculum development for numerous undergraduate and graduate social work programs throughout the United States. She was a founding member of the New Orleans Chapter of the National Association of Black Social Workers.

Charles received numerous awards throughout her career, including Social Worker of the Year from the NASW, 1975; Humanitarian of the Year from the Federal Women Employees Association, 1975; Founders Award, New Orleans Chapter from the National Association of Black Social Workers, 1979; Doctor of Humane Letters from Dillard University, 1993; and the the Times-Picayune Loving Cup in 2013, awarded in New Orleans since 1901 to recognize lifelong commitment to community and civic work.