WASHINGTON, D.C.––The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) presents the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Georgia J. Anetzberger, Ph.D., ACSW, LISW, for more than 50 years of championing the rights, protection and self-determination of elderly people.
This award recognizes the best social work values and accomplishments demonstrated in the social worker’s lifetime career. Dr. Anetzberger, a member of NASW-OH chapter, is an NASW Social Worker Pioneer. During her lifetime career, she has addressed the prevention and intervention of elder abuse and the inequities and injustices that elderly people face. Through her activism and scholarship, she transformed the way society perceived, treated and spoke about elderly people. She is one of the pre-eminent historians and experts in the field earning her the moniker Grandmother of Elder Justice. At the University of Southern California Center for Elder Justice, there’s even an award named in her honor.
In the Greater Cleveland area, Dr. Anetzberger served as Vice President for Community Services with the Benjamin Rose Institute, an organization that supports the aging journeys of adults and their caregivers. She was the executive director of the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging and the director of the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center. At Case Western Reserve University, she earned a Ph.D. in social welfare and two master’s degrees in applied social sciences and anthropology. Her BSW is from The Ohio State University in Columbus.
Dr. Anetzberger has taught courses on social work, social policy, public health, health care, elder abuse, aging and gerontology. In addition to teaching at her alma mater, Case Western Reserve University, she has also taught or lectured at Harvard University, Virginia Tech University, Cleveland State University, the University of Akron, Kent State University, John Carroll University, and Cuyahoga Community College. She has authored, edited, or contributed to more than 100 academic publications on elderly abuse, mistreatment and neglect. In addition to her published works, Dr. Anetzberger serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect. She also serves on the editorial board for The Gerontologist, published by the Gerontological Society of America, where she is a fellow.
Dr. Anetzberger dedicated her career to being an advocate of elder justice before the phrase was coined, at a time when funding was scarce and evidence was nonexistent. In 1974, she was among the first in the nation to launch Adult Protective Services (APS), which was located in a rural county in northeastern Ohio. She helped to reform Ohio’s adult guardianship law, and she was instrumental in creating and amending the state’s first APS law in 1981. In the 2000s, Dr. Anetzberger helped to establish and codify into law the Ohio Elder Abuse Commission in the Office of the State Attorney General. Under the Affordable Care Act, she helped to develop the Elder Justice Act, ensuring Americans the right to live free of elder abuse and bolstering funding for APS and long-term care ombudsman programs.
In 1984, Dr. Anetzberger established the Ohio Coalition for APS (OCAPS), the first coalition of its kind in the country. In 2017, she helped to launch the National Network of State Elder Justice Coalitions. She continues to serve on the OCAPS advisory committee, which steers the National Center for State and Tribal Elder Justice Coalitions, a U.S. Department of Justice-funded center that develops and strengthens one Tribal coalition and seven state coalitions and supports efforts in other states and Native American territory. She was also a key contributor to the Elder Justice Roadmap, which was also funded by the Department of Justice to provide resources to prevent and address elderly abuse. Through her organizing of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, she partnered with the World Health Organization to prompt the United Nations to observe World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
A true pioneer, NASW is delighted to bestow this award on Dr. Anetzberger.