Joyner Appointment at Howard Announced
NASW President Mildred “Mit” C. Joyner, DPS, MSW, LCSW, has been appointed as the inaugural John E. and Barbara S. Jacob Distinguished Endowed Professor at Howard University School of Social Work.
The school noted the endowed professorship was established to support outstanding faculty-led initiatives at the School of Social Work by civil rights leader and Howard University board of trustees chairman emeritus, John E. Jacob, PhD, and his wife, Howard University alumna Barbara S. Jacob.
As the inaugural endowed professor, Joyner will develop the first cohort of Howard University Social Work Social Justice (HUSWSJ) fellows. Ten students will be selected to participate in a six-month interactive learning and practice collaboration to conduct research on social work and social justice leadership.
Under Joyner’s direction, HUSWSJ fellows will examine current leadership trends and the future of the social work profession’s commitment to social justice at the intersections of equity, anti-racism, social well-being, and social determinants in traditional and nontraditional social work practice settings.
Speakes-Hall Leads ACLU of Ohio
NASW Vice President Ebony Speakes-Hall, DSW, MSW, LISW, has been elected president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, becoming the first African-American woman to lead the organization’s 23-member board of directors.
“I have never worked with such brilliant and compassionate people devoted to the complex work of civil liberties and racial justice,” Speakes-Hall said in a statement released by ACLU of Ohio. “In every undertaking, the ACLU of Ohio brings its A-game.”
A Springfield, Ohio, native, Speakes-Hall is associate professor of social work at the University of Cincinnati and a former assistant professor at Central State University. She is a former director and PACE committee chair of the NASW Ohio Chapter's Region 7. She also manages a private therapy practice for individuals and families, focusing on the impact of historical trauma on African Americans.
“There is no one better prepared, and with greater heart and conviction, to lead the ACLU of Ohio at this moment in our organization’s missional life than Dr. Speakes-Hall,” Executive Director J. Bennett Guess said. “She has been active in giving shape to our organization’s new strategic plan.”
Allen Appointed to MACPAC
Heidi L. Allen, PhD, MSW, was one of five new members named to the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC).
Allen is an associate professor at Columbia University School of Social Work, where she studies the impact of social policies on health and financial well-being. She is a former hospital emergency department social worker and spent several years in state health policy, examining health system redesign and public health insurance expansions. In 2014 and 2015, she was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in Health and Aging Policy.
Allen also is a standing member of the National Institutes of Health’s Health and Healthcare Disparities study section. She received her Doctor of Philosophy in social work and social research and a Master of Social Work in community-based practice from Portland State University.
The CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2009 established MACPAC to review Medicaid and CHIP access and payment policies and to advise Congress on issues affecting Medicaid and CHIP. The act directs the comptroller general to appoint MACPAC’s members. The new members’ terms will expire in April of 2024.