Former Journalist Transitions to Social Work With a Macro Focus
Boardroom
By Paul R. Pace
Social work for Jayanthi Daniel, MSW, president of the NASW California Chapter, was a second career choice. With a master’s degree in journalism, she was a journalist in New York City for a decade. That career grew tiring, she confessed, and she discovered social work.
While studying for her MSW, Daniel became a student member of NASW-California and volunteered for leadership positions. “I quickly saw when I was at UCLA getting my MSW that macro social work was something that I really wanted to focus on,” Daniel explained. “I wanted to focus on leadership development and organizational behavior. I felt that from my time in media that I understood organizational leadership.”
While at UCLA, Daniel said she won a David Bohnett Leadership fellowship that put her in Los Angeles City Hall to work with then-mayor Eric Garcetti’s office. There she learned the ins and outs of public policy and in particular homelessness, she said.
Today, she is the founder and CEO of the Los Angeles Homelessness Knowledge Project, which works to share news, training and education about homelessness and housing. It also performs data and program analysis to demonstrate what directions work to end homelessness in the region.
“I think the education piece is one thing that’s really been lacking, especially in California, especially in Los Angeles,” she said of addressing homelessness. “I’m working on building up an equitable public education project that teaches people about the very basics of homelessness in Los Angeles, how homelessness functions and how it can get solved.”
Daniel said her volunteer work with NASW has been a rewarding experience, and adds that it’s important for NASW members to volunteer for the association. “First and foremost, if we’re paying members of an organization, that investment deserves representation,” she said. “We should be able to have member representation for the investment that we make in NASW.”
“I want people to know that if they volunteer with NASW, they can learn how an organization gets run,” she said. “You can’t learn about leadership at your school level. You learn about it through NASW and through your volunteering.”