NASW to Recognize its 2025 National Award Recipients During Conference
Pictured from left: Jordan Alexandra Steiger, Victor R. Armstrong, Georgia J. Anetzberger, Michele Navarro Ishiki, Joan Levy Zlotnik, Robyn L. Golden, Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges
NASW’s national conference kicks off this week in Chicago, where more than 2,400 social workers are set to attend in person and virtually. During the event, which is being held June 15-19, NASW will recognize the seven individuals who are the recipients of this year’s NASW and NASW Foundation national awards.
Awardees were announced last month in a series of NASW news releases. The 2025 awardees are:
NASW Awards
Victor R. Armstrong, Sr., MSW (NC)
Armstrong, an NASW member for 26 years, is being recognized as Social Worker of the Year for his leadership in public mental health, suicide prevention and health equity. He is vice president for Health Equity and Engagement with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and was the first chief health equity officer for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. He has more than 30 years of experience in human services, primarily dedicated to building and strengthening community resources to assist those who are marginalized.
Michele Navarro Ishiki, LCSW, CCS, CSAC (HI)
This award honors an outstanding member of the community whose accomplishments exemplify the mission, dedication and values of professional social work. Ishiki, a licensed clinical social worker, is being recognized for improving the mental health of vulnerable populations, including survivors and first responders in the aftermath of the deadly Maui wildfires in August 2023. A member of the NASW-Hawaii board of directors, Ishiki is a certified clinical supervisor, a state-certified substance abuse counselor, and an internationally certified alcohol and drug counselor. She also is a native Hawaiian practitioner who aligns her Western-trained skill set to meet the needs of her
lāhui (community).
Georgia J. Anetzberger, PhD, ACSW, LISW, FGSA (OH)
This award recognizes the best social work values and accomplishments demonstrated in the social worker’s lifetime career. Anetzberger, a member of the NASW Ohio Chapter, is an NASW Social Worker Pioneer® with more than 50 years of championing the rights, protection and self-determination of older people. During her 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, Anetzberger transformed the way society perceived, treated and spoke about elderly people. She is one of the preeminent historians and experts in this area, 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.
Jordan Alexandra Steiger, MPH, MA, LSW (IL)
Jordan Steiger, LSW, a fierce advocate for health equity and social justice, will receive the NASW 2025 Emerging Social Work Leader award. A member of NASW-Illinois, Steiger began her career as a program specialist at the American Hospital Association (AHA) in Chicago. Currently, she advances behavioral health care as the senior program manager for clinical affairs and workforce. At the AHA, Steiger promotes the integration of physical and behavioral health services, reduces the stigma of deaths of despair, and advocates for the mental well-being of the health care workforce. Her work also addresses the complex challenges that patients and families seeking high-quality behavioral health services can face in the nation’s health care delivery system.
NASW Foundation Awards
Joan Levy Zlotnik, PhD, ACSW (MD)
Zlotnik is known as a "connector," "opener," "mentor," and "research yenta." For more than 35 years, across three national social work organizations, her work strengthened the profession by building bridges among research, practice, policy and education; developing relationships with federal agencies; partnering with national organizations; and collaborating with practitioners and educators. Her national career began in 1987 when she was hired at NASW to implement an initiative to promote professional social work practice in public child welfare. She expanded her efforts beyond child welfare to include family caregiving and aging, with a major focus on implementation of nursing home reform legislation. Zlotnik’s work on these agendas continues to this day!
Robyn L. Golden, MA, LCSW, ACSW (IL)
For more than 35 years, Golden has been actively involved in service provision, program development, interprofessional education, research and public policy aimed at developing innovative initiatives and systems integration to improve health and well-being. She is associate vice president of Social Work and Community Health and chair of the Department of Social Work at Rush University Medical Center. She is co-director of Rush’s Center for Excellence in Aging and the Center for Health and Social Care Integration. Golden also serves on the RRF Foundation for Aging and the Health and Medicine boards of directors; was the John Heinz Senate Fellow for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; and is a past chair of the American Society on Aging. Golden, an NASW Social Work Pioneer®, received the Gerontological Society of America's Maxwell A. Pollack Award for Productive Aging and the American Public Health Association’s Insley-Evans Public Health Social Worker of the Year award. She founded and chairs the Coalition for Social Work and Health.
Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges (GA)
Bridges is a successful businessman, established actor, rap culture icon, and role model. Born in Champaign, Ill., with a solid foundation—musically, intellectually and spiritually— he says he was influenced by his parents’ love of music. Bridges began to appreciate all genres of music and wrote his first rhyme when he was 9 years old. He began his acting career in music videos in the early 2000s before appearing in “The Wash” (2001) and the successful “Fast & Furious” franchise with “2 Fast 2 Furious” (2003). Other film appearances included “Crash” (2004) and “Hustle & Flow” (2005). Among his more recent film roles is “Dashing Through the Snow” (2023), a holiday film available on Disney+. He plays a divorced social worker who, while spending time with his daughter on Christmas eve, encounters a mysterious man in a red suit. While the film has a lighthearted tone, it offered more than 450 million subscribers a glimpse into the meaningful and often challenging work that social workers do. When NASW reached out to Bridges to ask him to send a message to members of the profession for Social Work Month, he generously donated his time without hesitation or compensation. He called social workers superheroes who often don’t get the recognition they deserve.