My Time as President of NADD: Lessons Learned in Leadership

The mission of the “National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work (NADD) supports social work deans, directors and chairpersons to promote social justice and human rights, drive innovation and advance social work education” (NADD, 2023). As the first twice-elected president (2017–2020 & 2020–2023), within this editorial, I reflect upon some of the challenges that took place during my presidency, and the lessons learned as a leader within the profession. To start, I want to thank members of NADD's Board of Directors (BoD) and task force members that I had the pleasure to work closely with. I own so much to their support, commitment, energy, collaboration, and warmth. I served at a time of high turbulence in our society, which called for leadership on issues within the social work profession and on social issues that emerge impacting the profession. Top of mind is the backlash against international travel for individuals from several predominantly Muslim countries to the U.S., at the start of the Trump administration; asylum-seeking immigrant families separation from children at U.S. southwestern borders; police shootings of unarmed citizens; the tragedy of school and other mass shootings; the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA; worsening race relations within the U.S.; the Covid-19 pandemic; the insurrection at the nation's capital on January 6, 2021, and the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Rowe vs Wade, and ending Affirmative Action in higher education admissions—this is not the stuff that smooth sailing is made of.

Not all events are equal and each often needs its own specific considerations. A normative form of advocacy by many social justice organizations is “strength of numbers” though petition signing, the writing of position statements for broad distribution, and the use of fundraising for social justice issues. Many members want to know where their organization stands on meaningful events. In the decision on whether to respond or not to respond to a particular issue, it is essential to understand the general sentiments of the membership, as well as realize that the membership is not monolithic in thinking on social issues. For example, when a speaker from the Southern Law Poverty Center presented at NADD's 2018 spring conference on the Trump administration's immigration policies and practices, there were NADD members who objected and voiced their opinions to me, as well as expressed displeasure with the presentation within the post-conference evaluation. In such situations, it is essential to pay attention to the concerns of members. However, the lesson here, and the defensible position, is to consistently adhere to the ethics and values of the profession as guidepost in the decision-making process on how to respond to social issues, if at all.

Proliferation of the DSW

At the start of my first term in July 2017, two distinct issues were brought to my attention during the NADD transition meeting by my predecessor, Jackeline Montros, who served as president of NADD from 2014 to 2017. The first was the movement by the Council on Social Work Education to move towards the accreditation of the Doctorate in Social Work (DSW). The Council on Social Work Education's (CSWE's) announcement of this caused anxiety within many social work education programs, particularly small and mid-sized programs, as the Master in Social Work, with a minimum of two years of practice experience, has throughout its history been designed as the terminal degree for teaching social work education practice courses. The concern here is that the proliferation of the DSW would usurp the MSW as the terminal degree for teaching social work practice courses. In the marketplace of budgeting for faculty, this would be costly to many social work education programs who have a cadre of faculty with the MSW and no doctorate, teaching practice courses.

Led by the NADD BoD, the decision was to request that CSWE draft a statement, declaring that the MSW serves the role of a terminal degree for teaching social work practice courses. Although continued engagement took place on the topic, the CEO of CSWE, Darla Coffey, refused to write such a document. It was explained that this was not the role of the organization; however, such a position was not consistent with the historical understanding and practice concerning the role of the MSW in teaching designated social work practice courses. What is more, the CEO of the National Association of Social Workers, Angelo McClain, supported CSWE's position. Many NADD members were flummoxed by the decision of CSWE, and support from NASW. Succeeding conversations and forums on the topic yielded no change. In subsequent meetings with the membership and the BoD, it was decided that NADD would write its own policy statement as a method of resolving the matter. Dated May 7, 2019, the document is titled The Role of the Master's Degree in Master's Social Work Education Policy Statement from the NADD Board and is located on NADD's website. This was an important step for NADD as a form of professional leadership, in that, the organization demonstrated independence of thought, deliberation, and resolve on a major issue impacting social work education. It also demonstrated foresight in helping to protect the status of social work practice experience as central to teaching and learning within social work education.

Program Rankings

Widespread curiosity emerged over the methods used for social work education program rankings during the April 2019 Spring NADD conference. It was sparked by the U.S. News & World Report's request to collect data on social work education programs annually, instead of every four years, which was the default period at that time. At present, there is a one-item Likert scale question, distributed to peers to rank social education programs, via online survey research, with its average rating based on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). NADD facilitates the process by providing updated program contact information to U.S. News & World Report. This work is in collaboration with CSWE. The general sentiment among members was that the notion of yearly rankings would be too short of a period, as a barometer for the assessment of program change. Given the broad interest in the topic by the membership, a NADD task force was formed. After several months of diligent work that produced a working model, task force leadership informed me that there was no generalized consensus among members, on methods to implement a change in how program rankings are assessed. The central problem was gaining consensus among large, medium, and small-size programs on the type of data to be collected. While I personally envisioned a move to change data collection methods on rankings as significantly positive for the profession, and I expressed this to the membership, I recommended to the BoD, which agreed, that we discontinue the task force and its work. It was obvious that the simple majority needed to vote in favor of making a change to the method for ranking programs was not there. The membership did vote favorably on a two-year period for data collection on program rankings, which is currently the cycle.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

In January 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern. Its quick proliferation throughout the United States nearly paralyzed cities and towns. Many families were decimated by the loss of loved ones. With the U.S. leading the world in the acknowledged dead counts from the pandemic, the economic impact of COVID-19 and its costs to humanity will continue to mount. Yet, one of the silver linings of the pandemic was the care and professionalism of healthcare professionals and paraprofessionals. Even before the development and distribution of effective vaccines, many direct practice social work professionals put their health and lives in jeopardy as essential personnel. For higher education, it demonstrated the need for diversity of educational offerings through online platforms, as well as the need to make greater use of existing online technology, such as Zoom, for meetings and conferences. State authorization of telehealth and teletherapy gained wider acceptance and utilization during the pandemic. In reference to NADD during this period, the decision was made to pull out of the April 2020 spring conference schedule for Tampa, Florida. As an alternative, NADD held virtual conferences and meetings, and its leadership training programs followed suit. To assist social work education programs financially during the pandemic, the board further authorized a one-year hiatus of annual program fees.

Given the challenges of face-to-face contact during the pandemic, many programs suspended field placement, which in turn meant deferred graduate dates for many students. To address the uncertainties regarding the anticipated continuing impact of COVID-19 on social work field education, the NADD Subcommittee on Field Education was formed. In May 2020, the subcommittee identified eight areas that could serve as alternatives to face-to-face field placement (see: http://www.naddssw.org/pages/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/FINAL-NADD-Report-on-the-Future-of-Field-Education-52120.pdf). They included the use of remote technology platforms, proactive planning between schools and agencies, simulation opportunities, hybrid in-person remote field placement, and the development of remote supervision among other ideals. These measures were considered by the CSWE Commission on Accreditation Response to the NADD Subcommittee Report on Field Education and helped led to changes in field placement opportunities during the pandemic.

Antiracism

In May 2020, the public execution of an African American man, George Floyd, became a pivotal event leading to worldwide protests over police brutality. Knowing that he was being filmed from the cell phone of a bystander, a White police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinned a handcuffed Floyd to the ground with his knee firmly on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes. Officer Chauvin had assistance from two other officers, who in a coordinated fashion, positioned themselves to restrict Floyd's movement, while a third officer protected the perimeter, keeping loudly protesting bystanders at bay. When the ambulance arrived, Floyd was already dead and received no emergency assistance.

Buttressed by the death of Floyd and the protest that followed, many social work students and young professionals demanded change based on their experiences with racism internal to the profession—some went as far as calling for defunding the National Association Social Workers in tandem with the call by some to defund police. Statements condemning the murder of Floyd were developed and posted throughout the social work profession via program websites. In working with the BoD, I drafted a statement denouncing the murder of George Floyd, as well as the murders of several other unarmed African Americans, who died as a result of police violence during the period.

In sync with many other organizations, members of the Social Work Leadership Roundtable (SWLR) moved to action (see CSWE, 2023 for a list of organizations). At our June 2020 online meeting, the question arose about what social work organizations should do to combat racial strife. Social Work Leadership Roundtable members wanted to display unity of purpose in taking action, to let members of the social work community know that their voices were heard, and that the leadership from major social work organizations would demonstrate resolve.

Seizing the moment, I used this opportunity to explain that there could be no honest conversation or attempt to move toward racial justice with the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) absent as a designed member. I further explained that if the SWLR decided to move in the direction of inviting NABSW to the table, I would personally contact the leadership of the organization and make a request to have their president join the SWLR. This motion was approved and upon my request, the president of NABSW agreed to join the SWLR, after approval from the organization's board. The topic of racism in society and within the profession was discussed at the meeting. Among the many statements made, NASW CEO Angelo McClain stated, “We need to clean up our own house first,” referring to the call for an antiracism agenda for the profession. His statement alluded to the point that the social work profession must first take a look inward on the topic of racism before turning its attention outward on the topic.

Part of the SWLR response resulted in a first-ever SWLR Town Hall on Racial Equity held on August 14, 2020, which included NABSW, via an online offering. The decision to schedule this event was partly to provide an opportunity for members of the social work profession to meet leaders from major social work organizations, to acknowledge voiced concerns within the profession as they relate to racism, and to provide a public forum for information and feedback. Additional efforts witnessed the development of the CSWE Task Force to Advance Anti-racism, which was formed “to develop an action plan to make social work education stronger by adopting anti-racism pedagogies and establishing antiracist learning environments” (online). This task force had national and regional representations and its findings led to the placement of antiracism competencies within the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standard.

Simultaneously, the BoD elected to develop the NADD Antiracism Action Plan, which led to a change in the organization's bylaws, further leading to revamping NADD's annual conference agenda, and elements of its leadership programs. Findings from the task force determined that, as the premier organization dedicated to the development of leadership for social work education, it is paramount that constituents are provided with knowledge, skills, and awareness related to race and racism, both internal and external to the profession, and as practitioners, managers, administrators, and educators.

During this same time frame, I was conversing with members of the executive leadership from the Social Work Grand Challenges requesting to make racism a stand-alone category of inquiry for grand challenges research. Some felt that racism should be embedded within the existing 12 categories for grand challenges (see: https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/). Others felt a strong need to make racism a separate category so as to designate racism as a central problem in the lives of people, and not on the margins of their experiences. Although both perspectives have merit, I believe the brazen murder of George Floyd by police was a tipping point for the committee. One month after the incident, I was contacted by members of the executive committee of the Grand Challenges who informed me that racism would become the 13^th category for the Grand Challenges for Social Work. The press release took place on June 26, 2020. Coincidently, a curious question was then posed during our meeting: Should the grand challenge to eliminate racism be associated with the stigma of the number “13”? However, I readily accepted racism as the 13^th grand challenge, particularly given the symbolism of the number to key facts in U.S. history: there were 13 slaveholding colonies in the original formation of the United States; it was the 13^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that ended legalized chattel slavery as an institution with the U.S.; and, Dr. Martin Luther King's reign as the leader of the twentieth-century Civil Rights Movement was 13 years. Ironically, the book produced as part of the project, Social Work and the Grand Challenge to Eliminate Racism: Concepts, Theory, and Evidence-Based Approaches, was released June 13, 2023, by Oxford University Press.

Bias in Social Work Licensure Testing

For more than a decade, social work education programs have requested data on test-takers from Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), and researchers have called for a release in the psychometric properties of the exam (Albright & Thyer, 2010; Victor et al., 2023). In August 2022, for the first time since its conception in 1979, the ASWB released demographic data on its test-takers, which validated the claim that there are disparities in passage rates among racial and ethnic groups across all levels of social work licensure (see: https://www.aswb.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-ASWB-Exam-Pass-Rate-Analysis.pdf). Such disparities may partly be explained by the fact that the exam is not directly linked to core EPAS competencies. In taking on this issue, it was imperative to educate many members of NADD who were initially skeptical of challenging ASWB. Prior to the data release, among other strategies, I decided to continuously pursue the issue of calling for ASWB to release demographic data; even if not on the agenda, at nearly all meetings I attend comprised of social work leadership throughout the country. I successfully urged the CEOs of CSWE and NASW to publically advocate for the release of test-taker data. In circles where it mattered, this strategy started a buzz throughout the profession, even reaching members of ASWB's delegate assembly.

Over the course of my tenure as president of NADD, I discussed the need to release test-taker data with three different CEO's from ASWB. Slowly, I witnessed a change within ASWB leadership's positionality on the subject, which initially, took the position that the organization would not collect or release such data (see: https://www.aswb.org/an-open-letter-to-social-work-deans-and-directors/), and that legally, there was no obligation to do so. However, as one NADD board member stated in a meeting with ASWB leadership, such a position is not ethically or morally defensible within the social work profession. I consistently remind the leadership of ASBW that in the Information Age, the position of not collecting or releasing demographic information on test-takers was untenable. In the end, it is my contention that heightened and continued advocacy from NADD's leadership, and constituent membership, as well as a growing demand for antiracist practices, help lead to the August 2022 release of the data on test-takers.

Defending Professional Values

To date, 44 states have moved to census or even prohibit classroom discussions and curriculum on Critical Race Theory (CRT) within k-12 education, and higher education is on the horizon as the next frontier for such tactics. What is more, there is confusion over what CRT means, its relationship to diversity, equity, and inclusion, “as well as its relationship to other terms, like ‘anti-racism’ and ‘social justice,’ with which it is often conflated” (Sawchuk, 2021, online). The politics of elite capture that lumps all of these terms together as components of so called “woke” culture spells confusion and trouble for social work, and other social and behavior science professions.

Understanding this issue as a clear and present danger, in February 2023, I requested in a discussion with members of the SWLR to draft a statement affirming our professional Code of Ethics and values that foster knowledge and skills related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the “building healthy lives and communities and culturally responsive systems” (CSWE, 2023). This lead to the March 2023 SWLR Joint Statement on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Anti-racism, and Systems Change (CSWE, 2023). That statement was created “created in response to questions on the legitimacy of conceptual and theoretical fields of inquiry within social work education and practice, and the responsibility of social work as a profession in the current political climate.” It acknowledges the scientific use within the social work profession of diverse perspectives such as Indigenous, abolitionist, womanist, CRT, decolonial, Afrocentric, positivist, and other points of departure.

Lessons Learned

Some of the lessons learned from my experience as president of NADD are woven within this manuscript. Many are similar to my experiences as a leader in other spaces, but are still worth mentioning here, particularly for young leaders within the profession.

Successful leadership of NADD requires commitment, consistency of communication, attention to detail in programming, a collaborative spirit, approachability as a leader, critical engagement, acceptance of constructive feedback, and a passion for advocacy and social justice in social work education.

Conclusion

I have touched on some of the salient issues that emerged during my two-term presidency of NADD. Beyond the topics discussed within this editorial, many of which will need new challenges will continue to unfold for the profession. Many of these issues will continue to need attention from NADD and other social work organizations, with some challenges more pressing than others. Part of organizational leadership is precipitating future challenges and problems, and how they can be addressed today, with planning for tomorrow. I have often heard it stated that the “best time to take on tomorrow's problems is today.” It is important for leaders to “be near-sighted and far-sighted” (Walsh et al., 2010).

Attempting to be as diplomatic as possible, I often found myself taking the road less traveled, down the pathway of uncomfortable conversations, which were needed in order to bring tough issues to the forefront, particularly when most were silent. However, the subjects discussed in this essay are dynamic and will continue to impact the social work profession. For example, the challenge of holding ASWB accountable to the profession is paramount; it will require attention to details, collaboration among major social work organizations, leadership to push for greater transparency, and a demand for alternative forms of testing that specifically address the dynamics of competence in practice with minoritized communities. Although the SWLR developed a statement that affirms the profession's commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice, it will not suffice the pending wave of academic censorship, as the national fervor against EDI and the rights of LGBTQ continues to mount. In my humble opinion, the profession of social work is in an era that will test its resolve to upholding its social justice mission. Leadership during this time will mean not only representing social work professional values but also unwavering advocacy in upholding them as a commitment to professional service.