“One word: resilient.”

Resilience was an apt, recurring theme at the ceremony, held at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx, as the grads prepare to meet the surging demand for social workers in and beyond New York City. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently projected that employment for social workers will grow faster than the average for all occupations.

“All of us have come to this profession for one reason or another: a history of trauma, the yearning to help those in need, or to be the advocates that they did not have when growing up,” said Wallace-Mills, who directs the supplemental nutrition and home energy assistance programs in Ulster County, New York.

As she looked out on her 900-plus classmates, she said she saw “faces of resilience, motivation, and hope,” people with the desire and skills to make a difference.

‘Do Good by Doing No Further Harm’

For Jennifer Jones Austin, LAW ’93, CEO of the anti-poverty Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, the ceremony was a kind of homecoming. Exactly 30 years after she earned a J.D. from Fordham Law School, the University awarded her an honorary degree for her “commitment to creating economic opportunity and greater social mobility for the most marginalized in our communities.”

Wiping away tears, she encouraged graduates to “do good by doing no further harm,” which, she noted, would require them “to do the things that aren’t always easy to do, to be the lone voice at the table, to have the courage to not look away, but lean in.”

Jones Austin, who once described herself as a “lawyer with a social worker’s heart,” said she has worked side by side with social workers throughout her career, including as deputy commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services and senior vice president of the United Way of New York City. In February, she moderated Fordham’s annual James Dumpson Symposium, this year titled “Leading for Change: How to Create Sustainable Impact in Children and Family Services.”

On a personal note, she said she’s grateful for the way social workers accompanied her 13 years ago when she was diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer and a “99% chance of imminent death.” They were instrumental to her own “mental and emotional journey to complete healing,” she said.

Finding the Right Balance

Addressing graduates and the friends and family who’ve supported them along the way, Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham University, joked that she could omit some of her staple advice.

“At all of my other graduation speeches, I urge students to go out and matter to the world,” she said. “But I don’t have to say that here. You’ve already made that choice. You will literally go out to feed the hungry, comfort the grieving, visit those who are imprisoned, and gather the little children.”

Indeed, Fordham social work students, in particular, know what it means to practice the Jesuit principle of cura personalis, or care of the whole person, she said.

Sharing a few anecdotes from her days running a domestic violence law clinic in New Orleans, Tetlow encouraged attendees to take a practical approach to solving societal problems.

“I hope you will balance the need to turn up the pressure by railing against injustice with the need to sit at the table and find the answers, mired in the complexity necessary to solve complicated problems,” she said.

‘Be Relentless’

At the beginning of the ceremony, Debra M. McPhee, Ph.D., dean of the graduate school—the largest school of social work in New York state—told graduates that “connection is the lifeblood of the social work profession,” and they’d need to foster it as they “step into the lives of those who are struggling, disenfranchised, and often in pain.”

“Social workers bear witness to the nation’s deepest flaws,” she said. “Our work confirms that inequality, racism, and oppression are not just political buzzwords, but systemic realities that shape lives.”

McPhee implored the graduates to “be relentless in shining light into dark corners, exposing the consequences of oppression and injustice, and working tirelessly to rectify them.”

“You turned challenges and losses that you faced into your best teachers,” she said. “You didn’t let your experiences disadvantage you, but rather they inform the way you show up in the world: with compassion and a rare sense of humanity and humility.”

“My friends, you will never have a job,” said Joseph McShane, S.J., in his final address to graduates as Fordham’s president.

“You will have something much more important. You will have a vocation—a demanding vocation, a loving vocation, a vocation that will change people’s lives. A vocation that will heal hearts, and vocation that will bring hope.”

The ceremony featured the conferral of bachelor’s,  master’s, and doctoral degrees in social work, as well as an honorary doctorate of humane letters conferred upon Bill Baccaglini, former president and CEO of t he New York Foundling. 

‘Because It Needs to Be Done’

Baccaglini told graduates that they deserve every bit of respect as is afforded to the great entrepreneurs and CEOs in this country.

“They built great companies and they’ve done big things, but ask yourself, have they ever sat with a distraught 4-year-old and told him or her that they couldn’t live with their mom any longer because it was unsafe? Have they ever counseled the family of a terminally ill person and talked with them about what the right time was to let their loved one go?” he said.

“You don’t do this because it’s easy. You’ve chosen to do this because it needs to be done.”

He cautioned that graduates should work for long-lasting change, and most importantly, he implored them to “have a life.” 

“You will work 80-hour weeks when your teams are short-staffed, and you’ll always wonder, ‘What else can I do?’” he said.

“It’s the nature of the work and likely what brought you to it. You can try to be perfect and lose sleep when you’re not, but here’s the truth: You’re not doing your clients any favor, and you’ll be burnt out in just a few short years.”

Although the problems we face are numerous, Baccaglini said the COVID-19 pandemic had revealed to many what heroism looks like.

“We’ve seen enough suffering to know that the true heroes are those individuals who believe that the highest calling and greatest gift is to have the opportunity and ability to improve the lives of those around them,” he said.

Dean Urges Adaptation to New Challenges, But Not Acceptance

Debra M. McPhee, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, called the graduates’ commitment an antidote to a surreal time when oppression is legitimized by leaders. The social work field is not the same now as it was when they started, but they’re equipped for the new reality.

“You already have learned a most critical lesson of adapting to the life that unfolds in front of you, as opposed to the one that you expected. I urge you, however, not to confuse adaptation with acceptance,” she said.

“Step into the uncertainty of the present but commit to building the future that you want to live in—a future not designed to protect the status quo, but a future that helps reset our collective moral compass, making unacceptable the conditions that perpetuate racism, violence, poverty, and the intentional disenfranchisement of whole communities.”

A Drum Call to Action

Vanessa Tricoche Pacheco, a member of the graduating class, serenaded those in attendance with a drum and song, and pronounced her classmates “the ones that our ancestors prayed for.”

“We use the drum as a way to call to action,” she said after acknowledging the Munsee and Lenape indigenous peoples who called the land where Fordham sits home.

“Those who are living and those who have passed, we use our drum and voice to acknowledge, to cry, to celebrate, and to come to the present moment.”

The Class of 2022, she said, are a unique group of social workers who understand that they are on the front lines of building a new world.

“We understand what it feels like to sacrifice, pivot, shift, work, advocate, organize, occupy, decolonize, and co-create during very, very challenging times,” she said. 

First Time on Campus

Several graduates echoed the importance of being present. Jessica Champagnie, a native of the Bronx who was paralyzed from the waist down by an errant bullet when she was 19, enrolled in the GSS online program because it felt safer than in person learning, she said. She decided to become a social worker because when she was shot, it was social workers who, along with her family and friends, helped her rebuild her life. 

“I lost my father five years ago, and with these big achievements, it feels a little sad. But I worked hard, and he is here in spirit. I carry him in my heart, and I am proud of myself, and so is my family. So, I decided I deserve to come to this graduation,” she said.

It was the first time she’d been to the Rose Hill campus and the first time she’d seen her classmates in person. She loved her online classes, but there was nothing quite like seeing people in the flesh.

“It was such a friendly and warm atmosphere, and to meet some of the people that I was going to class with on Zoom, it’s just, it’s like, ‘Yay, we did it, we came through!’” she said.

“There’s been a lot of screams and hugs and kisses and high fives.”

After Working 40 Jobs, a Desire to Be Part of the Solution

Vivek Sreekumar had graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in economics and had worked, “something like 40 jobs” before the pandemic hit. Inspired by his mother, Mridula Nair, he gave GSS a look.

“Just seeing the devastation that was happening around us, I felt like I wanted to be part of the solution. I realized that social work was bigger than just clinical work, so now I’m focused on macro social work policy and advocacy,” he said.

His mother and father, Cumar Sreekumar, drove in from Rochester, New York, for the occasion. Nair, a scientist at Kodak Eastman for the last 42 years, said that her son was living her dream of devoting oneself full time to helping others.

“I always believe in serving people and giving things back. We all have so much. We forget those around us, and with just a quirk of fate, we could be one of the those who are marginalized by society,” she said.

“The more science and research I do, the more I wonder about all of the people around me, these amazing minds who have never been tapped into because they haven’t had the resources—and what can we do to make change?”

The event, titled “A Conversation About the Well-Being of America’s Children,” included the presentation of distinguished chair medals by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

“Thank you for dedicating your lives to the protection and the cultivation of hope in the hearts of children, especially children who have been forced by circumstance to live at the margins of society,” he said.

In a short talk following her induction, Gatenio Gabel thanked the Quaranta family for funding the chair honoring Mary Ann Quaranta, D.S.W., who died in 2009. Quaranta, a graduate of the GSS class of 1950, would go on to serve as dean of the school from 1975 to 2000, taking it from a small local school to one that ranked eleventh in the nation. She also established the school’s doctoral program. Like Dumpson, she was named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Workers.

Gatenio Gabel has served as a consultant to UNICEF, UNESCO, and U.N. member countries on child poverty, advocacy, and protection. She’s twice been awarded Fulbright Scholarships to study child and family policies.

Her talk detailed how racial inequities have become embedded into the American child welfare system. She said that in the early part of the 20th century, social work pioneers identified potential harm that could come to children and pushed for laws on child labor, welfare, schooling, and a juvenile justice system—all of which ignored class and race disparities.

“Many scholars have questioned whether the reformers were acting in the best interest of children, or whether the intent was to extend governmental control over children of the poor,” she said.

She noted that the 1980s was the last time white children were in the majority; by 2040, she said, they will comprise 43% of the child population. Black children are three times more likely to live in deep poverty than white children, and Hispanic children are 2.5 times more likely to live in low-income households. Yet child welfare, health care, and educational systems continue to harken back to the turn of the last century when race was not a consideration.

“Our cries for justice for children today rest on our ability to build new anti-racist systems in social services, education, law, health, and law enforcement.  Only when new systems are implemented will we be able to bring justice to all children in this country,” she said.

Following her induction, Williams-Isom noted that her chair’s namesake, James Dumpson, Ph.D., was an educator before he became New York City’s first Black welfare commissioner, and, later, dean of GSS, a position he held from 1967 to 1974.

“Social work and education are brother-sister professions,” said Williams Isom, who served as CEO of the anti-poverty organization Harlem Children’s Zone from 2014 to 2020. There, she oversaw all programs in the cradle-through-college pipeline to improve services and outcomes for 25,000 children and parents in Central Harlem. She agrees with Gatenio Gabel that the child welfare system needs a complete overhaul.

“There are 12 million children living in poverty today, making them the poorest age group in America,” she said, emphasizing that overall 32% of Black children and 23% of Hispanic children live in poverty. “And 320,000 children have been pushed into or near poverty due to the pandemic’s economic downturn.”

“I think that Dr. Dumpson would have been calling for us to reimagine literally everything that has been done before because it has not been working for so many children in our nation,” she said. “Many of the systems that serve Black and brown children are imbedded with systemic racism and so they can never achieve the outcomes that we seek.”

She said that while the pandemic may have shocked some about the inequities it exposed, people in affected communities weren’t surprised. Yet, she said that much could be possible in the post-pandemic world.

“We have agency and we have choices,” she said.

She said that the necessary changes will take what journalist Isabel Wilkerson calls “radical empathy.”

“Radical empathy is not about you and what you think about a situation that you have never been in and probably never will be in,” she said. “It is a kindred connection from a place of deep knowing that opens your spirit to the pain of another as they perceive it,” she said.

Taking on that perspective will allow policymakers, social work practitioners, and public and nonprofit leaders, as well as faculty at universities, to understand that child welfare systems need drastic change—even at the institutions they serve.

“We must finally admit that these systems were not designed with abundance in mind, they were not designed for people that we love and respect,” she said. “They’re designed as if resources were scarce and we just have to tolerate black and brown bodies.”

In gatherings held at each of the Rose Hill and the Lincoln Center campus, Father McShane formally unveiled Continuous University Strategic Planning (CUSP), which follows Toward 2016, the 10-year comprehensive strategic plan the University created in December 2005.

But before that, he addressed serious racial and anti-Semitic incidents that took place at the Rose Hill campus last week. He speculated that the perpetrator of the first incident, in which a racial slur was found on the door of an African-American student’s room, was a freshman who “has not had enough time in our midst to absorb and be positively infected with the spirit of our University.”

The incidents are shocking, disturbing, disheartening, disorienting, and makes him furious and very depressed, he said, because they illustrate how the University was not able to protect a vulnerable member of the community.

“Please, faculty members who are here, I’m asking you to address these matters—the incident, the causes of racism, and what we can do to get a healed campus back,” he said in an afternoon address at the law school.

“We have a lot of work to do. And as we go forward, I ask you please, let us draw together, let us come together, let us knit ourselves together as a community which will make clear to every student, and everyone here that this kind of behavior—hatred, violence, and intolerance—has no place here at Fordham, period. There is no excuse for it. Ever.”

Father McShane also formally welcomed several new senior members of the administration: Martha Hirst, Fordham’s senior vice president for finance and chief financial officer; Elaine Crosson, new general counsel; Maura Mast, the new dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill; Eva Badowska, the new dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Virginia Roach, the new dean of the Graduate School of Education; and Matthew Diller, the new dean of the School of Law.

Higher Ed in Transition

In embracing CUSP, which is being overseen by a 22-member committee from various University departments, Father McShane noted that the world of higher education is changing at an extraordinary rate, and as such, traditional strategic plans are of little use now.

“What we have to do is move away from an exercise which would create a document that we are supposed to live with for 5, 7 or 10 years, and move toward a process of continuous strategic planning, which will enable us to be far more agile in reacting or responding to what is going on, and plotting a course that will differentiate us from others,” he said.
The guiding principle going forward, he said, lies on key aspects to achieve greatness “on Fordham’s own terms.”

“[It] means making Fordham the model—‘the,’ not ‘a’ model—urban Jesuit university for the 21st century,” he said.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to a question and answer session with CUSP co-chairs Patrick Hornbeck, PhD, associate professor of theology and chair of the department; Debra McPhee, dean of the Graduate School of Social Service; and Peter Stace, vice president for enrollment.

Hornbeck noted that although Toward 2016 had merit, it failed to anticipate such developments as the financial crisis of 2008 or the drops in demand for legal education and graduate studies in the arts and sciences.  He made a distinction between strategic planning and operational planning.

“Strategic questions are the ones that ask us to step back and take the sort of 30,000 foot view of the institution. What is Fordham, and why are we here?” he said, noting that for him, CUSP can be summarized by the phrase, ‘This is not business as usual.’

“I think very often here at Fordham we’re used to thinking, acting, or perceiving in certain terms. We’ve gotten used to the way that we do our business, and part of this planning is disrupting and figuring out how we can be ourselves in a better, more effective way,” he said.

Hornbeck emphasized that although there are 22 members of the committee, the process, which is expected to go through three-year-long cycles, will be inclusive of all members of the University community—from faculty, staff, and students, to alumni and University neighbors. Contributions can already be made at http://www.fordham.edu/cusp.

“We’re going to be creating a culture of planning here at Fordham. We want to build planning and planning-related thinking into the work that we do on an ongoing basis,” he said.

The collaborative aims to pursue excellence and innovation in medical, behavioral, and environmental research, education, and technology development.

Operating under the auspices of GSS, the collaborative will promote interdisciplinary research across the University, as well as between the University and its external partners and communities—for instance, the Bronx Science Consortium. Debra McPhee, Ph.D., dean of GSS, will oversee the collaborative at Fordham, while Cagle will serve as a visiting professor at GSS. In this position, Cagle will offer her research and medical expertise and provide access to the innovative technologies and research capabilities of her professional affiliates.

“This partnership will offer unique opportunities not just at GSS, but for faculty and students across disciplines at Fordham,” McPhee said.

A partnership between Cagle and McPhee began long before the collaborative came into being. The pair collaborated on advanced technology projects in Silicon Valley while McPhee was serving as chief operating officer for an online health education and technology company in Palo Alto, California.

When McPhee became the dean of GSS in 2013, the two innovators saw an opportunity for continued collaboration.

“Fordham stepped up in a huge way to support that dialogue, and from there we approached the NASA Ames Research Center and shared our vision with them,” Cagle said. “They were equally supportive and very honored to be able to bring Fordham University into the relationship with the agency.”

Fordham researchers will have the opportunity to become involved with Cagle’s ongoing projects—such as NASA’s plans to send a mission to Mars, to dispatch a 100-year starship, and, ultimately, to initiate human exploration and settlement in deep space.

Factoring psychological, social, and behavioral dynamics into these missions is so important, Cagle said, that the kind of expertise Fordham researchers could offer ranks as high as managing radiation exposure and maintaining crew health and fitness.

“At the core of these missions is a human element in partnership with robotics—but you’re always going to need the human there to make real-time decisions,” Cagle said. “That’s why the psychosocial components that GSS deals with are right up there in the top three make-or-break challenges that we face when it comes to humans thriving in space.”

The collaborative, McPhee said, will also open up opportunities “to compete for research funding not currently available to members of the Fordham community, specifically NASA research RFPs (requests for proposals).”

The initiative is contracted for three years, but McPhee and Cagle anticipate a long-lasting partnership.

“It’ll be a bold new world—or maybe new worlds,” Cagle said.

“When you look at Earth from space, you see many amazing things. But what you don’t see are borders,” Dr. Cagle said. “We have to create a new conversation in order to create a world without borders. It’s time to eradicate [them]from without.”

At GSS, that conversation has already begun.

In partnership with Cagle, Fordham has launched the Interdisciplinary Collaborative on Health, Environment, and Human Performance. The collaborative aims to pursue excellence and innovation in medical, behavioral, and environmental research, education, and technology development.

Operating under the auspices of GSS, the collaborative will promote interdisciplinary research across the University, as well as between the University and its external partners and communities; for instance, the Bronx Science Consortium. Debra McPhee, Ph.D., dean of GSS, will oversee the collaborative at Fordham, while Cagle will serve as a visiting professor at GSS. In this position, Cagle will offer her research and medical expertise and provide access to the innovative technologies and research capabilities of her professional affiliates.

“This partnership will offer unique research and learning opportunities not just at GSS, but for faculty and students across disciplines at Fordham,” McPhee said.

A partnership between Cagle and McPhee began long before the collaborative came into being. The pair collaborated on advanced technology projects in Silicon Valley while McPhee was serving as chief operating officer for an online health education and technology company in Palo Alto, California.

When McPhee became the dean of GSS in 2013, the two innovators saw an opportunity for continued collaboration.

“Fordham stepped up in a huge way to support that dialogue, and from there we approached the NASA Ames Research Center and shared our vision with them,” Cagle said. “They were equally supportive and very honored to be able to bring Fordham University into the relationship with the agency.”

Fordham researchers will have the opportunity to become involved with Cagle’s ongoing projects—such as NASA’s plans to send a mission to Mars, to dispatch a 100-year starship, and, ultimately, to initiate human exploration and settlement in deep space.

“We would need to look at the psychological, social, and behavioral dynamics that would go into long-duration exploration and even human colonization of other planets,” she said, noting the need for psychologists, political scientists, historians, and more.

While these missions may sound like mere sci-fi, Cagle said that undertaking them is not a matter of if, but when. Already, a handful of private sector enterprises are looking to industrialize space, including harvesting sustainable sources of space-based fuel and other resources, creating a space-bearing transportation system to obtain these materials, and even commencing space tourism.

“[NASA’s] plan is to look toward a Mars mission as early as 2030, which is right around the corner. And, within the next 18 months, we’re planning to place two NASA astronauts on the International Space Station for a one-year mission to see how they perform of the course of year, both physically and psychologically,” she said. “We’re racing the clock, but when your typical speed limit is Mach 25, we’re up to the task.”

Factoring psychosocial dynamics into these missions is so important, Cagle said, that the kind of expertise Fordham researchers could offer ranks as high as managing radiation exposure and maintaining crew health and fitness.

“At the core of these missions is a human element in partnership with robotics—but you’re always going to need the human there to make real-time decisions,” Cagle said. “That’s why the psychosocial and behavioral components that GSS deals with are right up there in the top three make-or-break challenges that we face when it comes to humans thriving in space.”

A key factor of the collaborative, McPhee said, is to open up opportunities “to compete for research funding not currently available to members of the Fordham community, specifically NASA research RFPs (requests for proposals).”

The initiative is contracted for three years, but McPhee and Cagle anticipate a long-lasting partnership.

“It’ll be a bold new world—or maybe new worlds,” Cagle said.

McPhee brings extensive professional experience to her new post, having served for more than a decade in various clinical, academic, and administrative roles. She worked for the last two years as chief operating officer for the Palo Alto-based Planet Hope/Liiv.com, a firm that specializes in online health education and technology.

From 2005 to 2010, McPhee was dean of the School of Social Work at Barry University in Miami Shores, Fla. Before becoming dean, McPhee served for three years as associate dean and had been a faculty member since 1997. An award-winning educator, she taught a variety of courses, from introductory social work practice at the undergraduate level to graduate courses on social policy issues in family and children’s services.

She earned her doctorate in 1998 from the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, her master’s degree from the School of Social Work at Columbia University in 1989, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1986.

Her primary areas of research, in which she has published widely, include international health care policy, child abuse and neglect, women and welfare reform, public policy analysis, and professional practice and service delivery.

“In Debra, we have an outstanding new dean who is committed to working closely with the faculty, students, and staff of the Graduate School of Social Service. Together, they will sustain and advance the school’s long tradition of national preeminence in educating skilled, compassionate social workers to serve the human family,” said Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., provost of the University and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.