The coalition has more than 50 representatives from non-governmental psychology organizations, including Fordham faculty and alumni—most notably, PCUN’s president, David Marcotte, S.J. The scholars work together to develop research-based recommendations for policymakers at the U.N. 

“The primary goal of PCUN is to promote evidence-based policies,” said Harold Takooshian, Ph.D., PCUN’s treasurer and secretary and professor of psychology and urban studies and director of the organizational leadership program at Fordham. “We behavioral scientists feel that the best way to make policies is based on evidence. We conduct research on timely topics like migration and hunger, and research helps us find better solutions to problems.”

Throughout the pandemic, PCUN not only continued to work, but experienced its greatest growth, including a new book series that released its latest book this May, said Takooshian. Thanks to virtual programming, PCUN was able to increase the number of participants in its annual U.N. Psychology Day celebration from hundreds of people at an in-person gathering to nearly 2,000 virtual registrants in a Zoom call last year, said Takooshian. PCUN also started a monthly webinar series where scholars are invited to discuss their work, including renowned psychologist Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., and Fordham GSS associate professor Marciana Popescu, Ph.D., an expert on forced migration. 

‘We Need Help From Everyone’ 

One of PCUN’s biggest contributions is its book series on how scholars can use behavioral science to address today’s global challenges, particularly the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030—a list of global challenges that the U.N. aims to address. 

All three books in the series can be used as resources in college courses related to psychology, social work, and international studies, said Takooshian. The books can also help people become more aware of timely issues—not just scholars, but people from all walks of life, said Elaine Congress, Ph.D., a book editor for this series and associate dean and professor at GSS. 

“Psychologists and social workers don’t have all the answers. There are so many problems facing the world, and we need help from everyone,” said Congress, a social worker who serves as the the main representative of the Fordham NGO at the U.N. “Our book contributors—psychologists, social workers, U.N. officials, heads of NGOs, and experts in other fields—really manifest this. It’s important that this is a multidisciplinary effort.” 

Researching Life-Changing Conditions and Potential Solutions

The book series was developed by not only Fordham professors, but also undergraduate and graduate students, some of whom are now alumni. 

Sanhaya Soi, FCRH ’21, connected with Sameena Azhar, Ph.D., assistant professor at GSS, over their shared Indian heritage, and they collaborated on a chapter about mental health in India in the most recent book, Behavioral Science in the Global Arena: Global Mental, Spiritual, and Social Health. 

“The way that mental health is viewed in Eastern societies versus Western societies is pretty different. In individualistic nations like America, mental health has a scientific outlook. In India, mental health is seen in regards to what karma or fate you are born with,” said Soi, who was born and raised in India and immigrated to the U.S. four years ago. 

Soi said she hopes her chapter helps people understand how stigmatization of mental health developed in India and other countries—an issue that will continue to stay relevant after the pandemic is over.   

“Mental health is something that people have been struggling with since the beginning of time,” said Soi, who earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Fordham and now works as a recruitment consultant for Kintec Search, Inc. 

Shenae Osborn, GSS ’21, who earned her master’s degree in social work and interned at the U.N., co-edited two books and co-authored two chapters. One of her book chapters, which will be published in the upcoming book Behavioral Science in the Global Arena: Global Health Trends and Issues, describes the difficulties of caring for a family member with dementia—an illness that is on the rise—and explains how to support people with dementia and their caregivers. Her other chapter, published in Behavioral Science in the Global Arena: Global Mental, Spiritual, and Social Health, shows how Christians and Jews often turn to their religion for hope, especially when they encounter a difficult situation like a terminal health diagnosis. 

Osborn, a psychotherapist and volunteer U.N. representative for the International Federation of Social Workers, said that she hopes her overall work makes a difference in the world. 

“I have had the opportunity to work on improving policies to reflect real modern-day situations like COVID-19,” said Osborn, a California native who plans to own her own practice where she can continue to work with low-income individuals. “My contribution, although small, is still a step in making a difference.”

A Longtime Relationship with the United Nations

Fordham’s relationship with the U.N. extends beyond PCUN. In 2013, Fordham became one of 16 universities to work with the UN as a non-governmental organization (NGO) that raises public awareness about U.N. activities and global issues. Fordham and the U.N. have co-hosted events, including the U.N.’s first International Educational Day. The University has also selected students for leadership training at the U.N. and developed a special field practicum for Fordham social work students who intern at U.N.-affiliated organizations. 

Takooshian said he hopes that PCUN will continue to help scientists reach policymakers, particularly with its book series that will expand in the coming years. 

“Almost everything related to peace, urbanization, and health is behaviorally-based. That is, human behavior shapes these problems,” said Takooshian. “The premise of our book series is that studying human behavior is able to reduce the problems, and I’m glad to say that the U.N. itself embraces what we’re talking about. In the past three years, they started a behavioral science unit. PCUN does not work with them yet—but it’s just a matter of time.”

Winfrey, who co-hosted the nationally televised ceremony with Fordham graduate Denzel Washington, FCLC ’77, added: “That Dr. McMurray has been able to accomplish so much is admirable. That she’s been able to accomplish this from a wheelchair is extraordinary.”

McMurray, then a professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service, had been living with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a rare, progressively muscle-wasting disorder, for almost three decades. She was one of eight Black women—including Maya Angelou and Debbie Allen—honored that evening by Essence magazine for their remarkable contributions to society.

Prior to the ceremony, the magazine’s editor in chief, Susan L. Taylor, a 1991 graduate of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, told The New York Times, “The powerful stories of African American women are hardly ever told; the things we achieved unknown and the obstacles we overcame are not known by the larger society. This event is a celebration of our triumphs, tenacity, and our ability to endure and overcome.”

Eight months after being honored by Essence, McMurray died at her home in Manhattan. At 58-years-old, her life was short and significantly impacted by her degenerative disease, but she took to heart her parents’ childhood assurances that nothing could stand in her way. And her former Fordham colleagues and students recall a woman who set a high bar for excellence and proved that physical challenges don’t necessitate career limitations.

Supporting Girls and Women

Born in 1934 in Philadelphia, McMurray graduated from Temple University and earned a master’s degree in social service from Bryn Mawr College in 1962. She gained public attention in 1966 when she founded Project Teen Aid, a program aimed at supporting pregnant teenagers. At the time, teens were expelled from school when they became pregnant, something McMurray rightly believed to be devastating for their futures.

“Excluding pregnant girls from going to school with their classmates is really how you keep poor or Black or Latino girls from getting an education,” she told Essence magazine in 1992. “Girls often become pregnant because there is no emphasis on female education. There aren’t great expectations for either young men or women.”

The organization, which still exists, was so successful that in 1969, New York City Mayor John Lindsay appointed McMurray director of his administration’s Early Childhood Task Force, through which she was responsible for developing social services for children and families.  Then, in 1971, she became the first commissioner of the New York City Agency for Child Development.

Patricia Brownell, Ph.D., GSS ’78, ’94, associate professor emerita of social service at Fordham, and one of McMurray’s former students, said that as commissioner, McMurray “had been an advocate for publicly funded daycare and was very, very instrumental in getting the public sector daycare program funded and implemented.”

Letting Advocacy Do the Talking

Within a few years of her appointment, McMurray had undergone two hip replacements and was walking with a cane—making her disability increasingly visible. She resigned from the position in 1974. In the October 1983 issue of Working Woman magazine, Andrea Fooner wrote of McMurray, “Even an exceptionally strong and adaptive personality is not immune to the complexities of pursuing a career while handicapped. … Clearly her disability made her more vulnerable to attack.”

Elaine Congress, D.S.W., professor and associate dean of the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS), said McMurray wasn’t one to get into a “super battle,” preferring to let her advocacy speak for itself. “People choose what battles they want to fight,” she said. “She did it more by example, and she just focused on the issues.”

After leaving the Agency for Child Development, McMurray co-founded the Alliance for Children with David Seeley; served as the Community Service Society’s deputy general director for programming; and founded her namesake GLM Group, a consulting firm providing research, training, and technical assistance to government and nonprofit organizations working with families and children.

Inspiring by Example

But it wasn’t just students or children and families in need who were touched by McMurray. Susan Egan, Ph.D., GSS ’77, ’04, former assistant dean of GSS, shared an office with McMurray in the late 1980s. She said she soaked up inspiration by osmosis.

“I think without her realizing it, she was a role model to me because I just got to witness how she interacted with colleagues and students,” Egan said. “And I just thought she was brilliant and kind and even-tempered. I just learned from her by sitting next to her.”

According to Brownell, toward the end of her life, McMurray turned her focus to advanced health directives after recovering from a coma related to her disease.

“At that time, if somebody were ill and were unable to make a decision for how to direct their doctors, particularly in relation to terminating life support, it was impossible” to honor their wishes, Brownell said. “She was able to go, with her electronic wheelchair, into legislator’s chambers and give testimony as to how important it is for people to be able to direct their care choices.”

By the time McMurray was a professor of social policy in the doctoral program at GSS, she was paralyzed from the neck down, teaching class from a motorized wheelchair with the help of an assistant and a computer she controlled using a mouth stick. What stood out to her colleagues and students, though, wasn’t her physical disability, but her “remarkable” dedication.

Brownell, who had McMurray for two social policy courses, said she was struck by how animated McMurray was. “She was a very special mentor, particularly for social work students coming from the city, and a source of great inspiration,” she said.

“I think she brought out the best in people,” Brownell added. “She had very high standards for others and very high standards for herself, and she always met her high standards and really expected others to live up to high standards for themselves. It was very, very positive and empowering.”

Congress witnessed McMurray at work outside of the classroom as she interacted with students in her office and echoed this sentiment. “She was an incredible, incredible teacher,” she said. “What inspired me is how she had this terrible illness, it got worse and worse, but … she didn’t end up kind of sitting in a nursing home. What did she do? She had a doctoral class at Fordham.”

 ‘Building Blocks in Erecting the Temple of Human Rights’

In a video shown during the 1992 Essence Awards ceremony, McMurray shared her wish that every child in the world would “have the opportunities that I have had to realize my humanness—to become a human being, to be able to give and to receive, to use one’s talents.”

“I know I will not see it in my lifetime,” she said, “but I know if I could just change it for one child, I’ll be very happy.”

Upon receiving the award from Oprah Winfrey, McMurray received a standing ovation.

“This is a glorious evening,” she said, as the applause died down, “and I am so happy to be with you all and to know that God has kept me alive for this night.

“Yes, I have worked to keep pregnant girls in school, set up daycare centers for working parents, fought for universal preschool services and for the liberation of Black women and indeed for all oppressed people,” McMurray said. “But I see these as the building blocks in erecting the temple of human rights in celebration of God’s gift of life.

“So, remember: As long as there is one oppressed child, oppressed woman, oppressed human being in this world, the struggle continues.”

The group’s diversity reflected that of the United Nations. Members hailed from Brazil, Ghana, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and nearby Orange County. Most of them had already entered the working world: Three were on leave from their jobs at the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), one was taking time away from her position as a case manager at an independent living center for people with disabilities, and a third was currently working with immigrant students at a Washington Heights nonprofit.

As part of their participation in the U.N. student group, they each held internships at nongovernment organizations that are affiliated with the U.N., including the International Federation of Social Workers; the Unitarian Universalists; the Public-Private Alliance Foundation; and Close the Gap, an NGO bringing technology to remote areas of the world.

Collaborating Over Coffee

These café meetings provided the group with an informal way to talk about their work, support each other, and even rib each other a little.

“It’s pretty easy-going. There are a few running jokes and some teasing,” student Alessandro Guimaraes said of the early-morning sessions.

“A lot of things come up. When they needed two more people to present at a conference, (classmate) Taylor and I volunteered. When it comes to work there’s always more than enough people to speak about the issues we each work on. If we can’t speak then on something, we’ll help do the research.”

In the weeks that followed, the students sat in on several U.N. committees and related events, including a presentation of the rights of indigenous peoples, a meeting of the Committee on Migration, and the Women’s Institute Conference. They presented research to the American Psychological Association, at the Commission on the Status of Women, and organized several conferences and panels of their own. Between their NGO internships and their additional time at the U.N. itself, they far exceeded the 21 weekly hours required to complete their second year’s fieldwork requirement.

Guidance from a Celebrated Social Work Educator

In the café, beneath a map of the world, Elaine Congress, D.S.W., a longtime associate dean at GSS and a respected stalwart in the field of social work, observed her students as they bonded over program she directs.

Hers is a well-known name in social work circles. Debra McPhee, Ph.D., dean of GSS, once said of Congress:

“There isn’t anybody in the profession who doesn’t know Elaine. The two most common questions we get are ‘Do you have a Ph.D. program?’ and ‘Is Elaine Congress still teaching there?’”

Congress said that the morning meetings help counterbalance the formality of the U.N. Similarly, she said the program came into being rather informally as well.

“The person that had been chair of the international committee for New York City’s National Association of Social Workers and the main representative for the International Federation of Social Workers said to me, ‘Would you like to represent the NGO at the U.N?’” she recalled. “That’s how I started working with these NGOs.”

Almost immediately on her arrival, she began getting her students involved, first in assisting IFSW, and later at other NGOs internships she arranged

Around her, the students swapped stories from their day jobs and outlined plans for future conferences that they were organizing. The initial levity gave way to serious moments when they discussed what they’d heard in their various committee meetings.

For Guimaraes, the statistics can be shocking—“whether we’re talking about violence against women or indigenous people being taken from their lands,” he said. “We’re human and we have emotional reactions, but a lot of times you become used to hearing those things and it’s not as shocking. But that’s why we’re here to do the work.”

As the meeting ended, Congress watched her students fan out to their various committee meetings.

“These are the future social worker leaders in our city, in our country, in our world,” she said.

An American Immigrant Helping Immigrants 

When Guimaraes walks the halls of Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics in Washington Heights, teens give him a hand slap and a half hug. He serves as a counselor at the school, which is the setting of a second concurrent GSS field placement, one that is more people-focused than his U.N. work. Spanish is spoken everywhere in the halls. Guimaraes talks about the kids as they pass him: “He’s on the chess team. … We stared the school newspaper with him. … She’s on our drum team.”

One student stops him and asks, “What’s that test you were talking about? The P-something?”

“The PSAT,” he answers. “Give me a second, I’ll get you the form.”

He explains to a visitor that the high school is for students who have been in the country for less than four years. Most are from the Dominican Republic, where the schools are often at capacity and lacking in quality, he said. After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the school saw an uptick of students from there, but most of the students don’t arrive with an American passport. There were a few migrants from El Salvador. Recently, there was a student admitted from Venezuela. She hadn’t eaten for four days before arriving. 

Guimaraes can relate to these kids. He left Brazil when he was a teen to live with his father in the U.S. He didn’t speak English and he struggled.

“I had my own experience going through changes—changing country, changing education. I was a pretty bad student in Brazil because I didn’t have anything that I knew I wanted to work toward,” he said. “When my dad asked if I wanted to come I said, ‘What the hell do I have to lose?’”

Guimaraes acknowledged that his challenges were not as difficult as those faced by immigrant students in Northern Manhattan. But his past remains part of the reason he wants to work on problems created by migration. It’s also why he likes his full-time job with Fresh Youth Initiatives, a community-based organization (CBO) that helps immigrant children navigate grade school and high school, as well as prepare for college.  The job sprang from his first-year placement. He liked it too much to leave, so this year he began working there full time and takes his GSS classes on the weekends.

“I am just trying to figure out, how can people have opportunities that might spark that interest in them. The more challenges you have to go through, the less likely you’re going to have that opportunity. I’m just trying to be the bridge between those different worlds. That’s what I want to do,” he said.

Global Informing Local

Guimaraes said his work at the school is informed by his U.N. placement, which is with the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), where he chose to focus on the Committee on Migration and its subcommittee on Migrant and Refugee Children.

The dual placements allow him to see the micro practice at the local level and hear the macro approach of policy at the global level. The two go hand-in-hand, he said.

He’s appreciated getting the global perspective, but he’s noted that bloated bureaucracies can stymie getting things done at the local level.

“We know what we have to do: We have to open up access for people to get quality education, get health care, all that kind of stuff, and preserve their basic human rights of being able to move if they have to.”

But approval processes are complex and implantation of new ideas can prove difficult. And the recent uptick of anti-immigrant rhetoric in the U.S. hasn’t helped, he said.

“The students I see may be a little bit behind, may need a little bit more time and resources before they can contribute to society, pay taxes, all of that,” he said. “But all of it just has to do with that welcoming piece. In the United States, the people with this point of view are not the ones who are in government now and so they’re turning other people away.”

And though he’s appreciated watching international policy develop at the U.N., he thinks he wants to continue to work at the local level.

“I haven’t found myself with enough motivation to leave clinical practice entirely, because while we have to think globally and advocate for global issues, the work has to be done locally,” he said. “If you can connect with communities, engage community-based organizations, the public-school system, politicians, stuff like that, on a community level, you’re able to slowly take it up a level, even as far as the U.N.”

Valentine’s Day

A month passes; the students have continued to meet every week at the café near the U.N., which Congress has come to call her office. It’s Valentine’s Day and one of the students is passing out chocolate hearts. Another is getting teased for his constant attempts to delegate work.

Yasarina Almanzar smiles knowingly. Almanzar also works for ACS; she deals directly with the children and their families when the court finds her supervision necessary. Like her colleagues, she’s been given leave and a partial scholarship to get her master’s at Fordham.

Two days a week she goes to her U.N. internship at the Unitarian Universalist Office of the United Nations. There she focuses on different social justice issues. She’s been working with other interns to organize a three-day seminar focused on equality. As part of her research for the conference, she met the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, a human rights expert appointed by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council.

“I’m not really exposed to that kind of work at ACS, things like policy work and how you go about bringing a change,” she said. “It helps my work at ACS, because we have a lot of children of color, it’s important to understand the work that’s being done internationally.”

As an immigrant herself—she arrived from the Dominican Republic when she was 12––Almanzar has experienced racial bias first hand.

“As a woman of color, I see the differences in treatment I get,” she said. “And in terms of my clients, who are people of color that have needs, understanding how to advocate for them becomes a great cause.”

Advocating for Others Who Don’t Look Like You

Almanzar’s lived experience as a woman of color contrasts sharply with Guimaraes’ experience as a white man. She can go into a community as a part of the community. Whether one is advocating on behalf of a community-based organization or an NGO, it helps to look like the people you’re representing, said Guimaraes.

“Coming here from Brazil at the age of 14, without any English, I couldn’t really identify myself with white Americans, even though I was white,” he said.  “I’ve always tried to be aware of the historical context of how my family ended up in Brazil, how I ended up here, how people move around the globe.”

He said that most of his family fled World War I from Europe and emigrated to São Paulo. Growing up, he was taught to go after what he wanted. But he realizes it’s not that easy for everyone.

“I try to acknowledge that as a cisgendered white male, you get pushed forward more than other people.”

Another great concern of Guimaraes is for the welfare of native peoples. As part of his U.N. practicum, he has served as assistant secretary to the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. There he quietly takes down the minutes for the meetings and streams them live on Facebook.

He has been told by a professor to be aware that research differs greatly from lived experiences, and as a social work professional, he needs to be aware of that.

“Yes, you can be an ally, but it’s important to recognize that someone with experience is the expert,” he said. “To the immigration experience, I can say that I lived through it. I can speak to it. To being indigenous, I can’t.”

He tries to teach his students at the high school to engage in the global conversation so they can represent themselves. He even helped one student become a youth representative to an NGO at the U.N.

“If I can teach them how to speak for themselves, or use maybe the privileges or the platform that I have to get them to be better represented, then I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

Roberto Borrero, chair of the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, said sitting in on subcommittee meetings opens up a new world view for social work students, regardless of their background.

“There’s different types of learning, there’s learning you get at the University, there’s various tasks that you have to get your accreditation, but it’s different when you participate in meetings where there’s different levels of bureaucracy and you learn to engage,” said Borrero.

On Language

As most of the students have worked for large municipalities, they are familiar with the language of local government and the many acronyms used by its agencies. For example, Guimaraes works for a CBO at the DOE while interning in an NGO at the U.N.  Likewise, Almanzar works at ACS serving mostly POC communities. The U.N. and it’s NGOs present yet another set of acronyms and nuanced language use.

“The students are here and witnessing how things work,” said Borrero. “They hear U.N. folks come in, how they talk, the terminology that they use, it might not be the same terminology that they hear in their specific field, but again this has expanded their mind to it.”

A Careful Introduction

By mid-March the students had attended at least a dozen subcommittee meetings between them. When the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) convened at the U.N., 400 related panels were held around the city.

The students each presented individually on underrepresented women in a panel titled “Shining a Light on Forgotten Women.”

Indeed, Guimaraes began his presentation on indigenous women with a precise series of caveats, acknowledging his white cisgendered male identity and warning listeners that some of the violence he was about to discuss might trigger people in the audience who had experienced similar trauma. And he shouted out all the women who played a role in his success.

“Thank you to the women in the room, the women in my life, and the women in leadership that helped me speak to you today,” he said.

A Rigorous Fieldwork Program 

Outside Elaine Congress’ office sits a hopeful student seeking to get into the United Nations program she runs for next year. The student sits quietly, while within earshot Congress explains the program requirements to a visitor in her office.

“We require 21 hours a week for field placements. I take only leadership students, because there aren’t any clients, unless you count nations as clients,” explained Congress.

GSS students have to complete two field practicums: a generalist placement, which exposes students to foundational social work practice, and a specialist placement during the advanced year.  In the generalist field practicum, the goal is to expand students’ social work practice experience with populations that are new to them. During the specialist year, students are assigned field placements in their preferred areas of practice, working with more complex client populations and settings. All of Congress’ students are on a leadership track.

With 10 books behind her, Congress is recognized as an expert on many aspects of the discipline, but on multiculturalism in particular. She is working on the fourth edition of widely referenced Multicultural Perspectives in Working with Families (Springer, 2013). And she is the recipient of dozens of awards, including a lifetime achievement award from the New York City chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Congress said she has always been interested in social justice work. She worked in a mental health clinic in Brooklyn with the Latino community before getting her doctorate moving toward academia.

“I was always concerned about the poor and I was also very interested in people from different backgrounds,” she said. “Then I came to Fordham, and progressed on up through the ranks from assistant to associate professor to associate dean, and I started to write.”

Self-Assessment is Critical

On listening to Congress, one can begin to see the influence she has on her students. As an educated white woman, she said, she too needs to understand where she comes from to help people with backgrounds distinct from her own.

“It’s very important to do a self-assessment even before you begin to work with clients,” she said. “You have to know about who you are before you work with others.”

And, she said, collaboration amongst social workers is key. That’s why she insists on those morning meetings.

“Issues come up all the time. It could be a current event issue. It could be an event at the UN. We talk about all of it. It’s education. It’s also supportive,” she said.

She bid her visitor goodbye and welcomed the waiting student into her office.

Building Strong Bonds

The bonds formed by these students over the course of the semester are palpable to even the casual observer. They’re fans of each other’s work and offer support at every turn.

When MSW candidate Taylor DeClerck, a case manager at an independent living center for people with disabilities from Orange County, had to present with the group in the city at 8 a.m. on a Saturday, fellow student Abigail Asper put her up for the night.

And the group was uniformly impressed by student Melissa Cueto’s presentation on elderly women at the “Forgotten Women” panel on March 14.

“She is such a great public speaker and she works at ACS too, but I never had an opportunity to meet her until I came here. We all learn from each other and we’re always sharing,” said Almanzar, who reached out to Guimaraes for help in forming a panel on indigenous women.

“One of the best things that come from the group is diversity,” said Guimaraes. “We’re all interested in different topics, but we’re all interested in the advancement of human rights. At some point, they all have to do with each other. They all have some commonalities—like us.”

The many manifestations and consequences of violence—and potential measures to address these pressing issues—were the topic of an Oct. 27 conference titled the Impact of Violence on Health and Education, presented by the Fordham Graduate School of Social Service, the Fordham Institute for Women & Girls, and the International Health Awareness Network. The conference placed special emphasis on gun violence, school violence, and sexual and gender-based violence.

“We’re living in a violent time,” said Sandy Turner, Ph.D., associate professor at the Graduate School of Social Service and director of the Institute for Women & Girls. “All we have to do is turn on the news for five minutes and we know that. I think it affects all of us in one way or another just about every day.”

Global perspectives

The event, held at Fordham University School of Law, brought together a roster of experts from a wide array of disciplines—ranging from academic researchers to medical doctors to political leaders—who gave attendees a range of perspectives on how violence impacts societies around the world and what can be done to mitigate the tragic outcomes.

Ambassador Modest Jonathan Mero, the permanent representative of Tanzania to the United Nations, described the Tanzanian government’s efforts to combat domestic violence and promote gender equality. Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side in the New York City Council, described municipal legislators’ efforts to allocate more police resources toward investigating instances of sexual assault.

Protecting human rights at every stage of life

Individuals can suffer lifelong effects from violence suffered before they are even born, said Dr. Melody Behnam, an obstetrician-gynecologist in private practice. Physical or emotional abuse of pregnant women can result in lasting complications for both mother and child, she explained, ranging from maternal depression to deficits in cognitive function for children. Clinicians must be trained to recognize domestic violence and implement early intervention techniques, Behnam said.

“This is not just a women’s question—it’s humanity’s question,” she said. “We have to take responsibility to end it.”

Janna C. Heyman, Ph.D., holder of the Endowed Chair of the Henry C. Ravazzin Center on Aging and Intergenerational Studies at the  Graduate School of Social Service, described how older adults can be susceptible to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse because they often suffer from isolation and have no one to turn to for support.

Living a life of dignity, free of abuse, is a human right that we must ensure is protected throughout an individual’s lifespan, Heyman said, “from pregnancy all the way though to older adults and even in death and dying.”

Finding solutions

The Graduate School of Social Service held a contest for students, who submitted papers presenting policy solutions addressing the impact of violence on health and education. Elaine Congress, D.S.W., a founding member of the Institute for Women & Girls and professor and associate dean for continuing education and extra-mural programs at the Graduate School of Social Service, presented awards to the winners at the conference.

Yingying Zhu, an MSW student, won an award for her proposal on improving safety in schools. Among other policies, Zhu advocated for providing additional training to teachers and staff on conflict resolution and classroom management and hosting educational workshops and support groups for parents.

“I’m so glad that policy courses are part of the MSW curriculum,” she said. “Learning about policy has changed my perception about what we can do to advocate.”

– Michael Garofalo

Congress was referring to the strides the country has made over the last half century in welcoming immigrants from all over the world, as well as the threats to this progress that are making headlines daily. The paradoxical topic was the focus of the conference, “A Nation of Immigrants? 50 Years of the New Immigration,” which brought experts together to discuss a timely issue that has pivoted to the forefront of national debate.

Passed in 1965 and enacted in 1968, the Immigration and Nationality Act, also called the Hart-Celler Act and the Family Reunification Act, abolished the quota system established in the 1920s that discriminated against non-northern Europeans and set a historical new precedent for immigration in the United States.

‘Changing the Face of the United States’

“For 45 years, there was very little immigration from places other than northern Europe,” said Rafael Zapata, Fordham’s chief diversity officer. “The Hart-Cellar Act changed the face of the United States.”

Keynote speaker Van Tran, Ph.D., a sociologist from Columbia University who has written extensively on the topic, agreed that the act has transformed American society, something he said President Lyndon Johnson and members of Congress didn’t foresee when it was signed. “The president said that the bill was not revolutionary,” he said. “The consensus was this will only open the door a little, maybe we could expect 5,000 people from Asia, a few hundred from Mexico, and a few hundred from Nigeria. Little did they know, it would open the door to roughly one million people a year.”

He said that at the time, there were also concerns about how immigrants would assimilate into American life. “Despite that, prior research shows clear evidence of social mobility and increased integration into American society among post-1965 immigrants and their children,” he said, noting that immigrants over the last 50 years have enriched American society with tremendous cultural, social, educational, and economic contributions.

Act at Center of Current National Immigration Debate

Tran and other scholars who presented at the conference noted the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment across the country since the last presidential election. Further, they said, as undocumented migrants continue to be separated and detained at U.S. borders, the Hart-Celler Act is at center stage in a heated national debate.

“I could speak for 10 hours about the host of policies and practices the Trump Administration has adopted that contravene the spirit and principle of family reunification,” said Dora Galacatos, executive director of the Feerick Center for Social Justice at Fordham Law School, at the panel discussion following the lecture.

“However, this is not the first. The Trump administration has built on the foundation that was started, sadly and tragically, by the Obama administration,” she said, referring to mass deportation and family detention as well as other “objectionable practices” that occurred during President Barack Obama’s tenure.

Anxiety and Mental Health Needs

Since 2016, Galacatos and a team of volunteers, including Fordham Law students, have made several visits to Dilley, Texas, home of the largest of three detention centers in the country, to assist asylum seekers and prepare them for interviews.

“We have seen extensive violations of federal law,” she said, sharing the story of one mother who was separated from her 9-year-old daughter upon entry and detained for weeks, at times handcuffed in solitary confinement and deprived of food and water.

“She was told she would never see her daughter again, and that she would be adopted,” Galacatos said. “That is torture. We need to stand up and say that this is un-American and it is not right.”

Panelist Shirley Leyro, Ph.D., assistant professor of criminal justice at Manhattan Community College—CUNY, shared her experience of the immigration crisis at the local level, and particularly immigrants’ fear of deportation and resulting mental health issues. Panelist Maria Lizardo, executive director of the Manhattan Improvement Corporation, said she and her staff also started seeing heightened anxiety among their clients following the 2016 election.

“We are doing a lot of ‘know-your-rights workshops’ and emergency planning for folks with families that have mixed statuses,” she said, adding that her organization runs four settlement houses and provides housing, legal services, and public benefits advocacy to 14,000 people in Manhattan and the Bronx.

“They are worried about who will take care of their children if they get deported. This is the first time we’ve had to do this kind of work at the community level and have these tough conversations.”

All of the speakers agreed that the Hart-Celler Act is being challenged in ways it never has before, but that it may likely provide the catalyst for much-needed change. Tran sees a ray of hope in New York City, a place that he says can serve as a model for successful immigrant integration across the country. With immigrants comprising more than half of the city’s population of 8 million, and a “long history of immigration and cultural diversity, it is a particularly inclusive environment,” he said.

—Claire Curry

“She didn’t know me at all, but she was so excited to see a Fordham student that she took me under her wing,” said Lee, who, thanks to Congress, is now interning at the United Nations. “She brought me to different meetings and introduced me to everyone.”

The incident speaks volumes about Congress’ willingness to help the next generation of social workers, said Robert Schachter, D.S.W., former executive director of the New York City chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW-NYC).

“That speaks to Elaine’s enthusiasm about the next generation entering the profession,” said Schachter. “She has no airs, and nobody can match Elaine’s propensity to mentor and support students and new professionals.”

On Oct. 19, NASW-NYC will be presenting Congress with its lifetime achievement award. Schachter also cited Congress’ extensive publications that focus on ethics, immigration, and diversity in the social work profession.

He said that he worked closely with Congress when she was president of the NASW-NYC from 1998 to 2000. At the time, the diversity of the field’s professionals did not reflect their clients’ diversity. At NASW-NYC, Congress made balancing the profession’s diversity a priority.

“She brought everybody together and got them talking,” he said. “At the time, the conversations were very unusual in how frank they were.”

From African-American to Latino to Asian to LGBT, Congress pressed the leaders in the profession to incorporate a multicultural perspective when working with families and individuals.

“Her concerns around equality, diversity, and social justice in her writing is known throughout the community,” said Debra McPhee, Ph.D., dean of GSS.

Congress began her career as a clinical practitioner before she turned to academia. Schachter said that is one important reason why the profession is honoring her.

“That’s what makes her academic contributions so integral, because she understands the work,” he said. “That holds a high value in the social work profession: many people have researched social work, but she exemplifies it.”

Her clinical experience and reputation have made Congress an invaluable asset to the University, said McPhee.
“There isn’t anybody in the profession who doesn’t know Elaine,” she said. “The two most common questions we get are ‘Do you have a Ph.D. program,’ and ‘Is Elaine Congress still teaching there?’”

Fordham Professor David Marcotte, SJ, Ph.D., was the program chair and moderator of this annual forum, which had the theme “Promoting Well-being in the 21st Century: Psychological Contributions for Social, Economic, and Environmental Challenges.”

You can watch the forum here.

How would you describe the nonprofit organization where you work? A nonprofit organization is generally described as an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive, and these adjectives are frequently used to describe the work of nonprofits – altruistic, beneficent, charitable, humanitarian, and philanthropic. Does this sound familiar to those of us who work in very different social service agencies, substance abuse facilities, hospitals, outpatient medical and behavioral health centers or universities? The mission of nonprofit organizations is very compatible with the social work value of social justice, one of the six main values outlined in the NASW Code of Ethics with the related ethical principle that social workers work to challenge social injustice or stated more positively, social workers work to promote social justice. Whether we serve individual clients, families, communities, consumers, or students we, all share this common mission as we all work on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and continually fight against poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice. In agencies “we strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people.”

On Aug. 23, 38 students will graduate from the program, while earlier this month more than 60 new students were welcomed into this year’s record-breaking cohort.

Elaine Congress, DSW, LCSW, professor and associate dean at GSS, described the program’s inception.

“The timing was right,” she said of the year-old program. “Social agencies are becoming more businesslike and businesses are becoming more socially conscious.”

The program seeks to “integrate social justice with management excellence” and primarily attracts students with a nonprofit background. It is one of the first programs in the nation jointly sponsored by two graduate schools.

Allan Luks, the director of the Center for Nonprofit Leaders, Congress, and Francis Petit, Gabelli School associate dean, designed a trimester program that allows students to earn their degree in just one year. This made the program very marketable, as similar programs in the city take two years to complete.

As Congress observed, “Time is money and these students want to get to work.”

Similar to Fordham’s Executive MBA, the degree is designed for working professionals. Each trimester, the program starts with four intensive days. The classes gather once a week thereafter. In addition, each student gets a mentor who is a professional in the field.

“These are students who want to change society at a time when most nonprofit agencies are cutting back tremendously,” said Luks. “We’re training people that want to change their field and create organizations that are financially sound.” 

Congress said that 80 percent of students at GSS concentrate on clinical practice and only 20 percent concentrate on administration, and yet, the study of finance and budgeting are strategically important in heading up a nonprofit.

Graduate Gloria Vargas, who grew up with two deaf parents, has already had a full career in nonprofits working with those persons with similar afflictions. At St. Vincent’s Hospital, she worked as a staff interpreter, educator, and advocacy worker for 12 years on behalf of deaf patients. In 2010 she witnessed the closing of the hospital.

“I didn’t understand the bigger picture of how nonprofits worked or how they were managed,” she said. “The words ‘social justice’ attracted me to the GSS program because of the experiences that I had working with the deaf. I saw so many injustices.”

Vargas, who said her deaf parents were often unjustly treated by others as if they were learning-disabled,  plans to use her degree to continue advocating on behalf of deaf clients. She has started writing a business plan geared towards social justice and entrepreneurship for those who have limited or no hearing.

Graduate Stephanie Francis Mack started a nonprofit called Harlem Seeds that teaches city kids where their vegetables come from. At three community gardens in Northern Manhattan, kids plant, nurture, and then eat the veggies they grow, “from seed to table.” A former public school teacher, Mack said she started the nonprofit after brainstorming with family and friends at a farm upstate.

“We didn’t know what to do or how to do it, but we knew we were passionate,” said Mack.

She said that at Fordham she realized that she knew more about running a nonprofit than she gave herself credit for, and the business component of the program proved a boon to her nonprofit. She now hopes to expand the program to include rooftop gardens.

“I walked away from the program really understanding how things have to be put together—especially financial management,” she said. “That was a big deal. They truly gave me an understanding what you need to become a sustainable organization.”

She said the student mix aided the curriculum, with some already working at well-established nonprofits and others hoping to create one. With her nonprofit already in operation, she said her master’s degree has underscored something she may have known, but had not been able to articulate.

“I don’t think I felt confident enough to refer to myself as a leader, but now I do.”

Additional reporting by Rachel Roman