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.”

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the slideshow playing at the Oct. 1 memorial celebration for MaryAnn Quaranta, D.S.W., (GSS ’50), former dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, said plenty.

There were countless photos with Quaranta and her family, especially her grandchildren, whom she was said to have treasured.

There were a plethora of photos with Quaranta and her colleagues.

Then there were professorial photos featuring a very regal Quaranta at conferences and University events, and even a few photos with Hillary Clinton.

Quaranta, who died on Dec. 16, 2009, was remembered at a standing-room-only memorial celebration on the Lincoln Center campus. The event included musical tributes and moving speeches from about 18 friends, colleagues and family members.

“Mary Ann Quaranta was the most elegant person I ever met,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “Now I know you’re going to think I’m being very superficial and only referring to her unerring sense of fashion. But I’m not. Mary Ann Quaranta was the most elegant person in different and far deeper senses. She was a most extraordinary mind, always active and symmetrical. She could figure out a program on the way to work.

“She possessed eyes that enabled her to look on the poor and see in them God’s greatest riches,” Father McShane added. “We at Fordham were blessed to have her as colleague, mother superior, visionary dean and friend.”

There were countless photos with Quaranta and her family, especially her grandchildren, whom she was said to have treasured.

There were plenty of photos with Quaranta and her colleagues.

Then there were professorial photos featuring a very regal Quaranta at conferences and University events, and even a few photos with Hillary Clinton.

“Mary Ann Quaranta was the most elegant person I ever met,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “Now I know you’re going to think I’m being very superficial and only referring to her unerring sense of fashion. But I’m not. Mary Ann Quaranta was the most elegant person in different and far deeper senses. She was a most extraordinary mind, always active and symmetrical. She could figure out a program on the way to work.

“She possessed eyes that enabled her to look on the poor and see in them God’s greatest riches,” Father McShane added. “We at Fordham were blessed to have her as colleague, mother superior, visionary dean and friend.”

Quaranta, who died on Dec. 16, 2009, was remembered at a standing-room-only memorial celebration on the Lincoln Center campus. The event included musical tributes and moving speeches from about 18 friends, colleagues and family members.

Among the speakers at the memorial celebration for Quaranta were John D. Feerick, (FCRH ’58, LAW ’61), former dean of Fordham Law and founder of the Feerick Center for Social Justice; Peter B. Vaughan, Ph.D., dean of GSS, Jeanette Takamura, Ph.D., dean of Columbia University’s School of Social Work and Julia Watkins, Ph.D., the executive director of the Council on Social Work Education.

Quaranta was the dean of GSS for 25 years and provost of Marymount College from 2000 until 2004 before being named special assistant to the president for community and diocesan relations.

Hailed for transforming GSS into a nationally prominent school of social work that consistently received high rankings in U.S. News and World Report and brought in record levels of grant and research funding, Quaranta also was remembered as a nurturing mentor.

“Many of us felt we were special to her, and then we’d be surprised to find she made someone else feel that special,” said Virginia Strand, D.S.W., professor of social work. “That was a unique gift in a leader—to get that kind of response from people who work for you.

“In her professional life she was admired. In her personal life, she was loved.”

Robert Chazin, D.S.W., professor of social work, called Quaranta an admiring administrator and extraordinary contributor to the field.

“She was tough, but beneath her demanding exterior, this dean had a soft side,” he said. “Most of us don’t get to choose the people with whom we work.  Mary Ann was known to help the faculty in many ways. She was a wonderful human being.”

Theresa Casey, a friend of Quaranta’s since the first grade, recalled their mutual love for the HBO show, The Sopranos.

“She wouldn’t miss the program for anything,” Casey said. “We watched every week and discussed the episode afterward.”

Casey recalled their time in elementary and high school, and their undergraduate years at the College of Mount Saint Vincent. Like most grandmothers, Quaranta enjoyed spending time with her eight grandchildren.

“She adored her family,” Casey said.

Quaranta’s children: Kevin J. Quaranta, Esq. (FCRH ’78, LAW ’81), and Mary Beth Morrissey, Esq., M.P.H., (FCRH ’79, LAW ’82), were among the family members at the celebration.

“These have been some very inspiring words about my mother,” Morrissey said. “I think you all have heard that we have a very tough act to follow. We feel very blessed that you are with us here [at the memorial celebration]. It’s a great testament to my mother.

“If my mother were here with us today, she would probably tell us that she deserved this,” Morrissey said as the audience chuckled. “In that spirit, I hope that you will celebrate her life and her legacy.”

Quaranta’s granddaughter, Mary Breda, shared a letter from someone of whom her grandmother was a huge fan—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“Your mother lived an extraordinary life and I am grateful to have known her,’” Clinton wrote.

“She always added dignity to any occasion she walked into,” said Robert J. Reilly, assistant dean of the Feerick Center for Social Justice. “When she walked in, you knew someone significant walked into the room. Everyone would pay attention. She had a great sense of humor and she would remember the little things about you—always asking how the children were doing. She appeared with the Pope, with presidents of the United States, yet she talked to everyone like they were a next-door neighbor.”

Quaranta developed GSS’ first doctoral program in social work.

Also among her achievements as dean was the school’s receipt of a National Institute of Mental Health research grant on Hispanic mental health. GSS was the eighth social work school in the country to be awarded the grant, and the only one without a university medical school.

Several of GSS’ prominent programs were initiated under Quaranta’s tenure, including:

• CHILDREN F.I.R.S.T., the Children and Families Institute for Research, Support and Training;
• the Interdisciplinary Center for Family and Child Advocacy (in collaboration with Fordham Law);
• and the National Center for Schools and Communities (in collaboration with the Graduate School of Education).

Quaranta also was instrumental in developing the Ravazzin Center for Social Work Research on Aging and the Institute for Managed Care and Social Work, both at Fordham.

She was president of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) from 1981 to 1983, and served in several responsible positions, both nationally and in New York state. Professional affiliations included the Council of Social Work Education, the National Conference on Social Work, the National Conference of Catholic Charities, American Association of University Professors and New York Board of Social Welfare.