Silver School to Honor Six Outstanding Alumni at Alumni Awards Ceremony
The NYU Silver School of Social Work will honor six alumni at the third annual Alumni Awards Ceremony. Three alumni will be given the Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the School will introduce two new awards -- the Make a Difference Award and the Distinguished Service to the Silver School Award.
The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, September 24 at the Dean's Luncheon, as part of NYU Alumni Day. Professor Jeane Anastas will give the keynote address and Dean Lynn Videka will give the state of the school address.
The Distinguished Alumnus Award is given to alumni who excel in clinical achievements, advocacy, scholarship, and leadership. They must embody the core values of social work and have had an impact on the social work community. This year's honorees are:
Shirley J. Jones, PhD, MSW '64
Jones has served as a distinguished service professor at the University of Albany from 1993-2001, and as the founder and director of the US-Africa Partnership for Building Stronger Communities Project from 2000-2009. She is a lecturer at the University of Albany. She served as dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Southern Mississippi from 1978-1988.
Samuel Rosenberg, PhD, MSW '86
Rosenberg is dean at The School of Social Science and Human Services in Ramapo College of New Jersey. Rosenberg has written and edited several books, including Community Mental Health: Challenges for the 21st Century (published by Brunner- Routledge), with a second edition scheduled to be published next summer.
Jack Stein PhD, MSW '84
Stein is the chief of the Prevention Branch at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Since 2006, he has served as director in the Division of Services Improvement at The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in Rockville, Maryland. Since 2004, Stein has served as the deputy director in the Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health.
The Make a Difference Award will be given to Jane Eisner Bram, MSW '79, PhD '00, for her continuing support of NYU social work education. A psychotherapist in private practice, her generous support helped established the School's current center on Washington Square North. She has also been a key supporter of faculty research, student scholarships, and helping to enhance the School's psychopharmacology curriculum. Bram is a member of the Dean's Council and an NYU Trustee Associate.
The Distinguished Service to the Silver School Award recognizes outstanding teaching and dedication to students. This year's award will be given posthumously to:
Associate Professor Gladys Gonzalez-Ramos, MSW '77, PhD '85
Gonzalez-Ramos joined the School's faculty in 1985, and conducted research in the areas of mental health, delivery of care to Hispanic children and families, and mothers' cultural child-rearing values. She was a leader in the the Parkinson's community, and examined the role of social work, interdisciplinary team training, and the delivery of care to persons with Parkinson's disease and their caregivers. She was also an adjunct associate professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine.
Professor Jeffrey Seinfeld, MSW, PhD '87
Seinfeld joined the School's faculty in 1987, and his professional areas of interest included object relations theory, social philosophy, and existential philosophy. He received international recognition for his contribution to object relations theory. Seinfeld taught courses in human behavior and the social environment, and practice, at the MSW and PhD levels, and served as chair of the School's human behavior and social environment area. Last January he began teaching a new post-master's certificate program in spirituality, which he helped develop. Beloved by students and alumni, he was awarded the New York University Distinguished Teachers Medal in 1997.