2025 SSWR Faculty Awardees

Professor Heather Taussig was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, an honorific society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in social work and social welfare while advancing high-impact work that advances social good. In 2023, Taussig’s Fostering Health Futures program celebrated 20 years of success, during which it has run three randomized controlled trials, served more than 1,000 children and youth, and trained hundreds of graduate students. Taussig joins GSSW Philip and Eleanor Winn Endowed Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Jenson (inducted in 2011), Professor Lena Lundgren (inducted in 2016), Dean Emeritus James Herbert Williams (inducted in 2016), Philip D. and Eleanor G. Winn Professor for Children and Youth at Risk Kimberly Bender (inducted in 2020) and Professor Jennifer Bellamy (inducted in 2023) among the ranks of the nation’s premier social work scholars and practitioners.

Assistant Professor Marquisha Lawrence Scott received the GADE (Group of Advancement for Doctoral Education) Faculty Award for Early Career Achievement in Social Work Doctoral Education. The award recognizes an early career faculty member at a member institution who has made significant contributions to doctoral education through teaching, mentoring, service and/or leadership.

Also at the conference, GSSW Associate Professor of the Practice Rachel Forbes received a “Best Scholarly Book Published” Honorable Mention for Ecosocial Work: Environmental Practice and Advocacy (NASW Press, 2023), which she edited with Kelly Smith, founder and director of the Institute for Social Work and Environmental Justice. The award recognizes books addressing significant social problems, particularly those relevant to oppressed and marginalized populations. Award-winning books include rigorous analyses of processes related to marginalization, privilege/power, colonization and oppression or engage decolonized representations of lived experience and processes of race/ethnicity, class/caste, culture, gender and gender representation, sexuality and ability (among others). Other selection criteria include the originality of the work; rigorous use of theory and the literature; methodological quality, rigor and theoretical importance; direct application to social work policy or practice; and potential for significant impact within and beyond social work.