New Field Faculty for 2025

Marianne Anderson (MSW ’90, LCSW)

Marianne Anderson says, “social work chose me at an early age.” Her mother was a psychiatric nurse at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, and Anderson joined her to volunteer at a local soup kitchen and a program for people with cerebral palsy. She says those types of experiences “cultivated a strong empathy for humanity and a desire for social justice.”

As an advanced-standing student in GSSW’s MSW program, Anderson interned at Aurora Community Mental Health, where she was a therapist serving children and families. More than 30 years later, she still has a relationship with her director at the organization. Cultivating and nurturing strong, supportive relationships has been a theme throughout Anderson’s career, during which she has been an assistant director for a juvenile residential treatment facility, supervised case managers for a foster care agency, and directed a foster agency serving seven counties in California. She says, “I like to build relationships and network and keep them ongoing.”

Anderson served as an MSW field instructor for two decades, preparing the next generation of social workers, fostering their professional development, ensuring the delivery of high-quality care and promoting social justice. She now applies her vast experience serving children and families as a member of GSSW’s field faculty. She became an adjunct field liaison in 2021 and supervised liaisons during the 2024–25 academic year. As an assistant professor, she will continue to supervise liaisons, advise individual students and conduct field information sessions for incoming students.

Anderson advises new MSW students to take time to build relationships as she did and to “be open to life experiences. They will guide you through your social work journey.”

Nora Welden (MSW ’08, LCSW)

Nora Welden tells her students that one decision can change the trajectory of their career. For her, the career-changing decision was to take a concentration-year internship with the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) rather than The Children’s Hospital. Although Welden wanted to become a school social worker, she also wanted to diversify her experience. She recalls, “I fell in love working with veterans!”

Welden briefly worked as an inpatient psychiatry social worker at another hospital before returning to the VA’s Rocky Mountain Regional Veterans Medical Center as an impatient medicine social worker and then a home-based primary care clinical social worker. She stayed with the VA for more than a decade.

She says she loved working with veterans and their families and caregivers in the home-based setting. As part of a multidisciplinary care team, she completed initial assessments and provided case management to help veterans safely remain in their homes. She says in that role, “You could do more with the patients and resources; you could follow through with it.”

After taking some time away from work to focus on motherhood, Welden joined GSSW’s field team in 2021 as a part-time liaison. She expanded her role to become a field liaison supervisor this year and will continue in that capacity, as well as open field agencies and provide field advising for Denver Campus and MSW@Denver students nationwide.

Welden says, “I start by talking to students about a challenging experience. The learning happens when you’re challenged.” She advises students that they “don’t know everything; let other people guide you and teach you.” Although academic learning is important, she says it is equally important to learn to apply those lessons, and students need a safety net to do so. Field placements provide that safety net. Welden notes that “there is plenty of time to be thrown in the deep end” later in one’s career.

She adds, “I love sharing my passion for field with students. [Field placements are] truly the best way to see that you want to be a social worker.”