
Mona S. Schatz, director of UW's Division of Social Work, was among 12 deans and directors of national university social work programs accepted for the 2009 Leadership Academy in Aging.
Health care reform and a dramatic shortage of health care social workers who specialize in aging was the academy's focus, Schatz says. The academy, a program of the Social Work Leadership Institute delivered by the New York Academy of Medicine, was funded through a grant from the John H. Hartford Foundation.
UW's Division of Social Work has taken more assertive steps in the last 24 months to advance its curricular content in aging adults/gerontology and to expand older adult research activities, particularly examining Wyoming's Baby Boomers, Schatz says. The academy covered management in higher education, leadership development, legislative outreach, media relations, community development, fund raising and faculty relations.
A UW faculty member since 1972, Schatz has worked with children, aging adults, and families in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Missouri. She has an extensive background in practice and training of professionals who are involved with children and families and human services work. Schatz has presented findings in more than a dozen countries, mainly in Eastern Europe and Russia.