ASWB debuts Contributor Award
Recognizing volunteers for leadership and commitment is part of the Volunteer Engagement and Outreach department’s role in serving ASWB membership. In 2018, the department conceived of the Contributor Award in response to executive management’s desire to recognize individuals who have contributed to the work of ASWB who are not ASWB members.
“The Contributor Award recognizes individuals in the social work community for their efforts to promote regulation and public protection,” said ASWB CEO Mary Jo Monahan. “The award is an important support to the strategic framework goals of regulatory research and advancing acceptance of social work as a licensed profession.”
Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D., is the inaugural recipient of the Contributor Award, which will be presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Delegate Assembly in Orlando. Reamer was chosen because of his long-standing partnership with ASWB and his leadership in the study of professional ethics.
Reamer keynoted the 2012 ASWB Education Meeting on the topics of social media and electronic communication in social work practice, introducing social work regulators to the ethical, practice-based, and regulatory challenges posed by technology. He later provided the keynote at the 2015 Education Conference on social work practice mobility, explaining technology’s influence. His study of the ethics of technology in social work informed development of ASWB’s Model Regulatory Standards for Technology and Social Work Practice, and he chaired the 2013–2014 ASWB International Technology Task Force that developed the standards. He also chaired the task force collaborative of representatives from ASWB, NASW, the Council on Social Work Education, and the Clinical Social Work Association that developed the NASW, ASWB, CSWE, & CSWA Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice, published by NASW in 2017.
“I am deeply touched by ASWB’s acknowledgment of my contributions to the complex world of social work regulation,” Reamer said. “One of the great privileges of my career has been the opportunity to collaborate with ASWB over many years in our collective effort to strengthen our profession. I consider my relationships with Mary Jo Monahan, Dwight Hymans, and Donna DeAngelis [former ASWB executive director], among others at ASWB, to be among the richest of my career.”
Reamer is a professor in the graduate program of the Rhode Island College School of Social Work, where he has been a member of faculty since 1983. His research and teaching have addressed a wide range of human services issues, including mental health, health care, criminal justice, public welfare, and professional ethics. Reamer received his doctorate from the University of Chicago and has served as a social worker in correctional and mental health settings. He is the author of many books and articles on professional ethics and criminal justice.
“We need more leaders in the social work community like Frederic Reamer to advance the public protection mission of ASWB’s membership,” said Monahan. “This award helps raise awareness of the ways that ASWB is collaborating with other ‘pillars of the profession’ to promote social work regulation to social work students, practitioners, and the public.”
Reamer will present a keynote address to membership on Friday, November 8, at the annual meeting.