Member Profile: Wilfred Lee, LCSW from Region H

By S. Jolene Hui, LCSW, Membership Coordinator

Wilfred Lee is the perfect example of why both macro practice and micro practice social work knowledge is so important. Although he concentrated on macro while in graduate school, he has worked jobs in both. As a result, he is an experienced and knowledgeable social worker, as well as a leader.

Originally from Hawaii, Lee was involved in different orchestra, concert band, and symphony groups while growing up and also played tennis. He earned his BA in Psychology from University of Hawaii at Manoa. Prior to attending graduate school at USC, Lee worked as a counselor/program manager at an agency that helped at-risk youth.

After graduating with his MSW, Lee worked as the Admissions Coordinator for the School of Social Work for California State University, Los Angeles. This led him to teaching at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where he also helped develop admissions and student services and helped to recruit the first class for their MSW program.

The next stop in his career was direct practice where he provided therapy at a community-based organization for four years. He then left Los Angeles and moved to San Diego where he worked as a child custody mediator at a family court. He explains that he wanted that particular position because he thought it would be “cool and unique to learn this specialty.”

After four years in that capacity, Lee is back in Los Angeles and is working as a social worker for the VA, where he aspires to run the social work department someday.

He says, “What I have enjoyed the most about being a social worker is the multitude of opportunities.”

Lee is proud of a couple of professional accomplishments in particular. On the direct practice side he’s proud of earning his clinical license, especially since he concentrated on macro practice in grad school.

On the organizational side he is pleased that he had a hand in developing NASW-CA’s New Professionals Network (NPN), “a group charged with engaging, developing, and meeting the needs of new social workers.” Lee is particularly proud of a project he created when the group was in its third year. The project involved new social workers or social work students being placed with different community organizations as interns with advisory boards in order to learn about board operations and organizational functioning.

An NASW member for as long as he’s been a social worker, Lee’s involvement with the organization began as an intern. He says, “Having been involved with NASW for the past 13 years, the biggest lesson I have learned is to network with your fellow social workers — it truly is not always about what you know, but who you know.”

He encourages new social workers to both pursue their license “as soon as possible” and to network.

His personal goals include continuing to travel and “exploring what social work looks like in other parts of the world.”

Jolene Hui, LCSW, is NASW-CA’s membership coordinator and can be reached at jhui@naswca.org.