By S. Jolene Hui, LCSW, Membership Coordinator
Shaaron Gilson has worked in social services for 46 years. From the time she received her BA, she started on her path to social work that she has continued to travel since then. About her journey so far, she said, “I’ve never ever been bored.”
Gilson has had a colorful, rich and varied career, ranging from positions such as a probation officer, mental health clinician, working with children and families, at a state hospital, in administration, as an instructor … etc. She’s worn a never-ending collection of hats, it seems.
About her life as a social worker she said, “I think for me when I look back over the course of my career is that I’ve had the advantage that I’ve been able to work in a number of the systems. I have worked in both northern and southern California. I’ve had some range and variety within the profession and that’s one of the aspects that I’ve enjoyed the most.”
She says she has a “strong correctional component in my family.” Gilson’s grandfather was a police detective and after receiving her undergraduate degree she became a probation officer in the late ’60s and early ’70s. She notes that is was an especially appropriate time when she went back to graduate school in 1970 because it was “during a lot of the civil rights movement.”
After she received her MSW she worked at the children’s unit of Santa Clara County. She ended up doing a lateral transfer to county mental health and then moved to southern California in 1978, where she worked as a director of mental health services for a health maintenance organization in South Los Angeles and Orange County. She accomplished many things in this role including being a key player in developing outpatient mental health programs, being one of the first HMOs to market to Medicare, contracting for inpatient and substance treatment programs, and also developed a social work component of skilled nursing in home care. When she left that position, the organization was in the process of building a hospital. She worked for a total of 15 years in mental health.
When she moved back to northern California, she began a teaching position at Sacramento State University and was also providing clinical services for the Easter Seal Society — amongst other jobs. She said, “At one point in time I think I had four jobs.”
After working for a judge in the Juvenile Dependency Courts and then back at DCFS, she went to work as the Title IVE Project Coordinator at Berkeley and then ended up retiring from there in 2007. She also taught at San Jose State part time for over 16 years. She retired from Santa Clara County in 1997.
“I have been privileged to work with clients who gave me the opportunity to work with them to improve their situations and conditions. My life has been enriched by the opportunities it has given me,” she says.
Gilson is extremely accomplished but what she is most proud of is her involvement with national recruitment for Santa Clara County — for which she helped staff entirely with MSWs. She also is proud that she has established a Field Instructors Recognition Fund at UC Berkeley and Sacramento State University — which enables both of those universities to recognize their field instructors. She was a founder of the Translational Social Work Practice/Research Roundtable at Sacramento State — a full day seminar at the alumni center with speakers and panels.
Gilson explained that when she was in school, joining NASW was a privilege. She said, “NASW has provided opportunities for finding out what’s going on nationally, for giving me a vehicle for which our voice could be heard … to travel, to see different parts of the country and internationally.”
For her future in social work, she would like to, “keep myself on track” and take part in “whatever else NASW may have that I can help out with. I suspect many social workers never leave. We practice our profession in many ways … maybe we have ‘social work’ tattooed on us someplace. I think we are approachable people.”
Jolene Hui, LCSW, is NASW-CA’s membership coordinator and can be reached at jhui@naswca.org.
