NASW-CA Celebrates the 4th Annual Social Work Day at Petco Park

By S. Jolene Hui, LCSW, NASW-CA Director of Membership

On Saturday, April 23, 2016, NASW-CA, as part of the San Diego Partnership for Professional Social Workers, celebrated the 4th Annual Social Work Day at Petco Park.

Three “Outstanding Social Worker” awards were given and one NASW-CA member was honored for her extensive time in the social work profession.

Left to right: Helen Robins Meyer, Joaquin Anguera, Audrey Swartz, Maureen Piwowarski, Ray Schwartz, Denise Nelesen, Pam Smith, and Nick Macchione

The partnership includes NASW-CA, California State University–San Marcos, San Diego State University School of Social Work, Point Loma Nazarene University, USC School of Social Work, The County of San Diego and the California Society for Clinical Social Work.

This year’s theme, “Social Workers: Enhancing Healthy Aging,” was created to represent the work that social workers engage in with our aging and older adult populations.

Prior to the Padres versus Cardinals MLB game, awardees and other invitees participated in a special pre-game ceremony onsite at the park. Pam Smith, Director of Aging and Independence Services for the county of San Diego, served as the Master of Ceremonies and Joaquin Anguera gave the keynote speech for the ceremony. Anguera has been working for and with older adults in San Diego for more than 30 years. He was the Division Chief at Aging and Independence Service from 1988 to 2004 where he was responsible for programs funded through the Older Americans Act, namely nutrition, caregiver and health promotion. Governor Jerry Brown recently appointed him to the California Commission on Aging. He is currently a professor of Gerontology at San Diego State University.

Outstanding Social Worker awards were given to Maureen Piwowarski, Ray Schwartz and Denise Nelesen.

Piwowarski is Chief Clinical Officer at Serving Seniors. She developed a number of critical services for the older adult population including a supportive housing model for the agency’s two residential housing complexes. Most recently, she has overseen the development of a comprehensive geriatric assessment that will be used to triage care coordination services at her agency’s new Gary and Mary West Senior Dental Center.

Schwartz, an army veteran originally from Brooklyn, worked for San Diego County for 30 years starting in 1978, where he was a program manager and practicing clinician. He also worked at the Balboa Navy Medical Center and served as a teacher, lecturer and consultant.

Nelesen, an LCSW with a background in journalism, was the communications manager for the County’s Aging and Independence Services from 1999 until her retirement this past March. Throughout the years she has been an advocate for the older adult population and has worked to fight elder abuse by joining with the District Attorney’s Office on various projects. She is known for her column in the San Diego Union Tribune called “Seniority,” that ran from 1998 to2005.

In addition to the three above social workers, NASW-CA honored one of their top five most senior association members in Region E—Audrey Swartz. Swartz has been a member of NASW since 1958. She was the San Diego County Psychiatric Social Worker of the Year in 1995 and has a career that spans correctional work, work with children and families, universities, community-based agencies as well as work with the county.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, prior to the game, a select number of participants were chosen to go on the field, and keynote speaker Anguero was able to throw an honorary first pitch.

Previous years have highlighted other types of social work including military social work and work with children and families.

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