NASW Foundation National Programs

NASW Social Work Pioneers^®

Jesse Harris (1935- )

Dr. Jesse Harris’s more than twenty-year career as a U.S. Army social worker culminated in his appointment as Chief of Social Work Services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Social Work Consultant to the Army Surgeon General, making him the top ranked social worker in the army. The respect, positions of influence and leadership, and rich array of role possibilities for social work in the military are due in no small measure to the efforts and careful stewardship of Jesse Harris. Even when retired from active duty, and busy with responsibilities as Dean of the School of Social Work, University of Maryland, at Baltimore, Dr. Harris organized and directed support efforts for families of military personnel in "Desert Storm."

Dr. Harris holds a broad view of clinical social work practice in relation to health and mental health, and its requisite high level of clinical skills. This view he has promoted and implemented in programs encompassing soldiers and their families around the globe. It now infuses the mission and service of the social work outreach center he established at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. The Center’s target population are the children and families of one of Baltimore’s neediest communities. Under his leadership, the Center has developed links with the Medical School, the Baltimore Public School System, the Department of Housing, and other city agencies.

Dr. Harris is well noted for being a warm, involved, and supportive commander and leader. This has been true as a soldier and as a dean, two remarkably different administrative circumstances. Jesse Harris has the ability to lead without dominating, and the skills of decisiveness and taking action while bringing others along. He is energetic and enthusiastic, and has taken on professional and community commitments that would wear out two other individuals.

In 1960, Dr. Harris received an MS degree in Psychology from Howard University, an MSW degree in 1971 and a PhD in 1976 from the University of Maryland at Baltimore.

Dr. Harris has been awarded two Army Commendation Medals, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Surgeon General’s "A" designator, and the Army Legion of Merit. He was named Alumnus of the Year in 1989 by the University of Maryland School of Social Work; Clinical Social Work Educator of the Year in 1993 by the Maryland Society for Clinical Social Work; Knee/Wittman Lifetime Achievement in Health and Mental Health Practice in 1996 by the NASW Foundation; and Distinguished Black Marylander Award from Towson State University. Dr. Harris has been a member of NASW since 1971.

Social Work Pioneer - 1998