NASW Foundation National Programs

NASW Social Work Pioneers^®

Nancy A. Humphreys

Nancy Humphreys was president of the National Association of Social Workers from 1979 to 1981. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles and has served as dean of the Michigan State University and the University of Connecticut schools of social work and assistant dean at Rutgers University. She also helped establish BSW and MSW programs at Yerevan State University in the Republic of Armenia. She founded and directed the Political Social Work Practice and is a highly lauded public speaker.

She has earned recognition from the New Jersey, Connecticut and California NASW chapters and was the second woman to be elected national NASW president. She has served on more than 17 commissions and task forces and was an appointee of two governors as well as President Jimmy Carter. Through Humphreys' work as professor and founding director of the Advancement of Political Social Work at the University of Connecticut, she has trained several hundred social workers to work in political campaigns.

She is a true visionary in her work in the area of political social work, where she has broken new ground for the profession. She has also been a leader in higher education, the profession's leading orator and a staunch supporter of NASW throughout her career.