NASW Foundation National Programs

NASW Social Work Pioneers^®

Eleanor Morris (1913- )

Eleanor Morris has been a leader in the development of federal and state programs for the elderly. She spent twenty years in the New York Regional Office (Region II) of the Department of Health and Human Services (formerly the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) primarily as the regional program director of the Administration on Aging.

Her social work career began in the San Francisco Relief Commission (1929-1935). She then became a social work staff member at the San Francisco Department of Health. During World War II, she went to American Red Cross in the European theater as assistant field director of the Division of Hospitals. Her work with the American Red Cross continued stateside after the war at Madigan Hospital. In 1948, she received her master of social work degree from the University of California. In 1951, she became the medical consultant for the Tuberculosis Control program in the Oregon Health Department. She joined the U.S. Public Health Service in 1955 as a medical social consultant with the Heart Disease Control program.

Throughout her career, Morris has served on many professional committees and task forces, where she has contributed her vision of social work practice in working with the problems of disease, disability, and aging. She has been active in NASW, Council on Social Work Education, American Public Welfare Association, and American Public Health Association. Since her retirement in 1980, she has continued to serve on committees concerned with social work in the field of aging. She currently resides in New York City.