Simmons College School of Social Work Associate Professor and former NASW President Gary Bailey recently brought students from his social policy class to the nation’s capital to see firsthand where and how national policy is made.

The trip ended with a tour of the NASW national office near Capitol Hill, where students got to meet Federal Labor Relations Authority Chairperson Carol Waller Pope (left), a trustee of Simmons College and an alumnus of its School of Social Work in Boston. Pope explained how her skills as a social worker are assets in her current work.

Students also heard from Simmons alumnus Kathy Lopes (right), the one-time D.C. schools social worker who in 2007 first alerted authorities to possible domestic abuse of 17-year-old Brittany Jacks, who was later found dead along with her three sisters, all murdered by their mother, Banita Jacks. The case made national headlines and exposed systematic failures that, if avoided, could have prevented the murders.