NASW CEO and NASW Foundation President Angelo McClain, photo right, presents the NASW Foundation Knee/Wittman Lifetime Achievement Award to Kathy Ell at a ceremony held at the University of Southern California in November.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to an individual who has had a significant impact on national health or mental health public policy, professional standards or program models.

Ell, who has been an NASW member for 49 years, is the senior researcher for the USC Center for Innovation and Research for Veterans and Military Families, and co-director of the Office of Community Engagement of the USC Clinical and Transitional Science Institute.

In addition to serving as the first Ernest P. Larson Professor of Health, Ethnicity, and Poverty at the USC School of Social Work, Ell has worked in hospitals and other health care settings. She has focused on low-income and ethnically diverse populations, particularly the underserved Hispanic communities in the Los Angeles area.

She has championed the integration of social work research in the real-world settings of health care provision, and her efforts have shaped practices in the provision of social work care.

See the full article by USC on Ell’s award.