The board of directors of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, or AASWSW, recently announced 11 new inductees.

Richard Barth, president of the AASWSW board and professor and dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland, said the new inductees raise the academy’s membership to 40.

“In this exceptional entering class — the first to have undergone the strict selection procedures created by the Academy Board and Nominations Committee last year — are scholars with experience leading more than 200 research studies with local, state or federal funding from scores of government agencies and private foundations,” Barth said in a statement.

He said the new fellows “bring extraordinary capacity to assist the academy with the tasks that lie ahead: continuing to nominate and elect new members to the academy, but more significantly, to shape the academy’s agenda for advancing our role as a contributor to national debate on issues critical to social work and social welfare.”

The new fellows are:

1. John Brekke, University of Southern California;
2. Nabila El-Bassel, Columbia University;
3. Jeffrey L. Edleson, University of Minnesota;
4. Ronald Feldman, Columbia University;
5. Nancy Hooyman, University of Washington;
6. Jeffrey Jenson, University of Denver;
7. James Lubben, Boston College;
8. Edward J. Mullen, Columbia University;
9. Deborah Padgett, New York University;
10. Robert F. Schilling II, University of California-Los Angeles; and
11. Steven P. Schinke, Columbia University.

AASWSW is an honorific society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in the field of social work and social welfare.

According to its website, AASWSW seeks to:

• Encourage and recognize outstanding research, scholarship and practice that contribute to a sustainable, equitable and just future;
• Inform social policy by serving as a frontline source of information for the social work profession as well as Congress and other government agencies and nongovernment entities charged with advancing the public good;
• Promote the examination of social policy and the application of research to test alternative policies, programs and practices for their impact on society; and
• Celebrate excellence in social work and social welfare research, education and practice.