VISIONS CEO Receives NASW Lifetime Achievement Award
VISIONS Executive Director and CEO Nancy D. Miller has received NASW’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her decades of work helping thousands of people in New York who are blind or visually impaired live active, independent lives.
“Ms. Miller is a powerful social worker and advocate who has shown the public that people who are blind or visually impaired can make tremendous contributions to our society,” said NASW CEO Angelo McClain, PhD, LICSW. “She has also been an advocate for members of this community, ensuring that they get the services they need to live fulfilled lives.”
Miller, LMSW, has led VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, for 35 years. The nonprofit organization, which has more than 100 employees and a $10.7 million budget, provides programs to more than 7,000 children, youth, adults, and older adults living with vision loss and their families in New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and the Lower Hudson Valley.
The NASW Lifetime Achievement Award goes to social workers who, among other things, have demonstrated repeated outstanding achievements; garnered recognition beyond the social work profession; made contributions of lasting impact; and shown outstanding creativity.
Kentucky Chapter Director Highlighted for Politics, Government Work
Brenda Rosen, executive director of the NASW Kentucky Chapter, has been chosen among The Kentucky Gazette’s 2022 Notable Women in Kentucky Politics and Government. Rosen, MSW, CSW, ACHP-SW, has spent more than four decades as a social worker in medical settings, hospice, bereavement and pediatric oncology, the article notes.
She has taught at the University of Kentucky College of Social Work for 10 years, receiving two A Teacher Who Made a Difference awards from the UK College of Education. Rosen has testified on numerous issues and shares that her decades of work with hospice motivates her because “life is not a dress rehearsal,” she told the Gazette.
She said she is proud the Kentucky Chapter was engaged in advocacy with state social workers and Gov. Andy Beshear to improve salaries for the state’s social workers.
Rosen also has volunteered and served on boards with numerous nonprofits and animal charities throughout her career.
Head of Arizona Chapter Recognized for Behavioral Health, LGBTQIA+ Health Advocacy
NASW Arizona Chapter Executive Director Brandie Reiner has received two awards for her advocacy work in behavioral health and LBGTQIA+ social determinants of health.
She received the Up-and-Coming Leader award from the Let’s Get Better Together Conference: A Quality Look at Healthcare, which focuses on LGBTQIA+ health. The LGBTQ Behavioral Health Coalition of Southern Arizona and the Queer Resource Collective host the conference.
The second award is from the Arizona State University Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy. This year, Reiner received the Leadership in Advocacy award, which recognizes her as an individual who has championed policies that enhance behavioral health services in Arizona. The awards have been given to individuals and agencies throughout the state for their significant contributions to the improvement, access, and impact of behavioral health care.