BRYN MAWR

Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research

Faculty, Staff and School News

Virginia McIntosh, instructor and field instruction liaison, honored with Outstanding Leader Award by her alma mater, University of Pennsylvania .

From UPenn newsletter:

When Ellen Becker Scharff, SW'67 nominated fellow [UPenn] alumna Virginia McIntosh , SW'69, LCSW, B.C.D., for the SP² Alumni Association's Outstanding Leader award, she wrote, “In her quiet, non-demanding but persistent way she is constantly contributing to the social work profession, leading to the growth of the profession for the betterment of social workers and clients as well.”

As it turns out, the list of ways in which Ginny has contributed to the social work profession is quite extensive. Since 1976, she has had a private practice, and has provided psychotherapy to adults, couples, and adolescents. During a recent discussion about her practice, she laughed as she pointed out that it seems as if her clientele gets older as she gets older. As a new social worker, she was a child welfare worker at Philadelphia Society to Protect Children, where she was involved in the pilot project which led to the agency becoming Philadelphia Services to Parents and Children. It was because of the encouragement of her Penn-alum supervisors at PSPC that Ginny enrolled in the MSW program at Penn. She feels her Penn education has stood by her throughout her career.

In addition to private practice, Ginny is actively involved in the field of clinical social work through her participation in a number of professional associations. For the PA Society for Clinical Social Work [PSCSW], Ginny served as membership chair, education chair (making her in charge of the 3 year post-graduate Institute that PSCSW sponsored), and most notably, she served as the President of PSCSW from 1997 to 2001. During this period there was a challenge to our Licensing Law, and Ginny was thrust into leading complicated negotiations in a leadership role in the PA Social Work Coalition, with the Professional Counselors and the Marriage and Family Therapists who wanted access to the Social Work Licensing Board. This became the opportunity for clinical social workers to attain recognition with the designation of Licensed Clinical Social Worker –LCSW. Clinical Social Workers had been delivering 60% of the mental health and substance abuse services in this state without this needed recognition and without third party reinbursement.

Outside of her clinical practice, Ginny furthers the profession by teaching social work students in various areas of practice. While the majority of her teaching has been at the Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, she has been on the faculty of the Gestalt Institute of Philadelphia since 2002. When she first studied Gestalt Therapy Theory (1985), she felt right at home with the theory because it fit extremely well with her functional education at Penn in 1969. “They are unbelievely congruent.” Additionally, she has instructed a number of continuing education courses, ranging from “Depression Diagnosis and Treatment” to “Introduction to Gestalt Therapy” and “Clinical Supervision.” She also shares her professional knowledge and experience with recent social work graduates, by offering low-fee supervision to new professionals seeking clinical licensure. As Ginny points out, this means she does “a lot of supervision.”

Since 1969, she has been a member of NASW (National Association of Social Workers); since 1988 she has been a member of the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work. Furthermore, she has served in the Pennsylvania Social Work Coalition, and on the Boards of the Clinical Social Work Federation (Treasurer), Family Service of Philadelphia, and the Family Planning Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

In addition to all of her professional accomplishments, one of the things that makes Ginny an Outstanding Leader is the deep respect and admiration she has for social workers and the social work profession. She recently expressed her sentiments about her professional colleagues, saying that she “feels very strongly that clinical social workers do very good work” but pointing out that they often underestimate the value of their own work. The Alumni Association Board of Directors and the SP² Alumni Relations Office believe Ginny has provided “exceptional leadership and significant contributions to the social work profession throughout the course of [her] career,” as outlined in the criteria for the Outstanding Leader Award. The School of Social Policy & Practice is very pleased to extend this award to Ginny McIntosh.