SSW Celebrates the Careers and Contributions of Retiring Faculty
The School of Social Work celebrates the incredible careers and contributions of Megan Morrissey, Jean Quam, and Mark Umbreit who will each retire this spring.
Dr. Megan Morrissey has a long history at the School of Social Work (SSW) as a student, administrator, and educator. She will retire after 30 years of service in May 2022. Dr. Morrissey completed a Master of Social Work degree in 1987 and PhD in 1997, both from SSW. In addition, she held three key leadership positions beginning with Director of MSW Admissions from 1992 to 1999, followed by Director of the MSW Program from 2000 to 2021, and Associate Director of the School since 2007. Trained as a social welfare historian, Dr. Morrissey has taught required history courses in the master’s and doctoral programs as well as courses in social welfare policy and social work macro practice and community organizing.
Dr. Morrissey has been actively involved in local and national professional organizations such as the National Association of Social Workers, the Council on Social Work Education, and the Minnesota Conference on Social Work Education where she served as President for two terms. Dr. Morrissey has an unwavering commitment to providing financial support to social work students. She was instrumental in initiating the Community Health Initiative Scholarship program in collaboration with Medica and the University’s Office for Business and Community Economic Development, which has funded approximately 200 students since its inception in 2007. Nearly all of these students completed their internship training in private, non-profit social work agencies that primarily serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and underserved communities.
In addition, she worked with the Minnesota Social Service Association to develop guidelines and criteria for awarding their social work diversity scholarship. One of Dr. Morrissey most notable accomplishments during her tenure in the School of Social Work was to successfully lead the School’s MSW Program through four accreditation cycles, in 1997, 2005, 2013, and most recently, in 2021.
Dr. Morrissey plans to spend her retirement years outdoors, hiking, biking, kayaking, and skiing.
Dr. Jean Quam was Professor and former Dean of the College of Education and Human Development. She retired in January 2022. Dr. Quam joined the University of Minnesota School of Social Work (SSW) as an Assistant Professor in 1980. Over the course of her career that has spanned more than four decades, she established a sterling legacy as a faculty member, researcher, academic leader, and social work educator. Dr. Quam’s scholarly work has focused on social work practice with older adults, and particularly on the needs of aging GLBTQ-identified persons. In 1991, she became Director of the School and went on to raise funds for the School to move into its own building on the St. Paul campus. Under her leadership, the school established distance education programs around the state and built a strong portfolio of endowed scholarship funds. She created several projects that directly benefitted social work students and social work services.
As an Assistant Professor, Dr. Quam and four faculty members responded to a need for housing and services for older adults with severe mental health disorders. They established an agency called Community Care Corporation that created two homes to provide housing and services for the target population and offer field placements for students interested in mental health. The organization, known today as Touchstone Mental Health, continues this pioneering work today with multiple sites. In 1992, Dr. Quam and Professor Esther Wattenberg created SSW’s Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare that collaborated with the state of Minnesota to use Federal Title IV-E funds to support hundreds of
social work students who were interested in child welfare. The Center has funded between 30 and 50 social work students per year and supported regional undergraduate social work programs to develop opportunities to support BSW-prepared social workers to enter the child welfare field.
In 2006, after 16 years as director of the School of Social Work, Dr. Quam agreed to serve as the Senior Associate Dean in the University’s newly reorganized “New College of Education and Human Development,” which became the academic home for the School of Social Work. Two years later, she was appointed Dean; a position in which she served for over 11 years. Dr. Quam stepped down from her role as collegiate dean in 2020 and returned to a position on the social work faculty.
During her tenure as Dean, she raised over $100 million for the college, secured funding from the Legislature to construct a new building for the Institute of Child Development, combined a developmental child care center with a laboratory school and secured funding for a renovated building, and worked with the Medical School to establish the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain. She also built the most diverse faculty and student body at the university. Dr. Quam has also served in leadership roles for several prominent social work organizations, including the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE), and the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work (NADD).
Dr. Quam continues to stay connected to the School of Social Work and remains active in the social work
community.
Dr. Mark Umbreit is a Professor and founding Director in 1994 of the Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota, School of Social Work (SSW). He was a doctoral student in social work at the University from 1985-1987, and then served as a Research Director in the Center for Youth Development and Research in the SSW from 1987-1990. Dr. Umbreit joined the social work faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1990. He is an internationally recognized practitioner and scholar with more than 40 years of experience as a facilitator of dialogue, peacemaker, trainer, teacher, researcher. Dr. Umbreit is the author of 12 books and has more than 200 other publications in the fields of restorative justice, mediation, spirituality, forgiveness, and peacemaking.
Over the past three decades, Dr. Umbreit has provided consultation and conducted training seminars and lectures in 29 countries and nearly every state in the U.S. Most recently, he has worked with colleagues in Brazil, Japan, Taiwan, Northern Ireland, Italy, Liberia, and Israel/Palestine on peace building initiatives. Dr. Umbreit served as a Senior International Consultant with the United Nations Development Program and the Ministry of Justice in Turkey to support their legislative efforts to implement victim offender mediation throughout the country. In September of 2019, the International Association of Schools of Social Work recognized Dr. Umbreit among the 50 most notable social workers in American history, based on his global impact as a practitioner and scholar. He was also ranked among the 50 most influential contemporary social work faculty in the U.S. by the Journal of Social Service Research, based on the depth and range of his work as a practitioner and scholar.
Dr. Umbreit will continue now as Co-Director, with Dr. Emily Gaarder at the University of Minnesota – Duluth (UMD), of the Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking at the UMD campus. In retirement, Dr. Umbreit plans to continue teaching, consulting, and mentoring younger colleagues and former students committed to restorative justice practice and research.
The SSW thanks each of these faculty for their years of service!