Ann Hartman ’47

Alumnae Achievement Awards 2000

Social Work Scholar and Practitioner, Educator

Ann Hartman ’47 is a visiting professor at Fordham University School of Social Service and dean/professor emerita of the Smith College School of Social Work. She is a noted expert in family therapy and social work theory and practice.

Training and Social Work
A philosophy major at Wellesley, Hartman entered the field of social work after completing a year of postgraduate study at the University of Chicago.

From 1950 to 1953, she was a caseworker for the Summit County Child Welfare Board in Akron, Ohio, and in 1954, she received her M.S.W. from the Smith College School of Social Work.

Hartman continued her casework at the Community Service Society in New York City and the Mid-Nassau Community Mental Health Center in Hicksville, N.Y. From 1958 to 1966, Hartman served as executive director of the Southeast Nassau Guidance Center.

While working towards her Ph.D. at Columbia University in the late 1960s, Hartman consulted part-time at the Family Service Association of Nassau County and taught social-work theory and practice at Fordham University.

Academia
Hartman received her D.S.W. in 1972 and was recruited to the University of Michigan faculty in 1974. During her 12-year tenure there, Hartman co-founded the Ann Arbor Center for the Family, a training and research center focusing on family social-work practice. She also directed the National Child Welfare Training Center.

In 1986, Hartman left Michigan to become dean of the School of Social Work at Smith College. The school's program alternates intensive summer academic sessions with periods of supervised clinical practice. It earned a high level of recognition during Hartman's tenure, culminating in a national top-10 ranking.

Research and Authorship
Hartman's research focuses on families and family-center practice, child welfare, education in child welfare, adoption, and the history of social-work theory and ideology. She is the author or editor of five books, including Family Centered Social Work Practice, which is a standard text on family practice for social-work educators.

In tribute to Hartman's contributions to social work, the NASW published Reflection and Controversy in 1994, a collection of her most acclaimed editorials.

Kudos
Hartman's work as a child and family advocate and teacher has been widely recognized. She has received honorary degrees from Tulane University and Smith College, as well as the Significant Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council on Social Work Education.

Other awards include Case Western University's Herman Stein Distinguished Social Work Educator Award; the Greatest Contribution to Social Work Education Award from the Massachusetts Chapter of the NASW; and the Distinguished American Social Worker Award from the University of Cincinnati.

Selected Books by Ann Hartman
Out of the Arms of Mothers
Reflection and Controversy
Working with Adoptive Families: Beyond placement
Finding Families: An ecological approach to family assessment in adoption