Download the 2009 Hartford Annual Report pdf How Social Workers
Assist Older Adults
View the Interactive Chart
Strategy 1

Cultivate Academic Leaders in Gerontological
Education and Research

Accomplishing the overall goal of the Geriatric Social Work Initiative—to prepare social workers to serve an aging population—would not be possible without the leadership and influence of faculty who specialize in gerontological education and research. Doctorally-prepared professors conduct research, teach future social work practitioners, and recruit students into their specialty. When the Hartford Foundation made its first faculty development grant in geriatric social work (SAGE-SW), there was a severe shortage of social work faculty specializing in and promoting gerontology.

(Above) Hartford Doctoral Fellows Poster Session Exposition at the Annual Meeting of The Gerontological Society of America, held in November 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia.

In addition, gerontological social work research was very limited due to scant funding and little university support or opportunity for social work research in aging. Federal and foundation funding for social work emphasized other topics. This resulted in a lack of evidence-based research regarding the value of gerontological social work.

To support social work faculty who address issues around aging, the Hartford Foundation provided $24.3 million in funding to the Gerontological Society of America for the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program (www.gswi.org/programs/hfs.html). In 1999, the program began with the first cohort of 10 scholars and enrolled its tenth cohort in 2009. The project is led by Barbara J. Berkman, DSW/PhD, Helen Rehr/Ruth Fizdale Professor of Health and Mental Health, Columbia University School of Social Work.

Hartford-Funded Faculty Scholars and Doctoral Fellows Become Academic Leaders Who Improve Care for Older Adults

Hartford Doctoral Fellows

A total of 84 Doctoral Fellows from 22 states and 35 universities have received grants. Seventeen of these Doctoral Fellows have become Faculty Scholars. When they graduate, Doctoral Fellows tend to take positions in research institutions.

Hartford Faculty Scholars

A total of 100 Faculty Scholars in 33 states and 62 universities have been funded. They are emerging as accomplished researchers, role models, tenured educators, and leaders in the field.


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