Gary Bailey, MSW, ACSW
President International Federation of Social Workers
Past-President, National Association of Social Workers

Prof. Bailey

Q. Where did you earn your social work degree and what is your area of expertise?

I am a native of Cleveland, Ohio and I received my BA from the Eliot Pearson School of Child Study at Tufts University in 1977 and my MSW from Boston University School of Social Work in 1979.

I am currently an Assistant Professor at the Simmons College Graduate School of Social Work in Boston. I chair the Dynamics of Racism and Oppression foundation sequence.

I am also a member of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) / Hartford Foundation Gero Education Initiative to infuse gerontological content into curriculum. In addition, I am the Chair of the Simmons College Black Administrators, Faculty and Staff Council (BAFAS); and the School of Social Work (SSW) Awards committee. I am also a member of the President’s Inaugural Committee. I hold an appointment as an adjunct Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health.

I have served on numerous Boards and Advisory groups including the Advisory committees for the Massachusetts Departments of Mental Health and Social Services. I chaired the AIDS Action Committee of Boston Board of Directors and was co-chair of the Children’s Hospital Community Advisory Committee. I was a member of the boards of directors at the Phillip Brooks House at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Maternity and Foundling Hospital Foundation, United Homes for Children, the Wang Center for the Performing Arts, and the Center for Family Connections.

Q. Why did you choose social work as your profession?

I did not choose social work, social work chose me. I always knew that I wanted to work directly with people. My parents (especially my mother) were very much engaged at the community level and in retrospect my mother was a non-credentialed community organizer.

My parents who waited late to have my brother and myself by the standards of the day (I was born in 1955 but my parents were born in 1916 and 1919 respectively) they had grown up under the yoke of apartheid in this country and instilled in my brother and me a sense of pride in who they were and where we came from. They held us accountable  for making a difference and making a contribution which would lift us all up.

My parents had planned that I would be a physician and my brother and my younger brother an attorney. My brother practices the law (he is a public defender) and I went into social work. My mother would always say that I was “like ” a doctor and I always told her I felt that the social work profession for me was better than being a doctor.  I felt that I could help more people.

I was introduced to professional social work via a winter intersession course at Tufts University in 1977 taught by a social worker whose name is Jane Greenspan, MSW.    Hearing her talk about her work in this class opened a door for me which has never closed. I knew as I listened to the way   she described her work with people that this was what I was supposed to do. That plus the charge from my family to make a difference made it all come together.

Q. If you were able to make one lasting impact on the world, what would it be and what would be your strategy for achieving it?   

I would work to ensure that we as a people are continually both connected to our past and   focused on the future. So much of what has come before us has infused who we as Black peole are. My three great grandmothers were born slave yet they and my grandparents and parents visioned a world where a Gary Bailey as I know me to be is possible.

The strategy that has been a cornerstone of my life and one that I share with my students, friends and family is to be prepared to speak truth to ower at all times.

As Malcolm X said; “I’m for truth,no matter who tells it. I’m for justice no matter who it is for or against.If you do not stand for something you will fall for anything.”  

Emile Zola said If you ask me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”  

Our goals should include education, communication and constant self improvement.  

Professor Bailey is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He was named Social Worker of the Year by both the National and Massachusetts NASW in 1998. He was made a Social Work Pioneer ® (www.naswfoundation.org/pioneer) by NASW in 2005, making him the youngest individual to receive this honor, joining individuals such as Jane Adams, Whitney M. Young, and Simmons’ own Dr. Helen Reinherz.Professor Bailey received the Boston University School of Social Work Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Social Work in 1995. He received the Wayne S Wright Advocacy Award from the Multicultural AIDS Coalition in 1997; the Congressman Gerry Studds Visibility Award in 1996, and the Bayard Rustin Spirit Award from the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts in 1999.

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