Lori Messinger, MSW ’96, Ph.D. ’99, delivered the Ron Federico Memorial Lecture at the 2010 Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Conference in Atlanta. The talk was entitled “Lift Every Voice: Using Music to Inspire Students to Engage in Social Action.”
A mix of lecture and singing, the presentation reviewed the history of music in social movements and the ways that this music can educate and inspire students for social action. She led a choir of social work educators and students in singing social justice music from the abolitionist, suffrage, civil rights, and LGBT movements in the United States, as well as the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. The highlight of the presentation was when the audience stood as one and sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” UNC Ph.D. alumna Tanya Brice sang in the choir. UNC SSW’s Iris Carlton-LaNey also attended the lecture.
Messinger has also been named as a CSWE Senior Scholar for 2010-2011. While on sabbatical in Fall 2010, she will be conducting a research project on assessing social work students’ ability to provide culturally competent practice with LGBT populations.
The CSWE Council on Leadership Development (CLD) has awarded Messinger a 2010 CSWE Summer Leadership Scholarship to attend The Harvard Management Development Program this summer. This program is a joint effort with the Harvard Institutes of Higher Education (HIHE) for the participation of CSWE-recommended members in HIHE summer residential sessions. Five scholarships were awarded for deans, associate deans, directors, program directors and administrators to participate in the Harvard programs.
Messinger is an associate professor and the director of the BSW program at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare.
