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MSW student Jenny Gadd wins NASW-NC Advocacy Award

Jenny Gadd is the recipient of the 2013 Myrna Miller Wellons Advocacy Award, given by the National Association of Social Workers North Carolina Chapter (NASW-NC).

Gadd was selected by the group’s Legislative Committee to receive this award, for her persistent advocacy efforts to promote higher quality services within adult mental health group homes following proposed changes to group home funding under North Carolina’s Department of Justice Settlement.

She worked with advocacy groups in the state to respond to the state’s settlement to protect the individuals who were most affected by the changes. She was regularly seen at the North Carolina General Assembly attending the Blue Ribbon Commission appointed to oversee the settlement. Gadd’s work with this important policy issue inspired her colleagues, professors and fellow students.

The Myrna Miller Wellons Advocacy Award is given annually to an individual who has demonstrated a strong passion to advocate for the social work profession and/or policy issues. It is named for past NASW-NC government relations staff member, and UNC School of Social Work alumna, Myrna Miller

Wellons, MSW ’96. Wellons was an advocate for social work issues and a mentor to many social workers across the state, and died unexpectedly in 2010.
Gadd is a student in our Triangle Distance Education MSW Program. She is employed by Alberta Professional Services, of Greensboro.

A group home manager, she is featured in a Jan. 29 WRAL-TV news story with video,  “Medicaid bureaucracy pinching some NC group homes,” and quoted in a Jan. 16 Indy Week story, “General Assembly faces mental health reform.