Marjorie Sable, University of Missouri School of Social Work
This letter serves as my intent to apply for the position of Dean of the School of Social Work at
Portland State University. After reviewing the position description and the School’s website I
believe that my background and experience are well-suited to this position.
I have served as Director of the University Of Missouri School Of Social Work since September,
2008, and as Interim Director from 2007-2008. Prior to that I served as Associate Dean for
Research and Graduate Studies for the College of Human Environmental Sciences (in which the
School of Social Work is housed) from 2003-2008. As Director of the School of Social Work I
oversee the administration of a 2 million dollar budget and the day-to-day operation of the
School. We have a Title IV-E training grant, for which I am ultimately responsible. I also work
with the Alumni Association, the Professional Advisory Committee, and with the College’s
development officer on development-related projects. I work closely with the Dean and with the
other five unit-heads (all department chairs) of the College. I previously served as Director of
Doctoral Studies and am committed to quality doctoral education in Social Work.
I have really enjoyed doing development work and have increased the attention to this at the
School. I have worked to get four scholarships endowed since I became director and have two
others in process. After becoming director I reconstituted the School’s inactive Development
Council to assist with development efforts, including a capital campaign to renovate a building
on campus that has been promised to the School once its current occupants have vacated the
premises. Most recently we held a fund raising event, Helmet Heroes, to raise money to endow a
scholarship in military social work. The event grossed $30,000 through auction items,
sponsorships and direct contributions to the scholarship. While this may not seem like a lot, it
was the first fund-raising event of its kind in the School’s history! We had extraordinary
publicity for the event that served to raise the profile of the School in the community.
In my prior position of Associate Dean I served on the university’s Council of Research
Administrators, interacted regularly with the Vice Chancellor for Research, the Dean of the
Graduate School, and the Provost, as well as with numerous campus committees. I helped to
build an infrastructure to support faculty with development grant proposals and obtaining
external funding. For example, I hired a Grantwriter for the College and later added a Grants and
Contracts Specialist to assist with the fiscal aspects of budget building and compliance issues so
that the Grantwriter could focus more on proposal development and skill-building. As the
“graduate studies” dean I served as the College liaison to the Graduate School. I helped to bring
an on-line graduate program to the College. The Great Plains Interactive Distance Education
(IDEA) Program is a collaborative distance education endeavor with 10 other universities.
Under my leadership the School has begun an initiative in military social work. A Graduate
Certificate in Military Social Work was recently approved and we will begin coursework for that
in the Fall of 2011. We recently sponsored a summit entitled Meeting the Needs of Veterans and
Military Families: A Summit for Health and Human Services Professionals, which I hope will
become an annual event. There were 170 social workers, nurses, physicians and other helping
professionals in attendance to hear national and statewide speakers, including the Adjudant
General of the Missouri National Guard. This summit was held the day after the fundraiser to
raise money for the scholarship in military social work. The School has also started a Center for
Education and Research for Veterans and Military Families. I am committed to providing
training for our students to help prepare them to meet the behavioral and physical health needs of
our veterans and military families.
I was particularly excited to learn of the community partnerships and interdisciplinary work
conducted by the PSU faculty and by the dual MSW/MPH degree with Public Health.
My research as always been interdisciplinary in nature and I have conducted collaborative
research with community partners such as Centro Latino de Salud, the Columbia-Boone County
Health Department, and the Family Health Center in my research on “Improving Family
Planning Outreach and Services for Hispanic immigrants.” I have collaborated with researchers
from the Schools of Nursing, Medicine, Public Health, and the Departments of Human
Development and Family Studies, and Psychological Sciences here at Missouri. I have also
conducted collaborative research with colleagues at the Schools of Public Health in North
Carolina and at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa.
Several years ago I was appointed by the Provost to serve on an ad hoc committee to develop a
Public Health Program here at the University of Missouri and I am pleased that this program was
launched in the summer of 2007 and accredited in October, 2010. I helped develop the
curriculum for the Disease Control and Prevention track for the program. Even before I became
the Interim Director for the School of Social Work, I helped design the requirements for a
potential MSW-MPH degree. Now that the Public Health program has been accredited we will
seek official approval for the dual degree from the Graduate School. I am also working with the
Law School to finalize the development of a dual MSW-JD degree.
I was very pleased to read about the 10 guiding principles of the PSU School of Social Work.
My research and practice experience has encompassed each of these principles and it has all been
based on the pursuit of social justice. For example, my work in South Africa is a collaborative
partnership to inform evidence-based interventions to prevent the spread of HIV. Foremost
among these is the fostering of women’s empowerment. I began my social work career in the
field of reproductive health and rights, working as a counselor at Planned Parenthood. These
positions taught me political skills as we learned advocacy skills for working with elected
officials. Later, as an obstetrics social worker at a university medical center that served the state,
I developed educational classes for pregnant teens in collaboration with a nurse practitioner. This
was before Medicaid expansion to serve pregnant women above the AFDC level, so uninsured
pregnant women came to the university from all over the state if they were unable to obtain
prenatal care. Part of my job included working with the county health nurses to coordinate
discharge planning for these women and babies, and it was this work led me to pursue a
doctorate in Public Health, with an emphasis in Maternal and Child Health.
My practice experience has informed my research and policy-practice interests. Having seen first
hand the consequences of lack of access to health services, I worked as a Research Analyst at the
Missouri Department of Health where I conducted a study on barriers to prenatal care in
Missouri. Following completion of that study I became the Bureau Chief for the Department’s
Bureau of Perinatal and Child Health and administered funds for prenatal care, family planning,
child and adolescent health, SIDS, and other programs of the Bureau. I also directed the Minority
Infant Mortality project in the Bootheel region of Missouri—an area where black infant mortality
statistics are comparable to those in the developing world. I was extremely pleased to see that
PSU is recruiting for someone to fill an endowed chair in health disparities.
I have continued conducting research that focuses on access to care (with particular emphasis on
psychosocial barriers to care), prevention of unintended pregnancy, and improved pregnancy and
child outcomes. I have also published on the topic of domestic violence and pregnancy, and on
the implications of domestic violence for welfare-to-work programs. With a grant from the
Missouri Foundation for Health, I conducted a study on barriers to family planning among
Hispanic immigrants in Missouri. I am a co-investigator on a two recently completed needs
assessments funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health. One addressed the perceived
reproductive health needs of Missouri women, and the other examined the perceived health
needs of rural women over age 50. This latter research focused on chronic diseases.
In recent years my research has also focused on pregnancy intention in the context of HIV/AIDS
in South Africa, with a focus on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. I have
been collaborating with colleagues at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South
Africa, and in 2007 I oversaw the conduct of focus groups in rural KwaZulu Natal province,
where the prevalence of HIV is 40 percent.
Sincerely,
Marjorie R. Sable, DrPH, MSW
Professor and Director