Uncrowned Community Builders

Dr. Estella Norwood Evans, CSW, ACSW, Founding Director of the Greater Rochester Collaborative MSW Program and Professor of Social Work at Nazareth College of Rochester, has been a member of the Nazareth faculty since 1981. She chaired the Social Work Department from 1987 to 1997. She relinquished her role as Chair of the Social Work Department to develop the new MSW Program. This marks the first collaborative graduate MSW Program in the country between a private college and a public university, which recently achieved Candidacy status, the final phase in the initial accreditation process by the Council on Social Work Education. In January 1999 Dr. Norwood Evans was named the 1998-99 Phi Delta Kappa Educator of the Year by the local education fraternity. On the Nazareth College campus, she is a member of the Faculty Diversity Sub-Committee, the Health and Human Services Professions Committee, the Academic Standards Committee, and the MSW Social Work Advisory Committee.

Dr. Norwood Evans previously taught full-time in the Departments of Social Work at SUNY College at Brockport and the Hunter College School of Social Work, City University of New York. Prior to teaching she spent 12 years as a social worker in the New York City and Connecticut areas. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, her Masters degree in Social Work at the University of Connecticut, and her Ph.D. at Yeshiva University. She is a current accreditation site visitor for the Council on Social Work Education, the national social work accrediting body, as well as a site visitor for the New York State Education Department and was recently appointed by the President of the Council on Social Work Education to the CSWE Commission on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity. Dr. Norwood Evans is a current member of the Board of Christian Education, a past member of the Board of Trustees, and immediate past Co-Chair of the capital campaign which raised several million dollars to build a new sanctuary at Mt. Olivet Baptist Churchin Rochester. Within the community she is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross - Rochester Chapter, a member of the Board of Directors of Catholic Family Center, a member of the Advisory Committee of the Monroe Community College Human Services Program, and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Lend Grant, and interdisciplinary training grant based at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Her past Board memberships in the Rochester community are extensive and include: the National Association of Social Workers, Genesee Valley Division as past elected delegate (two terms) to the Delegate Assembly, the national elected policy making body of NASW, Chair of the Legislative Committee, and Division Representative to the State Board, past Board Member of The Legal Aid Society, Rochester Children's Nursery, Asbury Child Care Center, Hillside Children's Center, St. Joseph's Villa, the Baden Street Settlement Counseling Center, and the Southeast YMCA. She has published and delivered lectures, presentations, and workshops worldwide on social work and diversity issues, including Israel, Peru, the Netherlands, and Ghana, West Africa.
During the summer of 1999, Dr. Norwood Evans received the prestigious honor of representing the Greater Rochester Community of Churches, a city wide ecumenical body, on the interfaith team selected to study at the Yad Vashem International School for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem, Israel. She continues to provide lectures, workshops, and presentations as a holocaust educator in the greater Rochester community.

Dr. Norwood Evans was the 1995 recipient of the Rochester Community Service Award presented by the Tribute to Great Women Committee of the Rochester Community and she was a Ford Foundation National Fellow. She was the 1999 recipient of the Nazareth College Martin Luther King, Jr. Award. Additionally, Dr. Norwood Evans was recently appointed by Mayor William Johnson to serve on his Commission on Race and Ethnic Relations for the greater Rochester community. Most recently Dr. Norwood Evans was nominated to serve on the New York State Education Department Board of Regents.