Antioch University Santa Barbara Psychology Program Faculty Members Recognized for National Social Work Month

The chair of Antioch University Santa Barbara’s (AUSB) Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology program, Elizabeth Wolfson, PhD, LCSW, and adjunct faculty member, Debbie Allen, LCSW, are slated to be honored in March by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Santa Barbara Unit, in observation of National Social Work Month.

The two faculty members will be recognized as local “social worker heroes” at the Social Work Month Awards Dinner, to be held at Mulligan’s Café on March 5, 2013, in appreciation of their outstanding accomplishments in the field. The Honorable Mayor Helene Schneider of Santa Barbara will speak at the event.

Dr. Wolfson spent a decade as an instructor at AUSB before joining the University as full-time faculty and Chair of the MA Clinical Psychology program. Under her development, the program’s innovative Concentration in Healthy Aging has won an AARP and Central Coast Commission for Seniors award. She has also been a practitioner, supervisor and Program Director for numerous award- winning community programs, such as Portraits of Survival, that paired Holocaust survivors with gang members to express their life narratives, and Santa Barbara Village, a membership organization she helped launch, that has supported elders in their homes since 2010.

Dr. Wolfson has served on the Board of the National Association for Social Workers since 2001. As VP of Professional Development in 2002, she developed the Continuing Education program for professionals in collaboration with other agencies. Recently, she has arranged for NASW to present seminars at the AUSB campus, which are open to students and any community members interested in clinical practice. Dr. Wolfson has published and presented on topics focused on Holocaust Survivors, Forgiveness, Healthy Aging, and other subjects.


Ms. Allen, an adjunct faculty member in AUSB’s MA Clinical Psychology program, is well known in the social work community. Her two decades of community and private practice have encompassed working in inpatient psychiatric hospitals, intensive outpatient and day treatment programs, residential treatment, and school based therapy. She has mentored and trained numerous social workers during field placements, post-graduate internships, and state licensure qualifying periods. Ms. Allen has also participated on mental health advisory boards and has held positions with NASW on the national, state, and local level; she currently serves as Region G Assistant Director.

Santa Barbara social workers, other professionals, and interested community members are encouraged to attend the Social Work Month Awards Dinner on March 5th, 6:00–9:00 pm at Mulligan’s Café, 3500 McCaw Avenue, Santa Barbara. To reserve seats, contact: Max Rorty at 510-701-6347 or Pantea Rahimian at 510-499-9544

About AUSB:

Antioch University is a bold, innovative, non-profit institution for higher education that serves more than 4,000 adult learners of all ages around the world and across the country, on its five campuses in four states. Each campus offers degree programs that meet—and often anticipate—the pressing needs of its region and the world at large. The Santa Barbara campus is particularly distinguished with its unique undergraduate degree completion program in liberal studies and graduate-level programs in clinical psychology and education that integrate students’ academic instruction with experiential learning. AUSB draws students from throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, South America, and Europe to its downtown Santa Barbara campus at 602 Anacapa Street. To learn more, visit www.antiochsb.edu.

About NASW:

With 145,000 members, the National Association of Social Workers is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world. NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies through education and advocacy. For more information, visit www.naswca.org.