The Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) celebrates its 90th Anniversary on Friday, May 18, at the Lincoln Center campus, with panel discussions focusing on the role of social justice, social indicators and poverty, and on the vulnerable populations of children, women and the elderly. An evening reception will recognize two nationally renowned former deans of the school, Mary Ann Quaranta, D.S.W., provost of Marymount College of Fordham University, and James Dumpson, Ph.D., senior consultant for New York Community Trust.
Panel discussions will be chaired by Barry Rock, D.S.W., associate professor, GSS, and Yvette Sealy, Ph.D. (GSS ’99), assistant professor, GSS. Panelists include visiting professors and Fordham faculty members presenting on the topics of social indicators, poverty and ideology, and aging in American society, among others.
In addition, Dean Peter B. Vaughan, Ph.D., and Assistant Dean Susan Bair Egan, Ph.D., (GSS ’77, GSS ’04), will be recognized at a special alumni awards luncheon. Vaughn, dean of the GSS since 2000, will receive the Mary Anne Quaranta Award for Outstanding Contributions to Children and Families, for his long academic service and his research in enhancing the health, social health and life chances of African-American boys. Egan, a founding member of the GSS Institute for Women and Girls, will receive the Ralph DeMayo Award.
Quaranta served as dean of the GSS for 25 years, stepping down in October of 2000. Dumpson was the first dean of the school, serving from 1967 to 1976, and continuing on for many years as a member of the faculty. Fordham’s GSS was founded in 1916 and is one of the nation’s oldest schools of social service, with over 11,000 alumni.
