Fellows

Richard J. Estes, DSW

Inducted in 2013

Bio

Richard J. Estes is Professor Emeritus of Social Work in the School of Social Policy & Practice of the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an A.B. degree from La Salle University and graduate degrees in social work and social welfare from the University of Pennsylvania (MSW) and the University of California at Berkeley (DSW). He also holds a post-master’s Certificate in Psychiatric Social Work from the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas (PSW).

Dr. Estes’ international activities have been extensive. Among other assignments, he has held visit-ing Professorships in Iran, Norway, the People’s Republic of China, Morocco, South Korea, Hawaii, Japan, Mongolia, the Russian Federation, Belgium, Sweden, Mexico, Hong Kong and else-where. In the United States, Dr. Estes is founding President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Society for International Development (SID). He is a former president of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education (GADE), and is a former Chair of the Council on External Relations of the Global Commission of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). In 2004 he was elected President of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS).

Dr. Estes has been the recipient of many awards and grants for his pioneering research on international social work, social welfare, and comparative social development including Fulbright-Hays Senior awards to Iran (1978), Norway (1979), and Korea (1994). In 1992, he was elected “Social Worker of the Year” by the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. In 1996 he received the Alumni Recognition Award from the University Of Pennsylvania. In 1997 he was awarded the Distinguished Recent Contribution to Social Work Education Award of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the International Rhoda G. Sarnat Award of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the “Best Article” in Social Indicators Research Award of the International Society of Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS). In 2002, Dr. Estes was appointed Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Chinese University of Hong Kong where he continues to serve as an External Examiner. In 2005, the Global Commission of the Council on Social Work Education awarded Dr. Estes its Partner in International Education Award (PIE). In 2007, Dr. Estes received the Distinguished Quality of Life Research Award of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS).

Dr. Estes continues to be an active contributor to his already extensive body of scholarship focused on understanding the complex interplay of social, political, economic, and technological forces that contribute to or impede social progress within the world’s nations. In recent years he has focused his attention on the international trafficking of human beings, especially that of children (with Neil Wiener), and to the development challenges that confront “failed” and “failing” societies, including countries that engage in international terrorism (with Habib Tiliouine). With Professor Joseph Sirgy of Virginia Tech he is completing a multi-volume series on the History of human Well-being (from ancient to modern times). He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal of Applied Research in Quality of Life.