Marilyn L. Flynn, PhD is Dean Emeritus of Suzanne Dworak Peck School of Social Work and 2U Chair of Educational Innovation and Social Work at the University of Southern California. She is noted for creating transformational programs in graduate education and expanding the frontiers of the professions of social work and nursing nationally. She was the first to bring an MSW and DSW program to large scale at the national level and is the first dean to organize and administer a graduate department in advanced nursing practice within a school of social work.
She has championed science and innovation in social work, serving as organizer and inaugural president of the St. Louis Group and more recently as a member of the organizing committee that founded the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. She established the endowed James E. Flynn Prize for Social Research and the on-going Islandwood symposia to examine the conceptual foundations of social work. Today, she serves as co-chair of the Grand Challenges Steering Committee and in Los Angeles, leads the USC university-wide president’s initiative on reduction of homelessness.
Among numerous recognitions, she was awarded the International Sarnat Prize for Advancement of Social Work, the National Award for Community and Volunteer Service from President Obama, and in 2015, the USC Provost’s Inaugural Prize for Innovation in Educational Practice.
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