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Published on : July 6, 2026
CSWE Announces 2026 Carl A. Scott Memorial Lecturer and Book Scholarship Awardees
As the date for CSWE’s 72nd Annual Conference draws closer, the organization is pleased to announce that Dr. Jerome H. Schiele will deliver the Carl A. Scott Memorial Lecture at the event in Atlanta this October. CSWE has also announced that Rochelle Ballard and Aaliyah Gates will receive this year’s Carl A. Scott Book Scholarship Awards.
Sponsored this year by Howard University and named after CSWE leader and visionary Carl Anderson Scott, the lecture at CSWE’s Annual Conference commemorates Scott’s legacy of equity and social justice in social work through building knowledge and furthering the well-being of individuals and their communities. Lecturers are individuals who are exemplars of inclusive excellence and bring an innovative perspective on diversity, equity, and inclusion in social work education.
Carl A. Scott Memorial Lecture: Dr. Jerome H. Schiele
Dr. Jerome H. Schiele, DSW, MSW, is Professor and Chair of the PhD/DSW Department in the School of Social Work at Morgan State University. His scholarship focuses on oppression and antiracism studies, social welfare history and policy analysis, and social work education. His scholarship appears in major academic periodicals and publications, and he is known mostly for his seminal contributions to Afrocentric Social Work Theory.
He is the author of Human Services and the Afrocentric Paradigm, editor of Social Welfare Policy: Regulation and Resistance among People of Color, and co-author, with Dr. Phyllis Day, of A New History of Social Welfare, now being revised for an eighth edition to be published by Oxford University Press.
Across more than 35 years in higher education, Dr. Schiele has held top-level faculty and administrative roles at a variety of institutions. A native of Hampton, Virginia, Schiele earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Hampton University and both his master’s and doctoral degrees in social work from Howard University, where he was a CSWE Minority Fellow.
Carl A. Scott Book Scholarship Awards
Two students have received book scholarships from the Carl A. Scott Memorial Fund. The Carl A. Scott Memorial Fund was established by CSWE’s Board of Directors with the goal of continuing the Scott’s legacy of equity and social justice in social work through building knowledge and furthering the well-being of individuals and their communities. Two book scholarships in the amount of $500 each are awarded every academic year to students who demonstrate a commitment to work for racial, economic, and environmental justice in social work.
Rochelle Ballard
This year’s BSW student awardee is Rochelle Ballard from the University of Toledo. Ballard’s interests center on substance use recovery, mental health, and the criminal justice system, shaped in part by an internship in which she completed 850 hours in a correctional treatment setting. Her goal is to earn her MSW, become licensed, and provide compassionate, ethical services that help people heal, grow, and rebuild their lives.
Aaliyah Gates
About Carl A. Scott
Carl Anderson Scott joined the staff of CSWE in 1968 as a senior consultant on minority groups; he retired in 1985 as the associate executive director. Before coming to CSWE, he held practice and administrative positions in children and family service agencies and was director of admissions and assistant professor at the New York University School of Social Work. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in social work from Howard University.
Scott was at the helm of CSWE’s early efforts to foster human diversity in social work education. He secured funding from governmental and private sources to recruit students and faculty members from minority groups to schools of social work. He guided five minority task forces in developing programs directed toward enhancing minority presence in curricula and other salient venues.
Of special note are the two Minority Fellowship Programs he designed in 1974 and 1979, respectively: one to prepare mental health researchers, the other to prepare clinicians. These programs have provided doctoral fellowships to more than 1,000 recipients. Many of these fellowship recipients now serve as deans, directors, and faculty members in social work programs throughout the nation.
CSWE’s 72nd Annual Conference will be held at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, Georgia, from October 22 to 25, 2026. This year’s conference theme, Rooted in Resilience: Honoring the Past, Grounding the Present, invites the social work education community to reflect on the enduring strength and adaptability of the profession while celebrating the legacies of justice, advocacy, and care that continue to shape the field. Register for the conference and book your hotel today.