WCSU Hosts Social Work Symposium Tomorrow

Pictured: WCSU's Midtown Campus Photo by Nancy Sasso Janis

DANBURY, CONN. — Western Connecticut State University will host the annual Bea Nemzer Social Work Symposium from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28, in the Campus Center Ballroom on the university’s Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury. The event is free and open to the public. An RSVP is required.

After opening remarks and several student presentations related to social work and justice, this year’s symposium will feature Commissioner Roderick L. Bremby of the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS). Bremby has more than 30 years of public service in several capacities including leadership positions at the local and state levels in the state of Kansas with significant oversight of health and human services programs. Bremby is in his second term as the DSS Commissioner, reappointed by Gov. Dannel Malloy and confirmed by the state House of Representatives in 2015. Bremby has directed major DSS initiatives in health care program reform and service innovation and in modernization of technology and business processes for improved client service delivery.

The symposium, held annually each spring since 1974, is named for the founder of the event, Professor Emerita Beatrice Nemzer. Nemzer served as the first chair of the WCSU Social Work Department and taught social work with a research specialization in gerontology for 25 years before her retirement in 1990. Previous symposiums over the program’s 44-year history have presented leading practitioners and researchers in the social work field as well as state and federal government officials and a musical group performing songs drawn from the history of social welfare.

To RSVP or for more information, contact Karen McLean at brownk@wcsu.edu or (203) 837-8937