Associate Dean Judith Gonyea and Alumna Marylou Sudders SSW’78 Inducted into American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare

Judith Gonyea, professor and associate dean for faculty affairs at BUSSW, and Marylou Sudders (SSW’78), secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health & Human Services (EOHHS), were recently inducted as Fellows into The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW), joining a prestigious group of social work scholars and practitioners.  

The awards ceremony, held in Washington, DC during the 2020 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Conference, honored outstanding leaders in social work, including prominent scholars whose work has had a considerable impression on social work and social welfare, and practitioners who have had significant impact at the national or international level. New Fellows undergo a vigorous nominations process after submission by current Fellows in the Academy.

In addition to her roles at BUSSW, Gonyea is a senior fellow at the Institute for Health Systems Innovation & Policy at BU and is the author of more than 100 publications, often centering on historically disadvantaged older populations with the goal of advancing equity. In her work, she uses an intersectionality lens to explore how individuals’ multiple identities (e.g., gender, age, race) intertwine to shape their aging experience. She is a fellow and past elected chair of the Social Research, Policy and Practice Section of Gerontological Society of America and an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. She serves on the editorial boards of Public Policy & Aging Report, Journal of Aging & Social Policy, and the British Journal of Social Work.

Sudders, a successful and outspoken alumna of BUSSW, manages the largest executive agency in the state, where she oversees twelve agencies and MassHealth, with a combined budget of $24 billion and 22,000 public employees delivering essential services that touch the lives of 1 in 4 state residents. Since joining Governor Baker’s cabinet in January 2015, Sudders has advanced strategic policy priorities, including restructuring MassHealth into a population-based health coverage system; reforming the child welfare system; addressing the opioid epidemic; integrating physical and behavioral health care; and strengthening community-based services. She co-chairs the Governor’s Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness, the Governor’s Interagency Council on Aging, and chairs the Autism Commission and the board of Massachusetts Health Connector, the state’s health insurance marketplace