Military Social Work Around the Globe

Mary Ann Forgey, PhD, LCSW , is a Professor in the Graduate School of Social Service at Fordham University in New York where she has been a faculty member since 1993. Prior to her academic career, she was a civilian social worker within the US Department of Defense and served in the positions of Family Advocacy Coordinator and Army Community Services Director in Wiesbaden, Germany. She has been the Principal Investigator on two research projects related to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) within the US military, the results of which have been published in the Journal of Family Violence, Violence and Victims and the Journal of Social Work Education. As a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Forgey taught at the University College Dublin, Ireland and conducted research on IPV assessment practices. In 2011, she developed Fordham’s first course in Military Social Work. She has been invited to present her work on military social work practice and education at national conferences within the United States and internationally in Ireland, Italy, France and Vietnam.  She organized the first roundtable conference on International Military Social Work held at West Point in 2019 and is a founding member and coordinator for the International Military Social Work Consortium, a group of uniformed and civilian military social work practitioners, educators and researchers from over 15 countries. She is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Military Behavioral Health and is a member of the Steering Committee for the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Task Force on the Specialized Practice Curricular Guide for Military Social Work.      

Karen Green-Hurdle, MPH, AMHSW, BSW, GD Couple Therapy, GC Business, GC Research Methods and Design, Assistant Director of Open Arms Veterans and Families Counselling, is an Australian Accredited Mental Health Social Work professional with over 30 years of senior practitioner, supervisory and executive leadership experience. Since 2000 she has worked in public service roles, in both the Department of Defence and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, delivering and managing mental health counselling, treatment, education, and family support services. Her career highlights include being invited to present on her military social work expertise at forums in Canada, the United States, France, Italy and Singapore, and virtually to the United Kingdom and Ukraine. In 2014, she received the Mount Sinai Hospital Icahn School of Medicine (New York) ‘Enhancement of International Social Work Leadership in Health Care’ Scholarship; in 2016, she was awarded a Commonwealth Endeavour Executive Fellowship (sponsored by Fordham University, New York) where she commenced a collaboration with Professor Forgey on a systematic research inquiry exploring the scope of social work practice across international military contexts; and in 2020, she received theLaurie Cowled Women in Leadership Scholarship (QUT Business School). She is a passionate advocate for developing military social work as an international specialist field of practice; has worked as practitioner consultant with Fordham University; is a founding member of the International Military Social Work Consortium; and is a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers National Advisory Panel on veteran issues.