Susan Conklin, psychotherapist, teacher and television interviewer, has been named Social Worker of the Year by the Massachusetts Association of Social Workers.
A resident of Williamstown, Conklin has lived in North Berkshire since 1975, shortly after receiving her Master of Social Work degree from Hunter College in her native New York City. And after the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Conklin commuted to the city to provide counseling to the survivors through the Salvation Army.
“My hometown had been hurt, and I needed to help,†Conklin said in a recent interview.
A tall blonde with a friendly, direct manner and apparently boundless vitality, she spoke to a reporter in her hillside office, nestled beneath a sturdy oak tree, this past weekend.
“It’s comforting, here in the woods,†said Conklin, who conducts a private practice in therapy, usually teaches, and is host of The Susan Conklin Show on WilliNet.
“When I was a teenager, from age 13 to 18, I worked at the local newspaper, the Greenpoint Weekly Star, writing features, profiles, obituaries and editorials,†she said.
“After the first year, they gave me a column, Teen Pointers by Susan,†she said. “So if I fast forward, I read an ad in The Advocate that said WilliNet is looking for people to do television shows, and I said, ‘Y’know, I could do that.’â€
“Williamstown is a microcosm of such a concentrated wealth of energy that I’m awestruck,†she said. “If I interview someone, I’m highlighting their efforts and energies, and introducing everybody in the community to their neighbors. I find it very stimulating.
“Tonight’s show is on windpower, and I’m interviewing Nancy Nylen,†she said. “So I’m able to bring forward more knowledge on important topics. I just love interviews. It’s a pleasure.â€
The Susan Conklin Show is by Your Energy Productions, and includes the proclamation “and remember, whatever you do with your energy, you make a difference.†Starting in the spring of 1998, she has produced 177 shows on courage, creativity, commitment and compassion.
Conklin grew up working class in Brooklyn, N.Y., where her father was a laborer and her mother a homemaker, and she was the first of her family to attend college. She graduated from City College of New York in 1972, having progressed from journalism through political science to sociology and social work.
As Conklin sees it, her fields of concentration let her focus on the problems, then on ways to address them.
“Individual therapy aims to help a person get free,†she said. “Education can produce change and empowerment. And community service, well, I feel I have responsibility to help participate in the health of the community.â€
“The more I learned, the more I felt responsible to do something,†she said.
When disaster struck New York, Conklin contacted Hunter College, which put her in touch with the Salvation Army. Her clients, she said, were supportive and cooperated in shifting their schedules so she could commute to New York to give therapy to people traumatized by their experiences and losses through the Sept. 11 relief efforts at Pier 94, Family Assistance Center.
She spent two days a week in the city, and expresses gratitude to Amtrak, for donating her tickets, and to the Williams Club, for donating her room to stay overnight.
Conklin’s statewide honor is not her first. She was named Social Worker of the Year in 1999 for the NASW Berkshire County chapter.
She is the third Berkshire County social worker to be honored at the state level. Josephine Janssen of Pittsfield received the state organization’s award in 2001, and Anna Pollock of Lanesboro received its lifetime achievement award in 1987. Conklin will receive her award in a ceremony March 11 in Newton.
Conklin is one of the 10,200 social workers in Massachusetts who can add the initials LICSW, meaning licensed clinical social worker, after their names. Of the 19,800 social workers licensed at all four levels in Massachusetts, 8,000 are MASW members.
Conklin agreed that the award presented a good opportunity to talk about social work, and about the funding crisis in social services due to state and federal funding cuts.
“Social workers are not charity givers,†she said. “We are present to the sufferings of others, in all kinds of suffering.
“By nature, social work doesn’t self-promote,†she said. But she is dismayed by what she sees as the damage certain to follow on the heels of cutbacks.
“There’s all this talk about tax refunds, when there are cuts in funding. At the same time, we’re about to spend a phenomenal amount of money to go to war.
“Our country supports destruction way more than it supports life,†she said.
“When we cut funding to children, education and social services, we’re destroying our culture,†she said, listing the damaging effects in inadequate nutrition, education, and foster care.
“The funding cuts cut our society’s competence,†she said.
“The profession of social work aims to hold the consciousness and memory of how we neglect our citizens regardless of age,†she said.
“Our greatest challenge?†she asked, “It feels like being on a rack.
“We know people who are cut off from services, whose lives are affected immediately by lack of food, lack of heat. Speaking out is the other part of it.â€
“We can ask on behalf of somebody who can’t ask for themselves. That’s why I chose this profession,†she said. “It has meaning. It makes a positive difference, and it’s time for it to get better visibility.â€
“This is a time when government, both state and federal, need to be collecting more, not less in taxes, and need to actually extend more services,†she said. And rather wistfully, she added, that “if every individual would identify themselves as part of society . . . society is all our job. We have to get out there and make it happen.â€
Conklin is decidedly out there. She is on the local Berkshire Regional Council for MASW, which meets to discuss issues, often with legislators. She is an adjunct professor at the Springfield College School of Social Work, and, although she is taking a break from teaching this semester, she has taught for many years, many of those at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and, under its previous name, North Adams State College. She is on the board for Chrysalis Community, a residence in Pownal, Vt., for people with AIDS, and is on the allied health staff at North Adams Regional Hospital, and on the board of WilliNet.
Conklin is also intensely interested in therapeutic touch, is secretary for the Theosophical Society Berkshire County study group, is active in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Bennington, Vt., and, “for my own regeneration,†is a docent at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
“I give tours to kids,†she said. “It’s non-clinical, and it serves the soul to help them unlock and enter the painting.â€
Her husband Jack, a retired MCLA education professor who is now principal of a school in New Jersey, where he commutes, spending weekends at their Hawthorne Street home. They have a 13-year-old daughter, Michelle, an 8th grader at Mount Greylock Regional High School, and Genevieve, 19, at Ithaca College. Conklin has two stepdaughters, Suzanne, who teaches English and, she is delighted to note, Danielle, who is studying for her MSW at Simmons College.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
No Comments
RFP Ready for North County High School Study
By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The working group for the Northern Berkshire Educational Collaborative last week approved a request for proposals to study secondary education regional models.
The members on Tuesday fine-tuned the RFP and set a date of Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 4 p.m. to submit bids. The bids must be paper documents and will be accepted at the Northern Berkshire School Union offices on Union Street.
Some members had penned in the first week of January but Timothy Callahan, superintendent for the North Adams schools, thought that wasn't enough time, especially over the holidays.
"I think that's too short of a window if you really want bids," he said. "This is a pretty substantial topic."
That topic is to look at the high school education models in North County and make recommendations to a collaboration between Hoosac Valley Regional and Mount Greylock Regional School Districts, the North Adams Public Schools and the town school districts making up the Northern Berkshire School Union.
The study is being driven by rising costs and dropping enrollment among the three high schools. NBSU's elementary schools go up to Grade 6 or 8 and tuition their students into the local high schools.
The feasibility study of a possible consolidation or collaboration in Grades 7 through 12 is being funded through a $100,000 earmark from the Fair Share Act and is expected to look at academics, faculty, transportation, legal and governance issues, and finances, among other areas.
The city has lifted a boil water order — with several exceptions — that was issued late Monday morning following several water line breaks over the weekend. click for more
The bridge had been closed to all vehicle traffic since March 2023 after being deemed structurally deficient by the state Department of Transportation. click for more
The Water Department has been responding to multiple water line breaks throughout the city since Friday, causing temporary loss of water in some areas. click for more
Nearly a year of study and community input about the deteriorating Veterans Memorial Bridge has resulted in one recommendation: Take it down. click for more
