In his Staff Spotlight, Tony Morelli discusses his career background and role at the College. Morelli joined the GSSWSR as the Assistant Director of Field Education in June 2021, and graduated from the program 10 years earlier in 2011.
Can you talk a bit about your career and educational background before joining the GSSWSR, and how/when you joined the GSSWSR?
Social work is a second career for me. After acquiring my undergraduate degree in history and minoring in art history and Italian, I began my professional life as a secondary school instructor of Social Studies, Italian and Art History for ten years. While I enjoyed teaching, there was something missing; and I did not feel that I was contributing as much as I could to the lives of my students. I was raised in a spiritual tradition that emphasized social justice and equity, so this was important to me.
Eventually, I was able to move into the nonprofit sector - even without a social work degree. I was so astounded by the work that trained social workers with whom I worked were actually doing, that I decided to go back to school. In all truth, the social workers that I most admired had one thing in common - they had all graduated from Bryn Mawr’s GSSWSR! I intuitively felt that this was the best place for me.
While a student here at the GSSWSR, I had a field placement in Delaware County working with grieving children, teens and families, and I found myself most attracted to that work. I wound up with employment at that agency after I graduated from the GSSWSR. Simultaneously, I also worked part-time at a substance use clinic in West Philadelphia for adult men who were very early in their journey of sobriety. Eventually I went on to work in the city of Camden also providing grief support with adults and children who had experienced the death of family members and loved ones as a result of homicide and opioid use. Lastly, I also worked as a bereavement social worker in a large Philadelphia-based hospice. In addition to my work at the GSSWSR I now work in my own private practice with individuals and families experiencing grief and loss, and I also support those living with depression, anxiety and relationship challenges, life transitions, and those in recovery from substance use challenges.
Can you describe what your role is as the Assistant Director of Field Education?
As the Assistant Director of Field Education, my role is to support the efforts, direction and directives of the Director of Field Education. As well, I collaborate with students around their efforts to secure and maintain their educational placements considering their background, their needs around skill building, their interests, their ultimate professional goals, and how they wish to develop professionally and what type of professional identity they would like to craft as they begin in the profession.
I work with the Director and with Field Liaisons to help students with any challenges that may arise in the placement, and I help the Director to run the Seminar in Field Instruction that provides education and support to Field Instructors as they work with and support students. Much of the work is "behind the scenes." Another goal of our department is to create an atmosphere of welcoming and acceptance so that students feel that they can bring whatever they need to that could help them to be successful in their educational placement.