Wisconsin’s Cap Times did a nice article on social work pioneer Ada Deer. She is almost 75 years old and retired but still going strong.

One of her new passions is reforming the state prison system.

Deer was born on Wisconsin’s Menominee Indian Reservation and later fought to have the United States restore the tribe’s reservation status. Deer, who is a National Association of Social Workers member, later became the first woman chair of the tribe and the first woman to run the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Reporter Dave Zweifel wrote: 

“And it all began because one day as a girl growing up on the Menominee reservation, she decided she wanted to be a social worker — to make a difference, like her mother, a nurse, had done.”

To learn more about the process to nominate social work pioneers and to look at the list of honorees visit the NASW Foundation’s Social Work Pioneers Web pages by clicking here.