All-in on social work

During a recent interview, she sports a T-shirt that she created for her team at Fort Valley State University, where she directs the bachelor of social work program. The shirt reads SOCIAL WORK across the front, with the FVSU mascot’s face replacing the O in social. The shirt is a good introduction to Gresham’s commitment to both Fort Valley State University and the social work profession. “I put the school’s mascot, the Bobcat, but I added my sorority mascot, as well,” she says. Sure enough, at the bottom of the shirt is an elephant, the mascot of Delta Sigma Theta.

“I’ve done travel social work, I’ve worked with the military, I’ve had contracts to work in corrections,” Gresham says. Now, as a social work educator, Gresham is preparing students for their own varied social work careers.

She came to FVSU, a public, historically Black university in Georgia, after a former supervisee contacted her about joining the faculty. “When I interviewed [at FVSU], I just really felt like I belonged — like this is where I needed to be, this is what I needed to do,” Gresham says.

Gresham grew up about 150 miles from Fort Valley, in Augusta, Georgia. Her parents instilled their own commitment to serving their community into their children. Gresham’s oldest brother is a social worker, and several other siblings work in public service professions. Gresham says her mother, in particular, “put a mark on all of her children in terms of our need and our desire to help others.”

I want my students to be proud to be social workers and to say, 'I am a professional social worker.'

Gresham was so confident about her choice of social work as a career that she went straight through the BSW and MSW programs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “I knew that was the thing to do,” she says. With her MSW in hand, she returned to Georgia, working in case management and mental health in the early years of her career. “I was searching for something, though,” Gresham says. She was driven to find a position that let her use her social work knowledge and skills and be surrounded by social work peers. She found that opportunity working in military family advocacy at Fort Gordon, an US Army base in Augusta now called Fort Eisenhower.

“That was the place where I developed into a real social worker,” Gresham says. “It was such a rewarding experience, to be able to sit and have conversations with social workers about assessment and about treatment options, about doing groups.” Gresham cites her employer’s commitment to providing training as another key factor in her professional growth during that time. “It was an environment in which I was given the opportunity to attend any trainings; there was no limit on how much education I could receive as a social worker.”

Her work at Fort Gordon was followed by earning a Ph.D. in social work and social welfare from Clark Atlanta University, becoming licensed as an LCSW in Georgia (and six other states), founding an agency, offering clinical supervision, and working stints as a travel social worker and as an adjunct professor for several social work programs.

Supervision was her first experience mentoring other social workers, something she continues to do through her teaching at FVSU. She is quick to emphasize that whether she’s working as a supervisor or an educator, she’s still driven to learn. “I feel like I can learn from everybody,” she says. “There are times when there are people that I have mentored or I’ve been their clinical supervisor, and if they’re doing something significant, I can learn from them. The roles reverse because I don’t ever want to feel like I know it all, or that you always have to come to me. I can learn from you, as well.”

She has high praise for the commitment and focus of her social work students at FVSU. “I’m encountering students that are more focused, more knowledgeable. They know exactly what they want to do,” Gresham says. “The students I’m encountering, they are very specific in terms of the area of practice they want to pursue and the reasons why. That level of intensity in terms of the field? I don’t think it existed [when I was a student], but it exists now.”

Gresham wants those students to ground their careers in a thorough understanding of the social work profession. “I think we also need to make sure that we teach students the history of social work, how we came about — that’s essential,” she says. “I’m teaching a class now in social welfare policy, and that is extremely important, just to understand, how did we get to where we are today?”

Gresham has no idea who recommended her to serve on the Georgia Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists. “I just randomly received an email saying, ‘It has come to our attention that you might be interested in serving on the licensing board in Georgia,'” she recalls. So, she added social work regulation to her long and varied career.

Her term on the board ended in 2023, but volunteering as a regulator has expanded her perspective on the social work profession. “I want there to be a marriage between social work education and regulation,” she says, “so that we can come together because in the long run, it’s going to protect the people that we have to serve.”

“It goes back to our core social work values of service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, respect for all human beings,” Gresham says. “I want [my students] to be proud to be social workers and to say, ‘I am a professional social worker.'”

Gresham’s pride in and commitment to her profession is evident. “I just feel like my social work training has led me to where I am today,” she says. “I’m just all-in when it comes to social work.”