Chesky a National Leader in Social Work
by Lisa James
Deborah Chesky (B.S. and M.S.�74), manager of social work services at Bellevue Woman�s Hospital in Niskayuna, was recently named the national winner of the 1998 Health Care Social Work Leader of the Year Award. She will receive the award during the annual meeting of the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care in Seattle on Sunday, March 29. The Society, headquartered in Chicago, has 1,700 members from 52 chapters across the country. Award nominees came from all 52 chapters.
Chesky won the award for developing innovative and creative ways to solve problems and to improve patient care in a small setting (350 or fewer patients). The award, established in 1981, recognizes someone who is an exceptional social work leader and national member of the Society. "This is our most sought-after award," said Meg Ward, manager of information services for the Society. "Deborah has done a wonderful job with limited resources."
Chesky has worked at Bellevue Woman�s Hospital (a 40-bed hospital) for the past six years. A one-woman department, she manages and provides clinical social work service, discharge planning and patient representative services to all patients. She developed a pre-admission adoption orientation program for adoptive and biological parents that was adopted by several other hospitals in the country. She also initiated a monthly bereavement support group for parents who experienced a loss during pregnancy. Chesky also works two days a week with students from Niskayuna High School and Union College who are interested in pursuing a social work career.
"The most difficult part is trying to juggle it all," Chesky said. "It�s not a job where you can plan out your day. It�s very crisis-oriented. I usually end up bringing a lot of paper work home." An adjunct faculty member of Siena College, Chesky said she feels it is important to teach others how to be good social workers.
Prior to her appointment at Bellevue, she served as director of patient and family services/discharge planning at Albany Memorial Hospital for 15 years. A member of the Empire State Chapter of the Society since 1989, Chesky served on the board of directors and was president of the chapter in 1994-1995. She and her husband, Robert, who is also a social worker, live in Niskayuna. They have two children.
Hewett Named Visiting Faculty Member
Gregory Hewett, D.A. �89, has been named a visiting faculty member at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. Hewett, a poet who received his doctorate in English at Albany, has studied in both Norway and Denmark on two different Fulbright Scholarships, and he has also taught English in Japan. His first book of poems, To Collect the Flesh, was published in 1996.