Boston University
School of Social Work
264 Bay State Road
Boston
MAUSA
02215
Biographical Sketch: NAME AND TITLES
Betty J Ruth, MSW, LCSW, MPH
Associate Clinical Professor
Director, MSW/MPH Program
Director, Professional Education Programs
Chair, Ethics Department
Boston University School of Social Work
BRIEF BIO
Ms. Ruth is a faculty member at Boston University School of Social Work, where she chairs the Ethics Department and directs several programs, including the MSW/MPH program and Professional Education Programs. Her current funded research is focused on two primary areas: social work training in suicide prevention and intervention; and public health social work training and its evaluation. She is also the founder—together with Sarah Sisco, Tinka Markham Piper and Jamie Wyatt Marshall—of the Group for Public Health Social Work Initiatives, a working group dedicated to public health social work advocacy, training and research; their current work is focused on generating social work interest in prevention.
Trained in both public health and social work, Ms. Ruth has a long practice background in a variety of settings, including substance abuse treatment and prevention, protective services, elder services, infant mortality reduction, cardiovascular risk reduction, injury prevention and infant mental health promotion. Her most recent publications include a history and overview of public health social work for the new 20th Edition of the Encyclopedia of Social Work (with Sarah Sisco) and a July 2008 Public Health Reports articles entitled Public Health and Social Work: Training Dual Professionals for the Contemporary Workplace (with co-authors Wyatt, Sisco, Bachman, Markham Piper, and Bethke). Ms. Ruth’s other professional activities include board service as Continuing Education Specialist to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Board of Registration of Social Work and consultation to agencies on issues of ethical decision making and multicultural organizational development. Ms. Ruth is a Section Council leader for the Social Work Section of the American Public Health Association, an appointed member of the NASW Specialty Health Section Committee and a Consulting Editor for Health and Social Work and The Journal of Social Work in Public Health.