Sumiko Hennessy | |
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Born | Sumiko Tanaka November 8, 1937 Yokohama, Japan |
Education | B.A. French, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Master of Social Work, Fordham Graduate School of Social Service (1963) PhD, social work, University of Denver (1978) |
Occupation(s) | Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University of Social Welfare |
Spouse | Richard Hennessy |
Awards | Colorado Women's Hall of Fame (1989) |
Sumiko Tanaka Hennessy (born November 8, 1937) is an American social worker, trauma therapist, academic, and activist for the Asian-American community in Denver, Colorado. Born in Yokohama, Japan, she earned her Master of Social Work degree at Fordham Graduate School of Social Service and her doctorate at the University of Denver. She was a founding board member and later executive director of the Asian Pacific Development Center, which provides mental health services, counseling, education, and youth activities for the Asian immigrant community in the Denver metropolitan area. In 2000 she helped inaugurate the Tokyo University of Social Welfare and is presently a professor emeritus of that institution. In 2004 she and her husband founded Crossroads for Social Work, LLC, a training program for mental health professionals in Japan and the United States. The recipient of numerous awards, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1989.
Sumiko Tanaka was born in Yokohama, Japan, on November 8, 1937. [1] She studied French at an Alliance Francaise school with an eye to pursuing a diplomatic career. [1] She next enrolled at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, but upon learning that as a woman, she would never qualify to be an ambassador for Japan, she switched her career plans to social work. [1] She earned her bachelor's degree in French, and then studied as a scholarship student at a Belgian school of social work in 1960. [2] In 1961 she received a scholarship to study at the Fordham Graduate School of Social Service in New York, completing her Master of Social Work degree in 1963. [2]
After receiving her degree, Hennessy was a social worker at several New York City facilities, including the Henry Street Settlement, the Bird S. Coler Hospital for chronic care, and Maimonides Medical Center. [2] In 1969 she began teaching as an assistant professor at the New York University School of Social Work, a position she held until 1974. [2] At the same time, her husband taught social work at Long Island University. [2]
In 1974 the two decided to obtain their doctorates at the University of Denver. [2] She combined her university studies with half-time work as chief social worker in the Division for Developmental Disabilities of the Colorado Department of Institutions. [2] Both she and her husband received their doctorates in August 1978, becoming the only couple at the university to receive their doctorates on the same day. [2] She submitted her doctoral dissertation on the topic A study of factors related to the attitudes of public social workers toward case management. [3]
From 1980 to 1984 Hennessy was the assistant superintendent of education and therapy at Ridge Home for the Developmentally Disabled in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. In this capacity, she supervised 150 staffers and a $15 million budget. [2]
In October 1980 Hennessy was a co-founder of the Asian Pacific Development Center, which provides mental health and social services, counseling, and education for Asian American immigrants in the Denver metropolitan area. [4] [5] Hennessy served as a board member of the center for its first three years, then became executive director from 1984 to 2000. [6] [7] As a way of easing Asian "discomfort with mental health assistance", she introduced other services to help clients acclimate to American life, including classes in English as a second language, employment counseling, and youth activities. [6] Hennessy herself raised funds for the center's services by giving lectures and also leading courses for corporations on "understanding Asian cultures, stress management Asian-style, and doing business in Asia". [6]
In February 1984 Hennessy co-founded the Asian Chamber of Commerce in Denver. [8]
In 2000 Hennessy assisted in inaugurating the Tokyo University of Social Welfare and became the school's assistant dean of field education. [7] In 2004 she and her husband founded Crossroads for Social Work, LLC, a training program for mental health professionals in Japan and the U.S. [7]
Hennessy is considered an expert in child abuse and attachment disorder. [9] She wrote the foreword to the 2014 book Attachment, Trauma, and Healing: Understanding and Treating Attachment Disorder in Children, Families and Adults. [10]
Hennessy has served on the boards of the Women's Foundation of Colorado, the Women's Economic Development Council, the Asian Advisory Council for the Mayor, and the board of governors of Nine Who Care. [5]
Hennessy received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Asian Human Services Organization in 1984, the Women at Work award from the Council on Working Women in 1986, and the Silk Wings Award from the National Network of Asian and Pacific Women in 1988. [11] She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1989. [5] In 1998 she received a Community Health Leadership Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which named her one of "ten outstanding individuals changing the shape of health care in America". [6] The same year, she was honored as a Denver Women of Distinction by Girl Scouts of Colorado. [12]
She met her husband, Richard Hennessy, while both were studying at the Fordham Graduate School of Social Service. [2]
Hennessy is fluent in Japanese, French and English, and reads and writes Chinese. [6]
Frances Jacobs was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to Jewish Bavarian immigrants and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She married Abraham Jacobs, the partner of her brother Jacob, and came west with him to Colorado where Wisebart and Jacobs had established businesses in Denver and Central City. In Denver, Frances Jacobs became a driving force for the city's charitable organizations and activities, with national exposure. Among the philanthropical organizations she founded, she is best remembered as a founder of the United Way and the Denver's Jewish Hospital Association.
Clara Brown was a former enslaved woman from Virginia and Kentucky who became a community leader, philanthropist and aided settlement of former slaves during the time of Colorado's Gold Rush. She was known as the 'Angel of the Rockies' and made her mark as Colorado's first black settler and a prosperous entrepreneur.
Frances Mary McConnell-Mills was an American toxicologist. She was the first woman to be appointed Denver's city toxicologist, the first female toxicologist in the Rocky Mountains, and probably the first female forensic pathologist in the United States.
Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart is a Native American social worker, associate professor and mental health expert. She is best known for developing a model of historical trauma for the Lakota people, which would eventually be expanded to encompass indigenous populations the world over. She is Hunkpapa/Oglala Lakota.
Augusta Pierce Tabor was the wife of a merchant and miner, Horace Tabor, the first white woman to live in the Idaho Springs mining camp, and a Denver philanthropist. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1991 for her contributions to social service and philanthropy.
Edwina Hume Fallis was an American educator, writer, poet, and toy designer. Her memoir for children, When Denver and I Were Young (1956), went through two printings, and she published over 100 poems. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1989.
Lena Lovato Archuleta was an American educator, school librarian, and administrator in New Mexico and Colorado for more than three decades. In 1976 she became the first Hispanic woman principal in the Denver Public Schools system. She was also the first Hispanic president of the Denver Classroom Teachers' Association and the Colorado Library Association, and the first female president of the Latin American Education Foundation. She was instrumental in the founding of several political and community advocacy groups for Latinos and served on numerous city and community boards. Following her retirement in 1979, she became a full-time volunteer for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985. In 2002 the Denver Public Schools system dedicated the Lena L. Archuleta Elementary School in northeast Denver in her honor.
Genevieve Fiore (1912–2002) was an American women's rights and peace activist, who was the founder, and served as the executive director, of the Colorado Division of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Her UNESCO Club was founded in the year the clubs were first conceived and was the third organization established in the world. In 1967 she was honored as one of the inductees for the Colorado Women of Achievement Award. She was knighted by Italy in 1975 receiving the rank of Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia. In 1991, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame for her many years of peace activism and work with women's rights issues.
Helen Marie Black was an American cultural and civic leader, journalist, and publicist. She was a co-founder of the Denver Symphony Orchestra and served as its business manager for more than 30 years, being the first female symphony manager in the United States. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1991.
Mary Madeline "May" Bonfils Stanton was an American heiress and philanthropist. She and her younger sister, Helen Bonfils, succeeded their father, Frederick Gilmer Bonfils, as principal owners of The Denver Post. However, May's elopement at age 21 with a non-Catholic salesman had forged a rift in her relationship with her parents and sister that worsened when Helen inherited the majority of their parents' estates. Following a three-year legal battle over the inheritance, the sisters cut off all communication with each other. May married twice but did not have children. Living a reclusive life, she invested her fortune into building and furnishing her 750-acre (300 ha) estate in Lakewood, Colorado – which included a mansion that was an exact replica of Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon château in Versailles – and into many philanthropic endeavors in the state of Colorado. The Bonfils–Stanton Foundation, established by her second husband after her death in 1962, continues to support the arts in Colorado. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985.
Joan Packard Birkland was an American athlete and women's sports advocate. Considered one of Colorado's greatest all-around athletes, she earned multiple titles in women's amateur tennis and golf championships at the city and state level. Following her retirement from competition, she served on numerous sports boards and became involved in sports education for disabled youth. She was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 1977, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1981, and the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.
Hendrika Bestebreurtje Cantwell is a German-born American retired physician, professor emerita of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver, advocate for abused and neglected children, and parenting educator. She was one of the first physicians in the United States to work for a child protection agency, serving with the Denver Department of Social Services from 1975 to 1989. Her work there brought her in contact with an estimated 30,000 cases of suspected child abuse and she testified as an expert witness in thousands of court cases. An author of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and teaching manuals on the detection and treatment of child abuse, she has also conducted workshops and training programs for professionals throughout Colorado. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.
Helen Peterson was a Cheyenne-Lakota activist and lobbyist. She was the first director of the Denver Commission on Human Relations. She was the second Native American woman to become director of the National Congress of American Indians at a time when the government wanted to discharge their treaty obligations to the tribes by eliminating their tribal governments through the Indian termination policy and forcing the tribe members to assimilate into the mainstream culture. She authored a resolution on Native American education, which was ratified at the second Inter-American Indian Conference, held in Cuzco, Peru. In 1986, Peterson was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame and the following year, her papers were donated to the Smithsonian's National Anthropological Archives and they are now held at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Margaret L. Taylor Curry was an American state parole officer, medical social worker, child welfare worker, and music teacher. In 1952 she became the first female parole officer for the Colorado Department of Corrections. During her 18-year tenure, she was the only female officer supervising adult inmates and parolees. She introduced vocational training, high school equivalency courses, and self-improvement classes to further the rehabilitation of women prisoners. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.
Dorothy Louise Vennard Lamm is an American feminist, women's rights activist, educator, author, and speaker. She was First Lady of Colorado during her husband Richard Lamm's three terms as Governor of Colorado (1975–1987), and unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate as the Colorado Democratic candidate in 1998. She wrote a weekly column for The Denver Post from 1979 to 1996 and later published three books. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985.
Oleta Lawanda Crain was an African-American military officer, federal civil servant, and advocate for black women's rights and desegregation. Out of 300 women nationwide who entered officer training in the U.S. military in 1943, she was one of the three African Americans. She served in the United States Air Force for 20 years, retiring with the rank of major. In 1964 she began working for the United States Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., becoming regional administrator of its Women's Bureau in Denver, Colorado, in 1984. She traveled and spoke extensively to women about employment rights, wages, and career opportunities. She received numerous awards and honors, and was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.
Mary Florence Lathrop (1865–1951) was an American lawyer. She was the first woman to open a law practice in Denver, Colorado and one of the first two female members of the American Bar Association. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1987.
Elnora M. Gilfoyle is a retired American occupational therapist, researcher, educator, and university administrator. She worked at several hospitals before accepting a professorship at Colorado State University, later serving as Dean of the College of Applied Human Sciences and Provost/Academic Vice President at that university. She is also a past president of the American Occupational Therapy Association. With research interests in child development, developmental disabilities, and child abuse, she has led studies on the state and federal levels. The co-author of two books and many articles, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.
Maria Guajardo Lucero is an American educator and advocate for children and the Latino community. Born to illiterate Mexican migrant workers in California, she earned her undergraduate degree in psychology and social relations at Harvard University and her master's degree and doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Denver. From 1988 to 2013, she worked in several state and national government-level positions to increase opportunities for low-income children and Latinos, and served as executive director of the Latin American Research and Service Agency. In 2013 she moved to Tokyo, Japan, to develop a new degree program in international liberal arts at Sōka University. She served as dean of the program from 2013 to 2016, when she was promoted to vice president of the university (2016-2020). She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, and was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2010.
The Asian Pacific Development Center is a non-profit organization assisting Asian immigrants in the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area. Founded in 1980 to provide outpatient mental health therapy and counseling, it expanded its offerings a few years later to include acclimation assistance including classes in English as a second language, job placement, and youth activities. The center provides interpreters and translation services in courts, hospitals, and businesses as well. Services are available in 35 different languages.