All the Right Moves — A Profile of Social Work Educator Sunny Andrews
Social Work Today
Vol. 4 No. 1 p. 21
By Kate Jackson

Some might suggest that Sunny Andrews, MSW, MPH, DrPH, has followed a career path forged by benign fate. Andrews himself would probably chalk it up to faith. He seems not so much to have plotted a course and embarked upon it as to have been blown about randomly, continuously landing in the right spot at the right time. Having retired in December 2003 at the end of a highly successful and satisfying 30-year career, he can look back on the winding road that took him halfway across the world and back again and again as following a series of serendipitous turns that led him to where he belonged.

In November 2003, Andrews relinquished a position that he held for 22 years as director of the University of Nebraska, Omaha (UNO) School of Social Work. After earning an MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and an MPH from Johns Hopkins University, as well as being the first MSW to capture a doctorate in public health from Hopkins, he came to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1973 as director of social services of the Meyer Children’s Rehabilitation Institute with a joint faculty appointment at UNO. In 1978, he became a full-time faculty member of UNO. In 1981, he stepped into the position of practicum coordinator at the UNO School of Social Work.

KUDOS FROM COLLEAGUES
All the while, Andrews was an advocate for social workers by contributing to local, state, and national professional organizations and boards. He was president of the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) after having been a member and chair of the Nebraska board. Last year, the ASWB acknowledged his contribution to the field and honored him by naming after him a new award to be given to individuals of uncommon integrity and outstanding ethics. The Sunny Andrews Award will be given to ASWB board members who have demonstrated excellence in efforts toward protecting the public.

In addition, Andrews spent years advocating social work licensure, raising awareness about the importance of standards of social work competency, and arguing for the need for strong regulatory systems. He lent his leadership efforts to the Council on Social Work Education and the American Association of State Social Work Boards (AASSWB) and became president of the latter in 1993, turning the tide when divisiveness over numerous issues threatened the integrity of the organization. This aspect of his work, about which he was particularly passionate, inspired others to take up the twin causes of the credentialing process and an ancillary system of disciplinary action. In 1998, the Professional Examination Service, a not-for-profit testing organization, honored Andrews with the Lillian D. Terris Award for his tireless advocacy for licensure on behalf of the AASSWB.

In summer 2003, Andrews received the Chancellor’s Medal at UNO, an award bestowed upon those who embody the university’s mission and values. It also recognized him as “a distinguished educator, public welfare advocate, and community volunteer” by creating the Sunny Andrews Graduate Award, which will help graduate-level students in the School of Social Work achieve their academic goals.

These are noteworthy accomplishments of which any social worker would be proud. They’re especially remarkable achievements in light of the fact that Andrews set out to be a chemist. A chance encounter and an epiphany altered the course of his career.

SOCIAL WORK BEGINNINGS
In 1957, Andrews came from his homeland of India to the United States to get a master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. That year, to supplement his scholarship and help pay for his education, he held a part-time job with a social work agency in the Eastwick section of Philadelphia, a transitional area of the city where he worked with African American youths. Although he’d hoped to work the summer in a chemical firm, the social service agency wanted him to work full-time. He expressed interest, but insisted that he needed employment that would offer him at least $500 for the summer—a significant sum in those days. The executive director took the issue to the agency’s board. Says Andrews, “I felt that I had already made a promise that I would stay if they came up with the money, and the director came back and said, ‘The board is willing to hire you for the summer; don’t say no.’” He didn’t.

“Working with developmental groups was challenging and very interesting. I felt that I had something to offer. Even though I was in chemistry, my heart, I realized, was in working with people,” Andrews says. So, he knocked at the door of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Work, hoping to change direction right then and there. “They were not too interested in me since I didn’t have any experience except for the six months that I spent at the agency working with troubled youth. But, they were kind enough to try me as a special student in social work. After one semester, they said, ‘OK, you can continue.’ And that’s how it all happened.”

SOCIAL WORK IN INDIA
When Andrews completed his studies, he was still single, and his family was in India. He wasn’t considering a career in the United States. Rather, his only thought was to return home and be with his family. He worked for nearly a year and a half after getting his master’s degree and returned to India in 1962. “Finding a job was hard in India because the concept of professional social work had not clearly set in across the society. There were schools giving diplomas, but still most people didn’t know what the field was and didn’t understand the professional aspect of social work.”

After several months of unemployment, Andrews was offered a job teaching social work. He turned it down because he didn’t feel prepared to teach, and he continued to wait and look. “The next job that became available was the second least desirable thing for me in social work—social research,” an area about which Andrews had no interest, nor, he suspected, any aptitude. He had, however, taken one course in research, which gave him a leg up on the other candidates. His first choice would have been a position in personnel management or labor welfare. “But by that time, I was unemployed long enough that I said I’d take the research job.”

As Andrews’ luck would have it, he learned to enjoy and appreciate research and found it to be a wonderful experience. The position was sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, which was researching the benefits and negative effects of rural internships for medical doctors in seven centers in India. Andrews was hired to do the research in his home state and worked with a college of medicine in the city of Trivandrum. As a result of this work, Johns Hopkins gave Andrews a full fellowship to come to Baltimore to do his doctoral work. He returned to the United States and focused his dissertation on the feasibility of involving indigenous medicine practitioners in family planning service delivery in India.

THE PATH TO SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION
“My career just sort of bounced around, and sometimes the decisions were made on what was available rather than what was the most intriguing or interesting,” says Andrews. When he obtained his doctorate in public health, Andrews’ goal was to return to India. He was sponsored by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) monies, and the Delhi Mission wanted him to direct a new health project. The project was to be funded by Oxfam in England. USAID offered to supply the person and the person’s salary. Oxfam said yes, but Washington said no—it could not send an Indian to India. “I started putting two and two together and thought, ‘Aha! They’re worried I’ll go and turn the Indian economy into rubbish by having an Indian ask for a lot of money in India.”

Because he was committed to the concept of the work, Andrews offered to take the position at a reasonable salary that would have been offered in India. They countered by offering him his pick of a project in any one of another 12 countries. “That is when I started looking for jobs. I was looking for something in public health, including research-based jobs, when a friend brought me a journal containing a notice about a position as director of public health in Pago Pago, and right below that was an ad from the University of Nebraska Medical Center for a director of the children’s rehab institution,” he recalls. “I said, ‘I’m a social worker, I can do that.’ And although I had no experience with developmental disabilities, I said that my experience, background, and interest in social work and administration would make me a good director.” The university agreed, he says, laughing. “And that’s how I came to Omaha 30-plus years ago.”

BEST LAID PLANS
Andrews’ aim was to stay for perhaps three or a maximum of five years and return to India. But once again, his best laid plans went awry. “As you can see, I’m still here, ready to retire.” Some years earlier, he’d been convinced that he was no teacher—again he was proven wrong. “That first time teaching was a scary experience, but by the time I had more experience, it was a positive, wonderful experience for me to have the same class for four hours in fall and four hours in spring. We bonded, and it was that class that gave me the confidence that I needed to continue teaching,” he says.

For five years Andrews taught a practice course, during which time he also developed a new course in health and social work and taught a course in family planning. But, after five years in middle management at the medical center, he had the urge to move on and began to look elsewhere for another position. During that time, however, the UNO School of Social Work developed and the director recruited him. With multiple responsibilities, it was a bit overwhelming. “I didn’t feel that I was as wired as I was before, and I started again questioning whether teaching was what I really wanted to do. Fortunately, there soon was a complete reorganization of faculty assignments, and I was offered the position of practicum coordinator. Having been on the other side—as a practicum instructor—and knowing many people in the community, this job became natural for me. I simply loved it and enjoyed it because I had contact with every student and every agency and practicum instructor. It was thrilling for me because again I felt I was wired.”

Yet again, external circumstances altered his career path. “Two years into that job, all of a sudden the director who was instrumental in hiring me decided to step down, and the position became available. Initially, I didn’t even consider applying for it because I loved my job. Why would you give up something that you love? But if you don’t step into something for which you are qualified and you know you can do, such opportunities may not come up so easily again.” Andrews suggests that opportunities always arose before he was ready for them. His record proves otherwise. “I got the job, and then I never let anyone else do it for 221/2 years.”

Now, however, he’s ready to step back somewhat. Although he’ll remain involved with some social work projects and volunteer work, he’d like to enjoy more time with his family and continue to deepen his involvement with his church. His children have treated Andrews and his wife to a cruise to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Nothing, says the 68-year-old retiree, sounds better than spending time on a cruise with his wife, his two children and their spouses, and his four grandchildren.

— Kate Jackson is a staff writer for Social Work Today.