From the Pen of the Executive Director: July 2025
- NASW-IL Staff
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
Joel L. Rubin, MSW, LSW, ACSW, CAE
NASW-Illinois Chapter Executive Director
If you were not able to attend the 2025 NASW National Conference which Illinois hosted from June 15–19, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, you missed an incredible week of education, networking, and fellowship. Setting attendance records with over 2,000 people in attendance including over 400 Illinois attendees, the conference marked the first time in many years that our association ventured out of Washington, DC. We thank national leadership for their support and confidence in our ability to put on a great show!
Illinois was well represented during several of the plenaries including State Senator Karina Villa, U.S. Congresswoman Delia Ramirez, State Representative Lindsey LaPointe, Dr. Jonathan Singer, Dr. Lisa Moore, Susan Doig, Matthew Selekman, and many others. Two Illinois members were also honored with NASW National Awards: Jordan Steiger, LSW, received the 2025 Emerging Social Work Leader Award and Robyn Golden, MA, LCSW, ACSW, received the 2025 NASW Foundation’s Knee/Wittman Outstanding Achievement.
We celebrated our Illinois attendees at a Tuesday night reception. Many thanks to our generous sponsors who helped make that happen:
Rush University Hospital
Meridian Health Plan of Illinois
Belmont Senior Living Oak Park
Age Options
CJE Senior Life
Habilitative Systems Inc.
Illinois Collaborative for Youth (ICOY)
Lutheran Child & Family Services (LCFS)
Metropolitan Family Services
Thresholds
Trilogy
Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work
Governors State University
Start Early
I want to thank the incredible NASW-Illinois Chapter professional staff for their tireless work on-site at the conference, and especially thank Kyle Hillman, Director of Legislative Affairs, who, in addition to regular responsibilities for the chapter, has for the past 15 months lent his conference experience to the national staff to make the 2025 event a rousing success! We were honored to host the 2025 NASW National Conference here in our state.
Before the start of the national conference, the chapter held its final meeting of FY25 and welcomed the new 2025–2026 NASW-Illinois Chapter Advisory Board of Directors:
1. LaTasha Roberson-Guiffaro, MSW, LCSW, CWEL, President
2. Jennifer Gazda, DSW, LCSW, CMC, CDP, Vice President, Budget & Finance
3. Dr. Diane Williams, AM, MSW, Secretary
4. Alnita Myles, LCSW, Calumet District Chair
5. Jasmine Chandy, MSW, LCSW, Chicago District Chair
6. Skip Dettman, LCSW, CADC, ACSW, Three Rivers District Chair
7. Lita Simanis, LCSW, PMH-C, Northeastern District Chair
8. Danielle Monks, MSW, Jane Addams District Chair
9. E. Cordelia Miller-Mohammed, MSW, LCSW, Three Rivers District Chair
10. Hannah Rovey, LCSW, West Central District Chair
11. Michael Mallory, LCSW, Member-at-Large
12. Lorraine Guerrero, MSW, LCSW, CADC, PEL, Member-at-Large
13. Josephine Vachachira, MSW Student Representative, DePaul University
14. W. Winston Scott, BSW Student Representative, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale
We look forward to LaTasha’s and the new board’s leadership!
Looking forward to the next five remaining months of the licensure cycle, the chapter is offering a range of CEU opportunities, culminating with our two-day 2025 NASW Chapters Virtual Conference: Mental Health - Compassion + Action hosted with our sibling chapters, NASW-Nevada and NASW-North Dakota. This live virtual conference is scheduled for November 5 & 6, 2025.
As I conclude my article for this month, SCOTUS is delivering a range of decisions that could have significant impact for our profession and the people we serve. Please stay tune to our social media for the latest.
Enjoy the summer!
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