Josefina Ahumada

Ahumada has dedicated her life to helping others; today, she works as the field education coordinator and instructor for the ASU College of Public Programs School of Social Work’s Tucson component. After two hospital-based internships, Ahumada’s professional career began upon graduating from the UCLA social work graduate program, when she was hired to help mentally ill patients at Tucson East Community Mental Health Center.

Many of Ahumada’s achievements stem from her emphasis on cultural integration. “[At Kino], we [developed] multicultural teams. A lot of the clients that we worked with were Spanish-speaking or Native American or African-American or Asian, and we felt very strongly that we needed to hire staff that also represented the diversity of the community,” she says. “My goal in life has always been, ‘Let’s have a diversified workforce that can be there to serve our clients.’”

Ahumada later worked with the Arizona Center for Clinical Management as well as the Southern Arizona Mental Health Corporation. Serving the community in such ways led her to begin her work as educator for ASU in 1998, where she further stressed the importance of diversity. “[The faculty] has also seen a need for more bilingual, bicultural students into social work,” she says. This fall, the Latino Cultural Competency Certificate Program, a curriculum Ahumada led with other faculty in development, was adopted. Its intent is to create bilingual, culturally competent social workers who are prepared in dealing with the Spanish-speaking public.

Ahumada says she loves operating on the front lines of social work, but she is also passionate about inspiring students. “I want to make a difference. Now the way I’m making a difference is through others,” she says.

Although she confesses that social work is not a glamorous job, Ahumada’s contributions have not gone unnoticed. Among her many recognitions, Ahumada received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 from the state chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, a YWCA “Women on the Move” award in under the health category in 1985 and the student-nominated ASU Ubiquity Award for Academic Contribution in Teaching.

“It’s a good time in my life,” Ahumada says. “Passing on the excitement about being a social worker, the ethics of being a social worker, the dedication to advancing social justice, to advocate for those who live on the margin; that still excited me after all these years.”