The Power of Policy: The Past, Present, and Future

A historically organized core textbook that identifies thematic connections between the history of U.S. social welfare policy and issues related to today's social welfare environment, with an eye toward the future

Jessica M. Kahn worked in child welfare, mental health, and healthcare settings focusing on vulnerable and marginalized populations and saw the power that policy has to affect people’s daily lives. Initially focusing on child welfare and foster care, she recognized the need for comprehensive, preventative social welfare programs, including high quality early childhood education and care. Her research and writing have addressed family policy, social work pedagogy, and implementation of evidence-based practices, among other topics.

For 18 years, she taught across the social work curriculum at Lehman College of the City University of New York. She is currently the Associate Dean at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University. Jessica earned her BA from Davidson College, her MSW from Washington University in St. Louis, and her PhD from Columbia University.


Joy Pastan Greenberg earned her MSW degree from New York University in 1994. After running parenting groups for new parents and caregivers for many years, she returned to school and earned her PhD from the Columbia University School of Social Work in 2007 with a concentration in Social Policy, Planning, and Policy Analysis. Upon graduation, she joined the Social Work faculty at Lehman College of the City University of New York. She has taught policy, research, and administration courses. In addition to her teaching, she has served as Director of the MSW Program since 2014. Her research experience, both qualitative and quantitative, focuses on early childhood education and care policy, immigrant children, and school social work. She is the co-author of Early Childhood Education and Care: History, Policy, and Social Work Practice and has published in social work journals.


Norma Kolko Phillips earned her MSW degree from the Hunter College School of Social Work in New York City amid the exciting and social welfare policy-rich decade of the 1960s. Through the course entitled “Social Welfare,”

taught by Dean Paul Schreiber, she developed a deep understanding of and appreciation for policies that can address social problems such as poverty and racism and the important role of social work in advancing social justice and civil rights. After working in various practice areas, she returned to school, earning a DSW degree at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University. There, she continued her studies of social work and social welfare policy with her mentor, Dr. Louis Levitt, and completed her doctoral dissertation, "Social Work, Government, and Social Welfare: The Social Security Act." She then joined the Social Work faculty at Lehman College of the City University of New York where she worked for the next 37 years. In addition to expanding the undergraduate Social Work program, she spearheaded the development of the MSW program and served as founding chair of the Social Work Department. She continued to stress the importance of social welfare policy in the curriculum,

preparing students for their role as policy practitioners. She has published numerous articles in professional journals and several books on social work.