NASW Foundation National Programs

NASW Social Work Pioneers^®

Lois Hayes (Foster) (1910-1965)

Foster was best known in the Public Welfare field as Lois Hayes. She married George Foster in 1951.

She was born in Menominee, Michigan and was graduated from St. Marie's High School in St. Marie's, Idaho in 1928. Hayes received her Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of Idaho in Moscow in 1932. She graduated from Case Western Reserve in 1933 and received a caseworker certificate from the Ohio Emergency Relief Administration in 1935.

Much of Hayes' work was in family services and in public welfare services. She was particularly known for her work with crippled children and as a field staff advisor for the federal bureau of public assistance and from 1942 to 1951. She also worked in the public welfare department in Hartford, Connecticut. Hayes worked in Nevada, and Salt Lake City, Utah with crippled children and in Detroit, Michigan in fundraising for private foundations. She worked in Denver in the Bureau of Public Assistance field staff for a period of time when she left there and went to the central office of the Bureau of Public Assistance Social Security Administration in 1942.