Dorothy Lally (1909- 2003)

Lally's major contribution as a pioneer was her work in the international field. In the late 1940's until the present time, Dorothy Lally has been involved in international activities either by serving international visitors in the US or in providing consultation abroad and maintaining the International Council on Social Welfare's vice-president. She has served on many of the international committees.

Lally started her work as a supervisor in public welfare in New York State in 1932-1937. She taught as the Associate Professor of Public Welfare, the Boston College, School of Social Work until 1940. In 1940 she joined the Bureau of Public Assistance as a staff development consultant. She served there for four years. She provided consultation to the Department of Public Welfare on staff training on schools of social work regarding social work curriculum and recruitment.

She began her international experience in 1944 as a training an Agency consultant with United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation, the European region. From 1947-1957 she served as a technical assistant in the Social Security Administration. She established a training program for foreign nationals coming to the US, worked with the Council on Social Work Education Schools of Social Work, developed cooperation with the Department of State and Work of United Nations on Social Work Policies and standards, claimed US participation in international expert groups and workshops on social welfare services. From 1957-1967 she became the chief of International Services in Social Security Administration. She has served as Chief of the International Office of the Welfare Administration.

She provided consultation on an overseas program development on social aspects including provisions in American Specialist. As a consultant on technical assistance and research projects she provided consultation to a wide range of countries: Japan, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Israel, United Arab Republic, Tunisia, Iran, Lebanon, Poland, Yugoslavia, Germany and Brazil. Her entire experience has been related to international affairs. She was considered an expert around the world, and was on the International Advisory Board, the International Council of Social Welfare, the vice-president for North America International Conference, she served on the Editorial Policy Committee of the International Social Work Journal and she was on the ICSW-US Committee Board.