NASW Chapter Executive Director Profile: Kathy Boyd
Former North Carolina Chapter, Executive Director, Kathy Boyd, MSW ACSW, CMSW, celebrated her 30th year as Chapter Executive Director in February of 2016 and retired in March of 2018. The NASW Foundation applauds Kathy for her stellar record as a Chapter Executive Director and we wish her all the best in her retirement. We reached out to her before her retirement to take a look back at her tenure with NASW. According to Kathy:
“I love being a social worker and I love advocating for our profession and our clients. I believe in and am passionate about the NASW mission, so for me, being an NASW Chapter Executive Director has been a perfect job.”
The North Carolina Chapter had above average membership and program growth during the 30 years that Kathy was Executive Director. When Kathy started, the Chapter had one staff member and a contract for administrative services, was using rented office space, and was the 24th largest Chapter. Prior to her retirement, the Chapter had five full-time and two part-time staff members, owned office space in the historic district of downtown Raleigh, and was the 10th largest Chapter. During Kathy’s tenure the Chapter worked to gain mandatory licensure for social workers, mandatory insurance reimbursement, passage of multiple confidentiality laws, direct Medicaid reimbursement, and the growth of benefits and programming for members.
The North Carolina Chapter continues to use the Foundation for four Chapter funds, three of which are related to Chapter-level annual awards.
“Being able to use the Foundation and thus provide social workers with the opportunity to make tax-deductible donations has been very helpful for our fundraising and allowed us to maintain awards that are significant to our award winners,” she said.
The Chapter has two annual student awards, one for a BSW student and one for an MSW student. Each award is for $1,000 and the Chapters goal is to grow the reserves for each fund by fundraising to bring in more than the designated $1,000 each year for each fund.
“Our most recently developed award program has been a Conference Scholarship Award which is designed for newly graduated social workers. We provide at least two conference scholarships at each of our seven annual conferences. The scholarship award covers the cost of registration for the conference and providers a small check for travel costs. Those who donate to the Conference Scholarship Fund know that they are supporting the next generation of social workers by helping to support those social workers in their professional growth and their mandated continuing education needs.”
Kathy has an MSW from West Virginia University and a certificate in Association Management from Duke University. She was the NASW Chapter Director of the Year in 2000 and has multiple awards form North Carolina organizations. She retired from her role as Chapter Director in March of 2018, but said she will continue to support the NASW Foundation and its many programs.