Betty J. Ruth
I am a public health social worker and experienced mission-driven educator, administrator, and consultant. Dedicated to the well-being of students, clients, colleagues, and constituents, I bring creativity, thoughtfulness and vision to my mentoring, supervision, and leadership roles. Underlying all of my work is an ongoing commitment to social, economic, and racial justice.
For more than 30 years, Clinical Professor Emerita at Boston University (BU) School of Social Work Betty J. Ruth has taught Ethics, Racial Justice, and Macro Practice, directed professional education programs, and served as the longstanding director of BU’s Master of Social Work/Master of Public Health degree program.
Trained as a public health social worker, Betty is a passionate, lifelong advocate for the integration of public health approaches into social work. An experienced educator and senior administrator with expertise in public health social work, inter-professional education, professional ethics, and professional development, she has stewarded many initiatives aimed at promoting health social work and social work’s roles in health and public health.
An accomplished speaker and author, Betty has written and presented extensively on the history of public health social work, MSW/MPH education, and the profession’s role in prevention; she has also conducted research on various aspects of social work education.
Betty has consulted to numerous organizations, including other MSW/MPH programs and various state, health, and community agencies. She held leadership roles in the American Public Health Association, the Massachusetts Board of Registration for Social Workers, and the National Association of Social Workers. In 2003, she co-established the Group for Public Health Social Work Initiatives, to elevate the importance of trans-disciplinary social work and public health practice and through its efforts, led numerous research projects to ground the profession’s understanding of itself in prevention and public health. As principal investigator for Advancing Leadership in Public Health Social Work Education, a Health Resources Services Administration project based at the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health, Betty’s team produced free resources for those interested in integrating public health concepts into their work. In 2021, Betty was bestowed the Lifetime Achievement in Social Work Education Award by the Council on Social Work Education.
Betty holds a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Health from Boston University.
