New York—Miriam Turk, LCSW, a Jewish communal leader with over 20 years of experience in program development and clinical social work in the Orthodox community, has joined the Touro College Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) as outreach liaison and recruitment director.
Among her many responsibilities in the new position, Ms. Turk will be recruiting students to the GSSW’s Brooklyn and Manhattan campuses; networking and nurturing relationships with regional synagogues, agencies, Touro-affiliated campuses and leadership and serving as a liaison with NEFESH International, the network of Orthodox mental health professionals, where she serves as the organization’s executive director in a volunteer capacity.
“Miriam is a distinguished professional who brings out the best in us,” said Dr. Steven Huberman, dean of the GSSW. “She will help identify outstanding potential students to be trained as clinical social workers to serve the Jewish community, in keeping with Touro’s general mission, which is to provide professional education for the benefit of the individual and society as an expression of the Jewish tenet of Tikkun Olam.”
Ms. Turk will be engaged in providing scholarships to MSW applicants under a new $2.5 million grant from the federal government for economically disadvantaged students beginning fall semester 2016. The scholarships will cover tuition of full-time students and no repayment will be required.
A social worker by training with many years of experience conducting both individual and group psychotherapy as well as supervising clinical staff, Ms. Turk said she is excited to be joining the GSSW and bringing her knowledge and expertise in the field as well as in program development to help Touro achieve its goals.
“I am passionate and committed to Touro’s mission of providing high-caliber training and education,” said Ms. Turk. “One of my main goals is to attract Orthodox students to a program such as Touro’s that is educationally sound and more affordable than other programs.”
Another project she has already begun with great enthusiasm is the school’s partnership with UJA-Federation of New York. Over the coming year Touro and UJA will be collaborating on a new initiative involving female leaders from different organizations in the Charedi community. They will be invited to come together to learn about professional development, management and leadership training.
Ms. Turk noted that when considering coming to Touro, she had been especially impressed by the reaffirmation for eight years (through 2023) of the school’s national accreditation and perfect score from the Council on Social Work Education, the profession’s exclusive accreditation authority.
In addition to her work with NEFESH, she has worked for numerous Jewish social service agencies in a variety of positions including social worker, supervisor, director and program director. Among the organizations she has served are Agudath Israel; the Jewish Board of Family & Children’s Services in Brooklyn; The SAFE Foundation, where she was director of professional development and programming and FEGS Health and Human Services Family Services, where she was program director for Jewish clinical and community outreach for youth-at-risk. Since 2013 she has served as director of the Children of Holocaust Survivors Program for Project Witness, a religiously sensitive Holocaust resource center for diverse communities and schools worldwide.
Ms. Turk received her Master of Social Work from Yeshiva University’s Wurtzweiler School of Social Work.
