Marjorie N. Edguer, PhD, MSSA, LISW-S, LICDC-CS

Marjorie N. Edguer is an Assistant Professor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. She has worked in the field of social work, primarily with children, adolescents and their families, for more than twenty-five years. Marjorie has worked as a clinical social worker in outpatient mental health centers, a school social worker, a school-based preventionist (of child risk behavior), and an advocate and crisis hotline worker in a domestic violence program. She developed programming for individual and group treatment for adolescent sexual abuse and trauma survivors; children of alcoholics/drug addicts; children and youth experiencing grief; and universal, targeted and selective prevention programming for at-risk youth in school settings around a range of problem areas including suicide, substance use, and school drop-out. Marjorie has supervised social workers, counselors, and social work interns.

Her administrative roles have related to program evaluation, quality assurance, and staff education and training. Marjorie has authored six entries in the Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health: Child Immigrants; Child Development and Immigration; Family Immigration; Intergenerational Differences and Immigration; Trauma Exposure and Immigration; and Unaccompanied Minors. Her main areas of academic study are related to youth, youth services, youth development, and resilience. Her dissertation research looked at a high-risk sample of prenatally substance-exposed youth, and the relationship of risk, protective factors and gender to risky health behaviors in adolescence. Marjorie teaches courses on social work practice, practice evaluation, and child development.

Biosketch
Curriculum Vitae
Google Scholar

Why I Teach

Teaching is about touching the future and changing the world for the better. After practicing social work for many years, I wanted to help others do the work that I found so meaningful. As a teacher you help social work students develop their critical thinking and practice skills, nurture their curiosity, and help them move towards their goals and dreams. Teaching and designing coursework involves creativity, connection, and critical thinking. It is a bi-directional process – I learn a lot from my students and get excited about the things that they are passionate about which enriches all our work.

Why I Chose this Profession

Initially I chose social work because I wanted to help people and make the world a better place – but my focus was on individuals and families. Then came the “a-ha!” discovery as an MSW student that social justice is foundational to social work, and that when we speak of making the world a better place, we mean individuals and families, but we also mean communities and policies and creating change broadly and deeply. This really resonated for me and meant that this was a field where I could work long-term, always discovering new possibilities for changing the world.