Taylene Watson, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers, Washington Chapter, and clinical associate professor at the School of Social Work, passed away March 28, 2020, after a short stay in hospice care.
Throughout a long and distinguished career, Watson was an outstanding leader and social work educator with a focus on veterans’ affairs. She taught and mentored thousands of professionals and students in how to view the world through a social justice lens.
“Taylene Watson perfectly embodied our most cherished professional values, and everything that is great and powerful about social work,” says Eddie Uehara, the School’s Ballmer Endowed Dean in Social Work. “She will be remembered, now and in the future, as a standard bearer for our profession.”
Watson graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans with a sociology degree and began a 40-year career at the Veterans Administration. Early on in her career, as a social work associate, she had a gift for building rapport with patients. She went on to receive an MSW at Western Michigan University and then transferred to the VA Puget Sound where she rose to deputy chief of social work. From 1999 until her retirement in 2015, she oversaw a staff that grew to nearly 200 social workers―one of the largest social work departments in the country.
Watson also spearheaded a field-education unit averaging 20 students at the VA Seattle and American Lake facilities and created programs and social work services focused on the unique needs of women in the military. For the past seven years, she co-taught a course at the School to prepare new cohorts of social workers to serve veterans.
After retiring from the VA, Watson served as executive director, NASW Washington chapter, where she was a tireless advocate for the organization. She also helped coordinate the annual African American Caregivers Conference and other continuing education and community outreach events.
In January 2020, Watson received the School’s Tony Ishisaka Living Human Treasure Award—only the second recipient of this recognition—as well as the Martin Luther King Community Services award. She also received numerous national and state awards, including the 2006 National VA Social Worker of the Year. In both 1999 and 2012, she was recognized as the Social Worker of the Year by NASW’s Washington chapter, and in those same years was acknowledged as outstanding practicum instructor by the School’s Office of Field Education where she served on advisory and student review committees.
A scholarship fund to support Taylene Watson NASW Memberships, sponsored by the UW School of Social Work Office of Field Education, will be announced at a later date. A service is being planned by her family and church. Details will be forthcoming.