Retiring UF professor to host Social Work and the Family Symposium

Anthony Wilgus, associate professor and coordinator of field instruction for social work at The University of Findlay.

Alumni who practice social work around the globe will be converging on campus in April for a symposium focusing on the field’s status and its relationship to the family, and to celebrate professor Anthony J. Wilgus’s retirement from The University of Findlay’s social work program after 28 years of teaching.
The free, public event will be held from 3-5 p.m. Friday, April 10 in Winebrenner Theological Seminary, Room 254. After the discussions, a reception will be in the hall outside of the classroom.
Wilgus, an associate professor and coordinator of field instruction for social work, has invited six University alumni to speak. They include:

• April (Lee) Adams ’02, a bilingual technical expert for the U.S. Social Security Administration in Cleveland
• Amanda (Blue) Limberty ’05, a special education school social worker for the South Bend Community School Corporation in South Bend, Indiana
• Chris Nungester ’00, who, along with her husband, Hal, runs the Haitian Interdenominational Shelter Home for Children, an orphanage based in Port au Prince, Haiti
• Edda (Wernecke) Sedon ‘98, a social services coordinator and social worker for Mercy Medical Center Palliative Care, Hospice and Home Care in Canton, Ohio
• Michelle “Kiesha” (Williams) Savage ’98, a social worker and founder of the group homes, “A Home for You, Inc.” based in Maumee, Ohio
• Theresa Scherger ’92, a home health and palliative care social worker for Bridge Home Health & Hospice in Findlay

Some of the Haitian Interdenominational Shelter Home for Children residents.

Other UF social work program alumni have also been invited to the event. Michael Sullivan who has a private social work practice in Traverse City, Michigan, will lead discussions, and audience comments and questions will be welcomed. Moderating will be Cheri Hampton-Farmer, Ph.D., associate professor of communications and the Communications Department chair.
“The measure of the quality of a university, a program and any professor is in the caliber of graduates. This symposium will highlight the contributions and good works of those who learned the importance of family in their longstanding efforts to mitigate suffering encountered by the humans that they serve,” said Wilgus. “Hearing their insights and observations after many years of practice will illustrate the worth of the noble profession of social work.”
Wilgus said he is “deeply moved” by the willingness of alumni to generously give of their time and expertise, and to travel from near and far to acknowledge a program and the University that launched their careers.