Social Worker of the Year Award 2003

From left to right: LCDR Dan Kavanaugh, SWPAG Chair, VADM Richard Carmona, Surgeon General, CDR R. Andrew Hunt, Social Worker of the Year 2003, and CAPT Linda Morris Brown, Chief Professional Officer

The 2003 Social Worker of the Year Award was presented to CDR R. Andrew Hunt, MSW, LICSW, Community Development Specialist, Indian Health Service, National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) at the 2003 Commissioned Officers Association Professional Conference.

CDR Hunt, a member of the Lumbee Indian tribe, is detailed to NICWA, a non-profit organization contracted with the Indian Health Service (IHS) through a partnership with the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). In this role, he is the sole commissioned officer at the organization. He was nominated for this award by Mary McNevins, MSW, Director of Community Development for NICWA. Over the past year CDR Hunt has worked at a national level in the area of American Indian/Alaska Native children's mental health as a trainer, technical assistance provider, and consultant to a number of Indian tribes.

In his work with NICWA, CDR Hunt has been the lead staff member to provide and coordinate training/technical assistance to the twenty-three Indian tribes and organizations that have received grants from CMHS to improve their children's mental health systems through the Children's Mental Health Initiative and Circles of Care grant programs. This has resulted in significant contributions to the well-being of those communities through helping improve their children's mental health systems.

CDR Hunt has been on fifty-four (54) on-site T/TA visits (averaging 2.5 trips per month and total of over 150,000 miles flown) in diverse locations and settings including remote Alaska Native villages, isolated Indian communities in Maine, Wyoming, and Michigan, and urban Indian programs in Los Angeles and Albuquerque. In addition, he has presented at regional and national meetings and at over 80 workshops and training courses.

A significant contribution, beyond the sheer volume and overall focus of the T/TA that CDR Hunt has both personally provided and coordinated, is his work in developing a model of technical assistance practice. Tribal communities and NICWA's technical assistance partners have embraced his approach as a respectful method of strategic planning and empowering communities to change.

CDR Hunt visibly promotes the PHS as an agency committed to the mental health of the nation, especially the American Indian and Native American population. In recognition of his dedication to the PHS he has received two PHS Citations and two PHS Achievement medals.