Barbara Levy Simon

An authority on the history of social work and activism in New York City, Dr. Simon has written three books including a social work writing guide.

Barbara Levy Simon was a full-time faculty member at the Columbia University School of Social
Work from 1986 to 2019. She taught previously at LaSalle University in Philadelphia and the
State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her teaching at the master’s level focused on
social work advocacy, community building, organizational behavior, and the history and
sociology of human service professions. She also taught a course in community-based social
work at the bachelor’s level as an adjunct professor at the City College of New York.
In the doctoral program, she taught a seminar on the history of social work and social welfare.
Dr. Simon holds an AB from Goucher College and an MSS and PhD from Bryn Mawr
College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.

Dr. Simon’s books are Never-Married Women (Temple, 1987); The Empowerment
Tradition in American Social Work: A History (Columbia, 1994); and The Columbia Guide to
Social Work Writing (co-edited with Warren Green, Columbia, 2012).