Wendy Smith Meyer Ph.D., LCSW  —  Francis M. Wheat Community Service Award Honoree

PROFESSOR, CHILD ADVOCATE AND AUTHOR

Wendy Smith Meyer, Ph.D., LCSW, is a retired clinical professor of social work and associate dean of curriculum development and assessment at the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. She taught courses on child and adolescent development and social work practice with children, families, and transition age youth. She had a private practice in psychotherapy for over 35 years, specializing in the treatment of individuals, couples, and survivors of childhood maltreatment.

Dr. Smith is the former chair and now a commissioner on the Los Angeles County Commission for Children and Families. She chairs the board of directors of the National Foster Youth Institute, and serves on the Foundation Board of the Venice Family Clinic, where she chaired the Committee on Behavioral Health and Child Development for nine years. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, and an advocate for individuals incarcerated for crimes committed as juveniles. Dr. Smith has worked with teams from Human Rights Watch and the Anti-Recidivism Coalition providing workshops to incarcerated individuals in California Prisons on preparing for juvenile offender parole hearings.

Dr. Smith’s book, Youth Leaving Foster Care: A developmental, relationship-based approach to practice, published by Oxford University Press, is the text for courses on social work practice with youth leaving foster care. She has published academic articles on adolescent brain development, psychotherapy, and virtual social work education, and lectures on child and adolescent development, effects of trauma and maltreatment, and the transition from foster care.

She is currently writing a book about childhood trauma and juvenile crime based on extensive interviews with formerly incarcerated individuals.