Bob Teague, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Student Services, is retiring this spring after 11 years at Berkeley Social Welfare and 22 years in the UC system. We asked him a few questions about his career and his time in Haviland Hall. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You're an MSW yourself, and you have spent most of your career working in social welfare departments and other university programs. Can you give a brief overview of your career?
I don't quite know what to make of having the arc of my career be bookended by two global pandemics. I got called to social work as a volunteer in a community-based AIDS organization in Houston in the late 80s, and that experience brought me to the profession of social work. Decades later, I'm kind of going out the same way that I came in.
After I got my MSW from University of Texas in 1993, my first job was as a foster care, Child Welfare Services worker in Washington, DC. I worked in an intensive reunification unit, where we were working on adoptions of high-need and special-needs kids. But I maintained connections with my graduate program, and when I saw an opening for a graduate advisor in the UT School of Social Work, I applied. So that's how I ended up back at UT as an employee.
I worked in that job for about four years, and then took a grant-funded position in the Texas Department of Health, Bureau of HIV/STD Prevention and Control, training healthcare providers in culturally competent care. When the grant ended I was offered a permanent job, but ultimately I decided to come to California [in 1999]. And that's when I started at UCSF: I worked at San Francisco General Hospital on a federal Ryan White funded training project for 11 years.
What brought you to UC Berkeley?
In 2010, my husband Dan had a Berkeley MSW student doing a field placement at Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, while Dan was their Executive Director. So Dan was on the School's mailing list and he shared the job announcement with me. I hadn't been planning to leave UCSF, but the job sounded interesting... and about five interviews later, I came to Berkeley.
What are some of the high points from your time here?
I'm proud of some of the day-to-day improvements that make students' experience easier, like [classroom] improvements in Haviland, implementing the new student information system, and improving funding for graduate students.
One of the things I am most proud of is making meaningful contributions to the training of the professional Social Work workforce. I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with some pretty amazing students, and I have had the privilege of doing it at world-renowned institutions like San Francisco General, UT Austin, UCSF, and Cal.
What are you most looking forward to in retirement?
I am most looking forward to having the time to devote to my genealogy research and writing. Don't be surprised if you see me lurking in the Oakland Family History Library or the Bancroft library, because archives of life in the early western United States are one of the specialties of the Bancroft.
Do you have any words of wisdom for students or colleagues?
My words of wisdom are pretty much what I say to applicants to graduate school: read and follow the directions. Don't wait till the last minute. Know when to ask for help, and then ask for it.
What do you think you'll miss most?
I will miss the day-to-day life of Haviland Hall and being on the Berkeley campus. I'm a huge, fervent supporter of public higher education, and I'm so humbled that I got to work at these great institutions in my career. I love the profession of social work and I'm glad I got to give back to it in some way.