{"id":20272,"date":"2015-02-03T15:07:52","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T20:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/?p=20272"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:49:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:49:03","slug":"20272","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/20272\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Q&A: Cate Johnston (’12)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI never heard of macro social work<\/a>\"135cc52\" before looking into graduate school,\u201d Cate Johnston (\u201912) said. Johnston worked in nonprofit management before attending graduate school and was interested in both social work and an MBA in nonprofit management. \u201cThe School of Social Work\u2019s program was the perfect intersection of the two fields I\u2019m interested in,\u201d she told the SSW Reporter<\/i>. Along with her MSW, Johnston completed the Human Service Management Certificate Program. She joined the BUSSW Alumni Association<\/a> in August 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cI initially got involved in the Alumni Association through Ken (Schulman, Associate Dean for\u00a0Enrollment Services & External Relations)<\/span>\u2014he\u2019s great at recruiting people,\u201d Johnston said. She sat on the Alumni Association for a year and joined the Steering Committee in 2013 where she became further involved in admissions and financial aid. Johnston currently also sits on the Macro Subcommittee, a position especially important to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe macro program is what drew me to BUSSW and what has shaped my early career,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cI appreciate having a voice in that part of the School\u2019s education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston\u2019s participation on the Alumni Association Board is not only beneficial for current and future students and alumni, it has helped her develop professionally. \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to network and meet other alumni,\u201d Johnston explained. \u201cI\u2019ve also learned a lot of skills as an active member, including collaboration and communication.\u201d\u00a0 These skills assist Johnston in her daily career.<\/p>\n

When not working on the Alumni Association, Johnston is the Senior Regional Survey Manager for Raising a Reader, an early literacy and family engagement program for young children. Here, she oversees programming in the Greater Boston Area. \u201cMy role is a beautiful blend of every macro skill that exists,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cA big reason I got promoted so quickly was the managerial skills I learned at BUSSW.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her position, Johnston\u2019s responsibilities transcend a single role. She writes budgets, participates in community organizing, runs educational groups, supervises and trains staff, manages relationships with public schools, child care centers, and other organizations, and works in policy development. \u201cIt encompasses every skill I remember learning,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n

When asked if she suggests other students join the Alumni Association, Johnston agreed enthusiastically. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice way to give back to BUSSW, and you build a separate professional network,\u201d she said. \u201cPlus, it\u2019s a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI never heard of macro social work before looking into graduate school,\u201d Cate Johnston (\u201912) said. Johnston worked in nonprofit management before attending graduate school and was interested in both social work and an MBA in nonprofit management. \u201cThe School of Social Work\u2019s program was the perfect intersection of the two fields I\u2019m interested in,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7428,7451,4057],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20272"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80492,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20272\/revisions\/80492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}