{"id":78805,"date":"2026-01-04T15:17:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T19:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/?p=78805"},"modified":"2026-05-04T19:13:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:13:22","slug":"student-spotlight-chasing-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/student-spotlight-chasing-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Spotlight: Chasing Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get to know MSW student Kate\u00a0G.\u00a0(SSW \u201924)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kate Glynn recalls how using her business as a platform for volunteer work led her to pursue social work as a career. Glynn also details how her advocacy to include course material educating students about reproductive justice eventually led to the creation of a course at\u00a0BUSSW\u00a0that taught exactly that. Glynn also underlines the importance of examining systems in the field of social\u00a0work and\u00a0illustrates\u00a0how her current work for Reproductive Justice Now strives to achieve systemic change.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Could you describe your\u00a0background\u00a0to\u00a0me? What\u00a0are your interests outside of work and school?\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m\u00a0in my 40s now, so this is a career pivot. I grew up in both New York City and Boston, half my time in each, and now I live in Western Mass and have lived here for 20 plus years now.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before deciding to be a social worker, I owned two retail stores in downtown Northampton. They were baby and children’s stores, focused\u00a0mainly on\u00a0gear. My first store had strollers, car seats, kids’ clothing,\u00a0that kind of thing. The other one, which was the one that I had for a little bit longer, was cloth diapers, slings, wraps, children’s books, and wooden toys.\u00a0That was 14 years of my life;\u00a0being part of the young professional world and business\u00a0community out\u00a0here in Western Massachusetts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0really always\u00a0saw my\u00a0businesses\u00a0as a platform to do volunteer work. I\u00a0like\u00a0to say that I did my career plan backwards. I was originally going to retire into owning a children’s bookstore, but the opportunity presented itself much earlier, and now\u00a0I’m\u00a0doing the other nonprofit work\u00a0that has\u00a0kind of always\u00a0been part of the through line. Before that, I also worked at a camp for emotional and behavioral special-needs kids in upstate\u00a0New York, which I did for about seven years.\u00a0That was a big part of\u00a0shaping my value system;\u00a0seeing children in the context of their lives, and thinking about how we work as teams, not just individuals.\u00a0That\u00a0was\u00a0one of the origin points of how I started to think about the world in the interconnected systems model.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why\u00a0social\u00a0work? What brought you to want to be a\u00a0social worker? How did you first become interested in social work?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been involved in a lot of volunteer boards.\u00a0I’ve\u00a0been in board leadership for many years, including the United Way of Hampshire County, which then merged and\u00a0now is a different entity. But I sat on that board for 10\u00a0years\u00a0and\u00a0was\u00a0the\u00a0chair\u00a0for three years.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was also part of the founding members\u00a0of the Northampton Area Young\u00a0Professionals.\u00a0I sat on the board of our Chamber of Commerce for that. I was also on the board of a national organization that looked at handmade toys. Then most recently, and\u00a0particularly\u00a0pertaining to\u00a0my chosen path in social work, is that\u00a0I’ve\u00a0been very engaged with the Abortion Rights Fund of Western Mass. I was on the board for five years, doing abortion funding work. That was a lot of the volunteer engagement that I was doing as a professional retailer, so I never saw myself as a retailer or an entrepreneur. It always felt so funny to be painted like that, and I was like, \u201cNo, no, I\u2019m really more of a community educator and organizer.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, in a lot of ways, I really have been moving through\u00a0the space\u00a0like a macro social worker for\u00a0a very long\u00a0time. I did\u00a0my\u00a0undergrad\u00a0degree based on\u00a0Broff\u00a0and Brenner’s ecological systems model.\u00a0We like to talk about the difference between the micro, which is the\u00a0individual, versus the macro, which pertains to community wide systems.\u00a0So,\u00a0I\u00a0kind of always\u00a0knew that I would go back to school eventually.\u00a0I’m\u00a0waspy enough that I always figured that I would get an advanced degree.\u00a0I closed my store right before the pandemic, which\u00a0actually had\u00a0nothing to do with the pandemic;\u00a0it\u00a0was just the best stroke of luck in\u00a0timing, ever. I gave up my lease March\u00a01,\u00a02020, which was\u00a015 days\u00a0before things hit the fan. I had no idea that the world was going to completely turn upside down. But I knew that I\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0figure out what was next while I was still doing the store, so I decided to stop. When I was trying to figure out what was next, I was involved with volunteering in the vaccine rollout in my community, as well as continuing to be part of the abortion funding world.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was poking\u00a0around,\u00a0and I had looked at the macro program before, but it\u00a0didn’t\u00a0make sense to move to Boston. But now BU has\u00a0a hybrid\u00a0option\u00a0after the pandemic, which seemed perfect because I could go to Worcester one night a week for the first year and a half of the program. And then, because of the pandemic, I learned that the online world\u00a0isn’t\u00a0terrible.\u00a0It’s\u00a0not my first choice, I prefer to learn in person,\u00a0that’s\u00a0the way my brain works. But it felt doable. So\u00a0that’s\u00a0how I ended up choosing this program, because I always knew that, again, macro was the way in for me. And I always knew that I was looking at public policy versus social work. I have a framework of reproductive justice, which is how I think about my macro practice. And I could do public policy, looking at reproductive justice or social work.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s\u00a0your most outstanding memory or\u00a0experience in your academic career at BUSSW?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The thing that I loved the most about the hybrid program is that we had a cohort.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There was this group of us that all started as awkward\u00a0grad\u00a0school students together. That\u00a0first\u00a0day\u00a0we’re\u00a0like,\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0don’t\u00a0know where the classroom is. What are we doing? Who are you?\u201d Good\u00a0thing\u00a0we were all social workers,\u00a0and\u00a0we\u00a0generally like\u00a0people, so that helped. But that meant that I got to really know this group of\u00a0people\u00a0and\u00a0go through learning with them for the first year and a half of the program. I was the only macro student in my cohort, which was a little bit of a bummer. I would have loved to have someone else that was a macro student in my cohort,\u00a0but I also appreciated that I was very much integrated into the\u00a0cohort;\u00a0people\u00a0always said that they appreciated my macro lens that I was using to look at things.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Certainly, when we got mainstreamed into the online world, it was nice to be in classes with other\u00a0macro-minded\u00a0people. That was lovely.\u00a0Being this many years into my career and really knowing what I wanted to pursue, I was\u00a0really clear\u00a0about the coursework that\u00a0I wanted to engage in during the program.\u00a0So,\u00a0I’m\u00a0really grateful\u00a0that the hybrid program is small enough for Susan to be able to help me and meet my needs so that I could really get the\u00a0educational experience that I really wanted\u00a0out of BU.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes social work worthwhile to you?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe in humans. I believe in our experience and our interconnectedness. The older I get, the more certain I am that there is nothing that\u00a0isn’t\u00a0helped by human connection.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0mean that\u00a0it’s\u00a0going to fix it, but I cannot\u00a0come up with\u00a0anything\u00a0that\u00a0isn’t\u00a0made a little bit better by some kind of human connection. I think using that and the framework of social work is the way that we move through the world of understanding. Humans are important, our relationships are important, and we exist in\u00a0the context\u00a0of our\u00a0lives.\u00a0That\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0mean that\u00a0[human connectivity is]\u00a0going to fix it, but I cannot\u00a0come up with\u00a0anything that\u00a0isn’t\u00a0made a little bit better by some kind of human connection.\u00a0That is social work\u00a0to\u00a0me.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also think the area that I focus in, which is reproductive justice, understands it is the intersection of the individual making choices about their reproductive future; to have or not have children, and in the context of safe and sustainable communities. It made a ton of sense for me to think about what degree I wanted to help me make this career pivot, and macro social work made all the sense in the world.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And I feel like\u00a0I’ve\u00a0landed in my dream position with the Reproductive Equity Now organization.\u00a0I’m\u00a0doing policy and advocacy work around reproductive equity, which is\u00a0just amazing.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I spend a lot of my time explaining what macro social work is to people, but I\u00a0kind of like\u00a0it. It\u00a0kind of gives\u00a0me a chance to educate people that there are other kinds of social workers out there than just\u00a0clinical. And\u00a0we’re\u00a0trying to\u00a0come at\u00a0the same kind of\u00a0issues\u00a0in our culture, but from different perspectives. Clinical is working\u00a0on the\u00a0individual\u00a0level,\u00a0and macro is working on the systems level. What are the common denominators\u00a0in\u00a0what’s\u00a0happening in people’s lives? And how can we\u00a0organize around\u00a0that? Be it policy, or community organizing. Chances are whatever kind of problem it\u00a0is,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0typically\u00a0a system issue.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What work during your academic career are you\u00a0proudest\u00a0of?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hands down, I am deeply, deeply proud of how I was able to affect curricular change at BU. Not only being able to be part of the team that brought the Reproductive Justice and Social Work class into\u00a0existence, and\u00a0brought reproductive justice as a framework and abortion as a human rights issue to campus, but also being able to get some of these ideas into the general curriculum earlier.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my first year, I was going to one of the equity and inclusion monthly talks.\u00a0I think it\u00a0was about abortion and disability, or reproductive rights and disability. Which is the corner of the world that I sit in. And\u00a0so,\u00a0I was looking it up on the equity and inclusion website;\u00a0there’s\u00a0a lot of great resources there, but\u00a0there’s\u00a0nothing about reproductive justice or abortion access. Whatever your feelings are about abortion, reproductive justice as a movement and a framework is very much in line with social work. The idea that people have the dignity and respect to make the choices for their lives that they want to make, and that there are systems bigger than they are that get in the way of people being able to make those decisions.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0sent\u00a0an email\u00a0to Ellen DeVoe and Dawn Belkin-Martinez saying, \u201cJust a question.\u00a0I’ve\u00a0noticed that there\u00a0aren’t\u00a0any resources\u00a0about\u00a0this,\u00a0and\u00a0I’m\u00a0curious about if\u00a0you’d\u00a0be open for a conversation about it.\u201d\u00a0Ellen responded saying, \u201cActually, I’m going to put you right in touch with Greer Hamilton, who recently graduated with a doctorate in\u00a0social work.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0actually\u00a0knew\u00a0Greer in my\u00a0previous\u00a0career path because we both worked in the abortion funding space for different abortion funds.\u00a0So,\u00a0it was this wonderful moment to find out that she was also a social worker involved here.\u00a0We started talking and asking questions, and eventually Ellen said we had the\u00a0possibility\u00a0to write a class.\u00a0The moment was\u00a0right,\u00a0we were post-Dobbs. The world was paying close attention to abortion and reproductive justice, for the\u00a0first time really on a national stage ever. Those of us in the reproductive justice space have been talking about this for a long time and saying,\u00a0\u201cHey, we are headed to a disaster.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a national realization that this was not just about abortion. This was also about healthcare, about bodily autonomy, this is an economic issue, this is a race issue, this is an LGBTQ issue.\u00a0This is an issue that touches so many things, and we\u00a0have to\u00a0be able to discuss it.\u00a0We\u00a0have to\u00a0be able to hold it and talk about it as social workers, just like so many other things, regardless of what your personal feelings are.\u00a0It’s\u00a0our job to center the experience of whoever our client is, whether\u00a0that’s\u00a0a person or a community, as a macro social worker.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am just grateful that the timing lined up\u00a0really well\u00a0to\u00a0be able to write this class.\u00a0It\u00a0was\u00a0me, Greer Hamilton, Renee Landon, who also just graduated this spring, Kim Hokanson, and Ellen Devoe who helped shape the process along the way. Renee Spencer was also hugely helpful. It was amazing to have administrative support and\u00a0understanding\u00a0that this was\u00a0a really important\u00a0and\u00a0timely\u00a0issue topic to get into the curriculum. We also were able to get the topic of reproductive justice introduced in the racism and cultural oppression class, HB 735, which was amazing.\u00a0All\u00a0that work to shift the\u00a0curriculum;\u00a0that is the thing that I am most proud about at BU as a macro person: systems change.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u00a0are\u00a0your favorite courses,\u00a0professors,\u00a0and events at BUSSW?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One piece that I particularly loved about the Worcester hybrid program was our\u00a0initial\u00a0class taught by Hope Haslam-Straughn, who is just one of the best professors.\u00a0They\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0pick a better landing place for students coming in. She really made us feel so welcome and supported and engaged and really helped us get our feet underneath us as students.\u00a0I think that BU\u00a0is incredibly lucky to have her as a professor, and that\u00a0class\u00a0still\u00a0remains\u00a0one of my favorite experiences.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary Collins and Taylor Hall who taught us policy one and two out in Worcester. I love policy. So that was particularly interesting, being able to use the opportunity and the privilege to go back to school, and step back and see history in\u00a0a different way. To see how the system\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0broken, it was designed this way.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Geoff Wilkinson was an amazing teacher.\u00a0I appreciated how rigorous he was,\u00a0and also\u00a0how he was particularly understanding about where I was in my professional development.\u00a0He was able to understand how I was coming into the class with experience, not fresh out of\u00a0undergrad\u00a0coming to this field.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also,\u00a0Maddie Walkman in Public Health Social Work;\u00a0I loved\u00a0[it].\u00a0It\u00a0was such\u00a0a\u00a0great class.\u00a0I think I\u00a0particularly loved\u00a0it because it\u00a0was the\u00a0last\u00a0in-person class that I had. I was thinking\u00a0that’s\u00a0exactly where I sit reproductive justice-wise, in public health social work.\u00a0It’s\u00a0this intersection\u00a0where we evaluate how\u00a0we\u00a0see\u00a0our population in terms of access to healthcare\u00a0and\u00a0the implications to that.\u00a0\u00a0I think Maddie’s a fantastic professor.\u00a0She really goes\u00a0above and beyond\u00a0to make the coursework\u00a0interesting\u00a0and also\u00a0to help students figure out what they want to do if they want to be in public health social work.\u00a0She really understood that many of us in the class were at the end of our program.\u00a0At that\u00a0stage\u00a0many students were thinking, \u201cWhat about a job? What comes next?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you doing in the field currently?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For\u00a0my second placement,\u00a0I was with Reproductive Equity\u00a0Now and doing policy work with them, which was amazing. I knew\u00a0the team from my work with the abortion fund, so it was a wonderful, easy transition back into the reproductive justice space. I am lucky enough to have been able to stay with them. At this point\u00a0I’m\u00a0covering their political and field director\u2019s parental leave.\u00a0I’m\u00a0learning a whole lot very quickly about electoral politics in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.\u00a0I’m\u00a0incredibly grateful, I love the team, and I feel like\u00a0I’ve\u00a0landed in my dream organization.\u00a0I’m\u00a0learning so much about the electoral system and the local race-side of politics. I\u00a0don’t\u00a0think\u00a0that’s\u00a0where my heart really lives, politics. I think\u00a0I’m\u00a0more on the policy side, but I know we\u00a0have to\u00a0have the\u00a0people to\u00a0vote on them.\u00a0So,\u00a0I understand the need.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But other than that, I\u00a0actually am\u00a0really enjoying just\u00a0doing one\u00a0thing.\u00a0I’m\u00a0not in school anymore, and I just had two weekends that\u00a0I\u00a0actually felt\u00a0like were legitimate weekends.\u00a0I felt like I was forgetting to do a discussion board post or readings that I would have to\u00a0do;\u00a0I still have that residual homework feeling.\u00a0I’m\u00a0still\u00a0in\u00a0the stage\u00a0where\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0excited about not having to do homework.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m\u00a0also taking a break from all other boards and organizations\u00a0at the moment.\u00a0I’ve\u00a0told myself that I not only need a break, but also to figure out how to fully engage in this career pivot and stop to figure out how to be a professional in this\u00a0space\u00a0and\u00a0then figure out how I can go back to volunteering. I need a full break from doing any volunteer work.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m\u00a0enjoying a year of not having all these other projects that I usually\u00a0have going on.\u00a0It sounds super nerdy, but\u00a0I’m\u00a0really excited to just be able to focus on my job.\u00a0Working with a team that I love working in the field that I went to school\u00a0for\u00a0and\u00a0enjoying the privilege of just doing one thing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is your dream job in the \ufb01eld of social work?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What do I want to be when I grow up? I have no idea.\u00a0Because\u00a0what is your dream job in social work?\u00a0Which I’m kind of already there, not with the electoral piece, but this organization.\u00a0They are the one org\u00a0that’s\u00a0really looking at state level policy for reproductive equity. We just expanded to Connecticut and New Hampshire last year.\u00a0There’s\u00a0actually two\u00a0other macro social workers that work for Reproductive Equity Now, so I feel like\u00a0I’m\u00a0in\u00a0really\u00a0good company. The\u00a0state\u00a0director for Connecticut and the state director for New Hampshire are also macro social workers who focus on reproductive justice.\u00a0It’s\u00a0like a dream that\u00a0I’ve\u00a0landed in this amazing spot.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0don’t\u00a0know if I have a dream job.\u00a0I have goals about breaking down\u00a0stigma, and I have goals around abortion. I have goals around organizing our abortion landscape in Massachusetts, but\u00a0that’s\u00a0not a job. Those are my macro dreams.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is your advice for other MSW students?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel like\u00a0there’s\u00a0the practical\u00a0advice\u00a0of figuring out the assistive technology that is different than it was 20 years ago. But talk-to-text now\u00a0really helps with getting things down on paper. There’s text-to-speech technology, so you can get things read to you as\u00a0you’re\u00a0commuting,\u00a0which is hugely helpful. Particularly\u00a0for those of us who are older students, we need to relearn how to go to\u00a0school, and re-engage with things like,\u00a0how do we\u00a0write\u00a0a\u00a0paper? How do we do this?\u00a0There’s\u00a0just a whole bunch of technology which has really grown in helpful ways.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think my piece of advice\u00a0is just\u00a0think\u00a0about the\u00a0macro of it all.\u00a0That’s\u00a0the point of social work, even for\u00a0clinical\u00a0students. We\u00a0see the person\u00a0in the context of their lives. If not, there are many other mental health degrees. I say that because BU understands this as well, and we have a general curriculum that\u00a0we\u00a0all\u00a0must\u00a0take to understand policy, to understand systems of oppression.\u00a0I think\u00a0that’s\u00a0really,\u00a0really important.\u00a0I think the advice\u00a0is just to remember to see people within\u00a0a\u00a0bigger context.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also just do as much reading as you can, but\u00a0don’t\u00a0kill\u00a0yourself. Do what you can. The experience of being in\u00a0school\u00a0is\u00a0not just about how many pages you read;\u00a0it’s\u00a0also about the people that\u00a0you’re\u00a0meeting.\u00a0It’s\u00a0about the connections that\u00a0you’re\u00a0making, and the discussions that\u00a0you’re\u00a0having.\u00a0So,\u00a0make sure that you have enough in your tank to be\u00a0able to engage with\u00a0all of\u00a0the other parts of school that happen when\u00a0you’re\u00a0a student.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn more about our MSW program<\/span><\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kate Glynn is a dedicated advocate for reproductive justice, working to advance equity through policy, education, and systems-level change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25047,"featured_media":80160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8534],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78805"}],"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\/25047"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78805"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81503,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78805\/revisions\/81503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}