Remembering School of Social Work Professor Glenda House

Professor Glenda House, friend, colleague, and alumna passed away on December 9, 2023.

House was a treasured part of the University of Arkansas’ School of Social Work and the social work community after having an illustrious and outstanding 35-year career as a social worker.

She began her B.S.W. degree in the late ’70s as a non-traditional student, and in fact, she was a single mother who used a scooter for transportation. Very determined, she worked on campus and at other various odd jobs until she completed her degree, receiving a B.A. in Social Work from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in 1984.

With her B.S.W. in hand, House began work at Ozark Guidance, providing rural case management for adults with serious, persistent mental illness. House, again determined to advance her career as a social worker, enrolled in the M.S.W. program at University of Arkansas Little Rock, as there was no M.S.W. program in Fayetteville that time. She drove to Little Rock each week for class, earning her M.S.W from the UALR in 1989.

House continued to work with clients who suffered from mental illness and worked with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, providing both individual and group therapy. During this time, she also transitioned into administration, becoming the director of the Northwest Arkansas Adult Day Care Center providing services for frail elders and caregivers, and as a co-director of the NWA Rape Crisis Center.

In 1993, House began work as a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas. She taught for more than 23 years across the B.S.W. and M.S.W. programs, receiving a promotion to Clinical Assistant Professor and then Clinical Associate Professor along the way.

“Throughout the years, she taught many different social work courses, however according to Glenda, her favorite course to teach was Practice II – Social Work Practice with Groups because she believed strongly in the power of group work at all levels of intervention,” said Johanna Thomas, Ph.D., LCSW, School of Social Work director and associate professor.

“Her teaching impacted thousands of social work students at the University of Arkansas, many of whom have gone on to impact an incalculable number of clients, communities, and our profession,” she added.

House then became the director of the M.S.W. program at the University of Arkansas in 2009. At that time, she began to phase out her teaching duties in favor of working to grow the then four-year-old M.S.W. program and was at the helm when the program was first ranked by the U.S. News and World Report in 2012 – coming in at #104.

While House retired from the U of A in 2016, she continued to supervise students and provide supervision to social workers headed for licensure.

“Everyone has so many memorable quotes from Glenda but one of her best came from when she was asked by a student interviewer about the public’s perception of social work, and she reminded us that for many years people thought social workers were the ones who, ‘hand out the cheese!'” Thomas said.

“In all seriousness though, because of Glenda House, many of our students have gone on to ‘hand out the cheese’ while multi-tasking to serve our mission of improving the lives of vulnerable people through leadership in the profession of Social Work,” Thomas added.

“May her memory be a blessing to all of us who had the privilege of knowing her. Glenda will be deeply missed and we hope you find some joy in reading about her and her amazing work,” she said.

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.