Mary Ann Forgey

Mary Ann Forgey is a Professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Work (GSSS) and has been a member of the Fordham faculty since 1993. She has taught a range of courses in the foundation and specialist area and developed Fordham’s first elective in military social work. Over the course of her career, she also served multiple terms on the University Faculty Senate and its Executive Committee, and from 2014-2015, she served as Senate President.

Dr. Forgey’s practice and research interests include: military social work; international social work practice and education; intimate partner violence assessment; the use of standardized clients (actors) in social work education; social work and the law; and distance education. She served as the principal investigator on two multi-year research projects related to intimate partner violence within the military and most recently on an international comparison study of the roles of military social workers in multiple countries. As a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Forgey taught at the University College Dublin, Ireland and conducted joint research on intimate partner violence assessment practices in Ireland. From 1999 to 2005 she served as the co-director of the Fordham Interdisciplinary Center for Family and Child Advocacy, a joint initiative between Fordham GSSS and the Law School.

Dr. Forgey has presented her work on social work practice and education at national conferences and internationally in Ireland, Italy, France, Spain, and Vietnam. She organized the first roundtable conference on International Military Social Work held at West Point in 2019 and is a founding member and coordinator for the International Military Social Work Consortium, a group of uniformed and civilian military social work practitioners, educators and researchers from over 15 countries. She is the co-editor of “Military Social Work Around the Globe,” the first book published about military social work from an international perspective.

Dr. Forgey’s practice experience includes employment as a civilian military social worker for the U.S. Army in Wiesbaden, Germany, where she served as Director of Army Community Services and Family Advocacy Program Manager. Prior to her work within the military she was a senior social worker in the Protective Services Unit of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. Dr. Forgey received her BA and MSW from Boston College and her Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Education

• BA, MSW, Boston College
• PhD, Columbia University

Research Interests

• Intimate partner violence
• Evidence based assessment
• Military social work
• International social work