Gwendolyn Thornton

Gwendolyn (Gwen) Thornton, PhD LCSW is a retired Associate Professor and Chair of the Social Work Department at Virginia State University. For more than 35 years, Dr. Thornton’s remarkable teaching, scholarship, and service involvement has been extensive locally, regionally and internationally. Program and curriculum development for the University and the Department of Social Work is a hallmark of Dr. Thornton’s leadership. She brought to her position an exceptional ability to provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to develop and implement programs that are now among the leading academic programs at Virginia State University. Her initiatives included the attainment of approval from the University’s Curriculum and Academics Committee (CAIC), the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV), the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) towards the creation, development, implementation and accreditation of the Baccalaureate Social Work (BSW), and the social work undergraduate minor. Additionally, in collaboration with the social work department, she provided leadership for the creation and development of the Homefront Readjustment for the Armed Services Certificate Program. She also provided leadership for the development and implementation of the Master of Social Work (MSW) Program (with on-line and face-to-face options) and obtained the CSWE accreditation pre-candidacy status prior to her retirement from VSU in 2022. Dr. Thornton has also demonstrated outstanding scholarship through her paper presentations, workshops, publications, and poster presentations while employed at VSU. Most recently, Dr. Thornton mentored a former student and co-authored a book chapter in, “The Half Yet to be Told: Study Abroad and HSBCU ’s”. The highlight of Dr. Thornton’s lifelong commitment to service occurred during her sabbatical in the fall 2019 semester in Jukwa, a rural community in the Central Region of Ghana. While living in the local community for more than three months, she worked with the Divine Kids Academy (DKA) as an educational consultant for school administrators, training faculty and staff on program development and community development projects. In collaboration with Ghanaian educators and community leaders, she gained first-hand knowledge and experience in understanding the delivery of educational and social services in the remote villages in West Africa. Upon her return to VSU, she extended the knowledge and skills that she acquired to her community, colleagues, the classroom and her scholarship initiatives. Additionally, she incorporated the new knowledge, skills and information she gained into her teaching pedagogy, service and research agenda, and she also used her global experiences and new perspectives to encourage other faculty members to support international education and study abroad programs in West Africa. The goal is to encourage and inspire students to be competitive, culturally sensitive and knowledgeable educators and social work professionals with a demonstrated commitment to social, economic, and environmental justice in an increasingly interconnected world. In 2020, she co-founded the Mimosa the Mimosa International Foundation of America (MIFoA), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and is currently a Board Member and Chief Finance Officer. She has proven a sincere commitment to higher education as an academician and mentor to hundreds of students while advancing the needle of change within the local and global context. Dr. Thornton has always been committed to preparing her students to serve their communities as informed citizens, to become globally competitive leaders, and highly effective and ethical professionals with a commitment to economic and social justice. In March, 2019, she established the Dr. Gwendolyn Thornton Endowment Scholarship to be utilized for social work students to carry her legacy of excellence forward for generations. In 2021, Dr. Thornton was one of the very first recipients of the Virginia State University Provost’s Outstanding Star Award in Service. Her life’s passion and philosophy are to “be a servant and not to be served”. Dr. Thornton has been a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW)in the Commonwealth of Virginia for more than thirty years, and is a Virginia Board of Social Work approved supervisor for individuals seeking LCSW licensure. Her clinical work focuses on working with clients who are experiencing difficult life challenges and issues that lead to anxiety, depression, self-esteem and relationships problems, codependency, lacking self-confidence, and major losses in their lives.