Wishing Dr. Nancy Meyer-Adams a great last Spring Semester serving as Director of the School of Social Work!
Dr. Nancy Meyer-Adams has served an astounding 4 consecutive terms as the Director of the School of Social Work. After 12 years, Dr. Meyer-Adams will officially conclude her directorship duties in August 2026. It will be a monumental moment for the College of Health and Human Services’ now longest-standing department chair/director.
“One of the true joys these past 20 years has been learning from our students, and that has been especially true as the Director of the School of Social Work,” she said.
Dr. Meyer-Adams has been on the Cal State Long Beach campus for 21 years. She started in 2005, first as Assistant Professor and served as the Undergraduate Coordinator in the School of Social Work, serving four years in that role. She then served as Graduate Coordinator, Associate Director, and eventually became School Director in 2014.
“Some days it’s hard to believe it has been 12 years!” Dr. Meyer-Adams exclaims about her long-standing directorship.
Though Dr. Meyer-Adams will retire as Director, she plans to continue to keep serving in other capacities. For one, she plans to come back and teach for the Spring 2027 semester.
“It will be interesting coming back to the classroom after 13 years,” she says. “One of the main reasons I got a PhD in the first place was because I wanted to teach, and so even though I’ve been an administrator now for a long time, I miss being in the classroom – I miss knowing the students on that level.”
Before she came to The Beach, Dr. Meyer-Adams taught in the social work program at USC. She still remembers one of her first days in class, relaying to the students her own story of being a high-school dropout and a teen mom.
“I had both my kids by the time I was 17. I raised my kids by working as a waitress and a bartender most of their lives.”
Meyer-Adams went back to school to first obtain her GED. She was 37. She put herself through community college, her undergrad and graduate schooling, and received her PhD in 10 years.
“And so my kids and I are first-generation college students because we were in college together at the same time – my son and I even helped each other with our dissertations!”
Dr. Meyer-Adams’ son is a full professor at Colorado State University as a Developmental Psychologist, with over 125 publications in tow. Her daughter is a Doctor of Chinese Medicine, acupuncturist and, following in her mother’s footsteps, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), who also owns a wellness clinic in Florida.
Today, Dr. Meyer-Adams tells her family story to 200 MSW students at Beach Academy, where students are given a full day of learning what it means to think as, and become a professional social worker before the start of their MSW program.
“I use my own story as a teaching moment,” Dr. Meyer-Adams says. “Number one, you never know people’s stories, and as social workers you need to be able to be open to hearing what people have been through, and where they come from, and where you come into their story.”
Many times, there will be at least a few students who come up to Dr. Meyer-Adams after her presentation to thank her for telling her story – often relaying they too, were a teen mom, or have overcome similar obstacles that were in their family story.
“I’m very happy about being at Long Beach [State],” Dr. Meyer-Adams says. “I was very excited when I first got the job.”
Dr. Meyer-Adams’ passion for what she does reflects her love for the students and seeing them go on to do great things as professional social workers.
“We are the largest School of Social Work in the CSU system student-wise. When I started in 2014 [as Director] we started a new curriculum, and it has been very successful. In our MSW program, for example, the students have had the opportunity to do a culminating experience with a Master’s Thesis or Applied Project.”
She adds, “All those community projects that come from our students, and the way we continue to build our program – what we’re doing here is building the California workforce. It makes me very proud to know that we are contributing back to the communities we are from, and that’s continued to grow over the years since I’ve been here.”
Among Dr. Meyer-Adams’ proudest achievements throughout her tenure at CSULB is seeing the School of Social Work continue to grow, with a faculty that students can see themselves in, and with a myriad of new programs that expand the program even further.
For example, a personal pet project of Dr. Meyer-Adams has been establishing the Germany Study Abroad Program, which was first actualized in 2018 for juniors studying in the program, and now sees both undergraduate and graduate-level CSULB social work students getting hands-on learning experiences in Germany, some of which include hearing from German social workers, working with refugees, and learning about and addressing cross-cultural human rights and social justice issues.
In retirement, Dr. Meyer-Adams says that she would like to spend more time traveling and continue to help others have the opportunity to travel through the School of Social Work Study Abroad Program, citing her own transformational experience studying abroad in Spain when she was a student. She would also like to spend time with family, volunteer, and find ways to give back to her campus community.
“I feel like I’m part of this campus. I’ve had the privilege and the honor to be the Director of the School of Social Work for the last 12 years. To be able to do this job is an amazing privilege.”
