In Memoriam: Kelly Spangler, LCSW, MSW, MPA

Dedicated social worker and rockstar social justice advocate Kelly Spangler, LCSW, MSW, MPA passed away on December 10, 2022.

She was an active member of NASW for 42 years both with the Indiana and North Carolina Chapters serving on the NASW Delegate Assembly, the National NASW Health Specialty Practice Section Committee, the NASW-NC Legislative Committee, Asheville Local Program Unit and Public Health Social Work Practice Area Network. Always seeking to elevate others, Kelly nominated social worker John Cowart as the 2015 NASW-NC Social Worker of the Year and because of her nomination, he was selected as the 2016 National NASW Social Worker of the Year.

Kelly was then nominated by her colleagues and was selected by the NASW-NC Board of Directors as the 2016 NASW-NC Social Worker of the Year.

For over twenty years, Kelly practiced as a public health social worker in both micro and macro settings as a direct service provider, program developer, consultant, administrator and educator. She was an invaluable advocate for social workers in public health and continually encouraged North Carolina Health Departments to hire social workers and offer public health social work services in their communities.

Kelly took her role as a social work advocate seriously as she routinely called legislators to advocate for public policy impacting social work clients, participates in protests like the Moral Monday events, volunteered for candidates and local political parties to help get out the vote and organized social work volunteer activities in local nonprofit organizations. Kelly taught social welfare policy for the BSW Program at Mars Hill University and felt privileged to have helped encourage and inspire future social workers.

Kelly’s passing is truly a loss to the social work profession and the communities in which she lived and served but her voice and legacy will live on. Kelly asked that NASW-NC create a Public Health Social Work Award in her honor. We will be working with the NASW-NC Board of Directors to set up this Fund through the NASW Foundation. Information on how donations can be made will be forthcoming. Kelly was also an active member of the North Carolina Public Health Association Social Work Section. The association has renamed their conference to the “Kelly Spangler Public Health Social Work Conference”.

There will be a memorial service to honor her on January 14, 2023 at the Grace Lutheran Church in Hendersonville, NC: https://shulerfuneralhome.com/obituary/kelly-ann-spangler/