Kathleen Leonard is a licensed clinical social worker with 29 years of experience in the field. Ms. Leonard has worked in child welfare with CPS (aka DCS), juvenile justice, medical social work, and school social work. Although much of Ms. Leonard’s career has been in direct practice, she has also been involved in areas of mezzo practice through program and policy development, grant writing, and advocacy.
Ms. Leonard received her BA at Arizona State University in Spanish and Latin American Studies while working in youth ministry for the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. She went on to receive her MSW at Arizona State with a focus on child welfare. Additionally, Ms. Leonard has a certificate of advanced graduate study from Ottawa University in school counseling.
Ms. Leonard was an adjunct professor at Arizona State Watts College of Public Programs in social work for 6 years. Her desire to teach the “next generation” of social workers has led her to retire from a 25-year career in public education and accept a full-time position in the BSW program at Grand Canyon University.
Ms. Leonard has presented at several conferences including the Arizona NASW, School Social Work Association of AZ, Seeds Conference, and Mean Girls Conference. Her presentations have included empowerment of student voice, creating multi-tiered systems of support, and empowerment of girls and women.