Linda L. Wang

Dedicated to serving the mentally ill and the homeless

Linda L. Wang earned her bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1965 and her MSW from the University of Chicago in 1968. She received a Church Social Work certificate from the McCormick theological Seminary in Chicago the same year. Upon graduation, she quickly secured a position with the City and County of San Francisco's Department of Public Health, Community Mental Health Services, (now known as Community BehavioralHealth Service)as a psychiatric social worker position, which marked the beginning of a 37-year career with the City and County of San Francisco.

Because of her sharp clinical and leadership skills, Wang was promoted quickly. In 1980 Wang became the Director of the Northeast Mental Health Center, where she administered one of five community mental health centers in San Francisco. The northeast district spanned the Chinatown North Beach, Tenderloin, and South Market areas of the City. Wang was instrumental in obtaining an NIMH grant to develop mental health services for the residents in these areas. The populations served were diverse, including the homeless, low-income, Filipino, Chinese, Italian, and African Americans. The Center provided 12 programs, including inpatient and outpatient services, crisis intervention, day treatment, residential treatment, and outreach, as well as services for the mentally ill who also had substance abuse issues. She helped develop alternatives to hospitalization for the mentally ill, including various levels of residential services and mobile emergency psychiatric services for children, adults, and geriatric clients. When San Francisco was devastated by the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989, Wang played a key role in developing and coordinating city-wide mental health disaster assistance services. In 1984 Wang became the Director of Adult Community Services and continued in this capacity with ever-increasing assignments, until her retirement in 2005.

Throughout her career as an asocial worker and administrator, Wang has demonstrated an equally strong commitment to civic leadership, serving in volunteer leadership positions with more than 51 non-profit organizations and civic commissions addressing homelessness, particularly for the elderly. One example: She was co-founder of the Chinatown Coalition for better Housing whose work, after a struggle of 10 years, resulted in an affordable housing project in Chinatown - 170 units of new housing, the first-ever housing project generated by the community. Another example: The long, painful public struggle regarding the eviction of tenants from the International Hotel (I-Hotel) in Chinatown in 1977 created a lasting political climate of support in the City for the rebuilding of low-income housing on the former site of the I-Hotel. Wang was appointed by then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein to serve on the I-Hotel CitizensAdvisory Committee, later becoming chair of the committee and eventually President of the board that owned the new 1-Hotel. After 26 years of advocacy, the new I-Hotel was completed in 2005 and currently provides housing to low-income seniors.