Monika White

Educator, researcher, author, and practitioner coordinating health, mental health, and community-based services for older adults and their families

Monika White is a pioneer in recognizing the needs of older adults and developing programs to meet those needs. More than 40 years ago she began raising concerns about the needs of the ‘elderly’ and addressing issues related to healthy aging. She challenged practices that focused almost exclusively on medical care. She was an early advocate for inclusion of social services into the medical model. She tackled problems of fragmented funding sources for older adults and emphasized integration with mental health services, socialization opportunities, housing and environmental supports. She became a nationally and internationally recognized educator, researcher, program developer, and consultant. Her work remains a significant influence on today’s service programs tailored to older adults.

White earned both her master’s degree and a doctorate in social work at the University of Southern California. She became an Adjunct Associate Professor at both the USC School of Social Work and the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, where she taught until 2015. During her academic appointments, White served as the President of the California Social Welfare Archives (CSWA) for several years, a position she held when the fledgling California Social Work Hall of Distinction (HOD) was seeking a home. She shepherded the HOD into the CSWA and established it as a flagship program that recognizes the value and importance of the social work profession. Without White’s legendary advocacy and powers of persuasion, we may not have had a lasting HOD today.

In 1985, and for the next 10 years, White joined forces with June Simmons (another HOD inductee), who at the time was the Director of Social Work at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California. Simmons and White, who was serving as the Associate Director and Department Head, developed a new hospital-based program for seniors known as the Senior Care Network. “It was one of the first and best programs of its kind,” she later said. “The program still stands as a model of outreach, health promotion, life planning, case management, caregiving and efforts to integrate acute care and community care of older adults and their families.” During her time at Huntington, White participated in the development of groundbreaking, innovative programs and services, many of them replicated throughout the country.

White became the Director of the Center for Healthy Aging, a non-profit agency in Santa Monica, in the 1990s, eventually becoming its President and Chief Executive Officer. After a merger resulting in the creation of a new organization, WISE and Healthy Aging, White assumed the role of its Executive VP for External Affairs and Program Innovation.

The recipient of numerous awards for her contributions, White continues to speak, teach, and serve on boards and committees in the Los Angeles area. Some of her involvements include: Chair of the L.A. Department of Aging Foundation, board member of the American Area of Nazareth House assisted living and nursing care facilities, Advisory Board member of the Jewish Family Services Holocaust Survivor Program, board member of Santa Monica College Associates, and member of the Motion Picture and Television Fund Social Service Governing Board.