Osborne earns social work lifetime achievement award

East Carolina University Master of Social Work alum Glenn Osborne earned a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Social Workers North Carolina Chapter. NASW-NC uses this honor to recognize the best social work values and accomplishments demonstrated in the social worker’s lifetime career.

Glenn Osborne is a 2011 ECU graduate.

Osborne’s award also comes one year after the NASW-NC named fellow ECU alum, Victor Armstrong, as its 2023 social worker of the year.

Osborne, a 2011 graduate of ECU’s three-year, part-time MSW program, has served as director of Wilson County Department of Social Services since 1994. His ability to lead the county into an excellent model for providing innovative human service programs, especially within child welfare, has led to the agency receiving 38 national and state best practice awards during the last 16 years.

He also is a major advocate for pursuing social work degrees and he also encourages and supports field education at his agency, which typically has interns from the ECU School of Social Work.

“During Glenn’s tenure, he recognized that the call to become a social worker may come early in your career or as you evolve professionally,” said Ron Hunt, Wilson County manager, in an NASW-NC news release. “Because Glenn and the department is committed to hiring degreed social workers for social work titled positions, Glenn and his staff have developed a pathway to career growth and promotion system whereby employees can obtain their BSW, MSW and LCSW and as they do, they can be promoted accordingly.”

Osborne retired, March 1, from his 29.5 years of service to Wilson County. He will be honored as lifetime achievement award recipient at the 2024 NASW-NC Virtual Ethics Conference and Awards Celebration on March 22.