The Anita S. Harbert Outstanding Achievement in Aging Award recognizes a West Virginia
social worker who has made a significant contribution to the field of aging.
Dr. Anita S. Harbert founded the Summer Institute on Aging in 1977. At that time,
she was chair of the School of Social Work at West Virginia University. Harbert
had the vision to start an annual professional development conference to train
social service practitioners in the field of aging. She partnered with several
key people to develop and launch the Institute. With the ideological and financial
support of many, including Dr. Louise Gerrard, Executive Director of the West
Virginia Commission on Aging, the Summer Institute on Aging was born. Building
on the Institute on Aging, Harbert gathered an interdisciplinary team to launch
the Gerontology Center at WVU, now known as the Center on Aging, in 1978.
Award recipients are catalysts, visionaries and advocates for the field of social
work in West Virginia. They possess an appreciation of the rural culture and
strength of West Virginia’s older adults and understand the challenges for facing
the state’s elderly population, including isolation, lack of access, vulnerability
and poverty. To overcome these challenges, they strive to build partnerships
and collaborations to serve the elderly residents of West Virginia.
