Martha Alexander Chickering (December 4, 1886 – November 13, 1988) was an American social work educator who served as director of the California State Department of Social Welfare from 1939 to 1943. She was inducted into the

California Social Work Hall of Distinction The USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California, was founded in 1920 as USC's School of Social Work. The school's only location is in Los Angeles, California. According to school officials, the facility ...

for her work in establishing professional social work education in the state of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Career

She was a member of the Chickering family of Massachusetts, later Oakland and Piedmont, California. She attended the NYC

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

Training School from 1911 until 1913 after graduating from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1910. From 1918 to 1920, Chickering headed the Polish Grey Samaritans (founded by Laura de Turczynowicz), YWCA's efforts on post-war reconstruction in newly-formed Poland under the

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

-founded

American Relief Administration American Relief Administration (ARA) was an American Humanitarian aid, relief mission to Europe and later Russian Civil War, post-revolutionary Russia after World War I. Herbert Hoover, future president of the United States, was the program dire ...

. In the 1920s, she was an executive of the local

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

for five years. When Berkeley's economics department started an accredited social work certificate program in 1928, Chickering was hired to supervise the field training of the students and became the program director in 1932. In 1936, she received an PhD in economics at UC Berkeley and was appointed professor of Berkeley’s Curriculum in Social Services the same year. In 1939, she was appointed director of the California State Department of Social Welfare. After retiring in 1945, Martha moved to the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

outside

Victorville, California Victorville is a city in Victor Valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 134,810. Victorville is the principal city of a Victor Valley–based urban area defined by the United States Census Bureau: ...

and continued writing. She moved to

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

when she couldn’t live alone any longer. She died there in 1988 when she was 102.

Legacy

In 1994, the

UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare The School of Social Welfare of the University of California, Berkeley, was established June 1, 1944 and is located in Haviland Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. Its focus is to prepare graduates to become agents of social change through direct prac ...

established the Martha Chickering Fellowship.

Publications

*
Into a Free Poland Via Germany
' published by Overseas Dept., National Board of the Young Women's Christian Associations, New York City, N.Y., 1920
Why California Registers its Social Workers
California Conference of Social Welfare, May 26, 1948, Long Beach. Provided by California Board of Behavioral Services.
The Founding of a Mojave Desert Community
''California Historical Society Quarterly'' 1 June 1948; 27 (2): 113–122.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chickering, Martha 1886 births 1988 deaths American social workers University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare faculty California Social Work Hall of Distinction members Writers from Oakland, California People from Piedmont, California People from Victorville, California Writers from Pasadena, California American women centenarians American Red Cross personnel YWCA leaders 20th-century American women writers Culbert Olson administration personnel Culbert Olson political appointees