[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8241]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            A TRIBUTE TO PETRUCCI E. HARRIS, MSW, LCSW, DCSW

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 28, 2007

  Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Ms. Petrucci 
E. Harris. Petrucci Harris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the 
younger of two daughters born to Timothy and Bessie Hardy. Her family 
moved to Long Island, New York, while she was still a child. After 
graduating from public school in New York, she attended Morgan State 
University in her hometown of Baltimore.
  Ms. Harris' first professional job was with the Suffolk County Heard 
Start Program as a teacher, then a center director and later the county 
program coordinator. It was the experience of working with economically 
disadvantaged preschool aged children and their families which provided 
her with the motivation to return to school.
  Ms. Harris was granted a fellowship by the National Institutes of 
Health which assisted her in earning a Masters of Social Work from the 
State University of New York's School of Social Welfare at Stony Brook. 
She also studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
Department of Urban Health Planning; Ackerman Institute for Family 
Therapy; New York University Ehrenkranz School of Social Work Post 
Masters Certificate Program; and the Mind/Body Institute of Harvard 
Medical School's Continuing Education Program.
  Petrucci Harris has been employed in various areas of mental and 
behavioral health throughout her career. This includes the University 
of Louisville's Medical School Department of Psychiatry; Bingham Child 
Guidance Clinic; and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New 
Jersey, Newark Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine where 
she was an adjunct faculty member as well as Coordinator of Social Work 
Services for many years. She worked on many projects for the inclusion 
of cultural content into the curriculum for immigrant psychiatric 
residents.
  Ms. Harris served as a field instructor for graduate students at the 
New York University Ehrenkranz School of Social Work for several years. 
She was also an adjunct professor and faculty advisor for students at 
the NYU Wagner College where she taught the ethno cultural issues in 
social work practice course. She is currently a field instructor for 
Rutgers University's School of Social Work.
  Ms. Harris is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, 
Academy of Certified Social Workers, Diplomat in Clinical Social Work, 
and a Certified Supervisor of Clinical Social Work. Her commitment to 
improving the general quality of life through service to others is 
carried out in her pledge to community service as a Golden Life Member 
of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
  Ms. Harris lives in Summit, New Jersey. She is the mother of three 
adult children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to recognize my fellow social worker for 
all of her hard work and outstanding achievements.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to 
Petrucci E. Harris.

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