Lenette Azzi-Lessing

Lenette Azzi-Lessing is a clinical professor of social work, chair of the Macro Social Work Department, coordinator of the specialization in children, youth and families, and founder and co-leader of the partnership to prevent violence against young children in South Africa at the Center for Innovation in Social Work and Health. Azzi-Lessing’s work focuses on improving the wellbeing and life chances of vulnerable, young children, and their families, particularly those living in poverty and those involved in the child protective system.

As a senior fellow at the Child Welfare League of America, she has promoted the wellbeing of vulnerable children and families through reform of the child welfare system. She is the author of “Behind from the Start: How America’s War on the Poor is Harming Our Most Vulnerable Children,” as well as numerous other publications. She has developed and taught a broad range of courses and provided training and consultation throughout the United States, in South Africa, and in other countries.

Prior to joining the BU faculty, she was Professor of Social Work at Wheelock College, the founding director of Wheelock’s Graduate Certificate Program in Early Childhood Mental Health, and faculty leader of its Partnership for Early Childhood Development in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Azzi-Lessing was named a Fulbright Specialist by the U.S. State Department in 2017.