Virgen Luce
Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work, Field Learning and Community Partnerships
BA, Lehman College (CUNY); MSW, Hunter College School of Social Work (CUNY)
vtp1@nyu.edu | (212) 992-9716
bio
Virgen Luce (LCSW-R, ACSW) joined NYU's School of Social Work full time in 2006 as Clinical Instructor, Field Learning & Community Partnerships.
Her 28-year professional clinical career began in a community-based mental health agency and continued to hospital settings where she held various clinical, supervisory and director-level management positions in the service of a multi-racial/ethnic client population.
From 1992 - 2002, she served as Field Instructor for NYU's SSW and subsequently as --Faculty Advisor from 2002 to the present. In fall 2006 she was appointed Faculty Liaison to the new Immigrant Child Welfare Fellowship Project, a partnership between the New York City Social Work Education Consortium and the Administration for Children Services in preparing social work graduates to work with immigrant families in child welfare settings.
Professor Luce has been a leader in HIV/AIDS (1986 -2004), resulting in the creation of new resources and services for patients in her previous senior management and administrative positions -- as Director of Behavioral Health at Betances Health Center, and earlier, as Manager, AIDS Center: Pediatric-Maternal Services & Women's Project at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.
She has given numerous presentations on Mental Health and HIV Affected Adolescents and the Therapeutic Use of Art with HIV+ Children. She presented on The Signs and Symptoms of Child Abuse most recently to students in the NYU Occupational Therapy Program. Her areas of interest include Field Education as an integral component of social work education anchored in settings that promote the development of professional competence. Her ongoing interest in health care (i.e. Psychiatry, AIDS) has expanded to the care of patients with Parkinson disease and their families. She completed the Allied Team Training for Parkinson II sponsored by the National Parkinson Foundation in fall 2006. Professor Luce, who is bilingual in English and Spanish, maintains a private practice in clinical social work in NYC.