Ken Marfilius, Associate Teaching Professor of Social Work and Faculty Director of Online Programs and Strategic Initiatives in Syracuse University School of Education, has been named Educator of the Year by the New York State Social Work Education Association (NYSSWEA).
Marfilius, whose also serves as Associate Director of Education and Training at the Syracuse University Center for Health Behavior Research and Innovation and Associate Director of the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs Resiliency Program, will receive his award at NYSSWEA’s annual conference, in Saratoga Springs, NY, from Nov. 4 to 6, 2026.
NYSSWEA unites faculty, deans, directors, practicum instructors, students, practitioners, and administrators to advance social work education. The Social Work Educator of the Year Award recognizes dedication, leadership, and a commitment to excellence that significantly affect students, the profession, and the community.
Social Work Professor Carrie J. Smith nominated Marfilius, whom she calls a “rare educator whose teaching, mentorship, professional leadership, and community engagement form one coherent practice of service.”
Smith continues, “Professor Marfilius does not teach social work at a distance from the realities facing clients and communities. He brings those realities into the classroom with rigor and care, then builds the partnerships, placements, programs, and institutional structures through which students can respond.
“Whether he is serving a military family in crisis, helping a veteran obtain housing and care, supervising a social work student in an interdisciplinary legal clinic, designing an online curriculum, mentoring a scholar, creating a campus resiliency initiative, or leading accreditation and assessment work, Professor Marfilius asks the same fundamental questions: Who is not being reached? What barrier stands between this person and an opportunity to thrive? What can social work do, in partnership with others, to remove that barrier? Those questions have shaped an educator whose influence extends from individual students to programs, institutions, and communities.”
“The School of Social Work extends its congratulations to Professor Marfilius for being named Educator of the Year by our NYSSWEA colleagues,” says Professor Yvonne Smith, Director of the School of Social Work, housed in the School of Education. “We are proud and not surprised. Professor Marfilius is a transformative educator who models for his students the combination of fierce attention, scientific and theoretical sophistication, and deep compassion required for excellence in our work. His development of groundbreaking curriculum in the area of veterans and military families makes the Social Work program at Syracuse University a top destination for those who serve and their loved ones.”