Staff Profile: Patricia Volland

Patricia J. Volland, MSW, MBA
Director, Social Work Leadership Institute

Ms. Patricia J. Volland, MSW, MBA, is the Director of the Social Work Leadership Institute at The New York Academy of Medicine. She previously served for 13 years as the senior vice president for administration and finance at NYAM.

The Social Work Leadership Institute (SWLI) is a national initiative working to ensure that America’s older adults receive the care they need to remain in charge of their lives and live life to the fullest. Ms. Volland is leading national education, policy, and research efforts to advance our society's ability to support older adults in a productive and coordinated manner. These efforts include educational initiatives to develope social work leadership skills to work with older adults, and developing and implementing policies that benefit people in the third stage of their lives, 60+ (John A. Hartford Foundation and MetLife Foundation). She is focusing much of her work on developing effective comprehensive care coordination services--linking health/medicine with psychosocial/long term care--that are so important for older adults with chronic diseases (The Atlantic Philanthropies).

Ms. Volland launched the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education in 2000 in partnership with the John A. Hartford Foundation. This education model has been adopted by 75 graduate schools of social work in 35 states. The model is field-based and increases students' competencies in working with older adults. This educational model has been so successful in training future social work leaders to work with older adults that it is currently spreading throughout graduate schools of social work with leadership provided by Ms. Volland and her staff.

In 2008, in partnership with the American Society on Aging, the National Coalition on Care Coordination (N3C) was formed. The purpose of N3C is to build consensus among stakeholder organizations and to advocate for enactment of public policies that support care coordination effectively linking health/medicine and psychosocial and long-term care on behalf of vulnerable populations, with particular focus on older adults. The member organizations of the coalition include experts in aging, medicine and health, nursing, social services, long-term care, community-based services, family caregivers, and older adults. The result of these efforts has included incorporation of care coordination extensively in the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

Ms. Volland serves on the boards of the American Society on Aging, the Altman Foundation, and Planned Parenthood of New York City, where she is also the former chair of the board.

Prior to joining The New York Academy of Medicine, Ms. Volland spent 25 years as a hospital administrator. She has held administrative and clinical social work positions at several academic medical centers, including fifteen years at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. She has served as National President and Board Member of the Society for Social Work Administrators in Health Care.

Ms. Volland is a recipient of numerous awards, which include the Distinguished Alumni award of the School of Social Work, San Diego University, 1977; Ida M. Cannon Award for Distinguished Leadership, Society of Social Work Administrators in Health Care, 1983; President’s Award,  Women in Health Management, 2005; and Lifetime Achievement Award, National Association of Social Work, New York City Chapter, 2010.

She is a Fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine, and has edited and published in numerous scholarly journals and books. She is expert in issues of aging, workforce development, and social work. She has an MBA from Loyola College, MSW from San Diego State University and a BA in Sociology from Ottawa University.

Contact information

pvolland@nyam.org; (212) 822-7207