Dr. Irene Queiro-Tajalli is named the 2009 Joseph T. Taylor Award for Excellence in Diversity recipient

Dr. Irene Queiro-Tajalli

Feb. 12, 2009  - News of awards for School of Social Work faculty being honored continues with the announcement that Dr. Irene Queiro-Tajalli will be the recipient of the 2009 Joseph T. Taylor Award for Excellence in Diversity.

The award will be presented at the 20th Annual Joseph Taylor Symposium on February 26 at IUPUI. 

 The award is named after Dr. Taylor, the first dean of the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. Considered a pioneer, visionary and consensus builder, Dr. Taylor was known for his commitment to creating opportunities for higher education in a diverse city like Indianapolis.

Dr. Queiro-Tajalli learned just a few days ago she was being awarded a Torchbearer Award by the Indiana Commission for Women, the highest award given only to women by the State of Indiana.

In addition, three other School facutly members were notified recently they were recipients of university Distinguished Teaching and Service awards.

In a letter nominating Dr. Queiro-Tajalli, the Executive Director of Undergraduate Education and Interim Executive Director of Labor Studies,  for the Taylor award, School of Social Work Dean Michael Patchner wrote, "I believe that her commitment to and the incorporation of the principles of multiculturalism, pluralism, equity, and diversity into the curriculum, her administration, and scholarly agenda, makes her an outstanding candidate for this award."

The dean went on to say, "Dr. Queiro-Tajalli’s passion for social work practice and social work education with a focus on diversity, permeates her daily duties whether on campus or in the community. Specifically, this passion has focused on advocating for diverse groups, particularly those most in need in the United States and in different parts of the world. She has not only written about these groups, but they have been the focus of her practice. These include oppressed groups in a slum area (villa miseria) of Buenos Aires, Argentina; residents in a fabela in Brazil; underserved communities in Tehran, Iran; members of the Cherokee Nation in the U.S.; and poor neighborhoods in Chicago and Indianapolis. Her community and civic engagement at the local level has primarily focused on the Latino community and since the 1990s on the Iranian community. She has opened many doors with these two communities given her international cultural sensitivity, including her fluency in Spanish and Farsi."