Social Worker Wins Statewide Award

The statewide chapter of a national social workers organization has named a Granada Hills woman its Outstanding Practitioner of the Year.

Susan B. Edelstein, who also won the organization’s Daniel E. Koshland Award in Social Welfare, will receive her honors Saturday at a meeting of the National Assn. of Social Workers, California chapter.

The Koshland Award was established in 1943 to promote and encourage the advancement of professional social work and innovation among human service professionals, officials said.

“I am so excited and so honored beyond words,” said Edelstein, who has been a social worker for 32 years. “I’m inspired by the children and the families we help.”

Edelstein, 54, an expert in child welfare and adoptions, was the first to develop multidisciplinary teams to assess and work with multi-problem families.

She co-directed the Hope Street Family Center child development program for Latino families in downtown Los Angeles and is director of a UCLA program that matches infants exposed to drugs and alcohol with adoptive families.