SARNAT, Rhoda (b. 1915). Social worker. Field Work Director, USC School of Social Work.

Rhoda Sarnat Interview. Interviewed by Frances Lomas Feldman. Date of interview: 10-20-98. 1 cassette tape (1duplicate tape). Length of interview: 1 hour, 15 minutes (approximately). Transcript of interview: 25 pp.

Topics of interview: Early life and family background; undergraduate studies at UCLA in psychology; interest in social work stimulated by Helen Gruenberg; graduate school in social work at University of Chicago; work with Jewish social Service Bureau of Chicago; work under supervision of Esther Shouer; marriage to Bernard Sarnat; move to St. Louis with husband; birth of first child and reduced work; relationship with housekeeper; return to California in 1955; private practice with The Psychological Service Center of Los Angeles; role as student advisor at USC School of Social Work, beginning in 1962; Director of Field Work at USC; relationship with Dean Malcolm Stinson and Josephine di Paolo, Director of Field Work; work as Director of Field Work; work with Senior Health and Peer Counseling, after retirement; work with Older Persons in a Carin Atmosphere; docent at LA Zoo; Rhoda Sarnat Prize of the Mental Health Section of the Institute of the National Academy of Sciences; Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat Endowment in USC School of Social Work; Rhoda Sarnat Lectureship at School; work with National Association of Social Workers; lectureship at Los Angeles Home for the Jewish Aged; contributions to student loan fund at the University of Chicago; financial contributions to the Hamovitch Research Center; establishment of Sarnat Center at Brandeis University for the Study of Anti-Jewishness; reflections on career in social work.

Additional Materials:

Curriculum Vitae. 1 diskette of transcript of interview. Autobiographical essay. Photocopies of 2 articles on social work by Rhoda Sarnat. CSWA oral history interview forms. Brochure for "Rhoda G. and Bernard G. Sarnat Symposium for Geriatric Care." Program for Sarnat Lecture, University of Southern California, School of Social Work. 13 April 2000.