With five decades of excellence in human services, social work, community advocacy and teaching, Deborah Bass Rubenstein has earned distinction as a civil servant beginning with a year in protective services for children in the District of Columbia, and 15 additional years in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), including the management of an office for the assistant secretary of Human Development Services (HDS, now combined with another organization). Besides her regular jobs, she was the principal staff for the Subcommittee on In-Home Services Benefits Coordination for the 1980 undersecretary’s task force on long-term care in 1980, and she wrote an occasional paper that year entitled, “The Continuum of Care for the Elderly: A Partnership Between the Consumer and the Provider,” published by Project Share.
In 1980, Ms. Bass Rubenstein was a participant in a look at the overlap of domestic services that was given to President Carter’s domestic policy council. Later, in 1986, she developed and led the Family Caregiving Project, in which multiple organizations within DHHS agreed to assess caregiving needs across the lifespan. This group participated in an HDS-sponsored conference, including many nonprofit organizations serving caregivers as well as governmental organizations. Ms. Bass Rubenstein and workgroup members summarized the key issues from the conference. Following the conference, workgroup members and their agencies funded grants to address significant caregiving issues.
In 1986, Ms. Bass Rubenstein conducted a workshop for the hospital social workers in Hawaii based on a paper she wrote for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), entitled Planning to Meet Lifecare Needs. While she worked for DHHS, with the help of the NASW, Ms. Bass Rubenstein began and led the Federal Social Work Consortium until she left government three years later. The Consortium met monthly in different locations and discussed social work activities in each participating agency.
Immediately following her federal service, in 1990, Ms. Bass Rubenstein started a consulting business and wrote a book called “Caregiving Families: Supports and Interventions,” published by NASW under her maiden name, Deborah S. Bass. This book relied on extensive research across disciplines and examined caregiving across the lifespan, especially as it had changed with technological improvements. This book was used by Schools of Social Work, Johns Hopkins School of Continuing Education (for which she was an associate professor for the class that used her book alongside Michael Creedon), and resulted in a request from Dartmouth to present a paper, which resulted in a chapter entitled Family Support Across Programs and Populations in the book “Redefining Family Support,” edited by Singer, George, H.S., Powers, Laurie E., and Olson, Ardis L. Olson, and published by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. In 1992, Ms. Bass Rubenstein wrote a book entitled “Runaway & Homeless Adolescents in the United States,” published by the NASW under her maiden name Deborah Bass. She also wrote articles on at-risk youth for the “Encyclopedia of Social Work.”
During the 1990s, Ms. Bass Rubenstein worked with Howard University and Catholic University on training child welfare workers in D.C. She worked as a project director for a consulting firm, Development Services Group, assisting the Children’s Bureau in pulling together information from conferences and resources on judges’ decisions while working in the child welfare area. She also worked on a hate crimes project. She also worked with several consulting firms on data collection projects in the child welfare area.
Ms. Bass Rubenstein later intensified her community work. In 1995, alongside Illana Naylor, she co-founded Unity in the Community in 1995 and has been a dedicated volunteer since then, except for an absence while serving as a caregiver due to a life-threatening illness in her family that required extensive treatment and rehabilitation. The organization is committed to addressing instances of hate and discrimination across all demographic groups within its community. It was identified as a best practice by President Clinton.
She was part of the contributing team for the 2023 promotion of a play by Janet Langhart Cohen, “Anne & Emmitt,” a thought-provoking play about Anne Frank and Emmett Till meeting in the land of Memory. The play was organized by her synagogue, Congregation Ner Shalom, with co-sponsors United Methodist Church, and Unity in the Community. She then led the effort in 2014, to bring a film by Not in Our Town, called “Repairing the World” with co-sponsors, as well as with the synagogue and Unity in the Community, NAACP, the Human Rights Commission, and Little Union Baptist Church. The film is a compelling show that vividly captures the collective efforts of the Pittsburgh community in times of challenge, which has subsequently been broadcast by PBS.
To prepare for her professional journey, Ms. Bass Rubenstein earned a Bachelor of Arts with a focus on social work and a Master of Social Work from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She began her career as an intern with the prestigious National Association of Social Workers. Looking to the future, Ms. Bass Rubenstein plans to spend more time with her grandson, cherishing the joys of family, while assisting in the revival of Unity in the Community, nurturing its return to vibrancy and impact in her community. She may also write another book on caregiving, drawing inspiration from her family member’s experience and the wealth of knowledge she has acquired.