Four decades of service to her community culminated last year when Ellen Risinger was named the 2002 Social Worker of the Year by the Houston chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. Soon after, she was named one of three finalists for the statewide award.

"I was shocked at first," she says. "I felt elation with a sense of being humbled by those who had won the award before me. It was touching to be recognized by my peers and placed among such a prestigious group. I certainly floated on clouds for a while!"

Since 1994, Risinger has been a medical social worker at Christus Saint Joseph Hospital, where she works with both home health and hospice care. In fact, she helped found the hospice program soon after she arrived. She coordinates volunteers and supervises senior companions and social work interns from Texas Southern University and the University of Houston.

"With home health, I assist individuals with their needs relating to resources, care giving and medical coverage problems. Our hospice program deals with terminally ill patients, usually with less than six months to live. Do they have adequate financial resources to meet basic needs? Will their spouse have support? Do they have a will and arrangements? Sometimes we work with the family dynamics and hope to create enough peace for their good-byes."

Before joining the staff at Christus Saint Joseph, Risinger did community outreach work at Lighthouse of Houston for three years. "That was a very educational and inspirational time for me--to learn what could be achieved by those with visual impairment," she says. Prior to that, she served 23 years as a counselor and director of the Homemaker Services Program for Houston's Family Service Center, a United Way agency. There she helped place women with families in need of a homemaker, or "mom substitute," while a patient was in recovery.

Risinger was raised in different parts of northeast Texas, as her father was a Methodist minister. She entered Southwestern intent on majoring in religious education, but switched to sociology after taking a class under former professor and head of the Sociology Department Frank Edward Luska. She joined the Phi Mu sorority, earned a Miss Southwestern nomination, was a member of the Honors Society and graduated cum laude. She earned her master's in social work from the University of Texas in 1964.

Seven years ago, she co-founded Health Equipment Recycling Coalition, a non-profit agency that loans out used medical equipment to those in need who cannot afford it.

"My line of work is very rewarding, although you might not completely understand that if you're not involved with it. I get a great deal of satisfaction from working with people and being a part of their lives, even if it is on a short-term basis."