J. Breezer Rickey, M.S.W. '92, Wins Alumni Merit Award

03/23/2018

This fall, one of our alumni was honored at Saint Louis University's annual Alumni Merit Awards event. This is her story.

After graduating with a Master of Social Work in 1992, J. Breezer Rickey worked in Chicago’s poorest housing projects helping inner-city families. She provided advocacy and psychotherapy for children who were severely abused.

In 1995 and 1996, Rickey traveled to Calcutta, India to live and work with her childhood heroine, Mother Teresa, with whom she had been corresponding since she was 11 years old; the experience further deepened her commitment to the urban poor. Back in Chicago, Rickey was involved in her own community, a low-income neighborhood riddled with gang violence, becoming the youth minister of her local Catholic church. From 1999 to 2002, Rickey also served as president of the board of directors of Sarah’s Circle, an organization dedicated to serving women who are struggling with homelessness and mental illness. Prior to establishing her own consulting practice, Rickey provided clinical assessments and psychotherapy to children and families with HIV and AIDS. She also worked as director of Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, where she led staff members in a complex reorganization of the department.

In 2002, Rickey graduated with a Master of Science in Organizational Development from Loyola University, Chicago. Throughout her studies, she focused on ethical leadership and large system change management. Since 2000, she has provided cross-cultural trainings to executives and their families who are relocating for international assignments. In 2006, Rickey was asked to serve on the faculty of Loyola University, teaching graduate-level courses as an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work. After serving as dean of student affairs in Beijing, China, in 2010, Rickey returned to Chicago and provided consulting to various churches, schools, and other nonprofits that required large system interventions due to various forms of community violence.

Reflecting upon her education at Saint Louis University, Rickey is most appreciative of her M.S.W. internship at Homeboys, Inc. in East Los Angeles, California, where she worked with gang members and was mentored by Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., and Fr. Ted Gabrielli, S.J. In addition to the Jesuit values she learned at Saint Louis University, Rickey credits her dad, Jim Rickey (Arts & Sciences, ’69), for instilling the values of peace, love and hope in her life. Currently, Rickey is on sabbatical in Paris, France, where she is writing and further developing her global consulting practice.

About the College for Public Health and Social Justice

The Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice is the only academic unit of its kind, studying social, environmental and physical influences that together determine the health and well-being of people and communities.

It also is the only accredited school or college of public health among nearly 250 Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States. Guided by a mission of social justice and focus on finding innovative and collaborative solutions for complex health problems, the College offers nationally recognized programs in public health, social work, health administration, applied behavior analysis, and criminology and criminal justice.