Remembering a Remarkable Social Worker

Teri Mathis Zenner was a social worker who grew up in the Kansas City area. Teri touched many lives with her positive attitude, and passion for helping others. She was studying to obtain a master's degree in social welfare at the University of Kansas when she was tragically killed in August 2004 while trying to help a client in need. Her death, two days before her 27th birthday, focused national attention on safety for social workers.

Dr. Thompson played in a coed softball league with Teri and her colleagues from Johnson County Mental Health. Working with her family and coworkers, Dr. Thompson helped to organize and sponsor the Teri Mathis Zenner Memorial 4-Mile Run/Walk at Heritage Park, Olathe, Kansas, May 7, 2005.

In 3 years, the event has raised over $36,000 to endow a scholarship in Teri's memory for graduate study in the school of social welfare at the University of Kansas and to start a scholarship in her memory at Missouri Southern University. Teri deeply believed in helping those less able to help themselves, and would have wanted others to carry on her work. These scholarships will help others carry out her dreams of helping others.

Dr. Thompson helped found the Teri Mathis Zenner Foundation for the Advancement of Social Welfare, a nonprofit 501c3 corporation founded to provide safety training and to support initiatives to promote safety for social workers and other community professionals.

For more information about Teri, to donate to the scholarship fund, or to learn about next year's event, please visit www.terizenner.com.