Kelli Farlow

Having received her master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice in 2018, Kelli Farlow had little time in the field before the pandemic hit. But her training and natural caretaking abilities helped her quickly identify and solve a problem — one that became an organization-wide initiative at Symphony Care Network, a post-acute care, rehabilitation, long-term care, and assisted living organization. It was her first job after graduating from the Crown Family School.

“A lot of people had family members that were coming in every single day to check on them, or every single week,” Farlow says, recalling how the facility closed to visitors as lockdowns were enacted at the start of the pandemic. “We noticed a big gap within the care to connect people with their families. So, I started using my personal cell phone, FaceTiming families. I was using my cell phone, my laptop, and my iPad. My administrators recognized my efforts and bought the staff tablets and tablet stands. They were able to take that program and extend it into all of the other buildings as well.”

Farlow’s own journey into the social work profession started by way of a family member: Her uncle has schizophrenia, and she has long been in close proximity to his care, even becoming one of his guardians when her grandmother passed away. She felt naturally able to interact with him, and was always curious to learn more about the social workers who were part of his care team.

After receiving her undergraduate degree in social work from the University of Missouri, she came to the Crown Family School for her graduate work. While her undergraduate experience provided her with a strong clinical foundation, she found herself with a more theoretical lens through which to view her practice.

“I think a lot of programs are directly skills-based, which obviously has benefits,” she says. “But given that I already had those direct skills from my BSW, [the Crown Family School] really allowed me to take a more analytical lens to advance my skills in a different way. I really appreciate that. It's more of a higher-level functioning than a baseline objective. Rather than, ‘this is how you get tasks done.’ It's more, ‘this is the framework of why these tasks exist.’”

Farlow worked for Symphony Care Network’s Morgan Park location, where her specialty was working on the psych floor with patients with severe and persistent mental illness. She also worked with standard medical patients who were there for short-term rehab. Eventually, she was promoted to director of municipal social work programs at the Bronzeville location. Since 2021, she’s worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield as a medical management social worker, and she also works in private practice therapy.

Her goal is to eventually start her own private practice, one that would help support a nonprofit arm to help with community mental health — particularly on the South Side of Chicago.

“I have a very big passion for South Side Chicago, where mental health services are needed,” she says. “I know there's a lack of providers. There's a lack of insurance coverage. There's a whole lot of barriers that just create systemic problems.”

Part of that interest in community health and awareness of social policy stems from her participation in the Crown Family School’s China Winter Institute study abroad program in 2018. The experience focused on globalization, urbanization, and migration between Hong Kong, China, and the U.S., and the effects of social policy in those different regions and cultures.

“It definitely helps, as a clinician working with diverse multicultural differences, to be able to provide enhanced care,” she says. “Especially working with a healthcare organization, now I can understand the policies and the dynamics and the bigger fears that can create the systemic problems that we see today.”

At the time she was involved in the Winter Institute, it may not have been obvious how it would come to affect her as a practitioner, but that’s also why she offers students this advice: “Take advantage of all opportunities you can get.”