Thelma Lee Mendoza

Biography
THELMA LEE MENDOZA is at present professorial lecturer in social work at the Philippine Judicial
Academy of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. She was formerly professor and chairperson of
social work in the College of Social Work and Community Development of the University of the
Philippines, from which she retired in 1999 after 37 years of service. In 1979 she was a visiting
professor of social welfare at the University of Southern California and exchange professor at the
School of Social Welfare, University of California in Los Angeles in 1988. From 1995 to 2007, she was
a professorial lecturer in social work at the Kibi International University Takahashi Educational
Institution, in Okayama, Japan. She served as Chairperson of the Board for Social Workers of the
Philippine Professional Regulation Commission from to 2000-2003. Her practice experience includes
eight years as a social worker in the Psychiatric Department of the Wayne County General Hospital in
Eloise, Michigan, U.S.A., and at the Philippine Mental Health Association, working with individuals,
families, and groups. For her achievements as a social work educator, Professor Mendoza received in
2003 the Diamond Jubilee Award of the U.P. Chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi, the 1999 Outstanding
Professional Award in the field of Social Work of the Professional Regulation Commission, the Most
Outstanding Social Worker in the Academe Award of the Philippine Association of Social Workers
during its Golden Jubilee celebration in 1998, and the Outstanding Faculty for Teaching Award for
1990 and Outstanding Faculty Award for Community Service for 1993 of the University of the
Philippines. Professor Mendoza received the B.A. degree in Social Work from the University of the
Philippines in 1957 and the Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan in 1960 in
which she was a Fulbright scholar. She is a member of the Phi Kappa and the Pi Gamma Mu,
international honor societies. This book, now on its third edition, has come to be known among social
work students, teachers, and practitioners and referred to by them simply and fondly as "the Orange
Book." Professor Mendoza's other books are Social Work with Groups (1999), Social Work Theory and
Practice in the Philippines (1996), and Group Treatment Concepts, Methods and Techniques (1997),
the last two published by the University of the Philippines Open University.