Ann Coyne

MSW, PhD, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Professor
554-2798
acoyne@mail.unomaha.edu

Biography

Ann Coyne graduated from Cornell University in 1958 and lived in England where she taught math and science until returning with her husband to the US in 1960. They have lived in Lincoln since 1961. She helped develop the Nebraska Foster and Adoptive Parents Club in 1964 after they adopted their daughter (who was born with part of her leg missing). As an advocate she became interested in social work and began as a volunteer to recruit foster and adoptive parents for special needs children for the Nebraska Department of Public Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services).

In 1971 she was hired by the newly developed Lancaster Office of Mental Retardation to recruit foster homes. In 1972 she was named Director of Community Service for LOMR, a position she held until she joined the social work faculty in 1975. She received both her MSW and Ph.D. from UNL. In 1981 she was named Deputy Director of the Nebraska Department of Public Welfare and, on leave from UNO for 18 months, helped reorganize the department after the passage of the landmark Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980. During that time she also helped organize the State Foster Care Review Board.

In 1984 she traveled for the first time to Nicaragua. Since that time she has found adoptive families in the US for 14 special-needs Nicaraguan children. She has also been involved with starting a maternal and child health clinic in Managua and, with the Rotary, building 74 cement block houses (so far) in a barrio in Leon, Nicaragua. Since 1994 she has taken social work students to Nicaragua for a 10 day immersion trip and over that time has become more or less fluent in Spanish.

She has five sons and one daughter and four grandchildren. Her youngest granddaughter is a Nicaraguan toddler who was also born without part of her leg and was adopted in 2003 by Ann’s daughter and her husband. In April, 2002, Ann’s husband of 45 years died of a fungus infection of the lungs.

Professional Specialties

Child Welfare, Adoption of Special Needs Children, International Adoption, Developmental Disabilities

Teaching

Research, Program Evaluation, Administration of Social Agencies, Child Welfare, Permanence for Children

Service

Statewide training of judges, attorneys, caseworkers and supervisors, and foster parents for the Nebraska Foster Care Review Board
Serve on the board of Adoption Links Worldwide. Treasurer of APUSAN, a group that supports Los Chavalitos, the maternal and child health clinic in Nicaragua
Chair of world community service committee for the Omaha Suburban Rotary Club

Affiliation, Associations, Consultations

Member of the National Association of Social Workers