Dr. Michael Vimont, program director of social work, announced he would retire after the spring semester and took the time to reflect on his legacy at Ashland University as a social worker.

“I’ve been here for about 13 years and started in 2010 when we were a three-person department,” Vimont said. “My initial interests were just as an instructor teaching core classes, but after we lost one faculty member due to retirement and became a two-person department, it required one person to be a program director and the other the field director.”

While Vimont spent a great amount of time at AU – his time in the field of social work far surpasses his presence in academics, as he’s held several social work positions in the past.

“I worked in California for Child Protective Services for a year as a continuity care worker, then worked in CPS in Houston after my Masters as an investigator,” he said. “[I] did foster home work for 3 and a half years in Texas, supervised in CPS in Texas and was a school social worker for 3 years.”

With such an impressive amount of experience and commitment to social work, one can only wonder how strong the connection Vimont has with the field and what would inspire him to get his start.

Vimont happily offered to explain, beginning with his time at San Antonio Community College.

“In 1979, I started in San Antonio Community College where my interests were sociology at the time,” Vimont reflected. “I had a wonderful sociology instructor who, just on the side, talked about the field of social work. And I said ‘Okay, this might be an interesting field for me because I like studying about social problems and wanted to really do something about them.’”

After Vimont’s sociology instructor sparked a passion for social work in him, he decided to take what he’s learned about the field and run, pursuing a career in social work to bring the social problems that piqued his interest to light.

Vimont continued with a smile, “After getting my associate’s degree, I then pursued my social work degree at the University of Texas in Austin and that’s where everything got started in the field of social work. I’ve been there ever since.”

Vimont would then find himself working at AU and it was here he was able to provide students excellent education and insight into the field and various social issues, emphasizing the need for environmental changes.

“In social work, you are able to work with a person in their environment and how that environment impacts people,” he said. “I found that oftentimes, the focus and target of change is not the person, the individual suffering from the problem, but the environment itself. That’s where advocacy comes in.”

Students of Vimont echo these sentiments as well and praise him for his attentiveness to social change and his abilities as an educator. Senior Social Work majors Josie Brown and Julia Rine took the time to discuss the emotions the social work program is feeling in the wake of Vimont’s retirement.

“He’s wonderful,” Brown said. “He knows everything about everything, he gives great advice and it seems like he cares about us and our future and he’s not just here to do a job.”

Rine shared Brown’s viewpoint stating, “He’s been a great advisor for us students, helps us figure anything out, has given us plenty of resources and has just done so much for the program as well.”

With heavy hearts, the two discussed what Vimont retiring could mean for the social work program.

“Everyone was crying and everyone was sad in our last class,” Brown said. “I can’t imagine a better professor for social work than Dr. Vimont and it’s going to be really hard to find someone as good as him to replace him.”

Rine hopes for the future of the program.

“I cried when he announced he was retiring. He teared up as well and everyone was shaken. The program is still in good hands though since Carly George is also a great professor and could lead the program where Vimont would want it to be,” Rine added.