Tess Schleitwiler, MSW, is a PhD candidate dedicated to interdisciplinary research and practice. Her research uses historical methods to understand and address contemporary social work challenges. Specifically, her work investigates how public narratives and interventions put forth by early social workers have evolved and continue to influence both social work and society’s views of female sexuality. In the process, this research seeks to address the academy’s erasure of early social workers’ sexuality, give new light to the role of social work discourse in curtailing sexuality, and demonstrate the centrality of positionality in historical social work scholarship. She plans to defend her dissertation in the spring of 2026.

Tess received her MSW from the University of Montana in 2016 and her B.A. in Democracy and Justice Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay with minors in Political Science and Global Studies in 2014. Her practice experience includes roles in state government, community organizing, and federal healthcare policy research.