Patricia Saleeby

Patricia Welch Saleeby, PhD, MSSA, is Professor and Social Work Program Director at Bradley University. She is an internationally recognized expert on disability and well-being, specifically known for her scholarly work promoting the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health ICF) and the Capability Approach as more equitable frameworks for situating disability and health. In her current roles, Dr. Saleeby advocates for global health and social care classifications and has been instrumental in integrating ICF codes and social determinants of health into electronic health records through collaborative efforts like FHIR PACIO and Gravity projects.

Dr. Saleeby serves as the Co-Chair of the WHO Functioning and Disability Reference Group (FDRG) and is a long-standing member of the WHO Education and Implementation Committee, representing the WHO Collaborating Centre for Classifications, Terminologies and Standards. Her social work leadership extends to roles as Editor-in-Chief of the National Association of Social Workers Health & Social Work journal, and she represents the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) as a regional representative to the United Nations Commission in New York. For decades, she served in national leadership with CSWE, the Council on Social Work Education on its Board and Commission for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice as Chair.

Dr. Saleeby received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Oberlin College, a Master of Science in Social Administration (MSSA) from Case Western Reserve University, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis.