1. MARY RICHMOND Mary Richmond is known as the founder of social case work . While social casework was a primary method of intervention , it was not until Mary Richmond published Social Diagnosis in 1917 that a formal definition for social casework began to formulate. In Social Diagnosis, Richmond advocated for working with clients , rather than on them, and for gaining "sympathetic understanding of the old world backgrounds from which the client came" in lieu of making generalizations or assumptions. 2. EDWARD DEVINE After earning a PhD in economics in 1919 , Edward Devine took what he had learned and applied it to the burgeoning field of social work. Early in his career, he focused his efforts on children's welfare and on housing for the poor . While serving as president of New York City's Charity Organization Society , he assigned volunteers to act as agents . These professionals are widely regarded as being pre-cursors to modern-day social workers. Devine