Dr. Ann W. Nichols graduated from Stanford where she was active on campus with the YWCA, participated in Freedom Summers traveling to register voters, and where she established a program for spending spring break in service known today as Stanford's Alternative Spring Break.

She and her husband spent two years in the Peace Corps in Peru, where she taught community development. She served on the national board of the YWCA, 1969-82, and the World YWCA executive board, 1975-83.

Ann received her MSW and DSW in social work from Colombia University. In 1970, she joined the faculty of the ASU School of Social Work, commuting from Tucson to Tempe.

A full degree program in Tucson was launched in 1978, with Ann as director. She ran the program until 2008.  The thousands of students who studied under her knew the power of her teaching, extended to others through the textbook she co-authored, "Initiating Change in Organizations and Communities." Sabbaticals were used to practice social work globally in Uganda where she developed a community-based organizing movement.

In 2008, after 39 years at ASU, she retired to join the faculty at the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation in Zambia, teaching social work and helping update the national curriculum.

On her return, she started the Arizona Grandparent Ambassadors, an advocacy network for grandparents raising their grandchildren and other kin families. After seven years of lobbying, the Arizona legislature changed state law to provide them additional support. 

Ann is survived by three biological children, five adopted children and numerous grandchildren.

If you are inspired, a gift can be made to Just Communities, fostering new models for community safety outside the punishment system, or the Ann Nichols Scholarship Fund to help students committed to social change.

Services are scheduled for September 2, 2023.