2019: Bill Coggins

Since 1967, Wilfred D. “Bill” Coggins, MSW, director of the Kaiser Permanente Watts Counseling and Learning Center, has provided the leadership, managerial skill, clinical expertise and experience to establish and direct a community service program of counseling and educational services to the Watts community.

For providing counseling and educational services to the residents of Watts and as director, Coggins is responsible for developing positive relationships with local community agencies, schools, and other organizations.

Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente to establish the Center, Coggins had broad professional experience.  From 1963 to 1965, Coggins was a psychiatric social worker for the Suicide Prevention Center in Los Angeles and from 1960to 1963, he provided psychotherapeutic treatment for patients at the Wells Medical Group in Arcadia. Coggins also has served as a senior psychiatric social worker for the Veteran’s Administration, and has worked for the California State Department of Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Social Work, Los Angeles, to assist selected developmentally disabled individuals to function in the community instead of remaining in the state hospital.

Coggins earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the City College of New York in 1949. After serving two years in the U.S. Army as a psychiatric social work technician, he earned a master’s in social work from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1955. In 1966, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Tavistock Clinic in London.

He is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers, National Association of Social Work, the Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Black Social Workers, and the American Orthopsychiatric Association. Coggins is a California state licensed clinical social worker.

He was recently honored as “Alumnus of the Year” by the UCLA Graduate School of Social Work.  He is a resident of Los Angeles.