Community platform
A space to organize, support each other, and sharpen macro skills. We are recruiting a founding group to help set the culture.
Become a founding member →Macro social work
Macro is the counterweight.
Social work's scale is ten bricks heavy on client-centered and interpersonal practice. Adding equal weight to both sides keeps it tipped. Macro Pathways puts its full weight on macro, because equity is how the profession comes back into balance.
Macro is
anywhere a social worker touches systems, culture, or power.
Mission
Dismantle the Micro Pipeline in Social Work (MPISW™).
We raise awareness of macro practice, advocate for pathways into it, and build the resources, learning, and community social workers need to practice at the systems level.
Vision
A rebalanced profession.
Macro practice carries equal weight in social work education, licensure, and the job market.
The problem we name
The Micro Pipeline in Social Work (MPISW™)
The systemic funneling of social workers into client-centered and interpersonal roles, often at the expense of macro practice exposure and preparation.
Stage 1
Education pathways
Curriculum and advising center client-centered and interpersonal practice early, before students see the full range of the profession.
Stage 2
Field placement
Client-centered placements are easier to find, so that is where most students get their first real experience.
Stage 3
Licensure
The most recognized credential is built around clinical, interpersonal practice and years of supervised hours.
Stage 4
Employment market
Reimbursement and hiring reward client-facing service, so that is where most job postings point.
274MSW students and early-career graduates answered Macro Pathways' national survey, June 2025 to May 2026.
76%are interested in macro-level roles
84%believe macro social work is equally important as clinical practice
70%report an unclear job market for macro roles
32%feel confident they could find a macro-level job after graduation
The motivation exists. The path does not.
Client-centered and interpersonal work already carries most of the profession's weight. Macro Pathways focuses on macro, because rebalancing a tipped scale means adding weight to the lighter side.
Next stop: the Macro Spectrum →An orientation as well as a practice
The Macro Spectrum
Macro is something you practice and something you hold. Five orientations give social workers shared language for where they stand today. Select one.
Macro-Inclined
You lean toward systems before you've acted on it.
Every orientation is a valid place to stand. The Spectrum shifts language and culture so social workers can name their relationship to macro practice and grow it on their own terms.
What we build
Research, resources, and community
Professional development is one vehicle among several. Each piece below moves the profession toward balance.
MPISW™ research
A national survey of 274 MSW students and graduates, with peer-reviewed publishing in progress.
See the findings →The Macro Directory
A living map of the organizations, initiatives, and networks advancing macro social work. Free for everyone when it launches.
Get notified on the mailing list ↗Macro Monthly
Lands the first Monday of every month with macro job postings, spotlights on social workers doing systems-level work, and news from the field.
Join the mailing list ↗Workshops and speaking
Four Macro Career Navigation Workshop cohorts ran January through March 2026. Book a talk or training for your program or organization.
Make a request →Every purchase has a job
Made-to-order tees, mugs, and notebooks. Revenue covers operating costs first, then goes toward paying interns.
Visit the store ↗Founder and CEO
Dr. Patrick M. Taylor
DSW · LCSW
Dr. Taylor spent eight years in client-centered and interpersonal practice. His own training steered him there, and that experience led to his doctoral research at the University of Southern California, which identified, named, and studied the Micro Pipeline in Social Work.
His goal is to expand what macro practice and a macro orientation can look like in every sector and industry.
In the conversation
- Social Work to Wealth podcastThe Micro Pipeline in Social Work · 1 ASWB CE credit
- Revolutionary Social Work podcastDisrupting the Micro Pipeline in Social Work
- Social Justice Origin StoriesThinking Beyond Direct Practice and the Clinical Office
- Recognition
- 2026 Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, Association for Community Organization and Social Action (ACOSA)
- Degree
- Doctor of Social Work, University of Southern California, 2026
- License
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker
- Coined
- Micro Pipeline in Social Work (MPISW™)
Connect
Join the work.
Pick the way in that fits where you are right now.
Founding members
Help shape the community platform before it opens in early 2027. Free membership for life.
Message on LinkedInSpeaking and training
Talks, workshops, and research collaboration on macro practice and the MPISW™.
macropathways@gmail.com