Sandra H. Dempsey, social worker and cofounder of the Institute for Safe Families, has died at 76

Sandra H. Dempsey, 76, of Narberth, innovative social worker, cofounder of the Institute for Safe Families, mentor, and artist, died Sunday, Oct. 6, of complications from neurological disease at her home.

Born in Bryn Mawr and a 1966 graduate of Lower Merion High School, Ms. Dempsey earned a master's degree at what is now the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. She was an expert on social policy and the law, and she served as executive director of the local chapter of the Physicians for Social Responsibility from 1993 to 2000.

In 2001, Ms. Dempsey and fellow social worker Martha Davis turned a family violence prevention program they had created at PSR into the Institute for Safe Families. Their nonprofit supported new ideas and innovative programming to prevent and respond to all forms of interpersonal violence.

Ms. Dempsey was especially adept at strategic thinking and, until her retirement in 2013, helped the ISF organize forums for dialogue and collaboration, and share important research with other social service advocates and health care officials. Their stated goals were to improve "community health, community collaborations, and community training and education."

They created the Children and Moms Project to establish protective procedures during domestic violence incidents. They offered the Family Safe Zone to prevent child abuse and started the ACE Task Force that examined the wider implications of "adverse childhood experiences."

They created the ISF Men's Council and its "Men Can" campaign to empower fathers, husbands, and brothers to oppose domestic violence. They collaborated on projects with the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Management Corp., Temple University, Haverford College, and other groups. The ISF closed in 2014.

"Sandy was a force," Davis said. "She was passionate, creative, daring, and unimaginably effective."

In the mid-1990s, Ms. Dempsey oversaw the construction of a mosaic front wall on the building that housed the PSR office on North 23rd Street. The artist exhibited chilling statistics of domestic violence on the wall, along with provocative phrases that included the words rape and sexual assault.

"There's this wonderful symbolism of what the building represents," Ms. Dempsey told The Inquirer in 2002. "Violence in families is one of the best-kept secrets. We wanted to be very bold and put it out there for all the world to see."

Some neighbors protested. "We did get some negative reaction," Ms. Dempsey said. "People would say things like: 'That's not something we should be talking about in public,' which is exactly the point."

Ms. Dempsey earned grants and won awards with ISF. In awarding a $40,000 grant and 2012 IMPACT Award, GlaxoSmithKline officials called the ISF "a change agent and working to make families stronger, healthier, and happier." They said the ISF staff made "a significant impact on their communities and are capable, proactive, and effective in their work."

A friend called Ms. Dempsey "a lovely person of integrity and grace" in an online tribute . Another friend said: "Sandy was an incredible woman and a force for good in every circle of her life."

Sandra Hansen Dempsey was born Feb. 24, 1948. She played field hockey in high school and forged an inspirational lifelong connection to Camp Hagan, a girls' summer camp near Stroudsburg in the Pocono Mountains.

Her brother, John, went to a nearby boys' camp, and they hiked in the hilly woods and along the wide Delaware River. She made lifelong friends there, she told her family, and she organized reunions and other activities that celebrated those times. "She was a convener," said her wife, Suzanne Daub. The camp closed in 1970.

Ms. Dempsey spent a year at Centenary University in North Jersey after high school and earned a bachelor's degree in psychology at St. Joseph's University. She saw connections between art and healing, and she wrote papers and letters, and made her own mosaics.

She hired artists-in-residence to document important ISF work in text, photography, and art. "Art and spirit characterized every part of Sandy's life," her family said in a tribute.

She met Daub at a social work event, and they married in 2015, and reared Daub's son, Noah, in Narberth. She was ever present wherever she was, Daub said, and sought perfection in endeavors. "She had an incredible loving nature," Daub said. "She found beauty in everything."

Her family said: "She will be remembered for her exuberant generosity, her creation of beauty everywhere, her tireless dedication to her community, her love of animals, and spirit."

In addition to her wife and brother, Ms. Dempsey is survived by other relatives.

A celebration of her life was held on Oct. 9.