Professor Emily Bleyl began her social work career as a case manager for Catholic Community Services in 1995 before entering the MSW program at the Univeristy of Utah in 1997.

In 1999 she earned an MSW degree from the University of Utah, after which she spent 14 months in-residence at the Yale Child Study Center in intensive post-graduate clinical fellowship training, where she maintained a client load and received daily didactic instruction and supervision focused primarily on psychodynamic interventions.  Two months into her tenure at Yale, she was selected for a concurrent Bush Fellowship at the Yale Ziegler Center for Child Development and Social Policy (formerly the Yale Bush Center), where she conducted research and consulted on policy issues. After these fellowships, she landed in Tucson, Arizona where her husband was competing a pediatrics Residency, here she directed public policy and community initiatives for the United Way of Tucson and southern Arizona. In her  three-year tenure at the United Way, she co-led a small team that developed a successful early childhood initiatve aimed at enhacing care and qualifications for the non-familial care of children under three, an initiative that continues to benefit young children and families throughout southern Arizona.

She returned to Utah in 2003 and worked as a clinician in a multi-disciplinary group practice, and as a crisis social worker in the emergency department at the University of Utah Medical Center.

Currently, Ms. Bleyl is the director of MSW field education at the University of Utah. In this capacity,  she works with diverse identities, teaches, coordinates and manages student field placements, provides oversight and support to field faculty and staff, networks and curates field placements, develops and enforces field-related policies, consults and intervenes when student and/or agency concerns arise, and works diligently to enhance the overall system in which field education is administered.

Many of the skills required for successful field leadership were fine-tuned during her tenure as Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers, Utah Chapter, where for thirteen years,  she sucesfully managed daily operations including budgets, meetings, boards, conferences, and continuing education. She also routinely worked with the Utah Legislature and DOPL, social work’s regulatory board, to strengthen and draft social work rules and statutes; consulted with state agencies and social workers on ethics and practice-related issues; served on multiple boards and committees; presented over 120 talks on a variety of social work-related topics; supervised and advised MSW students; served as a ethics consultant to the Department of Occupational and Profesional LIcensing (DOPL), wote three sections of an audiobook for licensing prep, wrote and prduced a licensing handbook, and developed and maintained collaborative relationships intended to strengthen professional social work in Utah, including the first ever multi-disciplinary mental health coalition.

Her work with NASW culminated in national recognition as the NASW Outstanding Executive Director of the Year (2013), and local recognition as one of Utah’s Thirty Women to Watch (2014).  In 2022, Ms. Bleyl was named the Utah Social Worker of the Year, and in 2023 was selected by MSW students for the Practicum Faculty of the Year award.

In addition to her work as the director of MSW field education, Emily serves on the Advisory Board for the Interprofessional Infant Mental Health Grant, has taken a lead coordination role for the Interdisciplinary School-Based Mental Health Grant (a partnership with the Deaprtment of Educational Psychology), and developed,  launched and currently oversees the College of Social Work’s first ever Wellness Program in collaboration with the Behavioral Health Information and Dissemination Center at the University of Utah, as well as serving  as a consultant to OPLR, providing instituional history and feedback to the Department of Commerce's recently launched Office of Professional Licensing Review.