We were motivated to bring to life this special issue following increasingly compelling concerns by our students, our colleagues in both the field and academia, and noted by us in our practice, teaching, consulting, and applied research regarding at least the perceived-if not actualdegradation of clinical social work knowledge, values and skills in so many critical aspects of our profession. These crucial areas include the following:• Pressure in social service organizations to implement evidence-based protocols regardless of clinician expertise or clients' complex circumstances or preferences. • Minimal clinical supervision of students due to increasing demands on supervisors and field instructors' dearth of theoretical knowledge. • A marked privileging of research over practice in social work doctoral programs, resulting in less full-time faculty with significant practice experience and thus a commensurate reduction in the exposure of MSW students (and thus future clinical social workers and field instructors) to knowledge, skills, and values accrued in the 100 plus years of our profession. • Community-based organizations and social service agencies, historically the agents of the mission and values of our profession, buffeted by economic, political and social forces at odds with these values and resulting in conditions affecting the well-being of clients, clinicians, and administrators alike.Given the rising frequency and urgency of these concerns, we hoped to bring together leading voices of our field to contextualize the present state of clinical social work practice, particularly as we mark the centenary of Flexner's response to the question of social work's status as a profession. We have experienced 100 years of change, development and maturation in our knowledge base and skills, while adhering to core values that, in our view, clearly mark social work as a profession and, most importantly, provide guidance as to what we should do as we look to the future.