Elba Cleland, 56, professor and licensed social worker

“Once you understand who you are, you’re better prepared to be there for others,’’ she wrote last year in “Digital Narrative and Student Self-Identity,’’ a poster at a Simmons symposium on the uses of technology in teaching, learning, and research. “In clinical practice, it gives students another way of helping their clients evaluate life.’’

A Costa Rican woman of African descent, Ms. Cleland lived that philosophy; not just in what she chose to wear, but also in whom she chose to serve. As a long-time administrator at the South End Community Health Center, many of her clients were immigrant Latina women and children.

Ms. Cleland, a professor and licensed social worker, died of metastatic uterine cancer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Aug. 12. She was 56.

Ms. Cleland entered the hospital July 31 and within a couple of days decided to forgo further treatment or any extraordinary measures to extend her life. She spent her last days receiving visitors and reading messages posted to her on a “Caring Bridges’’ Web page set up in her name.

The social worker on her team was a former student, and Ms. Cleland told her, “We have now come full circle.’’

Gary Bailey, an associate professor at Simmons and a friend of Ms. Cleland’s since they were graduate students three decades ago, called her “an amazing, powerful immigrant woman’’ and “a proud social work professional whom many loved and respected.’’

“Most of all, she was a good friend, a mentor, and a sister to so many of us,’’ he said.

Born in Limon, Costa Rica, Ms. Cleland immigrated to the United States after graduating high school in 1971. She attended Northeastern and Boston universities; the latter awarded her a bachelor’s degree in social work in 1976.

Ms. Cleland graduated from the BU School of Social Work in 1979, one of the first to receive dual master’s degrees in social work and African-American studies.

She first served as a social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital. In the early 1980s, she was appointed director of managed care at the South End Community Health Center and was involved in development of the center’s new facility in 1995.

She worked from 1986 until her death as a field adviser at the BU School of Social Work. She also occasionally taught courses in the Bridgewater State College School of Social Work and at Regis College.

Ms. Cleland started as a full-time adjunct at the Simmons School of Social Work in 2003. She coordinated and taught in the Bridge to Graduate Education Program, which works to bring lower-income, minority, and immigrant students into the school. She also was a member of the college’s Dynamics of Racism and Oppression faculty.

“Elba had a gentle, steady, encouraging, and fearless approach to teaching,’’ said Dr. Stefan Krug, the school’s dean. “She taught our more challenging courses and was very good at managing what could be charged and evocative discussions and classrooms.’’

Krug said Ms. Cleland’s greatest strength was her “ability to help students focus on what was important. She brought an immigrant, international perspective. She extended our leading edge by bringing in students who have been underrepresented in the profession.’’

Ms. Cleland’s fluency in Spanish enabled her to coordinate the school’s Spanish immersion programs, in which students can travel abroad or remain in Boston to learn Spanish tailored to social work, as well as take social work classes in Spanish. She was also involved in the college’s Organization Latino Americana and served on its Climate Change Committee.

She was a member and treasurer of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and a founding member of the Committee on Ethnic and Racial Affairs.

She was a member of the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, where she was a coconvener of the Cathedral Council. She also was active in the local Costa Rican community, at one point helping to organize a commemoration of Costa Rican Independence Day with the raising of a flag at Boston’s City Hall. She also served as a board member of Family Service of Greater Boston and Neighborhood Health Plan.

She leaves her mother, Oresta McBeze of Boston; a sister, Patricia Brown of Boston; and two brothers, Eure and Jovarty, both of Limon, Costa Rica. Services have been held.