UGA professor gets significant lifetime achievement award for social work

University of Georgia professor June Gary Hopps has been awarded the Significant Lifetime Achievement in Social Work Education Award by the Council on Social Work Education.

A story by Laurie Anderson on the school website, www.uga.edu/, says the award recognizes exemplary accomplishments in research teaching pedagogy, curriculum development and organizational leadership over an entire career.

It is one of highest honors in the social work profession.

Anderson’s story says Hopps is known for combating injustice through her activism and scholarship.

The story says Hopps' career holds many firsts. She was the first African-American dean of Boston College School of Social Work and the youngest in its history. Under her leadership, the school transitioned from a small regional program to one of national prominence, rising to 14th in the U.S. News and World Report's graduate school rankings. As the first African-American editor-in-chief of Social Work, the flagship journal of the National Association of Social Workers, she developed initiatives to bring more women and people of color into research publication.

Hopps' published work, which includes seven books, often calls attention to inequality outside and within social work. In the 1995 book "The Power to Care," she examined the roles that discrimination, poverty and race play in the effectiveness of social workers trying to help the most vulnerable populations. A special 1982 edition the NASW journal Social Work titled "People of Color and Social Work," which she edited, is considered a landmark publication by those in the profession.

According to the report, Hopps' many other honors include the National Association of Social Workers' Presidential Award for Excellence in Social Work Education and admission to its cohort of Social Work Pioneers. She also served as president of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work, chaired the accreditation committees of several top social work schools and chaired the Spelman College Board of Trustees for many years. In 2005 Spelman, her alma mater, named its Manley Center Atrium in her honor and in 2015 presented her with an honorary doctorate.

The award will be presented at the CSWE's annual awards luncheon in Dallas, Texas, on Oct. 22.

Founded in 1964, the University of Georgia School of Social Work provides instruction, research and hands-on training in social work practice while emphasizing the integration of social work with social justice. For more information on the School of Social Work, see http://ssw.uga.edu/.

This story was originally published October 16, 2017 at 7:50 PM with the headline "UGA professor gets significant lifetime achievement award for social work."