Council of Social Work Education Honors June Gary Hopps for Lifetime Achievement

June Gary Hopps, the Thomas M. “Jim” Parham Professor of Family and Children Studies in the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia, has been selected as the winner of the Significant Lifetime Achievement in Social Work Education Award from the Council on Social Work Education. The award recognizes exemplary accomplishments in research, teaching pedagogy, curriculum development and organizational leadership over an entire career.

Dr. Hopps is the great-granddaughter of slaves. She is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta. Dr. Hopps earned a master of social work degree from Atlanta University and a Ph.D. in social welfare from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Dr. Hopps joined the faculty at the University of Georgia in 2000. Earlier, she taught for nearly a quarter century at the Boston College School of Social Work. She was the first African American and the youngest person to serve as dean of the School of Social Work. Dr. Hopps was the first African Americans to serve as editor-in-chief of Social Work, the flagship journal of the National Association of Social Workers.