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CSWE Recognizes 2020 Award Recipients

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) proudly announces the recipients of the 2020 Professional Recognition Awards.

“While there is so much about education and social work that has changed in the past few months, we are glad to continue our annual acknowledgment of remarkable social workers, educators, and students with these awards. The recipients of the Professional Recognition Awards represent the best of the best among social work educators, and we are honored to highlight their achievements and extraordinary work,” says Darla Spence Coffey, PhD, MSW, CSWE president and CEO.

“Some recipients of this year’s awards have dedicated their entire careers to advancing social work education, while others have done exceptional work in a short amount of time. The wonderful thing about CSWE’s Professional Recognition Awards is that we are able to celebrate a variety of people who advance social work education in unique but important ways,” says CSWE Board of Directors Chair Saundra Starks, EdD, LCSW, program director at Western Kentucky University. The CSWE Board of Directors selected the recipients of the 2020 awards from a slate of nominees.

Alice Gates, PhD, MSW, an associate professor, BSW program director, and department chair of sociology/social work at the University of Portland, will receive the Early Career Faculty Service and Leadership in Social Work Education Award. It recognizes a social work educator with fewer than 10 years of service who has advanced and promoted social work education and provided significant contributions to extend its reach.

Betty J. Ruth, a clinical professor and director of the MSW/MPH program at Boston University School of Social Work, will receive the Significant Lifetime Achievement in Social Work Education Award, which recognizes the achievements of a social work educator over an entire career.

Kay Hoffman, a professor and dean emerita of the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky, will receive the Established Faculty Service and Leadership in Social Work Education Award. It recognizes a social work educator with 10 or more years of service excellence whose work has advanced and promoted social work education and provided a significant contribution to extend its reach.

Rebecca Gomez, PhD, LCSW, director of the Our Lady of the Lake University PhD program, will receive the Distinguished Recent Contributions to Social Work Education Award, which recognizes the achievements of a social work educator within the last 10 years.

Read more about the recipients on CSWE’s awards page.

The honorees will be presented with their awards during the 2020 CSWE Annual Program Meeting, November 12‒15.

Source: Council on Social Work Education