Ruth McRoy, Ph.D. ’81, is the recipient of the 2014 Charles I. Wright Distinguished Alumna Award presented by the School of Social Work and its alumni organization, the Social Work Alumni Network (SWAN).
McRoy is the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professor Emerita at The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, and holds the Donahue and DiFelice Endowed Professorship at the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College. She has been a strong contributor to the field of child welfare for more than three decades, through a wide array of endeavors, from research and writing to teaching and mentoring. Her research focuses on the influence of race in adoptions, racial disparities in the child welfare system, openness in adoption, adoption matching, and family preservation. She conducted the first in-depth longitudinal study assessing the personal and institutional factors that result in prospective adoptive parents navigating their way through the adoption process. She has received multiple honors and awards throughout her career, most recently the 2013 Children’s Bureau Adoption Excellence Award.
Nominations for the 2014 Charles I. Wright Distinguished Alumna Award included the following statements: “Ruth McRoy’s passion, intelligence, focus, persistence, and hard work have been catalysts for positive and much needed change in adoption and foster care policy and practice in the United States and abroad;” “Dr. McRoy has been a kind and generous mentor to the hundreds of students and staff that she has taught and supervised over the years;” and “Dr. McRoy is one of the most well-known and respected figures within the field of social work today.”
The School of Social Work and SWAN will honor McRoy at the annual spring alumni reception, scheduled for May 8 at the Thompson Conference Center (more information here.)