Iris Carlton-LaNey, Ph.D., the Berg-Beach Distinguished Professor of Community Social Work, has been selected to receive the Council on Social Work Education’s 2019 Significant Lifetime Achievement in Social Work Education Award. The prestigious award recognizes a social work educator’s exemplary achievements in research and scholarship, pedagogy and curriculum development, and organizational leadership over his or her entire career.
Carlton-LaNey will be presented with the award on Oct. 27, during CSWE’s 65th Annual Program Meeting in Denver, Colo.
“Dr. Carlton-LaNey is especially deserving of this award,” praised UNC School of Social Work Dean Gary Bowen. “Over the course of her lengthy and luminous career, her scholarly and practice efforts have made an enormous impact on both professional and client communities—both directly and indirectly through the work of the thousands of students she has taught and inspired.”
Carlton-LaNey has served on UNC’s faculty since 1994. She previously taught at UNC-Charlotte and at North Carolina A&T State University. A nationally-renowned scholar with an interest in aging issues and African American social welfare history, Carlton-LaNey has authored four books, as well as numerous articles in research journals.
Over the course of her career, she has earned numerous awards, including Social Worker of the Year by the North Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and CSWE’s Distinguished Recent Contributions in Social Work Education Award.
In 2012, the University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Social Work identified Carlton-LaNey as one of its 50 Heroes for Justice and in 2015, she was named a Social Work Pioneer, one of the highest honors awarded by the National Association of Social Workers.
More recently, Governor Roy Cooper appointed her to serve on the North Carolina Social Services Commission.
The School of Social Work will host a reception to honor Dr. Carlton-LaNey’s achievements during the CSWE conference.
