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Richman named to professorship

Jack Richman, Ph.D., has been named as the Johnson-Howard-Adair Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Support for this professorship comes from the late Melvarene “Mel” Johnson Howard Adair, a 1976 graduate of the UNC School of Social Work.

In announcing Richman’s appointment, UNC School of Social Work Dean Gary Bowen noted that the Johnson-Howard-Adair Distinguished Professorship is one of the largest endowed professorships ever established at a school of social work.

“The Johnson-Howard-Adair Distinguished Professorship was created to support studies of the impact and influence of poverty on individuals, families and communities – a core concern for Mel Adair and for all of us in social work,” Bowen said.

“Our School is doing groundbreaking work to develop and support financial literacy, and Jack Richman is directly involved with that work in several countries.”

Richman joined the School’s faculty in 1983 and served as dean for 13 years. He currently serves as associate dean of international programs for the School. Richman is a graduate of Florida State University and of the State University of New York at Albany.

Adair grew up in Dunn, N.C., and earned degrees in sociology and social work at UNC Chapel Hill. She was a social worker in Warren, Harnett and New Hanover counties (North Carolina) and for a Veteran’s Administration Hospital (Wyoming) before her retirement. Adair’s son, Kenneth Howard, created the Adair Scholarship program at the UNC School of Social Work to honor his mother, who served on the School’s advisory board before her death in 2012.