2007 Award Recipient

Valerie Marshall has been selected as the 2007 recipient of the Award.  Valerie graduated in May and is interested in pursuing a social work career working with elderly clients. 

The Dorothy Gallagher Award is given in honor of DorothyGallagher, who taught at Avila’s predecessor, St. Teresa’s, from 1949 to 1962. Miss Gallagher had an MSW from Washington University in St. Louis and had worked for the Jackson County Welfare Office. At St. Teresa’s, she helped develop the sociology program and continued to be active in social work in the Kansas City area. Her family endowed the Guadeloupe Center and, in the tradition of Jane Addams, Dorothy and her sister lived at the Center. Dorothy was fluent in Spanish, and worked with Hispanic Americans in that area without pay.

This award is intended to honor her memory by annual selection of a student who exemplifies social work values. The student must have at least a 3.5 GPA in social work courses, and demonstrate maturity, self-awareness, personal and social responsibility, the ability to think and reason critically and analytically, and has demonstrated growth in these areas during his/her time in the BSW department at Avila.

Beginning in 1976, the Dorothy Gallagher Award has been presented to 35 Avila BSW students who best represented the ideals of students in social work education.   Full-time social work faculty make the selection.

past recipients of this prestigious award

Paula Snodgrass, 1976

Robert H. Phelps, 1977

Sr. K.M Cefolia, 1978

Maxine O. Tivis, 1979

Wendy Park, 1980

Kathleen Henggeler, 1981

Susan Frenzen, 1982

Suzanne Russ, 1983

Joan Bengtson, 1984

Mary Kay Tillman, 1985

Geri Hoerman, 1986

Marilyn "Lyn" Alexander and Lisa D. Dasbach, 1987

Mary Hunter, 1988

Adrienne Vogel and Rosella Wheeler, 1989

Deloris E. Phelps, 1990

Joyce A. Logan, 1991

Leslie Ann Cochran, 1992

Sharon Lynn Rider, 1993

Karen E. Burns, 1994

Jan Elayne Hope, 1995

Jamie Kieffaber Christoffersen, 1996

Christina Czarev, 1997

Steven R. McCullouge, 1998

Carla M. McCarty, 1999

Colleen R. Pleiss, 2000

Megan Lawrence and Mari Lynn Garcia, 2001

Jacqueline Brown, 2002

Adrianne J. Mason, 2003

Crystal L. Criddle, 2004

Elizabeth Guerrero, 2005

Jadda I. Boarman, 2006