Roff, Alston to Receive Social Work Hall of Fame Honor

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Two familiar faces to The University of Alabama School of Social Work will be inducted into the Alabama Social Work Hall of Fame during a Sept. 26 luncheon and ceremony.

Dr. Lucinda Roff, who served as dean of the school from 1988-2000 and as interim dean from 2010-2014, retired from the University this year. She, along with Phyllis Alston, former instructor and site coordinator of the Montgomery distance education Master of Social Work Program at UA, will be honored at a ceremony at Cypress Inn Pavilion, 501 Rice Mine Rd. in Tuscaloosa.

The ceremony and lunch will begin at 11:30 a.m. Cost of admission is $25.

“It has been a real joy for me to be a social worker in Alabama over the last 40 years,” Roff said. “I am deeply honored to the Social Work Society for including me in the Alabama Social Work Hall of Fame.”

Roff began her career in academia in 1974, when she joined the School of Social Work’s faculty as a lecturer. She became assistant director of the UA Center of the Study of Aging in 1975 and served in that post until 1983. Roff became an assistant professor at the school in 1977. She had a brief stint as a teaching assistant at the graduate school of social work at the University of Denver before returning to UA as an associate professor in 1983. She was promoted to professor in 1987, a year in which she became acting dean. Roff was director for the UA Center for Mental Health & Aging from 2006 to 2008.

Roff’s research interests included social gerontology, family caregiving for elderly persons, religiousness and aging, public opinion about social welfare policy, and aging and public policy.

Alston earned her Master of Social Work from UA in 1971 before embarking on a 32-year career at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she served as a staff social worker, coordinator of social work internships, social work supervisor, and assistant chief of social work.

“I am deeply humbled and very appreciative of this esteemed honor,” Alston said. “In the great state of Alabama, there are so many deserving people in the field of social work. To have been nominated and accepted thrills me to no end. To receive an honor of this magnitude for a career that in itself has been tremendously rewarding is indeed a true blessing.”

Founded by the Social Work Society at The University of Alabama School of Social Work, the Alabama Social Work Hall of Fame honors the accomplishments of some of the state’s most distinguished leaders in the field of social work.

The Alabama Social Work Hall of Fame honors social workers in the areas of education/research and practice/administration, retired or deceased, who are acclaimed by their peers and colleagues for their professional status and exemplary leadership, creativity, contribution to the knowledge base and practice of social work, and influence in the life of the community.