Dr. Sandra Butler, Director of the School of Social Work and MSW Coordinator for the University of Maine, has been named the 2024 Distinguished Maine Professor, the Alumni Association’s most prestigious faculty award. The Distinguished Maine Professor Award honors those professors who exemplify the highest qualities of teaching, research, and public service. Butler teaches courses in social welfare policy, with research focusing primarily on the health needs and social welfare experiences of low-income women across the lifespan.
Butler has been an educator at UMaine in the School of Social Work for over 30 years. She has served on the boards of a variety of community and state organizations including the Maine Women’s Lobby, Maine Women’s Policy Center, Family Connections (serving kinship families), Spruce Run/Partners for Peace (battered women’s program), and the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center. Her publications highlight the areas of poverty, direct care workers, public assistance, older workers, rural aging, the impact of higher education for low-income mothers, LGBT aging, lesbian health, homelessness, teen parenting and pregnancy, and policy practice. Her research in these areas provides needed information to inform policy debates about best practices for addressing income equality, poverty, and other related issues impacting affected populations. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Poverty, Journal of Community Practice, and the Journal of Gerontological Social Work and a consulting editor for the journal, Health & Social Work and Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work.
Butler has been the recipient of many awards and accolades including the ISP Faculty award for mentorship of MSW students, a career recognition award from the University of Maine Rising Tide Center, and the Leadership Award from the Association of Gerontological Education in Social Work.
Award Sponsored By:
Charles Stanhope ’71