Contact: James Carskadon
STARKVILLE, Miss.—A Mississippi State University faculty member has been elected to lead Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines.
Missy Hopper, an associate professor in MSU’s Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education, was recently elected to serve as president-elect of Phi Kappa Phi’s national Board of Directors. Her election represents a six-year commitment of service to Phi Kappa Phi that will include terms as president-elect, president and past-president.
Hopper has been active within Phi Kappa Phi for the last decade at the local, regional and national levels. In addition to a stint as president of the Mississippi State Phi Kappa Phi chapter, Hopper most recently served a two-year term as the national honor society’s vice president for chapter development.
“I would not want any chapter to get left behind as we move into serving the next generations of students,” Hopper said. “For this reason, I appreciate the opportunity I’ve been given to continue my work with Phi Kappa Phi to promote and foster healthy chapters. I’m also looking forward to meeting more of the amazing people who are Phi Kappa Phi members across the U.S. and beyond.”
In her role at MSU, Hopper teaches in the university’s College of Education and her research interests include reading, literacy, and technology in secondary content area classrooms. She received a bachelor’s degree from MSU in 1977 and a doctorate in holistic teaching and learning from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1997.
MSU’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi has been recognized as a “Chapter of Excellence” by the national organization for seven consecutive years. David Dampier, director of MSU’s Distributed Analytics and Security Institute and professor of computer science and engineering, serves as president of the MSU chapter.
For more on the national organization of Phi Kappa Phi, visit www.phikappaphi.org; for the MSU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, see www.pkp.org.msstate.edu.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.