Contact: Aspen Harris

STARKVILLE, Miss.—A Mississippi State University faculty member has been honored with a named dissertation fellowship for her years of service, devotion and commitment to Phi Kappa Phi, one of the nation’s oldest and most selective multidisciplinary collegiate honor society.

Missy Hopper, a professor in MSU’s Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education, recently was honored with The Missy Hopper Dissertation Fellowship by Phi Kappa Phi.

The dissertation fellowship is worth $10,000 and one of 15 awards the society gives annually to active members who are doctoral candidates completing dissertations.

Hopper is currently on the society’s board of directors, having previously completed terms serving as president-elect, president and past president.

At MSU, Hopper teaches in the university’s College of Education with research interests in 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.

Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 at the University of Maine and now consists of approximately 25,000 members annually across 325 college campuses across the country, its territories and in the Philippines. Membership is open to students, faculty, staff and alumni by invitation only and is highly selective.

MSU’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi has recently been recognized as a “Chapter of Excellence” by the national organization. Peter Ryan, executive vice provost and dean of the Graduate School, serves as current MSU chapter president.

For more on the national organization of Phi Kappa Phi, visit https://www.phikappaphi.org; for the MSU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, see https://pkp.org.msstate.edu/index.php.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.