(RALEIGH, NC) – The National Association of Social Workers North Carolina Chapter (NASW-NC) has named Sofia Lawrence as the recipient of the 2025 NASW-NC Presidents’ Award for Master of Social Work (MSW) students for the 2024-25 academic year. Sofia Lawrence is an outstanding graduate student in the MSW program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill).
The NASW-NC Presidents’ Award recognizes Ms. Lawrence’s exceptional dedication to social justice, civic engagement, and academic excellence. Her achievements in research, leadership, and advocacy demonstrate her profound commitment to advancing equity and fostering systemic change.
Throughout her academic career, and under the mentorship of Dr. Travis J. Albritton, Dr. Lisa de Saxe Zerden, and Dr. Amy Blank Wilson, Ms. Lawrence has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to social justice and civic engagement. Among her many accomplishments, she helped to found the inaugural Vot-ER chapter at UNC, integrating civic engagement into healthcare by empowering medical and social work students to discuss voter registration with patients.
Ms. Lawrence’s leadership has extended beyond campus as she has presented at national conferences and contributed to groundbreaking research on treatments for individuals with serious mental illness. Through her work, Ms. Lawrence exemplifies the transformative impact of macro social work, fostering systemic change and advancing the social work profession.
Ms. Lawrence currently works to support Robert Hawkins, Vice Dean of the UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work, in his work on rural and global social work and has volunteered for the YMCA of the Triangle, where she was a team lead for a fundraising effort that raised nearly $2 million to support family and youth programs in Southeast and downtown Raleigh.
Ms. Lawrence’s mentor, Dr. Amy Blank Wilson, states, “I have met very few people in my life who have the unique combination of leadership skills that Sofia demonstrates. She is both radical and relational in her approach to learning. She is someone who pushes the boundaries of what is possible, while working to build meaningful connections with the people around her.”
Ms. Lawrence will be honored at the 2025 NASW-NC Virtual Ethics Conference and Awards Celebration on Friday March 21, 2025.
Print Page
Email to a Friend
(RALEIGH, NC) – The National Association of Social Workers North Carolina Chapter (NASW-NC) has named Sofia Lawrence as the recipient of the 
