Sophie Godley (MPH, HServ, '99) has won the 2011 ASPH/Pfizer Early Career in Public Health Teaching Award, which recognizes a faculty member who is early in his or her career and notable for teaching excellence.

Sophie spent more than 10 years in the non-profit world—at AIDS Action, overseeing prevention programs, and at the Mass. Dept. of Public Health—before joining the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) as clinical assistant professor and director of undergraduate education. She writes that she uses tools learned from UW SPH's Fred Connell and Clarence Spigner every day, both in the classroom and in her practice. Writing about our "unforgettable" Community Needs Assessment class, she says "It was inspiring then, and 10 years later I still hold it up as a model of the potential of practice-based learning in public health."

In 2010, as Deputy Director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, BUSPH faculty, administration, and students gave her the Gail H. Douglas Award for Excellence in Public Health Practice in recognition of her years of service and teaching in the fields of public health and HIV/AIDS.

Sophie is also working on her DrPh at BU, studying issues of poverty and sexual health; she hopes to finish in 2015. In her "spare" time, Sophie reports, she's raising her 8-year old son and taking care of four chickens, two cats, a dog, and a horse!