Barbara Solomon, professor emerita at the School of Social Work, vice provost emerita and the first African American to hold a deanship at the University of Southern California, was honored with the USC Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award on March 8 for her outstanding contributions as a scholar, teacher, mentor and leader.

The USC alumna, who holds a doctoral degree in social work from the school, has helped build her alma mater into a model for diversity and community outreach. Solomon has made a difference in the lives of countless people through her insightful research and her advocacy on behalf of veterans, children, the mentally ill, the elderly and the dispossessed.

Awarded to select retired faculty at the annual Academic Honors Convocation, the USC Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes eminent careers and notable contributions to the university, the recipient's profession and the community.

Solomon has also earned USC's highest honor – the Presidential Medallion – in 1999. In addition, she was awarded the Rosa Parks Freedom Award from the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a USC Associates Award for Teaching Excellence.

During her time at the USC School of Social Work, Solomon held the David Lawrence Stein/Violet Goldberg Sachs Professorship of Social Work. A diligent scholar even in retirement, she is a research professor in the School of Social Work's Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services and the project director and principal investigator of a long-term evaluation of Los Angeles County's family preservation and support programs.

An adept administrator, Solomon has served as USC's vice provost for faculty affairs and minority affairs and as vice provost for graduate studies and dean of the Graduate School.

Solomon has published extensively, especially on the delivery of social and mental health services to underrepresented populations. Her landmark book Black Empowerment: Social Work in Oppressed Communities, published in 1976, introduced the concept of empowerment as a framework for social work practice.

Before joining USC's faculty in 1966, Solomon was an adoptions worker for the state of California and a clinical social worker at Veterans Administration hospitals. She has been a guest lecturer or visiting scholar at multiple universities in the United States. Also, as a visiting examiner, she has evaluated the curriculum of the Department of Social Work at Chinese University of Hong Kong.