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Professor Florence Wagman Roisman will receive an award from the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust. She is one of 10 professors from around the country who will be honored with a $25,000 cash tribute from the trust during a ceremony in Atlanta on November 14.

(In the photo are Emily Benfer, left, and Florence Roisman at an event in 2008.)

“I’m very honored by this award, and am deeply grateful to Emily Benfer, ’05, and her former student, Graham Bowman, for nominating me for it,” Professor Roisman said.

“I can think of no one more deserving of the prestigious Beckman Award,” said Professor Emily Benfer. She is a clinical professor of law and director of the Health Justice Project at the Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy and the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She is a 2005 cum laude graduate of IU McKinney, and nominated Professor Roisman for the award. “Professor Roisman is an extraordinary teacher and mentor, a pioneer in the law, and a champion of civil and human rights, not to mention one of the truly good people in the world. She is unquestionably among the extraordinarily great teachers and champions of social justice we will know in our lifetime. She stirs a consciousness in students and colleagues, inspiring us to act. I have drawn from her lessons and vision for social justice throughout my public interest career. I know with certainty that every low-income person I represent and every student that passes through my clinic, the Health Justice Project, is the beneficiary of Professor Roisman’s profound influence on my life. I extend my heartfelt congratulations and deepest gratitude to Florence.”

“I couldn’t be happier for my colleague, Professor Roisman, to be honored in this way,” said IU McKinney Dean Andrew R. Klein. “She is truly an inspiration to her students. I’m pleased to see her incredible dedication be recognized.”

The Beckman Award Trust was originated in 2008 and has since bestowed an amount of over $1.7 million to 73 professors and faculty. The idea for the Beckman Trust was conceived by Gail McKnight Beckman in recognition of her mother Dr. Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman. Dr. Beckman was a notable instructor and an esteemed author. She made history in her field for being one of the first female psychology professors at Columbia University. Dr. Beckman also later taught at the University of Pennsylvania.