Missy Hopper, professor of instruction and special education at Mississippi State, has been named president of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines.

Hopper’s role as president follows her two-year term as president-elect, which came to a close at the Society’s 2018 Biennial Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 2-4.

During her 2018-2020 term as president, Hopper will lead the Society’s 12-person board of directors. She will assume the role of past president following the biennial term.

Since 2006, Hopper has been active in Phi Kappa Phi at the local, regional and national levels. After beginning in chapter leadership at MSU, Hopper served as Phi Kappa Phi’s vice president of chapter development during the 2014-2016 biennium prior to being elected as the Society’s president-elect at the 2016 convention.

Hopper has also served on the Society’s Convention Planning Committee and chaired both the Chapter Development Committee and Dissertation Fellowship Criteria ad hoc Committee. She earlier served as south central regional vice president and as a member of the Chapter Criteria Task Force.

Hopper received her bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from MSU, her master’s in curriculum and instruction and education specialist degree in reading education from University of Memphis, and her Ph.D. in holistic teaching and learning from the University of Tennessee.

Founded in 1897, Phi Kappa Phi awards nearly $1 million each year to outstanding students and members through graduate fellowships, study abroad grants, member and chapter awards, and grants for local, national and international literacy initiatives.

Membership is by invitation only to the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students and 7.5 percent of juniors. Faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction also qualify. Some of the organization's notable members include former President Jimmy Carter, retired NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence, novelist and Mississippi State alumnus John Grisham and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley.

For more information, visit www.phikappaphi.org.

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