The College of Social Work at Florida State University hosted its 2025 Scholarship and Awards dinner, honoring distinguished alumni with six awards and more than 90 student scholars.
More than $109,625 in scholarships were provided to undergraduate and graduate social work students with interests in areas including child welfare, social policy, international social work, social work practice and military veterans.
The event also marked the introduction of the Dean’s Award, which recognizes friends of the College of Social Work who have made a significant contribution to the college’s mission of enhancing well-being, building community and shaping policy.
The 2025 Dean’s Award was presented to the MSW Class of 1975, whose members have made significant contributions to society and human rights for 50 years. The MSW Class of 1975 not only endowed a scholarship to represent its class, but members of this class have endowed four additional scholarships.
The College of Social Work Alumni Award recipients included:
Distinguished Emeritus Alumni Award
Doby Flowers (BS ’71, MS ’73) is a seventh-generation Tallahassee resident and two-time FSU graduate, earning a bachelor’s degree in social work in 1971 and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from FSU. She also became FSU’s first African American homecoming queen in 1970. At the time she was one of only 35 Black students among a campus of 18,000 students at FSU.
In 1995 she purchased the historic Magnolia Leaf House in Thomasville, Georgia, preserving the home and establishing it as the Magnolia Leaf Bed and Breakfast, which remains in operation today. She also joined her brother Fred Flowers at his law firm Flowers, Law, LLC in 1997 as firm manager.
She and Fred also co-founded the Civil Rights Institute at FSU, which is committed to researching civil rights in America and encouraging social change.
Distinguished Young Alumni Award
Oluremi “Remi” Abiodun (MSW/ JD ’21) is a program associate at the Vera Institute of Justice, collaborating with stakeholders working to strategically reform policies to address the root causes of violent crime and to reduce mass incarceration, racial disparities and the detention of people with mental health conditions.
Prior to joining Vera, Abiodun worked at the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights where social work was the lens through which she practiced law. She worked with children facing life sentences and spearheaded their civil legal services division to work on issues of education, housing, immigration, and benefits.
She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in Spanish from Spelman College and a juris doctorate and MSW degree from FSU. Prior to graduate school, Abiodun spent three years teaching sixth-grade math at a Title One school in New Orleans.
Distinguished Social Work Educator Alumni Award
Karen Sowers (MSW ’77, Ph.D. ’86) is dean and professor emerita of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville College of Social Work. She was appointed as the Beaman Professor and dean of the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1997, retiring from the position in 2017. She served in faculty leadership roles at the Florida International University School of Social Work, serving as director (1994-1997) and as undergraduate program director (1986-1994).
Sowers is nationally known for her scholarship in the areas of international practice, juvenile justice, child welfare, culturally effective intervention strategies for social work practice, evidence-based social work practice and social work education. Sowers served as a founding editorial board member of the Journal of Research on Social Work Practice and founding co-editor of Best Practices in Mental Health: An International Journal. She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Central Florida in 1974, along with an MSW (1977) and a doctoral degree (1986) in social work from FSU. She is the recipient of the FSU Outstanding Alumna Award and the Mental Health of America’s 2016 George Goodman and Ruth P. Brudney Social Work Award.
Distinguished Social Work Practice Alumni Award
Matthew “Matt” Claps (MSW ’00) is the principal and owner of Matthew Claps Consulting, LLC and in January, he will step into the role as executive director of the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group, leading their work to help child welfare and behavioral health systems drive transformative, family-centered change. He has more than 25 years of experience as a practitioner, administrator and consultant working across philanthropic, non-profit and state/federal government leading initiatives to advance the quality of practice and to improve outcomes for youth and families involved with the child welfare and behavioral health systems. He is nationally recognized for expertise in practice model implementation and continuous quality improvement in human services.
Currently, Claps is providing technical assistance to several child welfare and behavioral health systems, including program evaluation with New Mexico behavioral health system through his affiliation with New Mexico State University’s Center of Innovation. He also provides expert witness and testimony on issues related to child welfare systems improvement. Claps served as principal technical assistance consultant at the American Institutes for Research (2023-2025) and as senior director of practice for Casey Family Programs (2011-2023). Claps also previously held senior state government leadership positions (2006-2011) in child welfare and developmental disability services systems and has served as a management consultant in human services settings with various states, counties and tribes.
Distinguished Social Policy and Administration Alumni Award
Gwynn Virostek (MSW ’22) earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Eckerd College and a master’s degree in social work from FSU in 2022. Virostek is an experienced executive with a demonstrated history working in financial services and non-profit organizations, with expertise in successfully integrating disparate teams and operations following mergers, acquisitions or critical internal transitions. Her expertise was forged during a three-decade career in banking, culminating in an executive role with Washington Mutual where she successfully integrated retail cultures across 1,100 branches nationwide and operational units in multiple countries. She now applies her extensive executive and clinical expertise by delivering critical services to vulnerable families and children, serving as the president and chief executive officer at Capital City Youth Services in Tallahassee since 2020.
She is a long-time volunteer as a Guardian ad Litem working with abused and neglected children in Florida and is a dedicated philanthropist working with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy to support literacy initiatives for youths and families. She currently serves on several committees and boards including the FSU Libraries Advisory Board, Big Bend Hospice Executive Committee, Big Bend Continuum of Care board, Truist Community Advisory Board and current chair of the Municipal Code Enforcement Board for the City of Tallahassee.