Meet Roy Copeland, 2022 VSU Presidential Excellence Award for Service Honoree

Pictured are Dr. Richard A. Carvajal, president of Valdosta State University, and Dr. Roy Copeland, professor of business law in the Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration's Department of Accounting. Copeland is the recipient of the 2022 Presidential Excellence Award for Service.

VALDOSTA — Dr. Richard A. Carvajal, president of Valdosta State University, recently honored Dr. Roy Copeland with the 2022 Presidential Excellence Award for Service.

The Presidential Excellence Award for Service recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated a strong and consistent commitment to service at VSU and to the community.

Copeland joined the faculty of VSU’s Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration in 2012 and currently serves as a professor of business law in the Department of Accounting, while also maintaining a private law practice. He previously taught in the university’s former College of Arts and Sciences.

Copeland enjoys teaching students about healthcare law and employment law. His primary research interests are real property and partition actions, “specifically the impact of those proceedings on heir property,” he shared.

“I also enjoy analyzing many civil rights laws and their impact on the African American community.”

VSU: Teaching, mentoring, and conducting research are already full-time jobs. What motivates you to make time for service?

Copeland: I am motivated by the visible impact that teaching and mentoring has on students. Sometimes the immediate results are palpable; however, the impact comes later on when students have moved on to the professional world and forward an email indicating that my teaching and/or mentoring had an impact on their chosen profession.

VSU: Which service roles have allowed you to have the biggest impact, and which service roles you are currently serving in this semester?

Copeland: I believe the most impactful roles have been my service with the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority and 100 Black Men of Valdosta, my role as chairman of the College of Business Administration’s Ethics Committee, co-founding the Copeland African American Museum, my work on a number of mentoring committees, and one-on-one mentoring relationships with students. The most impactful roles can be divided between the effect on the local community as a whole and those wherein I have made a discernable difference in the lives of young people. My work with the Development Authority and the Copeland African American Museum has probably made the greatest impact on the local community. The mentoring of young people is of equal importance, and that impact, in my humble opinion, is immeasurable.

VSU: What advice do you have for other faculty who want to make time for service?

Copeland: They must find the time to provide meaningful service to students and the community, as the rewards are endless.

The Presidential Excellence Award for faculty is an annual tradition at VSU, one that recognizes the diverse talents and contributions of the university’s innovative and active faculty. Awards are given for excellence in teaching, research, service, online teaching, and scholarship of teaching and learning.