Beaver College of Health Sciences

By Amanda Mlekush

In honor of her accomplishments and upcoming retirement, the Beaver College of Health Sciences has selected Heather Thorp, EdD, faculty member from the Department of Social Work, as Mace Bearer for its Spring 2025 Commencement on Saturday, May 11.

In 2006, Thorp began working at App State as a project manager for a Social Work-related grant project at a community-based methamphetamine treatment program and teaching in the department’s undergraduate and graduate programs. In 2009, she became the department’s first full-time field director, helping BSW and MSW students find placement opportunities to complete their internships and gain valuable work experience.

During her tenure at App State, Thorp enrolled and completed the Reich College of Education’s doctoral program in Educational Leadership, with a concentration in Expressive Arts Education, Inquiry and Leadership defending her dissertation in 2022 entitled “Ongoing Curiosities in Post-Formal Education: Making Kin, Becoming Kind, and Becoming Kin(d) with/in a Story Family Sojourn.”

“When I was in my 40s I thought I was too old to enter a doctoral program. When I was in my 50s, I realized I was the only one stopping myself,” said Thorp. “My expressive arts-based research culminated with years of personal study incorporating creativity, sacredness and justice.” 

Along with colleague Dr. Denise Levy, Thorp established the Beaver College of Health Sciences’ Arts and Health Collaborative, a meditative art outreach designed to reduce stress and improve well-being for students, faculty and staff. In addition to the collaborative, Thorp and Levy partnered with other leaders on campus to establish the university’s two permanent outdoor labyrinths in 2024 – one located at Sanford Mall and the other on the grounds of Levine Hall. 

Establishing the outdoor labyrinths–permanent and lasting meditative spaces on campus–are part of the legacy Thorp says she is proud to remember as she reflects on her academic career at the university. 

“I am proud that I was part of a group that established the labyrinths on campus and shared the practice of walking a labyrinth with others,” Thorp said. “I was part of the Social Work department’s original leadership team when we became an independent department, and I am proud to work in a profession committed to social justice. Over the past 20 years, I diligently worked to build and expand a network of internship sites for Social Work students, growing our agency network to accommodate the incredible growth of our program.” 

Even though she is retiring at the end of the semester, Thorp said she plans to pursue activities that follow her values of creativity, sacredness and justice. She hopes to lead expressive arts groups and classes, spend time with family, including her grandchildren, walk in the woods, and start a small counseling practice. She also said she aspires to, as John Lewis said, pursue some “good trouble” by focusing her energies on environmental and social justice opportunities.

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