Dr. T. Laine Scales named 2025 W. O. Carver Distinguished Service Award recipient
The Baptist History & Heritage Society is pleased to announce Dr. T. Laine Scales as the 2025 recipient of the W. O. Carver Distinguished Service Award.
Dr. Scales was honored with the W. O. Carver Distinguished Service Award on May 20 during the BHHS annual conference at Baylor University.
Presented annually, this award honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the study and preservation of Baptist history. Recipients have demonstrated rare and exceptional dedication to the cause of Baptist history through scholarly writing, teaching, denominational service, archival and library development, leadership in historical centers and societies at the state and national levels, and efforts to communicate and interpret the Baptist heritage.
Dr. Scales serves as Professor of Social Work in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University (1999–2008 and 2019–present), where she co-directs the Ph.D. program. She previously served as Professor of Higher Education (2008–2018) and as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Professional Development (2004–2018).
A prolific scholar, Scales has authored, co-authored, or co-edited 10 books and more than 40 articles and chapters. Her research focuses on Christianity and social work—particularly early Baptist social workers and the Woman’s Missionary Union—as well as the history of Baptist women in higher education.
She is co-editor of Baptists and Gender (Mercer University Press, 2023) and Baptists and the Kingdom of God: Global Perspectives (Baylor University Press, 2023), co-author of “Doing the Word”: Southern Baptists’ Carver School of Church Social Work and its Predecessors, 1907–1997 (University of Tennessee Press, 2019), and author of “All That Fits a Woman”: Training Southern Baptist Women for Charity and Mission, 1907–1926 (Mercer University Press, 2000).
Scales has actively participated in the life of the Baptist History & Heritage Society, presenting papers regularly at the Society’s annual conferences, including a plenary presentation in 2021. She has also contributed several articles to Baptist History & Heritage, the Society’s peer-reviewed academic journal.
She earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Kentucky at Lexington, a Master of Social Work from the former Carver School of Church Social Work at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Since 2018, Scales has served as co-director of the Baptist Scholars International Roundtable, which fosters scholarship from Baptist perspectives across eras and around the world through a scholarly forum for exchanging ideas. This international, intergenerational, and interdisciplinary community embraces a diversity of Baptist affiliations. Scales was honored in 2016 with Baylor’s highest teaching award, the Baylor Master Teacher designation.
“We are thrilled to recognize Dr. Laine Scales with the W. O. Carver Distinguished Service Award for her long-standing and exemplary commitment to Baptist history–through her prolific scholarship, thoughtful teaching, faithful engagement and support of our Society, and her passion for sharing the Baptist story,” said BHHS Executive Director Aaron Weaver.
Learn more about the Baptist History & Heritage Society and how you can become a member or church partner of our 87-year-old organization committed to “helping Baptists discover, conserve, assess, and share their history.”