Through her sociological scholarship, teaching, and community action, Dr. Juanita D. Sandford has worked to advance social justice in Arkansas. She was awarded an honorary degree from Hendrix College in 1991. This award is presented to the senior sociology major who has demonstrated the greatest commitment to using sociological knowledge to bring about a more just society.

Juanita Dadisman Sandford is a Kansan by birth, a Texan by marriage, and an Arkansas by choice. As a child, during the depression she traveled through the South and Southwest with her mother and father, who supported the family as a traveling salesman.

She received her B.A. degree in Bible studies and Sociology from Baylor University in 1947 and earned the M.A. degree also from Baylor in Sociology in 1948. In 1946, she married Herman Prestridge Sandford. They have three daughters, four grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.

Since 1948 she has taught sociology at Wayland Baptist College, Westark Community College, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, and Henderson State University. From 1975 until her retirement in 1989, she was Coordinator of Women's Studies at Henderson State University.

She is the author of Poverty in the Land of Opportunity, a study of poverty in Arkansas. Her other published works include "Being Poor in Arkansas" and "Women's Liberation, the Church and Society," these last two being chapters in published books.

She has served on the Governor's Commission, on the Status of Women, and the Attorney General's Consumer Advisory Board. She is listed in Who's Who In America, Who's Who in American Women, and Who's Who and Where in Women's Studies. In 1991, she was awarded the Doctor of Laws degree by Hendrix College.