Joyce W. Hopp, PhD, MPH, was Dean of Loma Linda University School of Allied Health Professions from 1986 to 2002. She first came to Loma Linda as an 18-year-old student nurse in the late summer of 1945. “It was hot, hot, hot. No air conditioning. We used to sit in those stiff and starched uniforms down there in the basement of the annex [the original Loma Linda Sanitarium], just sweltering. It was nice to go to work because the sanitarium was the only place that had cool air.” Joyce graduated from the College of Medical Evangelists School of Nursing in 1948.
Because it was a diploma program at the time, she then attended Walla Walla College, where in 1951 she earned her baccalaureate degree in nursing education with minors in Bible, physical education, and biology. While a student at Walla Walla, Joyce gave her first public speech during a student week-of-prayer. The experience re-enforced the fact that she wanted to work for the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.
In 1954, at Harvard University, Joyce earned the first MPH degree in health education in the denomination. During that year she received a scholarship from Harvard and a salary from the General Conference. After earning her MPH degree, Joyce returned to Washington to work full-time for the Medical Department of the General Conference. In 1958, she married Kenneth Hopp, an Adventist attorney in private practice in Bridgeport, Washington. She returned to Loma Linda in 1962 to guest lecture in the School of Tropical and Preventive Medicine, the forerunner of the School of Public Health. In 1968, when her daughter, Helen, started kindergarten, she started teaching part time as a lecturer at the new Loma Linda University School of Public Health.
In 1971, Joyce started doctoral studies at the University of Southern California. For the next three years she studied full time at USC, worked full-time at the School of Public Health, wrote the health sections of the Adventist health science textbooks, and raised a family. She earned her PhD degree in 1974. Without ever applying for a promotion, Joyce went from being an instructor to assistant professor and associate professor. In 1981, she became a full professor and head of the Department of Health Education, which then became the Department of Health Promotion and Education. In 1989, she was named a Distinguished Professor in the School of Public Health.
Joyce became dean of the School of Allied Health Professions in 1986. Her biggest contribution to the School in her opinion was to make it global. Because she had a public health background and had worked internationally for public health, it just seemed natural. Within a month she started a program in respiratory therapy with the Saudi Arabian military, as a follow-up to the work of Loma Linda University’s Health Team. It was just the first of many overseas curricula. During Joyce’s tenure, she enlarged the enrollment of the School of Allied Health Professions from 360 students to 990 and added about half of the current programs, including a master’s degree physician assistant program. The School became the largest at the University.
By 2005, Joyce Hopp had been connected with Loma Linda University for two-thirds of its 100-year history. Much of her career has been spent in Nichol Hall. She personally knew its namesake, Frances David Nichol, editor of the Review and Herald, when she worked at the General Conference.
Even though Dr. Hopp has retired, she has two full-time jobs. She not only cares for her grandchildren while her daughter teaches, but she teaches writing courses for three schools of the University: Public Health, Nursing, and Allied Health Professions. She also teaches Administration in Higher Education for doctoral students in the School of Allied Health Professions. And she enjoys teaching graduate students.
In April, Joyce’s daughter, Helen Hopp Marshak, PhD (the little girl who started kindergarten in 1968), became dean of Loma Linda University School of Public Health.