Nancy McGehee, associate professor of hospitality and tourism management research at the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, received a 2010 Best Paper Award at the recent ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education) International Conference on Sustainable Tourism.

McGehee’s award, in the “travel philanthropy, volunteer, and charity tourism” special stream, was for her paper, “Critical Theory, Social Movement Theory, and Volunteer Tourism.” Her paper was coauthored with Kathleen Andereck, of Arizona State University. More than 100 papers were on the program.

McGehee was among the first scholars, in the mid-1990s, to study the phenomenon of volunteer tourism, or voluntourism, in which individuals undertake vacations that include organized community service.

McGehee received her bachelor’s degree from Marshall University, a master’s degree from North Carolina State University, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.

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