The Eileen P. Sweeney Distinguished Service Award is designated for individuals whose outstanding service has resulted in a significant improvement in the quality of advocacy for Social Security claimants, an increase in the availability of advocacy for Social Security claimants, or an improvement in the Social Security adjudicatory process.

Eileen P. Sweeney was a nationally recognized expert on issues affecting people with disabilities who receive federal welfare benefits. From the time she was in college, through her work as a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, she sought to improve the lives of children, senior citizens, individuals with low income, and people with disabilities.

From 1998 until her death in 2006, her focus was the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income programs. An advocate for the invisible in society, Ms. Sweeney assembled coalitions and coordinated litigation to help the people she thought needed it most. With this award, we honor her exemplary character and career.

During NOSSCR’s 2026 Spring National Conference, it was our honor to award the Eileen P. Sweeney Distinguished Service Award to Brian P. Hogan.

Currently the Deputy Director of Nutrition, Division of Child and Family Well-Being at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Brian previously served as the Public Benefits Practice Group Manager at Legal Aid of North Carolina, where he dedicated over nine years to improving the lives of his fellow North Carolinians.

While at Legal Aid, Brian helped create Legal Aid of North Carolina’s statewide Medicaid advocacy project, the Medicaid Assistance Technical Team, and directly supervised the public benefits casework in the Triad Region, including the Medical-Legal Partnership casework in Greensboro.

He received his B.A. and J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is licensed to practice in both North Carolina and California and is certified as a specialist in Social Security Disability Law by the North Carolina State Bar. He had been an active member of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice Disability Advocacy Section’s Executive Committee and an integral member of NOSSCR for many years.

Last year, when Hurricane Helene devastated parts of Western North Carolina, Brian worked tirelessly to ensure that affected North Carolinians would not face disrupted application processes. Brian initiated efforts to flag claims of those in impacted zip codes, met with the Regional Commissioner and Communications Director, and helped achieve key, measurable results.  As a result, those in Western North Carolina impacted by Helene did not have their Social Security benefits adversely affected as a result of receiving FEMA relief, did not suffer penalties because of delays in forms, and did not lose out on benefits due to an inability to physically attend  exams or appointments.  Brian led a team composed of Legal Aid of North Carolina, Pisgah Legal Services, then-NOSSCR President Rick Fleming, and then-Chair of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice Disability Advocacy Section, Ashley Sappenfield. Together, this team took its message directly to Atlanta and Woodlawn, meeting with key players to ensure those at risk were protected.  Brian is to be commended for his careful and deliberate advocacy. 

Brian’s ongoing commitment to advocating individuals with low-income and people with disabilities who are navigating the complexities of public benefits, nutrition, and health law, his dedication to the people of North Carolina, and his quick and decisive actions in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene make him the perfect recipient of this year’s Eileen P. Sweeney award. While Brian was unable to join us in Baltimore, fellow North Carolina practitioners Rick Fleming and Ashley Sappenfield presented and accepted the award on Brian’s behalf. Read Brian’s acceptance speech below:

Thank you to Jennifer Cronenberg and the NOSSCR Board for this extraordinary honor.

I want to say at the outset that this recognition doesn’t belong to me alone. When Commissioner O’Malley asked ‘how can we help,’ the response from North Carolina was a collective one, and this award belongs to everyone who answered.

Ashley and Rick were central to that effort. My former colleagues at Legal Aid of North Carolina, especially Celia Pistolis, Alicia Edwards, and our Disaster Relief Project team, carried this work alongside our partners at Pisgah Legal Services in Western North Carolina. Thank you all for demonstrating what our bar and our legal aid community do best when it matters most.

It is a particular privilege to receive an award named for Eileen P. Sweeney, and humbling to have my current work connected to hers through CBPP. I’m grateful to Kathleen Romig, who made that bridge possible, and to my colleagues at NCDHHS, especially Director Yvonne Copeland and the Division of Child and Family Well-Being team, who were running toward Western North Carolina in those same weeks to address nutrition security.

Looking further back, I owe a great deal to Rubicon Programs, where Kelly Dunn and Rosemary Dady taught me the fundamentals of Social Security law. They didn’t just teach me the SSI regulations at 20 C.F.R Part 416; they showed me that being a lawyer and having a genuine love for those we serve are deeply connected. And to Jen Burdick, Kristin Dama, John Whitelaw, Kate Lang, Emilia Sicilia, Michelle Spadafore, and many, many others in the national SSI advocacy community these advocates have built at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, NYLAG, and Justice in Aging: thank you for shaping the Social Security lawyer I became. Everyone in this room owes more to you than we know for steering the past, present, and future of SSI.

To NOSSCR, to the NC Social Security Bar, and to everyone who answered the call after Helene: thank you.

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