Nancy J. Hopp, FAPR, RDR, CRR, CMRS, a retired court reporter from St. Louis, Mo., was presented with the 2023 Jim Bouley Family Lifetime Award for Altruism by the National Court Reporters Foundation (NCRF), the philanthropic arm of the National Court Reporters Association.
The announcement was made at a special awards luncheon at the 2023 NCRA Conference & Expo held July 27-July 30 in Houston, Texas. The Jim Bouley Family Lifetime Award for Altruism was previously named the Santo J. Aurelio Altruism Award but was renamed in 2021 when the Bouley family children chose to donate to NCRF in recognition of their father, who was an exemplary role model as a court reporter, instructor, and philanthropist. The award is given to a court reporter or captioner with more than 25 years of experience who has given back to the profession and the community with no expectation of reward.
Hopp is the second recipient of the Jim Bouley Family Lifetime Award for Altruism.
Hopp has more than 40 years of experience in the legal services industry including as a court reporter, firm owner, and in various positions at litigation software companies. She began her court reporting career in 1978 with Sonntag Reporting Service in Geneva, Ill. In 2003 she began working at Summation Legal Technologies, later AccessData Group, where she served as a professional development manager, court reporting liaison, and partnership manger before taking her position in 2012 as Chief Operating Officer and later President of Midwest Litigation Services based in St. Louis, now a business unit of Lexitas.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., and an associate degree in court reporting from MacCormac College in Chicago, Ill.
At the national level, Hopp has been a member of NCRA since 1976 and has held numerous volunteer positions including as an NCRF Chair and a Trustee, where she participated in a number of Veterans History Projects for the Library of Congress, and as a contributing editor for the Journal of Court Reporting (JCR) membership magazine. She has served on NCRA’s Realtime Systems Administrator Certificate Subcommittee, and on the Technology Assessment, Item Writing, and Nominating Committees.
Hopp also served on the Member Value Proposition Task Force, the Firm Owners Community of Interest, and the Student/Mentor Committee and Conference Task Force. In 2007 she served as Midyear Conference Chair, and in 2005 and 2007 on the President’s Planning Meeting.
At the local level, Hopp is the 2000 recipient of the Illinois Court Reporters Association (ILCRA) Distinguished Service Award (DSA). She has also chaired a number of the state association’s committees including the DSA, Legislative, Convention, By-Laws, Student Scholarship, and the Student Mentor Program.
Hopp has presented at both national and state level court reporter events and has covered a number of high-profile cases and events including the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger accident investigation, the meeting between Pope John Paul II and former President Bill Clinton, and a number of national professional conferences held by organizations from around the country.
Since 2014 other professional endeavors include service on the St. Louis Community College Meramec Court Reporting and the South Technical High School Court Reporting advisory boards. She was also a member of the Association of Litigation Support Professionals, Women in eDiscovery, Chicago Chapter, State of Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Certified Shorthand Reporters Board, and Career Colleges of Chicago Court Reporting Advisory Board.
Since her retirement, Hopp has broadened her involvement in charitable work by volunteering at the Keyway Center for Diversion and Reentry, a non-profit assisting justice-involved women in their transition back to the community.
Full award requirements and a nomination form can be found here. For information about The Jim Bouley Family Lifetime Award for Altruism, contact NCRF Manager Jill Parker Landsman at jlandsman@ncra.org.
