At the 2022 “A Celebration of Terp's: Featuring The Maryland Awards” event, CCJS Alum was inducted into the Alumni Association Hall of Fame, highlighting his distinctive achievements. 

Jeff Kinney CCJS '93, inducted into the Alumni Association Hall of Fame

As an Alumni Association Hall of Fame Inductee, Jeff Kinney was recognized for his significant, positive impact on society, as well as his efforts to instill Maryland pride and reflect the core values of the university.

A talented author and cartoonist, Jeff Kinney created a cultural phenomenon with his #1 New York Times bestselling cartoon fiction series Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Kinney is widely credited with converting children into readers, an achievement which has recognized him as one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world.

As a student at the University of Maryland, he ran a comic strip called "Igdoof" in The Diamondback. He knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. In 1998 Kinney started writing down ideas for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which he hoped to turn into a book. The first Wimpy Kid book was published in 2007 and became an instant bestseller. There are now more than 250 million copies of the series in print worldwide. Kinney is a six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for Favorite Book and has won two Children’s Choice Book Awards.

In addition to writing the Wimpy Kid series, Kinney has written and illustrated the New York Times bestselling Awesome Friendly Kid series. He is also the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites.

He has graciously returned to the university as a volunteer, signing books on Maryland Day, participating in a College of Education event on motivating reluctant readers, and serving as this spring’s main commencement speaker.

Kinney lives with his wife, Julie, and two sons, Will and Grant, in Massachusetts, where they own the bookstore An Unlikely Story.