Five Alumni Honored on University Day
Article Published by: alumni.unc.edu
Five alumni were honored on University Day with the University’s Distinguished Alumna/Alumnus Awards as UNC marked its 224th birthday on Thursday.
University Day, the anniversary of the 1793 laying of the cornerstone of Old East, also featured an address by Gov. Roy Cooper ’79 (’82 JD), the state’s 75th governor.
The event was livestreamed and is available on UNC’s YouTube channel.
Previous University Day celebrations have featured speeches from distinguished members of the faculty and honored visitors. Two sitting presidents — John F. Kennedy in 1961 and Bill Clinton in 1993 — have been featured speakers. North Carolina governors have made University Day a traditional stop during their first term of office, including Luther Hodges ’19, Jim Hunt ’64 (LLBJD), Terry Sanford ’39 (’46 LLBJD), Jim Martin, Mike Easley ’72, Beverly Perdue and Pat McCrory.
Recipients of the University Day awards, first given in 1971, are:
- Amy Lansky ’91 (MPH, ’96 PhD), senior adviser for strategy in the Program Performance and Evaluation Office at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lansky has served as director of the White House Office on National AIDS Policy, where she developed and implemented the national HIV/AIDS strategy. In 2010, she set up the Lansky Family Scholarship in UNC’s department of health behavior to recognize her parents’ commitment to education and public health. She is a past president of UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health’s alumni association’s governing board (2014-16).
- Berrien Moore III ’63, a former chair of NASA’s Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee. After receiving his degree in mathematics, Moore declined a Fulbright Fellowship to begin his journey into earth sciences via a fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. In 1988, Moore became chair of the Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee, NASA’s senior science advisory committee. He earned NASA’s highest civilian award, the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, for outstanding service. He has held several key positions related to the study of climate change. He now is director of the National Weather Center and vice president for Weather and Climate Programs.
- Judith Phillips Stanton ’78 (PhD), who compiled and edited The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith and taught at and was a leader in establishing programs in gender studies at both the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and Clemson University. Stanton’s book about Smith and her letters has been regarded as foundational in restoring the reputation of this late 18th-century poet and novelist as the first Romantic poet. Stanton compiled and edited the project over 26 years while she was a university professor and later an independent scholar. She also has published a number of articles on Smith’s life.
- Richard Y. Stevens ’70 (’74 MPA, ’74 JD), a lawyer with the Smith Anderson Law Firm of Raleigh and a member of the UNC Board of Trustees. Stevens served five terms in the N.C. Senate (2003-12) and was county manager of Wake County (1984-2000). Stevens also has worked as a management consultant in strategic planning, business objectives, marketing and organizational development for private-sector clients. He chaired the UNC Endowment Fund and the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation Inc. and has served the University in many other capacities. He is a past recipient of the GAA’s Distinguished Service Medal and a past member, officer and chair of the GAA Board of Directors.
- Mike Wiley ’04 (MFA), whose plays have been seen in settings ranging from The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., to the official finale of the Freedom Riders 50th Reunion in Jackson, Miss. Wiley’s works of documentary theater have been shared across the U.S., Canada, South Africa and beyond, and his ensemble dramas have been produced in multi-week runs on stages including the Guthrie Theatre and the Cape Fear Regional Theatre. His newest play, Leaving Eden, premieres at UNC’s PlayMakers next spring. Wiley has conducted numerous educational residencies funded through grant programs of the N.C. Arts Council.
- Nancy Allbritton, Kenan Distinguished Professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry, received this year’s Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award, which recognizes service to the state, the nation and the University by a faculty member. Allbritton’s research studies, described in more than 160 publications, are directed at the development of technologies by bringing to bear methods from engineering, chemistry, physics and biology to address biomedical problems. The program has been funded by the National Institutes of Health with more than $56 million in grant funding since 1994. Allbritton is the scientific founder of three companies and has 12 issued patents and nine pending.
Chancellor Carol L. Folt announced that the yearlong Give for Good: Scholarship Challenge, unveiled at this University Day event in 2016, raised more than $65 million to support the Carolina Covenant and the Morehead-Cain scholarship. The challenge was prompted by a $20 million gift from an anonymous donor, who made the gift as tandem $10 million challenges to double the amount to help bring top students to Carolina. The University said that more than 2,300 additional donors responded, contributing more than $45 million.
“I’m thrilled to report that we more than met the challenge issued by this generous anonymous donor,” Folt said. “While he hoped to double the challenge gift, we ended up raising more than $65 million, more than tripling the original gift, all for student scholarships.”
Gifts to the challenge count toward The Carolina Edge, a Campaign for Carolina initiative that aims to raise $1 billion to support undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and professional school financial aid. The campaign launched publicly on Oct. 6, with an overall goal of $4.25 billion.
The Covenant scholarship program, now 13 years old, is a groundbreaking initiative that gives children of low-income families — many of whom are first-generation students — an opportunity to attend Carolina without borrowing money. More than 6,000 low-income Carolina students have graduated debt-free.
Since its founding in 1945, the Morehead-Cain Foundation — home of the first merit-based scholarship program in the country — has connected high-achieving young leaders to a fully funded undergraduate experience. More than 3,100 scholars have benefited from the program since its inception. The University said that funds raised by the Give for Good: Scholarship Challenge will help increase the number of scholars the program can bring to Carolina.
About Scott Livengood
Scott Livengood is the owner and CEO of Dewey’s Bakery, Inc., a commercial wholesale bakery with a respected national brand of ultra premium cookies and crackers.
Previously, Scott worked at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for 27 years, starting as a trainee in 1977. He was appointed President of the company in 1992, then CEO and Chairman of the Board.
Scott has served on numerous boards including the Carter Center, the Calloway School of Business and the Babcock School of Management, Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County, and the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce.
He started a new business, StoryWork International, in 2016 with Richard Stone. The signature achievement to date is LivingStories, a story-based program for improved patient experiences and outcomes in partnership with Novant Health.
