Campbell Trust & Wealth graduates have helped guide families through the Game of Life for nearly 60 years
WELCOME TO THE BLOCK
Campbell Dance Team members
Kaylin Bitz and Skyler Loher perform at the first Alumni Block Party during Homecoming festivities in the fall. The Block Party kicked off festivities with live music, food trucks, mascots and more and served as an unofficial "pep rally" for the big game (which Campbell won against North Carolina A&T, 21-7).
Photo by Bennett Scarborough
32 THE GAME OF LIFE
Nearly 60 years after it launched as a first-ofits-kind program at Campbell College, the Trust & Wealth Management program is going strong, teaching generations not just about financial management, but relationship skills that are vital to a successful career.
18 BOOKS TO CADAVERS TO ROVERS
It was built as a library "as beautiful and perfect as the woman it was named for," and over the past 100 years, Carrie Rich Memorial Hall has also served as a starter home to several big Campbell programs.
24 ALL PATHS LEAD HOME
When Nicole El-Khoury was accepted into the School of Osteopathic Medicine's Class of 2028, she cleared a big hurdle toward her dream of one day taking over her father's family clinic in her small, rural hometown of Aulander, in a medically underserved area of northeastern North Carolina.
42 WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS
Hajj-Malik Williams spent four years at Campbell and became the football program's all-time leading passer. He took his chance on the transfer portal in his fifth season and led UNLV to a historic season.
BEN BROWN has now shot eight covers for Campbell Magazine and has won multiple CASE awards for his work in higher ed photography. For the cover and cover story in this edition, Brown, who lives in Sanford, used a special lens and lighting to shoot a vintage Game of Life board game.
PRESIDENT
Dr. J. Bradley Creed
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
Dr. John Roberson
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Vincent Benbenek
ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING
Haven Hottel
DIRECTOR OF NEWS & PUBLICATIONS & MAGAZINE EDITOR
Billy Liggett
DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Evan Budrovich
CONTRIBUTORS
Ben Brown, Stan Cole, Adam Fish, Bennett Scarborough, Emily Sullivan, John F. Trump
ACCOLADES
Finalist: CASE International Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year (2020)
Campbell Magazine has won 56 awards at the CASE international and District III levels since 2012.
Founded in 1887, Campbell University is a private, coeducational institution where faith, learning and service excel. Campbell offers programs in the liberal arts, sciences and professions with undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees. The University is comprised of nine colleges and schools and was ranked among the Best National Universities by U.S. News & World Report in its America’s Best Colleges 2024 edition.
Campbell University publishes Campbell Magazine three times a year.
The University affirms its standing policy of non-discrimination in employment and in all of its programs and activities, with respect to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, ethnicity or national origin, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, military status and any other characteristic protected by law, except where exemption is appropriate and authorized by law.
THE LAST WORD
President Creed offers a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to the Campbell community in his final column
In this year of “lasts” for me, this is my last Campbell Magazine column, so I get the “last word.” That’s often what the university president speaks when making the final decision, but my last word is not a definitive ruling or a decisive pronouncement to win the argument. My last word is simply, “Thank You!”
Max DePree served as the CEO of the Herman Miller office furniture company and wrote books on leadership. He is famously quoted as saying, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you.”
Before vision and strategy, policy and execution, organizations need to know current conditions and unvarnished facts. Without a clear grasp of where you are, it is difficult to get where you want to go. Sometimes there is a fine line between a vision and a hallucination, so defining reality is essential for the members of an organization working creatively and productively in fulfilling the organization’s mission and achieving its strategic goals.
The last thing for a leader is to say, “Thank You!” No one ever accomplished anything significant by himself, which has been true of my decade of service as president. I am deeply grateful for the President’s Cabinet and office staff, the finest executive team I have worked with in more than three decades of leadership in higher education. I am indebted to the Board of Trustees who stepped up to face our biggest challenges and support strategic initiatives that resulted in lasting accomplishments for this university. I thank them for placing confidence in me to be only the fifth President of Campbell University and for supporting my leadership.
President J. Bradley Creed readies for his inauguration ceremony in April of 2016, nearly a year into his tenure as Campbell president. Creed will step down this summer after 10 years at the helm as the University’s fifth president.
I leave here with lasting appreciation for our dedicated faculty and staff who give of themselves to our students every day out of love to this university and a commitment to a high calling to serve. I am indebted to our donors and supporters who have contributed generously of their financial resources. Because of their gifts, we set advancement records at Campbell and placed our university on a path of financial stability for the future. I am thankful to our students who chose Campbell over innumerable other colleges and universities for their education. This is the place where they have pursued the development of purposeful lives and meaningful service.
Beyond my heartfelt gratitude for all of these, I say thank you to my wife, Kathy, the love of my life and best friend. She loves Campbell as much or more than I do. Without her support and
encouragement, I could not have led this university over the last 10 years. With the Psalmist, I exclaim, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds,” (Psalm 9:1) especially the blessings of serving Campbell University with its noble Christian mission and truly remarkable people.
Finally, to my familiar, enthusiastic tag line, “Go Camels!,” which I have voiced full-throat in support of our great university many times and in many places, I add the last word: “Thank You!”
Dr. J. Bradley Creed President, Campbell University
LONG OVERDUE
Readers pleased to see school's first Black student, Cordell Wise,
finally share his Campbell story more than 50 years later
TO THE EDITOR:
I will always be grateful to Stan Cole and Billy Liggett for helping us recognize the role of one of the most influential persons in the last 60 years of Campbell University. As I have said before, I’m hoping he will be considered for future Distinguished Alumni recognition, but I’m satisfied with this for right now (that he was finally inducted into the Campbell Athletics Hall of Fame on Jan. 27).
Thank you, Stan, Billy, Ken Faulkner and all the others who helped make this long delayed recognition happen.
Bill Silvester (’68)
TO THE EDITOR:
Just finished the fall edition of Campbell Magazine and, as always, was thoroughly impressed by the publication. My wife
(Elaine Stinson) is a 1970 Campbell grad. Stan Cole’s piece on Duane Bock really let me into the life of a PGA caddie. I grew up three miles from Mimosa Hills in Morganton and struck my first golf ball there when I was 12.
And your collaboration on the Cordell Wise story is worthy of publication award. I could identify with what Cordell experienced, as I was the SID when Henry Logan, our four-time All-America basketball player, became the first African-American to play a predominately white college or university in the southeast back in 1964.
I look forward to the Campbell Magazine and rate it as the best of the many collegiate publications I read.
Great job, guys. Keep print media alive!
Steve White
FALL EDITION RESTORES FAITH IN MAGAZINES
To the Editor:
I am a graduate student in the Master of Trust and Wealth Management program and am studying online in Wheeling, West Virginia. This evening, my husband came into the house with the most beautiful and jaw-dropping magazine from Campbell and it has compelled me to write to you.
I gave up magazines years ago due to the lack of articles, uncreative layout and flow, and the overabundance of advertisements. I turned page after page of exemplary communication, positive creative marketing and information overflowing.
I want to commend you and your staff for an extraordinary gift of journalism. Thank you for providing a truly professional piece of literature that I'll be able to page through for a while. I cannot wait until the next issue comes to my door.
STEPHANIE McCALL
GOLFER ALSO FOUND SUCCESS AS A CADDIE
To the Editor:
I came to Campbell College and played on the golf team for Coach Hargrove Davis in 1975. We were the first team to call Keith Hills our home course. It is interesting to read about the experiences of other Campbell golfers such as Duane Bock. We have one other thing in common. I was also a professional caddie.
A teammate, Bill Stafford, told me that caddies were needed for a LPGA Tour event at the country club where he was working in Raleigh in 1976. I signed up and drew rookie Mary Wolfe. At the end of the week, she offered me a job for the summer, so I hit the road. A few weeks later, I was fortunate to start working for a veteran, Debbie Austin and stayed with her until returning to Campbell for my final semester. Our first week together, she finished second. My plans after graduation in 1976 did not work out, so I continued working for Debbie all of 1977 and portions of 19781981. It proved to be beneficial. She had never won a LPGA Tour tournament but was able to break through and won five times in 1977. I was also with her when she won the first tournament of 1978.
Although my career wasn't as successful as Bock’s, what we have in common is our love of golf and our time at Campbell as a Fighting Camel.
RAY
RASH ('76)
Campbell University invests in each student. We prepare each one to make a life, to make a living and to make a difference. Our students are welcomed into an inclusive community of family, and mentored to become leaders who will impact the world. Inspired by our faith and belief in the power of education, we encourage each student to grow academically, spiritually and socially through the world of opportunities that surround them. Your career, your calling.
by Bennett Scarborough
A New Chapter
Dr. William Downs, Campbell University’s sixth president in its 138-year history, pledges ‘controlled urgency’ to carry out ‘ambitious, achievable plan’ for the future
His scarlet red tie supplanted by a crisp orange one, Dr. William Downs joked that his acclimation to all things Campbell had begun. His only fear — a nod to the recent AllState commercials where an oblivious Alabama fan shouts “High Tide” to a group of athletes getting off the bus — was flubbing his new university’s rally cry on the first day.
“I promise not to do anything that foolish,” Downs said at his first luncheon as Campbell’s next president — approved unanimously by the University’s Board of Trustees just hours earlier on Feb. 10 — before clearing his throat, pumping his fist and offering a confident “Roll Humps.”
The following day, Downs was officially introduced as just the sixth president in Campbell’s 138-year history at a press conference in Butler Chapel. The 13th president of Gardner-Webb University (he officially begins his tenure at Campbell on July 1), Downs will bring to Buies Creek 30 years of experience in higher education, with prior roles as a dean and professor of political science at East Carolina and professor and department chair at Georgia State.
He and wife Kimberly spent two whirlwind days in Buies Creek, meeting trustees, faculty and staff, students and other members of the Campbell community in between various speeches, luncheons and the aforementioned
press gathering. Toward the end of his campus introduction, Downs said he was surprised — in a very pleasant way — by the “sentiment of eagerness, hope and excitement” from everybody they met.
“The breadth of positivity and hope for the future here was rewarding and really buoyed my spirits,” he said. “Clearly the glass is half full for the students at Campbell University. It’s more than half full. They love being here, and they want to see it thrive.”
Downs will be the first Campbell president with prior experience in that role at another institution, and he got to know his predecessor, Dr. J. Bradley Creed, during Campbell’s stint through
Photo
2023 in the Big South Conference. Before the Fighting Camels’ departure to the Coastal Athletic Association, Campbell formed a friendly football rivalry with Gardner-Webb in the annual East-West BBQ Bowl, with the winner taking home a silver pig trophy.
When Campbell won the inaugural game in 2022, William and Kimberly Downs traveled to Buies Creek to serve the team barbecue as part of a bet payoff. “I’ve known Dr. Creed for almost six years … and I feel honored and privileged to succeed him,” Downs said. “His will be big shoes to fill.”
One thing Downs made clear in his messaging to the community — he’s ready to hit the ground running. He pledged “controlled urgency” and to have a plan from Day 1 and to execute his plan with a determined, but careful approach.
“I cannot wait to roll up my sleeves with you and make this the place that you want it to be,” he said. “I have studied as much as I can about Campbell University. I have absorbed the data; I have watched every YouTube video possible. I’m an up-tempo guy, and the moment I arrive on July 1, we’re going to get busy. I’m excited about that.”
Downs touted Campbell’s rich history and its strong sense of community and family. He said both he and his wife appreciate the university’s “foundation firmly rooted in faith” and its overall belief that a life of inquiry can coexist and complement a life of faith — “where compassion can complement conviction.”
During his six years at Gardner-Webb, Downs led the school — located in Boiling Springs, North Carolina — through the challenges brought on by
Newly chosen Campbell University
President Dr. William Downs introduced himself to students, faculty and staff and trustees Feb. 10-11 during a series of luncheons, dinners and social gatherings on Campbell's main campus. Having recently stepped down at Gardner-Webb, Downs will assume his new role on July 1.
the COVID pandemic. During that time, he implemented a five-year Strategic Plan for Growth and Excellence and oversaw the addition of several new undergraduate and graduate programs. Also during that time, Gardner-Webb made major capital additions and improvements to its dining facilities, outdoor performance area, resident halls, student health clinic, library and athletics facilities. In 2022, he was named one of Charlotte’s “Most Admired CEOs” by Charlotte Business Journal Downs, who resigned from his role at Gardner-Webb on Feb. 17 to focus on his transition at Campbell, asked for just one thing before he’s officially a Camel — an e-mail address. He anticipates sharing a lot of documents and taking part in a lot of Zoom calls between now and July 1.
“I come to Buies Creek with my eyes wide open, fully aware that our university — like most, if not all, universities — faces challenges,” he said. “But I come in with an overwhelming sense of confidence that Campbell’s best days are ahead of it … that we can build on our tradition of excellence while being nimble enough to grow, evolve and meet the needs of employers in a changing society.
“Our society needs more Campbell graduates. It needs more Campbell doctors, more Campbell pharmacists, engineers, educators, social scientists and more graduates who understand and appreciate the humanities, the natural sciences, business and more. It needs graduates who are ready not just for their career, but ready to lift up their community, society and the world.”
Downs pledged an “ambitious and achievable plan” for the future of Campbell, one that prioritizes student success and sharpens and strengthens the school’s identity. He said under his leadership, Campbell will be intentional and aggressive about marketing a strong Campbell brand.
Photos by Bennett Scarborough
“There will be no such thing as a bestkept secret,” he said. “There will be no such thing as a hidden gem. We will be an indispensable partner for this community. Our impact will be felt. We will bring our experts to the table when this community and this region have important conversations about public policy or about law.”
As William Downs spoke to the cameras toward the end of his Feb. 11 press conference, Kim Downs stood nearby and smiled as their busy 36-hour first impression came to a close. She said she was thrilled with the reception they received, adding that everyone seemed genuinely happy to meet them and speak to them.
She beamed as she shared the story of meeting a Gardner-Webb graduate (now a Campbell grad student) in the student union and breaking the news to her that they were coming to Buies Creek.
Atop the list of the many reasons she and her husband chose to come to Campbell is the opportunity to “return home,” she said. The two first met in Sunday School while elementary students in their hometown of Raleigh and started dating in high school. The parents of two adult children — Rachel is a 2018 graduate of the University of Georgia and earned her Doctor of Dental Medicine from ECU in 2023, and Bradley is a 2021 graduate of NC State who earned a Master of Public Administration from UNC in 2023 — the Downs said moving to the Triangle means being closer to them, as well as William’s 96-year-old father in Cary and Kim’s sisters in Cary and Raleigh.
“Family is so important to us, and we just know Campbell is going to be a place, like Gardner-Webb, with a wonderful family atmosphere,” she said. “Already, we just feel a connection here, and this just feels like the right step.”
— by Billy Liggett
DR. WILLIAM M. DOWNS was unanimously elected as the president of Campbell University on Feb. 10 at a special board of trustees meeting. He will become only the sixth president of the institution in its 138-year history.
A Raleigh native, Downs earned his bachelor's in political science from NC State University in 1988, and his master's and PhD degrees from Emory University in 1990 and 1994.
He spent 17 years as a member of the Georgia State University faculty and prior to becoming the 13th president of Gardner-Webb University in 2016, he served as dean of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, professor of political science and W. Keats Sparrow distinguished chair in liberal arts at ECU.
He is married to fellow Raleigh native, Kimberly Harwood Downs, an accomplished pharmacist. They are parents to two college graduates.
For the first time in Campbell's 138-year history, three presidents gathered in the same room on Feb. 11 during the press conference welcoming Dr. William Downs (center) as the University's sixth president. He was welcomed by No. 5, Dr. J. Bradley Creed (who will retire this summer) and No. 4, Dr. Jerry M. Wallace, who served until 2015. Photo by Bennett Scarborough
An eye, high in the sky
Engineering
students’ senior project looks to create video drone for skydivers
Skydiving was never on Dr. Kim Fowler’s bucket list — nor was it an activity he was particularly excited to take part in. But there he was in November, between 10,000 and 15,000 feet in the air, strapped to his instructor and a parachute.
Taking one for the team.
The reason for the big leap: Fowler, an associate professor with the School of Engineering, is responsible for the school’s Senior Design class and big projects his students present in their final year. This year, one of those projects is the design and construction of a drone that can survive a 15,000-foot drop from a plane and follow and track skydivers by video during their descent. Currently, video and photography during a jump is performed by another diver who has to worry about the camera, the shot and his or her parachute.
The drone will eliminate the need for that person. But there’s a reason drones like this aren’t already commonplace — it’s by no means an easy project.
“The idea originated over a meal with my father and my brother, Dirk Fowler, last Christmas,” says Kim Fowler. “Dirk was and is a skydiver and was explaining why current drones are unsuitable for video recording of skydivers. He and I quickly outlined a set of requirements for a specialized drone to do this autonomously. Over five or six months — outside of my time at Campbell — I refined those ideas.”
His brother formed a company, FemurRing Tech LLC, to focus on the drone development. That company funded the senior project for a team of Campbell engineering students, led by program manager Nathan Wallace, mechanical manager Julian Brickhouse and electrical manager Carson Daly, in addition to several students under each manager. Their Senior Design class began in August, and by December — just before the holiday break — the group had put together a detailed presentation and working models of a product that still has months of development ahead of it.
Campbell Engineering professor Dr. Kim Fowler, skydiving for the first time in November.
According to Fowler, Campbell’s engineering program strives to find industry sponsors for each senior project, and these sponsors bring industry problems for his students to solve. The sponsor then commits to meeting weekly, typically over Zoom, to discuss the project progress. Fowler says in the six years that the Senior Design class has run, they’ve had 17 different industry sponsors and 41 different projects (38 of them sponsored).
“This 93-percent level of sponsorship by industry is exceptionally high when compared to most university design classes,” he says. “Before I came to Campbell, I shepherded 65 team projects through senior design, and only five of those were sponsored by industry. This speaks to how much [Engineering Founding Dean] Dr. Jenna Carpenter and the faculty have developed industry connections over the years.”
Wallace says he was excited to take on this project heading into his senior year, but also skeptical. He knew this would be a completely new product and unlike any drone on the market today.
“This isn’t a drone that can be flown with a controller and from the ground,” he says. “This is something that’s being dropped from thousands of feet in the air, out of a plane, and with fully automated tracking as the diver descends. Determining how it will fly, how it will track and how we will keep in mind the safety of the diver and our drone has been the most challenging part so far.”
The baseline design of the drone is complete, and the team has built the body with all of its electrical components. This spring will involve a lot of testing and fine-tuning. Wallace hopes that by the end of the semester, before graduation, there will be a flight test out of an airplane.
“There are some additional features the sponsor wants like live streaming, but our
Campbell engineering students Carson Daly, Andrew Middleton and Julian Brickhouse (pictured with project sponsor Dirk Fowler) are the team leaders for the Senior Design class’ skydiving drone senior project. Not pictured: Project manager Nathan Wallace.
focus this year is getting it to a fully functional flight with tracking,” Wallace says. “If this project continues to next year’s class, I would definitely like to see what they come up with as well.”
He says his team has gained valuable experience from the project, from learning to budget (and stay on budget) to communication skills between team leaders and their overall team of 11. The entire group has gotten a taste of both electrical and mechanical engineering as well.
Wallace was not able to take part in the November skydive — he says he’s ready to do it the next time they go up — and while the drone wasn’t ready for testing on that day, the students got valuable information from their professor’s jump and safe landing.
“My students insisted that I go along,” he says, “ and my ego would not allow me to decline. Hence, the pictures of me sporting my orange Campbell sweatshirt and strapped to a skydiving instructor mid-air over Franklinton, North Carolina.
“But I enjoyed the entire experience, and would certainly do it again.”
— by Billy Liggett
The North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians honored DR. NICHOLAS PENNINGS with the 2024 Distinguished Family Physician Award, its most prestigious honor.
Pennings serves as chair of Family Medicine at the medical school, as well as an associate professor of Family Medicine and director of the Health Center. He is also executive director of Clinical Education for the Obesity Medicine Association.
“While his clinical acumen alone could warrant this award, Dr. Pennings’ greatest achievements come from molding the next generation of physicians, particularly family physicians,” said NCAFP Past President Dr. Garett Franklin.
was honored with the Carolinas Section PGA Professional Development Award for her significant contributions to the advancement of education for current and future PGA professionals.
The award recognizes developing and improving education opportunities for PGA professionals while making a lasting impact on their careers and the overall golf industry.
Last fall’s Campbell Giving Day reported a record 2,744 gifts from alumni, students, employees, parents and friends. It was the second year the event included a Wipe Out Hunger initiative, where students could donate spare meal swipes at Gaylord’s Kitchen to be used by their peers who most need them. There was also substantial donor support for the Fund for Campbell, which directly funds scholarships, campus upkeep, faculty support, flexible funding and more.
They’ve worn the title “Nobodies from Nowhere” proudly on their sleeves for years now, but in February, Campbell University’s baseball team finally put it on their jerseys. Donning special uniforms with “Nobodies” across the chest, Campbell took down nationally ranked Duke in an early season tilt, 9-6, proving they remain someone to reckon with in college baseball.
GABRIELLA STORY, director of PGA Golf Management in the School of Business,
DR. JOHN ROBERSON, Campbell’s executive VP and chief operating officer and a 1980 alumnus, announced he will step down from his administrative role at the end of the academic year in May to join the University’s faculty full time.
His professional career at Campbell began in 1989, where he served for seven years as assistant vice president for alumni relations and assistant to the president.
In 2008, he was named vice president for enrollment management and marketing and three years later was tapped to be vice president for enrollment management and assistant to the president. In 2013, he became the founding dean of Adult & Online Education. He was named executive vice president in 2016 and added the role of chief operating officer in 2023.
A national organization for health care professionals who specialize in hospice and palliative medicine recognized DR. CHRISTINE KHANDELWAL as an Emerging Leader.
Khandelwal, a professor in the School of Osteopathic Medicine, recently completed her term serving as president of the N.C. Medical Board and now serves as chair of Medicine for WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh — the first Osteopathic physician to serve in this role.
Help after Helene
Campbell alumni pharmacists from eastern North Carolina traveled west to assist in the recovery efforts after devastating Hurricane Helene
DRS. SONYA COBLE GODWIN and NETTIE WHEELER
EDWARDS, separately and with their teams, drove into western North Carolina. They saw what Hurricane Helene had done. The splintered roads and broken towns. The shattered lives and indescribable loss.
Coble Godwin and Edwards are pharmacists, graduates of the Campbell University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences — Coble Godwin in 1998, Wheeler Edwards in 1997. Both work for Walmart stores in eastern North Carolina.
Like so many others, they traveled to the western side of the state to help. To maybe help ease the pain. To offer hope. Together. Coble Godwin and Wheeler Edwards are sure to point that last part out.
“It's definitely a team approach going on up there,” says Wheeler Edwards, who helped people at Walmart stores in places such as Sylva, Franklin and Hendersonsville, all of which were affected, directly or indirectly, by the storm and unprecedented flooding.
“There was a good, team approach between all the pharmacies, not just Walmart. … Even the ones that couldn’t get back open in time to help their customers, were definitely in there trying to help us get the information that we needed to get the patients their medicine. I was
A bridge in Ashford, North Carolina, wiped out by flooding brought on by Hurricane Helene, which caused nearly $60 billion in damage in North Carolina alone, damaged more than 73,000 homes and killed nearly 100 people. Photo: N.C. Dept. of Transportation
just amazed at how many people were coming together … to just help each other.”
Pharmacists from stores and schools throughout the region worked in the affected stores, filling and delivering prescriptions or offering vaccines. Relieving store staff who had lost power and running water to those whose homes were damaged or lost.
Helping people.
The Fighting Camel LACROSSE TEAM hosted an exhibition game in February at Barker-Lane Stadium against NeO Japan, a Japanese women's lacrosse club that competes all over the world and provides training opportunity for members of the country's national team. For Campbell, the game provided a warm-up for its 15-game regular season that began on Feb. 11 (a win against UNC Charlotte).
Campbell moved up 70 spots to 84th in the nation (out of 300+ schools) in the BEST FOR VETS 2024 RANKING, an annual ranking released in February by Military Times. The ranking looks at services available to veterans and practical information that will help them make decisions about their career planning and how to use the education benefits they earned through military service.
The Hendersonville Walmart, where Wheeler Edwards worked while in western North Carolina, typically distributes between 500 and 600 prescriptions per day, she said. Wheeler Edwards arrived with a pharmacy technician, and they worked from 10 a.m. until long after 6 that evening.
“It was a surreal experience,” she said. “The pharmacists and technicians all had been working extra hours since the hurricane. Some of them had trees on their houses, and some still had not gotten water back, but they were all at work ready to help their patients. And they were so appreciative of any help we could give them.”
She greeted people with a simple, familiar question — how are you? The answers were sometimes honest yet heart-breaking, though often with a faint tinge of hope.
Coble Godwin and Wheeler Edwards told stories about selfless efforts. Simple kindness. Barbecues set up in parking lots to feed residents. A radio station taking calls from people looking for specific help, such as someone to pick up the piling trash from a nursing home. A man from Florida who came to North Carolina to help, even though Hurricane Milton had damaged the roof on his own home.
Coble Godwin talked about the long lines of people waiting for medication to replace everything they had lost in the storm. She talked about pharmacists without power or running water showing up for work.
To do their jobs. To help.
Customers and patients, according Wheeler Edwards, would say, “‘I lost my house, but I'm thankful I’m still alive.”
— JOHN F. TRUMP
DR. DAVID TILLMAN and CHARISSA ENGLISH were recipients of the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences’ Orange Pen Award, given to the College’s faculty and staff who embody the Campbell spirit by going above and beyond to coach, recognize and fill needs within the community. Tillman is chair of the Department of Public Health, and English is the DPT program coordinator.
‘It
takes courage’
Office of Spiritual Life officially dedicates prayer book written by students and staff for the Campbell community
AFTER A YEAR OF REFLECTION and journaling, planning and prayer, a book funded by The Calvin Institute’s Vital Worship Grant and produced by Campbell University’s Office of Spiritual Life is ready for the public.
“Hear Our Prayer: Prayers, Liturgies and Reflections for Campbell University” was dedicated in Butler Chapel in February during a ceremony attended by the many students, faculty and staff who played a role in putting it together. The book — a gathering of voices that both “voice the lived realities, needs, rhythms, confessions and celebrations of the Campbell community” and “affirm and echo [Campbell’s] identity as a place of Christian higher education” — is more than 100 pages of works divided into four sections: “Be Loved,” “Belong,” “Be Known” and “Become.”
“This book, we hoped, would be a living document,” Campus Minister Rev. Louisa Ward (pictured) said. “When we submitted our grant [application], we said, ‘This has got to be alive.’ It has to be relevant. It has to stay with purpose for our students, but also speak the words of our students, faculty and staff. That is what you find here, and that is what will move us through our worship time together.”
“Hear Our Prayer” was inspired by a public prayer book that for six years sat at the bottom of the Dinah E. Gore Bell Tower. The pages provided a snapshot of those six years — natural disasters, world events, presidential elections and a global pandemic were all represented in the written prayers. Others sought guidance in their academic pursuits, personal relationships and mental health.
“There is great love and joy, celebration and happiness,” Ward said. “There’s profound grief, pain and hurt. It takes great courage to pray. And it certainly takes great courage to write your prayers down, knowing that anybody can read them.”
Campbell Law School Dean J. RICH LEONARD’s book, “The Grandma Stories,” was published through Lawyers Mutual Consulting & Services Press. “This is a quirky set of stories set on my grandparents’ Davie County dairy farm decades ago,” Leonard said. “It grew out of bedtime stories I told my children over the years, which they labeled ‘The Grandma Stories.’”
Rev. Louisa Ward, campus minister
ON CAMPUS
Character, initiative and calling
New hallmarks initiative will focus on ‘character education’ and call on faculty to better incorporate these characteristics into their curriculum
Campbell University is one of 29 colleges and universities to receive an Institutional Impact Grant from Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative in an effort to enable institutional leaders, faculty and staff to “infuse character in undergraduate curricula and programming in ways that align with mission, context and culture.”
Campbell University will receive up to $431,000 from the overall $15.6 million grant — funded through the support of Lilly Endowment Inc. and Wake Forest — to create “a distinct undergraduate learning experience at Campbell that integrates the hallmarks of character, initiative and calling.”
Core goals of the project at Campbell will include:
• Embedding those hallmarks strategically in curricular programming,
• Providing learning opportunities and resources on character education for faculty and staff,
• Establishing an office that supports work on the hallmarks of character, initiative and calling, and
• Articulating the hallmarks consistently to describe and embody the mission of Campbell University, thereby integrating them into the school’s culture.
Campbell's two newest coaches got their first wins in February — softball
and former
up her
Amanda
with a 5-4
CHRIS MARX, a longtime assistant for Justin
got his first win as baseball head coach, also at home, 3-2 over in-state rival East Carolina. Both teams will by vying for a CAA title and trip to the NCAA tournaments this summer.
Campbell's Adult & Online Education ranked among the Top 20 percent of schools in the nation for its ONLINE BACHELOR’S PROGRAM, according to the latest rankings released by U.S. News & World Report. Campbell ranks No. 75 (tie) for “Best Online Bachelor’s in Business Programs” out of 351 programs and No. 41 overall in “Best Online Bachelor’s Programs for Veterans,” a jump in multiple spots.
head coach
Olympian EMILY CAROSONE picked
first win at
Littlejohn Stadium
victory over Kent State.
Haire,
The project at Campbell is led by Rev. Faithe Beam, vice president for student life and Christian mission, and Borree Kwok, associate provost for administration and academic success.
“Those hallmarks of character, initiative and calling are what distinguish the educational experience for students at Campbell University,” said Beam. “These three hallmarks came out of conversations across our campus community over the course of the last 18 months. This is how our faculty, staff and students have described their experience at Campbell, and we needed to use a shared language when we discuss those experiences.”
Beam and Kwok said they’ve been laying the foundation for the integration of the hallmarks at Campbell since last spring. Invitations were extended to undergraduate faculty to become “early adopters” and incorporate character, initiative and calling into their instruction. Student Life and Athletics participated in workshops, and faculty and staff were surveyed to describe their plans for implementation.
“For some of our professors, it’s less about changing their approach and more about honing in and better articulating what they’re already doing,” Beam said. “I think a lot of what came through in our research is that faculty are already incorporating concepts of what character looks like, especially in some of our professional programs. So, we’re developing a shared language so
that it helps students connect the dots that what they’re learning in English about character and learning in engineering about integrity is more impactful.”
A substantial part of the grant will be focused on curriculum design and supporting faculty in the classroom. Campbell now offers retreats with up to 50 participants in the first year and up to 120 in the second year. The anticipated number of participants will make up approximately 33 percent of the total faculty, “potentially providing a significant impact on the institutional culture in character education,” according to Kwok.
Another significant portion of the grant will go toward the creation of a digital portfolio website for students to capture and reflect on their experiences. A director position and a graduate assistant will be added to oversee the digital portfolio program with the goal of permanently including it as a capstone of the Campbell University education, potentially impacting all undergraduates.
“It’s my hope that at Campbell, students can talk about how they have explored their character and strengthened it as a result of their experiences here,” Beam said. “I hope they will be able to talk about their time here as one that was both informative and transformative as a result of the hallmarks.
— BILLY LIGGETT
In her compelling new book, “Doctors Work in Air Conditioning: An Intimate look at Southern Culture and the Challenges of Rural Medicine,” School of Medicine Pediatric Chair DR. LORI LANGDON pulls from almost 30 years’ experience as a rural pediatrician, telling stories of her childhood through finding a place in academia.
The autobiographical book, released in February, explores the challenges of rural medicine and the persistent health care disparities for pediatric patients in rural areas. Peppered with “Langdon Laws,” it recounts her journey through life, from working tobacco fields as a child, a sometimes violent father, an unsettling experience with a family church and her academic prowess and scholarships.
A new masterclass article by a diverse group of Campbell professors explores the concept of spirituality and its potential effects on health. “Integrating spirituality into physical therapy” appears in the current issue of Archives in Physiotherapy DR. ALESSANDRA NARCISO GARCIA TREPTE, an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, is the lead author.
A trio of professors — DRS. AMY HINKELMAN, DAVID TILLMAN AND ADAM ENGLISH — earned a $60,000 Faith and Health Campus Grant through Interfaith America. The grant builds on several years of connections through community health outreach and partnerships with faith, tribal and other communities. The proposal was named, “Integrating Interfaith Competency Training at Campbell University while Building Sustainable Community Partnerships to Address Health Issues.”
DR. BARRY JONES will be the next dean of Campbell University Divinity School — beginning June 1 — and will succeed longtime dean Dr. Andy Wakefield, who will return to the Divinity faculty next summer.
Jones joined Campbell’s faculty in 2000 after earning his undergraduate degree from Campbell and graduate degrees from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Duke. He previously taught at Mars Hill University and was pastor of Park View Baptist Church in Durham.
Dr. Michelle Flynn Osborne heads Campbell's new Risk Management Institute, aimed at cultivating the next generation of leaders in the insurance and risk management field. Osborne, a Campbell MBA graduate, is the former chief deputy commissioner for the North Carolina Department of Insurance.
‘Poised to make an impact’
Launch of Business School’s new Risk Management Institute will train new generation of leaders in aging insurance, risk industry
Dr. Michelle Flynn Osborne saw firsthand how lack of insurance can exacerbate the already tragic events that require unexpected assistance. A college student at the time, Osborne’s boyfriend was killed in a car accident, and his parents’ grief was worsened by hospital bills, accident expenses and his funeral.
Just 22 at the time, Osborne — a music major who saw little future in it because of her stage fright — decided she didn’t want her family to be further burdened should tragedy strike, so she made the very adult decision to buy life insurance. Struck by her maturity, the agent asked Osborne if she would be interested in a career in the insurance field, starting with door-to-door sales and cold calls. She would go on to excel in the field, ultimately leading to the position of chief deputy commissioner for the North Carolina Department of Insurance under Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey. Osborne shared this story on Jan. 28 in front of a full auditorium in the LundyFetterman School of Business to celebrate a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Campbell University’s Risk Management Institute (RMI) and the new room down the hall that will house it. Led by Osborne, a Campbell MBA graduate and current associate professor and department chair for business administration and economics, the institute — thanks to $2.5 million in funding from the General
Assembly — will aim to “cultivate the next generation of risk management leaders” in the insurance field and strive to become a resource for the state office Osborne once helped lead.
“The insurance industry is in need of new, young employees, because it’s an industry where more than half of the workforce is set to retire in the next few years,” Osborne said. “Students don’t realize the great opportunities in a career in risk management or the insurance industry. You make a good living, and you get to truly help people.”
Undergraduate business students at Campbell can take student risk management as a concentration in any of the school’s nine majors. Graduate students can select risk management as part of their MBA curriculum, both in-person and online. According to Osborne, Campbell’s RMI offers hands-on mentoring from industry veterans, valuable internship opportunities, professional licensing preparation and global exposure through overseas travel programs.
Photo by Bennett Scarborough
The remodeled area that will house the RMI includes a large meeting room, a smaller study area and a podcast room. Roughly 25 undergraduate students are currently taking Osborne’s risk management class, and nearly 50 graduate students have signed up for the course in the MBA program. Those numbers are expected to grow as the program grows.
“We’re not just teaching insurance. We’re studying cyber security. We’re studying AI. Statistics,” Osborne said. “There’s constant reading up and studying what’s new in the industry and what’s new in the world.”
The launch of the program comes just months after one of the biggest natural disasters in North Carolina’s history, Hurricane Helene, which killed nearly 100 people and caused almost $60 billion in damage in the state alone. More than 70,000 homes were damaged in the western part of the state by catastrophic flooding, landslides and fallen trees. A report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency stated nearly 93 percent of the flooddamage homes verified by FEMA lacked flood insurance.
Dr. Kevin O’Mara, dean of the School of Business, called the RMI just one in a long line of unique and relevant majors and initiatives at Campbell, joining the trust and wealth management program, the Center for Financial Literacy, student-run investment funds and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program that offers free tax preparation for Harnett County residents.
“We have quite a bit of focus in the financial service industry already, and now we are adding the Risk Management Institute, which will be offering incredible experiences, internships and career opportunities for our students, qualified graduates for the industry and assistance to the State of North Carolina’s reputation as a national leader
in insurance,” O’Mara said. “Dr. Osborne has a passion for her students. She has an enthusiasm for this program, a desire to partner with the industry that she’s so proud of and a commitment to help her state. We cannot wait to see what she will do for our students, the industry and the community.”
Leaders from the industry were present at the Jan. 28 ceremony, as were state representatives from the General Assembly and North Carolina Department of Insurance. Causey delivered a message via video saying he believed Campbell was “poised to make a significant impact” on the state,” and State Sen. Jim Burgin — who led the charge to get grants approved for programs at Campbell and Fayetteville State University — said the program wouldn’t have been possible without Osborne’s vision.
“She has the knowledge and connections to pull people together, and if you’ve ever been to one of her classes, you’ve seen her enthusiasm,” Burgin said. “The professors I learned the most from in college were the people who had actually done the job I wanted to do. That experience is invaluable.”
— BILLY LIGGETT
Students taking courses affiliated with Campbell's new Risk Management Institute were on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating new space dedicated to the RMI at Lundy-Fetterman School of Business on Jan. 28.
DEPENDABLE CAREERS IN RISK MANAGEMENT
Campbell's Risk Management Institute says its graduates emerge "ready to make an immediate impact in the insurance and risk management sector, backed by a powerful network of industry connections and comprehensive practical experience."
Risk management courses can be integrated into any of the School of Business' nine majors, and a risk management concentration is available for Campbell's in-person or online MBA graduate students.
business.campbell.edu
Shannon Hanna and Levi Hopkins (both grad students) each qualified for their third trip to the NCAA Wrestling Championships with their performances at the Southern Conference Wrestling Championship in March, and sophomore Wynton Denkins was selected as an at-large qualifier after notching 32 wins this season (second in the nation). The Campbell wrestling program earned a share of the Southern Conference title this year.
Amani Hamiel and Cole Jones
Campbell's 2024 Homecoming Queen and King respectively in October. Hamiel is a senior clinical research major from Newport News, Virginia, who wants to one day work in pediatric pharmaceuticals. Jones is a campus leader, heavily involved in Ransom, a ministry that "strives to provide an open community that is comfortable and relatable” for students.
Photo by Bennett Scarborough
Rediscovered purpose
Anson Correctional Instituion becomes second prison in North Carolina to graduate students through Campbell University's Second Chance Initiative
BY BILLY LIGGETT
Anita Barton sat with a smile, tears still glistening in her eyes, as she shared the big moment with her aunt and uncle in a post-graduation celebration that felt like any other, aside from the guards who monitored the scene close by.
Wearing a black cap and gown with orange tassel — a welcome reprieve from the purple and gray prison uniforms worn by those incarcerated at Anson Correctional Institution — Barton called earning her associate of science degree from Campbell University a “privilege” and perhaps the biggest milestone in her 59 years.
“Today allows me to look at my future with hope,” she said. “It was an answer to my prayers that came long before I knew this was even possible. It’s a second chance, and I will do everything I can to pay it forward.”
Barton was one of 16 to earn their two-year degree during the Jan. 17 commencement ceremony at Anson Correctional, a medium custody prison for women launched by the state in 2019. Anson, along with Sampson Correctional Institution in Clinton, is one of two prisons taking part in Campbell’s Second Chance Initiative, which is actively working to bring more
education opportunities to correctional facilities throughout North Carolina.
While Sampson has now seen three commencement ceremonies to date, this was the first for Anson and its students, some of whom could be released within the next year, while others (like Barton) still have at least another 15 years of incarceration.
“Your journeys have been filled with difficulties,” Campbell President Dr. J. Bradley Creed told the graduates, referencing the University’s motto, ad astra per aspera, ‘to the stars, through difficulties.’ “But restoration is a primary
theme in Judeo Christian theology, offering hope when there is no hope. Our unified prayer and hope for this program was for it to lead to restoration, and its students to lives of meaningful service.
“Today is a new day for you, and you’ll never be the same again.”
Campbell introduced the Second Chance Initiative at Anson in January 2023, placing an emphasis on preparing students for admission into a bachelor’s degree program that will help them meet their post-prison educational and career objectives. Threaded throughout the program is an emphasis on providing academic rigor, faith development, critical thinking, writing, math and other life skills.
Two of the 16 graduates were inducted into the Alpha Gamma Sigma honor society for adult learners. One of them was Tremayne
Izzard, president of the class’ student council who was chosen as commencement speaker for the ceremony.
“I found it intriguing at this moment, there are two things I never thought I’d say about myself,” Izzard said. “One, that I’d be a resident of a prison. And the other, that I’d be a Camel.”
Not just a Camel, but a Fighting Camel. An important distinction, as camels aren’t exactly known for their fight.
“There are many preconceived notions of who we are,” Izzard said. [Through Campbell], we’ve rediscovered our value, rediscovered our self worth and rediscovered our purpose. Education is empowering and humanizing.”
BEYOND BARS
— BILLY LIGGETT
PRISON INITIATIVE EARNS STATEWIDE EDUCATION AWARD
Campbell University’s Second Chance Initiative earned a myFutureNC Champions for Attainment award on Feb. 20 for its prison education programs at correctional institutions in Clinton and Polkton. The distinction is given to individuals and organizations “demonstrating outstanding dedication to expanding access, success, and completion for adult learners across North Carolina.”
Campbell’s Second Chance Initiative, launched in 2021, affords incarcerated individuals a chance to earn associate and bachelor’s degrees in high-demand fields like substance abuse counseling. The program aims to lower recidivism rates in North Carolina prisons, which was at approximately 40 percent in 2023.
In a video presentation of the award, Wesley Lee, a member of Sampson Correctional Institution’s inaugural class in 2023, said the program meant a lot to him, because he felt like Campbell and its professors didn’t give up on him.
Sixteen students from Anson Correctional Institution — a medium security prison for women — on the southern edge of North Carolina celebrated their commencement ceremony on Jan. 17. Photos by Bennett Scarborough
Engineering students and faculty and staff from programs that once called Carrie Rich Memorial Hall home gathered on Jan. 29 to celebrate the 100th birthday of a building that's served many purposes since 1925.
Photo by Evan Budrovich
HISTORY
From books to cadavers to rovers
Carrie Rich Memorial Hall has served Campbell well in its 100 years as a library, health science program incubator and now home for the School of Engineering
BY BILLY LIGGETT
If you are one to believe legends, then Carrie Rich Memorial Hall got off to an inauspicious start when it opened 100 years ago this spring in 1925. A monument to the late wife of D. Rich — a longtime treasurer for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and a strong advocate for the still fledgling Campbell Junior College in the early 20s — the building wasn’t completed until months after his sudden death the prior October.
The school still invited Rich’s second wife (now widow) for the opening ceremony. She arrived in Buies Creek thinking the building was built in her honor. She was mistaken.
Whether she made a scene upon hearing the news or took it all in stride is unknown, nor is there proof that there was a misunderstanding to begin with. What is known is that 100 years later, Carrie Rich Memorial Hall is a survivor. And she’s proof that you can, indeed, teach an old dog new tricks.
For its first 85 years, Carrie Rich was Campbell’s library, “as flawless and beautiful as was the character of the woman in whose memory it was given,” Creek Pebbles editor Nancy Shearin wrote in 1957. But in 2010, when all the books and archives were moved to the more spacious building next to Kivett Hall where the law school once stood, Carrie Rich offered something all institutions of higher learning need.
Room to grow.
And it didn’t take long for her to find another purpose. In 2011, major renovations led to a 40-seat lecture hall, six offices, exam rooms, study rooms and a large student lounge all to house Campbell University’s new physician assistant program while the school went to work on a health sciences campus just up the road. Three years later, when PA moved to the Leon Levine Hall of Medical Sciences, physical therapy took its place at Carrie Rich — eventually joined by the first faculty for the Catherine W. Wood School of Nursing — while their building was under construction.
So when Campbell announced a School of Engineering would launch in 2016, Carrie Rich was again ready to serve. A fabrication facility, new large classroom, 3D printing lab and study lounge were added over the next few years, allowing Engineering to grow into the renowned program that it is today.
Founding Dean Dr. Jenna Carpenter, to kick off the year-long celebration of her school’s first decade, led a 100th birthday party for Carrie Rich on Jan. 29 that included balloons, cake and stories told by representatives of all
the programs that got their start in the now century-old building.
In retelling the history to the students and faculty who gathered to celebrate, Carpenter again quoted Shearin to say, “We realize with great pride that [Carrie Rich] represents more than money, stone and labor. It stands as an immortal symbol of the concepts of higher education found at Campbell.
“It is ours now, and its true value will be determined by us.”
Construction was well under way on Carrie Rich Memorial Hall in the summer of 1924 when D. Rich paid a visit to campus to see its progress. He was upset to find that different stones were used above the entrance where the name of his wife would appear. The first stone read “C-A-R” and the second “R-I-E,” with an unsightly seam in the middle. According to lore, “since his wife had been a perfect woman, he could not tolerate the seam in her name on the stone. So they had to do it all over again ... with some difficulty, apparently.”
(Above) Carrie Rich Memorial Hall as it looked in its first year in 1925 (note the barbed wire fence in the foreground).
(Above Right) Commencement representatives gather for a photo in front of the then-new Carrie Rich in 1926, the year Buies Creek Academy became Campbell Junior College.
While Campbell Junior College founder and then president J.A. Campbell was “vehemently” against tobacco use among his students and on his campus, he found a close friend in the man who ran the books for Winston-Salem-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.
The two met through a mutual friend, Baptist minister Fred Day, and D. Rich had already given the school $60,000 to build Carrie Rich Memorial when on Sept. 26, 1923, while staying at Campbell’s home, he had a revelation during a sleepless night.
Rich shared the next morning that God told him, “Buies Creek must live.”
“If I put up a building and you teach boys and girls,” Rich asked Campbell, “do you think God will let me share in the privilege of educating them?” At chapel the next day, he told the students the first thing he would do when he got back to Winston-Salem was change his will to benefit the school.
Rich died 13 months later.
Upon his death, Campbell received $160,000 to build what is now the D. Rich Building, home of classrooms, offices and the Hobson Performance Center. In all, Rich gave the school more than $400,000, which paved the way for Campbell to become a junior college, earn accreditation and join the Baptist State Convention. It also funded Campbell’s first gymnasium, the predecessor to Carter Gym 20 years later.
But the first seed of D. Rich’s epiphany to blossom was the library. And for 85 years, it remained the library that saw Campbell grow from a junior college to a college and eventually a university.
At the Jan. 29 centennial celebration, current Dean of the Library Sarah Steele shared that her association with Carrie Rich goes far deeper than that library connection. Holding up a Creek Pebbles photo from 1936, Steele pointed to her grandfather, who was shown studying with classmates inside Carrie Rich. She said that while the campus was co-ed from the beginning in 1887, male and female students were largely discouraged from being
“The most salient landmarks which I feel have been most conducive in broadening my horizons and paving the way toward my complete intellectual stimulation are the following: the Statue of Liberty, Grandfather Mountain, the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum and Carrie Rich Memorial Library.”
ANONYMOUS
“A MOSAIC OF MEMORIES,” COMPILED BY WILLIAM P. TUCK, 1986
together unsupervised, even into the 1930s. Inside the library, study areas were split by gender, and female students could only be there in groups and had to sign in and out between 7 and 9 p.m.
D“Truly, I felt like a queen among the stacks of Carrie Rich Memorial Library; I was at home there. I certainly didn't read all the books I checked out, but I do believe that I checked out more books than any student ever did. When Mr. McGirt was looking at books on Sinclair Lewis or some such American author, he remarked that I had checked out all of them.”
ANONYMOUS
“A MOSAIC OF MEMORIES,” COMPILED BY WILLIAM P. TUCK, 1986
“You see the beautiful lamp posts outside of the entrance; apparently when you were courting someone, the boy and girl would have to have a chaperone. The lamppost was where the courting would take place, while the chaperone stood nearby,” said Steele, who first joined the Campbell in 2008 and — 75 years after her grandfather’s time on campus — was part of the team that oversaw the library’s transition to Wiggins Memorial.
r. Mark Hammond was the new provost and vice president for academic affairs when Carrie Rich was transformed to house Campbell’s new health sciences programs. He said the law school’s move from Buies Creek to downtown Raleigh in 2009 was instrumental in making room for those programs to come in and grow while larger facilities were built.
“For the first time, we had swing space, meaning we had someplace where we could put people,” he said. “It’s tough to do that when you’re locked in and have nowhere to renovate or shift things around.”
When Campbell launched its physician assistant program in 2011, it needed what any medical program needed to properly teach its students anatomy — cadavers. Carrie Rich Memorial Hall had been a library for the previous 85 years, so of course it didn't have proper humidity and temperature controls or proper ventilation to house them. The answer was two plastinated cadavers — affectionately dubbed Fred and Wilma. Though still real human bodies, plastinated cadavers don't need the same requirements for proper storage and last longer. “Those were interesting conversations at the beginning,” said former Provost Dr. Mark Hammond. “But the decision to start that program was transformational to Campbell, and housing those cadavers only added to the legacy of Carrie Rich Memorial Hall.”
When the new physician assistant program arrived in 2011, Carrie Rich was practically gutted to make way for a large classroom, new offices, exam rooms where students can practice and other study and lab areas.
PA, physical therapy, medicine and nursing all got their start in Carrie Rich, and while the building lacked a lot of the features that can now be found on Campbell’s health sciences campus, it was a great place to get those programs started, said Dr. Michelle Green, assistant director for the DPT program.
“Carrie Rich was not designed as a perfect space for physical therapy education,” she said, “but it ended up being a perfect space to build a culture of adaptability and instill a sense of problem solving for our faculty and students.”
The success of those health science programs gave Campbell the skins and the confidence in 2016 to launch engineering, a program that Hammond
(Left) Campbell's second president, Leslie Campbell, breaks ground on the Carrie Rich Memorial Hall annex (more than doubling the building's size) in 1966. (Right) Third president Norman A. Wiggins looks through the catalogue with a student in the 1970s.
said was sorely missing and one whose absence kept a lot of students from coming to Campbell prior to 2016. And while Engineering has added an annex on the north end of campus for much of its lab work, Carrie Rich is still home and continues to see renovations and improvements well into its 100th year.
“Looking back, we have successfully built a program where our graduates are in high demand by industry, with 158 engineers graduated to date,” Carpenter said. “[Ten years ago], when were laying out our philosophy, our guiding principles and and the overall curriculum, we were also planning the renovation of Carrie Rich Hall so it would align with our educational focus. It’s been a lot of work and a lot of fun. I couldn’t be more
proud of what our team has accomplished.”
Hammond, now the associate dean for strategic initiatives and innovation at the medical school, said he holds a special affinity for Carrie Rich, and he likes to say it’s a building that’s gone from books to cadavers to lunar rovers (Engineering has competed for the last five years in NASA’s Mars Rover challenge) during its 100 years.
“It’s been a phenomenal process and has represented the evolution of our academic programs and what this University is,” Hammond said. “And I thank Dr. Carpenter for making my dream [of bringing engineering to Campbell] so real and doing such a phenomenal job with her program and with this building.”
assistant
and engineering
have called Carrie Rich Memorial Hall their home since 2011 when the library moved a few buildings down next to Kivett Hall. Engineering will celebrate its 10th anniversary at Campbell in the coming months, coinciding with the 100th birthday of its building.
Physician
(top), physical therapy (left)
(right)
Nicole El-Khoury is a first-year medical student at Campbell University's Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine and a graduate of Campbell's Master of Science in Biomedical Science program. Photo by Ben Brown
HOME ALL PATHS LEAD
Nicole El-Khoury's father has served the rural North Carolina towns of Ahoskie and Aulander as a family physician for nearly 20 years. A first-year medical student at Campbell, Nicole is close to achieving her dream of one day working by his side.
BY BILLY LIGGETT
The windows are tinted with 15 years worth of dirt, grime and abandonment, so Nicole El-Khoury has to cup her hands over her eyes to see inside the small white concrete building where it all started.
“That’s the lobby,” she says, squinting to recognize the now moldy, water-damaged objects in the dark. “It’s crazy to see it … nothing’s been touched since he left.”
The same could be said for the buildings that surround her father’s old family medical clinic in the mostly neglected one-stoplight town of Aulander in northeast North Carolina.
The small building that housed Nicole El-Khoury's family practice in downtown Aulander, North Carolina, before the family built a larger facility three miles away near Ahoskie.
The corner pharmacy where her father would send his patients (and where Nicole would grab strawberry sodas with her best friend Tori, a daughter of one of the nurses) looks more like a storage unit today with plywood covering most of its windows.
The once-bustling hardware store across from the clinic sits empty, save for a few birds seeking shelter from the wind on this cold, blustery January day.
“It takes someone growing up in an area like this to fully understand the community and its struggles, because it's not easy. But these people are my family, and I want to be here for them.”
NICOLE EL-KHOURY ON SEEKING A CAREER IN RURAL MEDICINE
More than 1,200 people called Aulander home in 1996, the year a young Lebanese physician, Dr. Semaan El-Khoury, moved his new family to North Carolina by way of Virginia to work for Dr. Fred Saunders, whose father first opened the small clinic in 1958. Today — in a state that has seen considerable population growth just about everywhere else — the population is nearly half that. And it’s falling.
“It makes me sad, in a way,” Nicole says, looking at the buildings that house so many childhood memories. “But it also makes me proud — it makes me want to work hard to continue what my father started.”
A first-year student at Campbell University’s Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine, Nicole is preparing herself to do just that, because despite the exodus of people and businesses nearby, Aulander Medical Practice remains. Now housed in a newer, larger building three miles to the northeast of where it all started (between Aulander and Ahoskie, another town
Nicole El-Khoury walks through downtown Ahoskie, a town of just over 5,000 people just a few miles east of her family's medical practice in Aulander. Photo by Billy Liggett
largely forgotten by progress), the clinic and urgent care sees patients from Hertford, Bertie and their surrounding rural counties near the Virginia border, some driving an hour or more to be treated.
Her path hasn’t been easy — a few years ago, medical school didn’t feel like a reality. But like the region she grew up in, Nicole has shown grit.
“This goal … it’s what got me through really tough times. It’s what inspired me to push through,” she says. “My parents emulate resilience. I think that’s where I get it from.”
Ahoskie’s nickname — proudly displayed on its water tower visible from the town’s main strip — is “The Only One,” as there are no other cities or towns in the world that share the name, derived from the Wyanoke Indian word for horse, “Ahots.”
The tower is just one of the “sights” that Nicole points out while providing a tour of the town where she grew up. There’s the small private school she attended from kindergarten through her senior year (Ridgecroft, home of the Rams), the Gallery Theater downtown where she performed in a few plays and musicals, the former Limelight Theater where she caught movies with her friends and the recently built Walmart on the southeast end of town where “most of the action is,” economically speaking.
“I feel like I know just about everybody here,” she says, moments later recognizing a couple of men working on farm equipment just off the state highway. “It’s nice, you know? Bumping into people you know … familiar faces and longtime friends. I could probably show up at my old high school tomorrow and go see my old teachers, and nobody would think it’s weird. There’s a restaurant my family goes to every Friday, and I can just walk back into the kitchen and say ‘hi’ to the owner. I can just make myself at home.”
Ahoskie holds a special place in Nicole’s heart, which is why her goal of one day returning to practice medicine and continue her father’s work is so strong. But there’s more to her dream than familiarity.
There’s a dire need for health professionals like her.
Ahoskie may be unique in name, but it’s very much the norm among the rural towns and small cities in the northeast region of North Carolina that are struggling economically and declining population-wise.
In fact, Hertford County (home to Ashokie, Aulander and small towns like Winton and Murfreesboro), saw the largest drop in population (12.9 percent) in North Carolina from 2020 to 2023, more than doubling the decline of its neighbor, Bertie County (6 percent).
Hertford County, home to Ahoskie and Aulander, saw the largest drop in population in North Carolina from 20202023, losing 12.9 percent of its residents in that span.
Photos by Billy Liggett
Northampton, Halifax, Washington and Martin counties round out the Top 6 in population loss; all either border or are a county away from Hertford.
Not coincidentally, when it comes to health outcomes, these same counties are near the bottom of just about every ranking in the state. Hertford ranks 84th, Bertie 89th and nearby Halifax and Edgecombe counties are 97th and 99th respectively (out of 100) in health lists that take into account life expectancy, infant mortality rates, diabetes, mental stress, smoking, obesity and teenage pregnancies.
And not surprisingly, the region lacks primary care physicians to meet the region’s health care needs. According to 2023 numbers provided by the North Carolina Health Professions Data System, only 62 counties in the state have at least one primary care provider per 1,500 of the population. Between Northampton and Gates counties — Hertford’s neighbors to the east and west with a combined 27,0000 people — the state lists only four primary care physicians.
Students like Nicole — those not only willing to but passionate about serving in rural areas that are medically underserved — are the dream for Campbell’s School of Osteopathic Medicine, which ranks second in the nation for the percentage of graduates practicing in health professional shortage areas.
For about as long as she could walk, Nicole El-Khoury has been helping out at her father's family health clinic in Aulander, North Carolina. Now a first-year Campbell med school student, Nicole hopes to soon return to the clinic as a licensed doctor.
Leigh Ann Martin remembers a much younger, noless-determined Nicole running in and out of offices and “helping” her dad run his clinic as a 2-year-old back when the El-Khoury family first moved to Hertford County in 1997. Nicole remembers the scratch-andsniff stickers Martin gave her on each visit. When she was old enough, Nicole helped out by handling patient charts, back before the office went completely digital.
Back then, Martin was the secretary for the small white-brick clinic in downtown Aulander. Twenty years later, she’s the clinic manager for the larger office just outside of Aulander, built in 2011 and added onto in 2016. And just like in 1997, she loves it when Nicole comes by to help out.
“Family has always been important here,” Martin says. “I see it in how dedicated her father has been. To come to a small town like this and be willing to stay as long as he has — he’s dedicated to this area, and he’s dedicated to his patients. I know Nicole will have that same dedication.”
Just getting to this point — a first-year student in medical school — has required dedication and perseverance for Nicole El-Khoury. She attended East Carolina University — about an hour south from Ridgecroft High School — and earned her Bachelor of Science in Exercise Physiology degree in 2018. The only thing standing between her and her dream of following in her father’s footsteps was the MCAT, test required by all medical schools in North America to be even be considered for admission.
U.S. News & World Reports’ latest rankings show nearly 47 percent of Campbell doctors are practicing in areas considered underserved, and the school also ranks 11th in the nation for the most graduates practicing in primary care.
“People know this is rural, but then they move here to work or visit, and they realize this is very rural. Greenville is really the closest thing we have to good, quality resources, and that’s an hour away,” Nicole says. “It takes someone growing up in an area like this to fully understand the community and its struggles, because it's not easy.
“But these people are my family, and I want to be here for them.”
She bombed it.
“It really took a toll on my confidence,” she recalls. “I felt like, going in, this was something I was always supposed to be good at. And I just didn’t understand why I did so poorly, because my grades were great. I had everything ready to go. I felt like the MCAT score didn’t reflect my potential, and it really got into my head. So I took a little break.”
Nicole became an EMT in Hertford County, an experience that she says really broadened her perspective on health care in rural communities. Being an EMT meant being inside people’s homes during emergencies and seeing how their living conditions correlated to their poor health — something a physician doesn’t get to see inside of a clean doctor’s office.
“You’re seeing people in their rawest, most vulnerable way,” she says. “You don’t have your house done up and perfect when you call 911. So you see exactly how people are living, and that tells you much more than saying, ‘I have some back pain’ at a clinic.”
Nicole worked as an EMT for over two years and seriously considered a career in it before the pandemic hit in 2020, and her help was needed back at her father’s clinic. During that first
Nicole El-Khoury and her father, Dr. Semaan El-Khoury, outside of their family-owned Aulander Medical Practice in rural northeast North Carolina. A first-year medical student at Campbell, Nicole's goal is to return to Hertford County after graduation and one day take over her father's practice in the town where she grew up.
Photo by Billy Liggett
year of social distancing and overall uncertainty, she worked as a triage nurse and helped set up the clinic’s drive-through area so patients could be seen in their vehicles.
That experience reignited her desire to pursue primary care, so she decided to give the MCAT another try. The scores were better, but still not reflective of her potential, she says. Nicole was told she “wasnt’ ready” at a few interviews, but instead of being outright dismissed, she was pointed toward a master’s program that could better prepare her.
She was introduced to Campbell University’s Master of Science in Biomedical Science program, a two-year degree that provides a “rigorous curriculum” for those looking to enhance their educational resume (like Nicole) and become better prepared for medical school. MSBS courses touch on every aspect of a future professional school application, including clinical experience, shadowing opportunities, community service and professional development. For Nicole, the program not only got her over the application hurdle, it reinforced her passion and her goal of becoming a family physician.
“It helped in so many ways,” she says. “Immediately, I could see why I wasn’t being accepted into medical school. [The MSBS program] boosted my confidence in ways I couldn’t have imagined. The courses and the lectures prepared me for med school. The small classes [there are roughly 20-25 students in each cohort] provided the right environment for me, since I went to such a small high school.
“All my professors knew my name. All my professors were invested in my well being and my future — whether it be medicine or whatever route I decided to choose. And I could feel that. I liked how they sat down with each individual student every semester and talked about goals. I felt very well supported. It just allowed me to shine and showcase what I could do.”
Before she earned her master’s degree in May 2024, Nicole was admitted into the Class of 2028 for Campbell’s School of Osteopathic Medicine. She had other options, but like Ahoskie and Aulander, Campbell felt like home.
A week into her second semester of medical school, Nicole is back home helping out in her dad’s clinic on a busy three-day weekend (MLK Day) in January. For the first time, she’s donning her short white coat with the Campbell University patch and the words “Student Doctor” under her name on the front.
Martin is asked what it’s like to see her today, knowing that not too long ago, she was running the halls, collecting stickers and spilling strawberry soda all over her dad’s white countertop, staining it pink.
“I’m very proud of her,” she says, her eyes welling with tears. “I mean, I saw it coming. She was determined. And her dad is proud of her. It was always his dream for her, too. When he found out she got accepted into medical school, he was just so excited. He was so happy.”
Nicole El-Khoury helped her family, Dr. Semaan El-Khoury and mother Hiba El-Khoury (rop right) while taking a break from medical school at Campbell University on Jan. 20. It was the first time Nicole wore her Campbell "student doctor" white jacket in the clinic her father has run for nearly 30 years. Photos by Billy Liggett
There’s nothing flashy about Dr. Semaan El-Khoury’s cramped office at Aulander Family Practice. A standing desk. Papers scattered about. Framed photos all around. In one of those photos, there’s a 2-year-old little girl with short hair, wearing a pink jacket and a stethoscope, helping the family business by seeing a “patient” in the old clinic in downtown Aulander.
When Nicole El-Khoury says becoming a doctor and serving in her hometown has been her lifelong dream, she has visual proof.
“It’s all I ever wanted to do,” she says. “Maybe the reasons have changed over the years — when I was young, we would go with my dad to medical conferences and stay in hotels that had swimming pools. Back then, I thought that was what being a doctor meant — a lot of swimming. I wanted to be like him, and we bonded because of the clinic and, eventually, our shared love of health care.”
Seeman El-Khoury was born in Lebanon, and around his seventh birthday, his country fell into a 15-year civil war that would lead to massive destruction, more than 150,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly a million people from the country. He immigrated to the United States in the early 1990s after graduating from the American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine in Lebanon and performed his residency with the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in Richmond, Virginia, finishing in 1996.
A year later, he moved his family two hours south to work for a second-generation family physician in Aulander, Dr. J. Fred Saunders, a former wartime MASH unit medic who practiced medicine full time for 40 years before El-Khoury’s arrival (and then part-time for several years afterward in the same clinic).
“Being here has been very rewarding. We’ve had opportunities to leave and go somewhere else. But we chose to stay.”
Nicole sits next to her father as he says this, smiling and nodding. She adds that there’s no such thing as a quick trip to the grocery store, because someone will always stop them to talk. On Friday nights, the family eats at the same restaurant. They have their table.
“He’s become a pillar in this community,” she says. “He opens his clinic for a half day on Saturday, because he knows there’s many in this community that work all day during the week. He keeps co-pays down, because there’s so many who don’t have insurance. And I think that says a lot about him. He’s had offers to sell the clinic multiple times, and he just doesn’t want it to become a corporate thing. And I think he never gave up on the idea that I would one day want to come back and have this same opportunity for myself.”
“My parents emulate resilience. I think that's where I get
it from.”
NICOLE
EL-KHOURY ON HER LONG JOURNEY TO CAMPBELL'S SCHOOL OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE
El-Khoury says he and his family were welcomed immediately. The community needed physicians, he says, and they were grateful to have him — even if he didn’t necessarily “look like” everybody else. And from Saunders, El-Khoury says he learned that it was important to really get to know those patients — beyond their health charts — and respect their struggles that adversely affect their wellbeing.
“I learned to be their advocate and their friend, and I learned to really try to see things from their perspective. These aren’t numbers … these are patients. They’re people,” he says. “Over the years, you get to know their kids and eventually their grandkids. You see them at the store. You see them in the restaurant. We talk about the local football or basketball teams — or whatever important is going on in the community. We share in their celebrations and their sorrows.
Aulander Family Clinic was passed down from father to son, and soon, father to daughter. For 100 years, the area has only known two last names when it comes to family medicine. That means something to El-Khoury.
“Practices are becoming a very rare breed,” he says. “There are big hospitals buying up these clinics all over, and that’s fine, but people need to have a choice. We don’t follow the same regulations, we don’t have the same red tape, and we don’t have to do some things if we don’t feel they’re needed. There comes a flexibility with ownership, and I think the patients appreciate that.”
He looks over at Nicole when he says keeping the clinic all these years has meant keeping a promise to his community. When he talks about how it’s home — a place, like the theme song to “Cheers,” where everybody knows your name.
Having his daughter continue that legacy means the world to him.
“This was her passion all along, ever since she was that little girl in the picture,” he says. “She is wonderful with patients. Some of them have known her her whole life. And they trust her. This business is not for the faint of heart. But you can make a good living out here doing this. You just have to put in the effort and put your heart into it. She’s going to have patients who are easy, and there will be days where it’s very difficult. She’ll need to understand that it’s always a learning process. Everybody makes mistakes. And you have to manage the business side of all of it, in addition to the patient care.
“I think she will be wonderful. She’ll do better than me. She has what it takes to be a very good physician and patient advocate. We know she can do it.”
From marriage to retirement and all things in between, trust and wealth professionals from Campbell have helped guide families through these important “Game of Life” events for nearly 60 years.
Campbell Trust & Wealth graduates have helped guide families through the Game of Life for nearly 60 years
BY BILLY LIGGETT GAME PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN BROWN | TYPOGRAPHY DESIGN BY ADAM FISH
Before Milton Bradley became a name synonymous with board games, he was looking for his first best-seller. In 1860, he came up with The Checkered Game of Life , a game that simulated a person’s journey from young adulthood to retirement and allowed players to make big decisions on college, careers, marriage, children and savings.
One hundred years later, the game was revamped for a new generation, dropping “Checkered” and adding revolutionary elements at the time like a three-dimensional board and a plastic spinner. The object remained the same — finish with the highest net worth and a spot in Millionaire Acres and avoid ending up in the “Poor Farm.”
As in real life, winning requires both making the right choices along the way and a good deal of luck. In Milton Bradley’s game, players don’t have the luxury of having someone advise them of their choices along the way.
In real life, they do.
Just seven years after The Game of Life’s reintroduction to American society in 1960, a small private university in North Carolina launched the nation’s first undergraduate degree in trust and wealth management — the brainchild of Campbell’s third president, Norman Adrian Wiggins, at the time one of the nation’s leading authorities on trust law. Part of the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business, the program is still the only undergraduate program of its kind in the United States, preparing students to serve the financial needs of high net worth clients by managing their assets and by developing and implementing sophisticated tax, financial and estate planning strategies — in other words, “game of life” stuff.
Over the next 20 years, the largest transfer of wealth in American history will occur as Baby Boomers pass their assets — totaling an estimated $84 trillion — to the next generation. Campbell trust graduates will be properly trained to guide these clients during this unprecedented time.
Students in Campbell’s Trust Fellows Program attend the annual Trust Advisors Forum at Pinehurst Resort every February, gaining access to more than 300 senior trust officers from 38 different states and 110 institutions. The four-day event is the largest gathering of trust professionals in the country each year.
Over the next 20 years, analysts predict the largest transfer of wealth in American history as Baby Boomers — the generation born during the high period of birth rates following World War II — pass their assets (totaling more than $84 trillion) to their children and grandchildren. And as Campbell’s trust program nears its 60th year, it’s still the only program of its kind in the country, and its graduates have never been in more demand.
“This transfer of wealth will be exponentially larger than we ever imagined, and that is just enormous for kids coming through a program like ours,” says Jimmy Witherspoon, director of Campbell’s trust program for nearly 40 years and a notable figure in the industry. “The demand for our graduates is just incredible.”
When Wiggins started the program in 1968 and a year later the Southeastern Trust School (created for trust bankers already in the industry), he saw that demand as well. Wiggins literally wrote the book on the subject in 1965 with “Wills and the Administration of Trusts in North Carolina,” and he knew that if a new generation of bankers was going to successfully navigate the world of wealth management, their education needed to be more specialized.
“In employing our graduates,” Wiggins said from the beginning, “[banks] save much of the time and expense involved in training newcomers to the field to be productive employees in it. Here, we improve the managerial techniques of the trust business. And we help all of the trust industry.”
Rebecca Brock had hoped to be there in person. But an unexpected business trip to Florida forced her to deliver her words of wisdom to an auditorium full of Trust Fellows by Zoom on this late October morning.
The senior vice president and fiduciary director of trust for Truist Financial — headquartered in Charlotte and one of the top 10 largest banks in the U.S. with $514 billion in assets — Brock is a member of the Campbell University Board of Trustees. She’s also a longstanding board member of the Trust Education Foundation, which keeps trust professionals informed on critical issues and legislative changes in wealth management.
Brock is also a vocal advocate for both the program and her alma mater as a 1997 trust graduate and a 2001 MBA graduate. And on this day, she’s not letting 600 miles stop her from getting students excited about what’s ahead.
“I look forward to all the great things you get to do,” she said. “You’re ahead of where I was at this time — I didn’t even know what trust was when I got to Campbell. And now look at you … I cannot begin to tell you how incredibly impressed I am with the freshmen in this program. They are a magnificent group of young adults — very bright, warm and caring. All of that is incredibly important when you’re going into the world of trust.”
The “world of trust,” Brock and any graduate of the program will tell you, is far more than managing assets. Graduates realize early in their careers that their work helps people in some of their most critical times of need. As advisors, trust professionals often develop personal relationships with the clients they serve and their families. They’re invited to weddings, graduations and funerals. They’re known just as much for their people skills as their financial expertise.
Via Zoom, Brock shares a story where the relationship building she learned at Campbell came in handy.
“It was my very first client,” she says, “and I was worried they would ask me something that I didn’t know the answer to. I had all these notes, and I read everything I had about 10 times before the meeting. But I also leaned on what I learned at Campbell — to be connected with the client, to make sure I’m being honest with them, to tell them that if I didn’t know an answer, I’d find it and get back to them. I thought that the meeting went OK, but I wasn’t sure.
“Two months later, I sat down in their home and said, ‘I just want to see if there’s anything else I can do to assist you today. I want to know if there’s anything else you need from me.’ And they looked at me and said, ‘We are so glad you’re part of our family. We’ve never worked with someone who made us feel this way.’ So you have to make those connections. They’re coming to you with the things that keep them up at night. They’re putting a lot of trust in you.”
Brock was just one of more than a dozen Campbell trust grads and professionals who took an hour or more out of their Monday morning throughout the semester to speak to students in the Trust Fellows program, born three years ago to better build leadership skills among undergraduates and get them more involved in their school and their community.
In addition to the sessions like Brock’s, Trust Fellows get to take part in the annual Trust Advisors Forum in Pinehurst, take networking trips to leading financial institutions and receive an alumni mentor to turn to for guidance during their four years at Campbell.
“I wish we would have started this program 30 years ago,” says Witherspoon. “These students are required to keep a 3.0 GPA, and they’re assigned these mentors who are there to guide them along the way and answer any questions or address concerns they may have. From this speaker series, I’m absolutely floored at the quality of questions that freshmen are asking six or seven weeks in. The biggest problem we used to have with freshmen is they didn’t really understand what trust was, and now … These kids are absolutely loving it, and they’re seeing right off the bat how big the opportunities are career wise.”
Those opportunities are quite big.
95%
The percentage of Trust & Wealth Management graduates who are placed in full-time jobs within a month of graduation (provided they are willing to relocate).
$150K
Median average salary of trust/financial professionals from Campbell’s Trust & Wealth Management program 10 years after graduation. That figure is higher than the median salaries from the graduates of the Top 5 schools in a recent Wall Street Journal study on 10-year salary impact.
3,000
As Campbell’s trust program nears its 60th year, it is also nearing its 3,000 graduate.
The 34th annual Trust Advisors Forum was held, as it is every year, at Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina. This year’s event focused on innovation, client expectations and regulatory challenges in the financial sector. Sessions were led by leading experts in their fields. Photo by Billy Liggett
Sarah Hancock (‘10), Phillip Strickland (‘06), William Crews (‘06), Charles Davis (‘98) and Jessica Davis (10) are among the many Campbell trust graduates who have gone on to serve in senior leadership roles with some of the nation’s largest banks within a decade of graduation. Said Crews: “The depth of training, accreditation opportunities and networking through Campbell is nmatched.”
Campbell trust graduates have gone on to careers as trust officers, investment managers, financial planners, corporate attorneys and estate planners. They are CEOs, presidents and vice presidents of large banks and trust corporations. They’re working in large cities all over the country — from Boston to Seattle, San Diego to Miami and points in between. And those aren’t even the biggest selling point.
Over 95 percent of Campbell trust graduates are placed in full-time jobs within a month of graduation, provided, Witherspoon says, they are willing to relocate. Nearly 3,000 Campbell alumni are now working with many of the nation’s premier financial institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Northern Trust COmpany, Truist, BNY Mellon, City National and First Citizens Bank.
And Witherspoon’s favorite statistic — the Wall Street Journal recently published a comprehensive study on the EVA (economic value added) to universities across the nation. The top five schools were all Ivy League — Penn, Princeton, Columbia, MIT and Harvard. The median salary of a Penn graduate is $116,000 a year, 10 years after graduation. A recent Lundy-Fetterman School of Business study found the median salary of a Campbell trust graduate is $150,000 in that same span and $212,000 20 year after graduation.
“It’s an eye-popping number,” Witherspoon says, smiling. “And, you know, that catches the attention of not only the students, but their parents, too.”
Yet, Campbell’s trust program remains the only four-year undergraduate program of its kind in the U.S. Some colleges and universities offer certificate programs and
trust concentrations, but Campbell remains a unicorn in the field. And there’s a very good explanation for that, according to Tyler Britton, a 2014 law graduate and the director of Campbell’s Master of Trust & Wealth Management graduate program.
“No other school could build the machine we have,” says Britton. “The network we’ve built and the Trust Education Foundation are the result of 50-plus years of experience in the industry and 50-plus years of putting our graduates out into the field. Our students are recognized in this industry. Hiring managers know Campbell grads are ready to hit the ground running. I had an executive from Wells Fargo tell me, ‘It takes us six months to explain to [new hires] what a trust is and what we’re doing here. But we can take a Campbell student, and they’re ready on Day 1, the minute they walk through that door.’”
The machine got its first parts when Wiggins — in one of his first large-scale acts as president — started the trust program Campbell and the summer Southeaster Trust School (now the Trust Advisors Institute) for bankers already in the industry. It received its engine when the Trust Education Foundation Inc. was formed to support the program.
The Southeastern Trust School, according to its charter dean, I. Lee Parker, was born from the North Carolina Bankers Association, which saw a need for more specialized personnel to manage the region’s wealth. Parker chose Campbell College because of Wiggins, whom he called “highly regarded nationally as one of trust’s strongest individuals [and] a devout student
of the dean of trustmen, the late Gilbert Stephenson [who died shortly after the school’s launch].”
“We wanted to be near Norman,” Parker wrote in 1972. “We wanted the benefit of his counsel in the formation of the school, the design of its curriculum and the fulfillment of its total process and objective.”
Nine students were among the first graduates of Campbell’s trust program on June 5, 1970. Two years later, 48 trust professionals became the first graduates of the Southeastern Trust School.
The Trust Education Foundation Inc. supports Campbell’s program by providing curriculum oversight to ensure students are exposed to cutting edge instruction and current industry trends. It provides scholarship aid to Campbell students and assists in the marketing of the program to financial institutions nationwide. The Foundation’s flagship program is the annual Trust Advisors Forum, held in February at Pinehurst Resort. The multi-day conference draws more than 300 trust officers from 38 states — making it the nation’s foremost gathering for trust professionals.
“We give our students direct access to mentors through our Trust Fellows Program, and these aren’t just recent graduates,” Britton says. “They are heads of trust departments. Senior vice presidents. These are people at the top of their game. How many programs can you say have the ability to connect students with professionals at the top of the industry. In trust, it’s something only Campbell can do.”
The Trust & Wealth Management program at Campbell was the first major program added by the University’s third president, Norman Adrian Wiggins. Granville A. Ryals, a former classmate of Wiggins at Campbell College in the 1940s, said the success of the trust program paved the way for Campbell’s law school, named for Wiggins, in 1976. “Because trust created a pretty good following among bankers and other institutions,” Ryals wrote, “it was decided to give the idea of a law school a try.”
“If a person has passion for other people and a passion for business, investing or planning, it’s the perfect career path. It cuts across all personality types, as long as a person really — at their heart — cares about taking care of others.”
— Gene Lewis (’94), senior
vice president for wealth management at UBS
“I’ve been invited to weddings and baby showers. Clients I’ve worked with in prior years still talk to me about the impact I made in their lives or in the lives of their children. It’s really rewarding to hear that and to know I’m making a difference.”
— Mary Lytch (’00) president of trust and wealth for Park National Bank in Charlotte
It used to be, very few students in Campbell’s trust program came to Campbell originally to study trust, or even business. To build his program over the last 42 years, Witherspoon — or “Spoon,” as he’s known in trust circles — has had to recruit for his program much like a coach.
Gene Lewis’ Campbell trust story began with a talk with Spoon. His sister was already a Campbell student, and she introduced him to “The Godfather” (another of his nicknames in the program) shortly after he arrived on campus.
“I came in with the intentions of studying business, but as Jimmy described what trust is and what the program was about, it resonated with me,” Lewis recalls. “Not because of the job opportunities, necessarily, but really it was more of the fiduciary [the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary] component of it all — the concept of having others be the priority. It just seemed like a natural fit for me.”
Lewis earned his degree from Campbell in 1994 and landed a job with First Citizens bank as a relationship manager the following January. He began to climb the ladder within First Citizens, becoming a manager of retirement plan services, senior vice president for institutional services and, in 2013, senior vice president and manager of the Trust Division and Wealth Operations. In 2021, he left First Citizens after nearly 27 years to become senior vice president for wealth management at UBS Totalis Wealth Consulting.
He attributes his career and his success to his education at Campbell. In 2017, he joined the Board of Directors for the School of Business, and in 2019, he was named to the University’s Board of Trustees. He became chairman of the board in 2024 and was chair of the search committee that this year chose Dr. William Downs as Campbell’s sixth president, starting this summer. He says he doesn’t view his service to Campbell in the last eight years as an obligation, but more as an opportunity to give back to an institution that “means a great deal” to him.
“I tell people all the time, ‘Campbell is a school of opportunity,’” he says. “I look
at myself as a great example. I came here with no real purpose, and Campbell gave me a purpose. It helped me find where I could fit in in this enormous society, even as an average student. I don’t know that you could replicate that at [some of the state’s larger schools] — they’re all wonderful universities, but I don’t think it would have been the same.”
Lewis calls trust a relationship-driven business, one that aligns well with his “extrovert” personality. In his career, he’s worked with generations of families, and he calls it a privilege to have developed relationships with those families along the way. At USB, he advises and manages the trusts for high net-worth families — his job requires a lot of asset management and investment work.
He’s even had to, on several occasions, take on the role of “therapist.”
“I think there are a lot of folks in this world who believe that money solves all problems, and the reality is that, yes, it can solve a lot of financial problems. But it also brings on a host of other problems,” Lewis says.
“Even the most high-functioning, affluent family has its share of issues. Wealth in a family can be a complication — a good complication, but it’s not something we take lightly. We spend a lot of time in multi-generational planning, in financial literacy and in helping the next generation understand what it means to manage wealth. There’s an enormous responsibility that comes with that, there’s stewardship that comes with it, and there’s philanthropy that comes with it. It’s not just about how you cash a check, how you spend your money or how many homes you have. You have a responsibility to pay it forward, and most of our clients truly see it that way.”
Mary Lytch was drawn to trust because she, too, wanted to make a difference in the lives of her clients and the generations that follow. A 2000 trust graduate, Lytch says she grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, each of them with a community-driven spirit. The work they did professionally helped others, she says, and they also took time out of their personal lives to serve others through nonprofit endeavors.
She chose Campbell University originally for its pharmacy program. After very quickly realizing that wasn’t the career path for her, Lytch met Witherspoon and got “the pitch.”
After her first fiduciary law class, she was hooked. She landed her first job as a trust officer with SouthTrust Bank in Charlotte just days after graduation, and 25 years later, she’s Carolinas President of Trust & Wealth for Park National Bank in Charlotte, a position she’s held for just over a year.
Even at the top of the profession, Lytch, like Lewis, says trust is still about relationships.
“Finances are personal. Family is personal. You’re making a meaningful impact on someone’s legacy, on their family or financial goals, and seeing the results of that support is incredibly rewarding,” Lytch says. “It’s fulfilling to know that what I do helps others achieve their goals and has lasting value. You do become part of their families, because, like the name suggests, they literally trust you with everything.”
All of what she loves about her career, Lytch says, was spelled out to her by Witherspoon back when she was an aimless freshman who thought she wanted to study pharmacy. She caught up with Witherspoon at a recent Trust Advisors Forum, and he let her in on a little secret about those trust pitches he’s become so known for.
“We’ve always joked that he has a knack for just luring you in, but he told me he doesn’t just recruit anyone,” Lytch says. “He said, ‘There are certain qualities that I look for in students to know whether or not they would excel in this career. I can tell early on if they’d be good at advising clients.’ So, yes, it was really special to hear that he hand-picks students, and it was heartwarming to know he saw something in me and my fellow classmates.”
Trust & Wealth Management at Campbell has grown since Lewis’ and Lytch’s undergrad days in the early and late 90s. The program graduates between 50 and 60 trust professionals a year, and the School of Business’ new Master of Trust & Wealth Management degree program brings in another 25 to 30 students per cohort each fall.
Megan Harwood didn’t need an elevator speech or a talk with Witherspoon to pique her interest in the program. She originally
chose Campbell for its business pre-law program, but she discovered trust during her admissions process. While she still has her career ahead of her, she’s received a taste of what the career has to offer through her internship experience this past summer for Cumberland Trust in Nashville, Tennessee.
Living in a new state and on her own for the first time offered valuable life experience, in addition to the important hands-on experience she received at Cumberland.
“I learned a lot about myself — learned that I can do things on my own,” Harwood says. “I think it’s beneficial for any woman to get out there on your own. It can be scary at first, but it’s fun. As much as I’m growing professionally, I’m growing personally, too.”
In Nashville, Harwood saw a place where she could see herself living one day. The other draw was Cumberland Trust, a company whose CEO and president is a woman and whose workforce is 75-percent women. “One of my biggest fears coming into corporate America as a woman was the idea that I was entering a male-dominated field,” she says. “When I learned about the number of women who lead and work at Cumberland during my interview, I was sold. I love it. And they made the entire interview process as natural and comfortable as possible. Everything just kind of aligned perfectly for me.”
Many of the career opportunities graduates enjoy are due to the tireless efforts of nearly 3,000 Campbell Trust alumni and the Board of Directors of the Trust Education Foundation, Inc. The Trust Advisors Forum in Pinehurst, Trust Advisors Institute and the ATFA Certification Program are offered by Campbell and the Foundation to senior executives nationwide to expand the already impressive network of job placement contacts.
— Trust Education Foundation
“Life is a game with twists and turns, where each decision shapes your path.” — Game of Life
On his mentor, Jimmy Witherspoon: “One of the things I’ve always appreciated is his ability to communicate and show compassion and empathy for students. I’ve tried to adopt a lot of his teaching style, both in the classroom and by getting to know the students outside of the classroom. I’ve learned ... if you’re not an effective teacher, then students aren’t engaged.”
— Tyler Britton (’11, 14 Law), assistant professor and director of Campbell’s Master of Trust & Wealth Management program
It’s hard to imagine Campbell University’s trust program without Jimmy Witherspoon. When he earned his trust degree in 1980, he was one of only two students in the class. Events like Pinehurst’s annual Trust Advisor Forum show just how much the program has flourished under his leadership.
“We started the Forum 34 years ago, and back then, it was just a small event held on campus with a few speakers,” he says. “Today, it’s just grown so much. I can’t imagine there are many academic programs that can put on something like this. And of course, the money it makes goes to scholarship funds, so not only does this event get our name out there in the industry, it benefits our kids, too.”
Witherspoon isn’t ready for any big announcements about his own retirement, but the wheels have been put in motion to ready his program for the day in the notso-distant future when he does leave it in someone else’s hands. That someone else appears to be 2011 Campbell trust graduate and 2014 Campbell law graduate Tyler Britton, currently an assistant professor and director of the Master of Trust & Wealth Management program.
Britton was running his own law firm when he got a different kind of pitch from Witherspoon.
“He called me up one day and told me they had a professor retiring,” he recalls. “And I said, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ He asked if I’d ever thought about teaching, to which I said, ‘No, not really.’ I remember being a tutor for several business classes when I was a student, but I never thought about doing it full time. But I said yes, and I’m glad I did. In fact, I thank God every day that I did.”
Britton is quick to tout the new Master of Trust & Wealth Management program, designed for students who didn’t study trust as undergrads but have a desire to enter the field. The program’s graduates are eligible to take the exams for the nation’s leading three trust professional certifications, and like the undergrad program, 95 percent of its students are placed in full-time jobs within a month of earning their degree. The program is also available online, and students from all over the country are currently working toward a Campbell trust degree.
“The master’s program is tough, but the material we go over is relevant in the industry,” Britton says. “We’ve built current events and trends into the program. We’ve hired faculty who are in step with changes in the industry — for example, crypto and other digital currency. I think we’ve built a really solid program, and I’m excited to see it continue to grow and evolve.”
The School of Business’ recent launch of the Risk Management Institute, designed to educate and prepare students for
the insurance industry, also presents an opportunity for the trust program, Britton says, with potential for integration of classes and possible insurance certifications within a trust degree. Britton also addresses the topic affecting just about every major and career field on campus — artificial intelligence. While it is creeping into segments of the industry, it will never replace the “human touch” of a trust advisor, he says.
“Say I have $50 million, and I call up Wells Fargo … I don’t want to talk to a computer. I want a personalized experience. AI can take over some of the quantitative aspects of the industry, but there’s still that personal relationship you develop with your client that can’t be replicated.”
The future of Campbell University’s oneof-a-kind Trust & Wealth Management program is bright as it nears its 60th year. The demand is high for professionals in the field, and Campbell has managed to
connect its growing, service-minded alumni base with its growing student body through mentorship programs and annual gatherings.
In addition to the historic transfer of wealth expected over the next 20 years, the industry is also seeing a large percentage of its workforce retiring over the next five years. According to Gene Lewis, the entire banking industry is hungry for young professionals.
There hasn’t been a better time to study trust, he says.
Jimmy Witherspoon (top right) has gone by many names over his 40-plus years at Campbell — “Spoon” and “The Godfather” most notably. He has built a welloiled machine of a program within the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business — its influence and reach evident at the annual Trust Advisors Forum in Pinehurst (photos above), which draws more than 300 professionals and students each year.
“You just don’t see a lot of young people anymore saying, ‘I want to put on a suit every day and be a banker.’ It’s rare,” he says. “We have more millionaires and billionaires in this country than we’ve ever had, so the demand for professional, constructive wealth management is high. And there’s an enormous void in this business for talent. Campbell has put itself in a really unique position to fill this void.” To learn more, visit
Hajj-Malik Williams became the alltime leading passer in Campbell history during his four-plus years with the program. He entered the transfer portal as a senior and led UNLV to one of its best seasons in recent history and its first endof-season national ranking in program history.
What happens in Vegas
Campell's all-time leading passer was thrust into the national spotlight as starting quarterback at UNLV, only to lead them to a historical season
BY EVAN BUDROVICH
One morning, while driving down Dean Martin Drive — just minutes from the Las Vegas Strip — Hajj-Malik Williams got the news that would shock the college football world. Matthew Sluka, the starting quarterback who led UNLV football to its best start in 40 years, announced unexpectedly that he was leaving the program, electing to redshirt the remainder of his season
That would leave Williams — a sixth-year senior and Campbell University’s all-time leading passer — the starting quarterback for the undefeated No. 23-ranked team in the nation just months after his decision to enter the transfer portal.
It was an opportunity Williams never imagined.
“In a way, I was kind of like a vessel,” he said. “That moment was more for the people who were around me, to see what was going on and how I came out of it.”
It was exactly the kind of chance Williams hoped for when he decided to enter the transfer portal after 41 games at Campbell. He joined a handful of other Camels in 2024 who left Buies Creek for the shot at bigger success in NCAA athletics — pitching phenom Bella Smith left Campbell for
Photo by Bennett Scarborough
In his final year of eligibility, Hajj-Malik Williams threw for 1,914 yards 19 touchdowns and ran for 851 yards and 9 more touchdowns for No. 24-ranked UNLV.
an Oklahoma softball program that has won four straight national championships, and Anthony Dell’Orso transferred to Arizona’s iconic men’s basketball program, which is vying for a Big 12 championship this season.
They’re products of the rapidly growing NCAA transfer portal, launched in 2018 to manage and streamline the process for student athletes to seek opportunities at other programs. Campbell has received transfers from larger programs, often those seeking more playing time for smaller programs. On the flip side, Campbell has seen starters leave for the bigger spotlight at larger schools. It’s an unfortunate “way of life” that all schools have had to embrace and adapt to.
Williams was one of the last remnants of the pre-COVID world of college football, first walking out on the orange turf at BarkerLane Stadium in 2019. He entered the transfer portal after five seasons at Campbell — a career filled with exciting highs and injury-riddled lows.
He arrived at UNLV with a chance to win the starting job, before being edged out by Sluka. His opportunity finally came on Sept. 28 against Fresno State, his first start.
From his first start on Sept. 28 against Fresno State, Williams shined with four touchdowns (one on the ground), 182 yards passing and 119 yards rushing in a 59-14 win.
Under Williams, the Runnin’ Rebels blossomed into a unique national storyline, surging into the college football rankings, falling one game short of the playoffs, eventually falling in the Mountain West Conference championship game.
“Once I got through that butterfly moment before my first start, it felt like the good old days throwing the ball around Barker-Lane Stadium,” Williams said.
At UNLV, Williams personified the qualities fans in Buies Creek fell in love with. From his days sprinting through the endzone as a 2019 All-Big South selection, to now earning
“Once I got through that butterfly moment, ... it felt like the good old days throwing the ball around Barker-Lane Stadium.”
HAJJ-MALIK WILLIAMS
TALKING
Photo: UNLV Athletics
All-Mountain West honors, the joy and enthusiasm Williams showcased on the field was amplified before a national audience.
He ended his final year of college football with 1,941 yards passing, 19 touchdowns (against just 5 interceptions), 851 yards on the ground and 9 rushing touchdowns.
Williams seized his opportunity.
“I feel like my story was a testament to show that at Campbell, we were developing, and that stage was so vital in our process,” said Williams.
No one was more thrilled for Williams than his mother, Veverly Griffin.
A staple at Campbell football games for the past five years, Griffin was always on the front row, bedazzled in her son’s No. 6 uniform and other Campbell swag. She went viral in Chapel Hill for her celebration of Williams’ touchdown against UNC. She traveled to every one of his games, and you could hear her echoes through the parent section at BarkerLane Stadium on every first down.
Much like Elvis, Blue Man Group, Brittany Spears and David Copperfield, Griffin became a must-see showcase in Las Vegas in 2024.
“Everybody wanted to take pictures of her in the stands at Allegiant Stadium. Heck, she even went on the local Vegas TV stations multiple times,” Williams said. “The love and support she had at Campbell never changed, and it was cool to see both communities embrace her so much.”
UNLV enjoyed an 11-win season (6-1 in the Mountain West), its first end-of-season national ranking (23rd) and a 24-13 win in the LA Bowl over California. Fast forward to this spring, and Williams is eyeing the NFL Draft or rookie free agent window, where he hopes to follow in the footsteps of former teammates Brevin Allen and Julian Hill, both of whom were signed to active rosters.
“I remember my first time at Campbell and those seniors talked about how fast it goes and how they wish they had done this or that,” he said. “I can honestly say I have zero regrets. I’m proud of the person I became over the years and super grateful for the process and the journey.”
PORTAL PROMINENCE
Hajj-Malik Williams joins a growing list of established Fighting Camels who have thrived in the transfer portal at larger programs.
Bella Smith is now pitching for the University of Oklahoma, the reigning four-time national softball champions. The 2023 Big South Conference and 2024 Coastal Athletic Association Pitcher of the Year will be asked to play a big role in the Sooners’ bid for a fourthstraight title.
Last year, Smith threw 18 complete games for Campbell and two no-hitters. She held then No. 3 Duke to just four hits in a 3-2 upset victory in April.
Anthony Dell’Orso is a starting forward in the Big-12 Conference for the Arizona Wildcats, one of the most iconic programs in college basketball. Dell’Orso shined during his two years in Buies Creek, developing from a relatively unknown prospect out of Australia to a national star and all-conference standout at Campbell.
These are some of the more prominent examples where development at Campbell University opened doors to bigger opportunities.
“People don’t always realize how special Campbell really is until you leave,” said Williams. “All of our sports have success, but there’s also the close-knit bonds we would form hanging out at the Student Union or in the locker room. I’ll remember those moments at Campbell for life.”
Anthony Dell'Orso was averaging 8 points a game for the Arizona Wildcats as of this publication. Bella Smith will be called upon to help Oklahoma softball win its fourth consecutive national title this spring.
University of Oklahoma Athletics
DESTINY BAILEY-PERKINS ('23)
The leap to teaching
Coaches and mentors shaped alumna’s track career and inspired a career in education
By STAN COLE
For many college students, learning how to balance an academic load and learning life skills away from home is a challenge. For some, moving into a residence hall, handling such tasks such as laundry and overseeing their daily schedule is a new experience.
How about adding a full-time job to full-time graduate studies and — by the way — making the time to train and compete as an all-conference athlete?
That’s just what Destiny Bailey-Perkins did as a senior in 2023. The year before that, she earned four all-conference awards and qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Championships in the long jump while completing her student teaching responsibilities in the spring.
Time management is not a problem for “Miss B-P,” as she is known by her second-grade students at Lafayette Elementary School, located just a short drive north of Buies Creek between the Harnett County communities of Chalybeate Springs and Kipling. For Bailey-Perkins, the athletic scholarship she received not only allowed her to pursue her dream of competing in track and field at the highest collegiate level, but that financial award made attending college at all a reality.
As a senior on the Campbell University track team in 2023, Destiny BaileyPerkins earned four all-conference honors between indoor and outdoor competition and qualified for the NCAA East Preliminaries in the long jump – all while completing her student teaching responsibilities at Angier Elementary School. Photo: Campbell Athletics
“My dad’s a single dad; he wouldn’t have been able to pay for my college,” said Bailey-Perkins, who graduated in 2023 with a degree in elementary education and started working on a master’s degree while using her final season of eligibility the following year. “My scholarship meant the world to me. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher; it was just whether or not I would be able to go to school for it. Being able to see my dream in the classroom and on the track come to life was a really big thing.”
PIVOTAL ROLE MODELS
Raised by her father, Elijah, since she was 2, Bailey-Perkins also cites the influence of friends, teammates, teachers, coaches, administrators and mentors throughout her life as playing pivotal roles in her pursuit of an awardwinning athletics career. But more importantly, they put her in position to make a positive impact on young people.
Throughout elementary, middle and high school and five years at Campbell, she said she encountered teachers, coaches and professors who made the time to find out who she really was as an individual. Those moments early on made her want to do the same for the next generation of young learners.
“I’m the oldest and have always been into taking care of children, helping them grow and succeed,” said BaileyPerkins, who has four siblings. “But I always had a couple of teachers — whether it was elementary, middle or high school — that have made me feel like I was seen and I was special.”
Her third-grade teacher made the adjustment to asking her to show her work to her father, rather than the
customary task of presenting it to a mother. A middle school teacher took time to ask why she wasn’t acting in her customary happy manner, which led to a deeper discussion. Later in high school, a teacher simply asked “what’s going on?” Those instances helped form and secure the belief that she wanted to do the same for others.
“Those connections I have with those teachers and being able to see how they made me feel when nobody else in the world knew, and to know that I can have an impact on a child like that, that was a big thing that pulled me into education,” she said.
Growing up in the Dover, Delaware area, Bailey-Perkins also noticed that most of her teachers did not look like her.
“I didn’t grow up with any Black teachers,” she said. “That was a big thing for me when I was going into education — I didn’t have any teachers that looked like me; I didn’t have any teachers that came from a family life that I came from. Being able to be a role model for a kid like me when I was growing up is a big thing for me too.”
Her father insisted that his children be involved with athletics. So she tried T-ball, soccer and softball before “falling in love with track.” She likely began the road to Campbell during elementary school recess.
“We had a ‘top walker’ award that was given to the person who walked the most laps at recess and won a prize,” she recalled. “I found some friends who would run, so we got the top walker every month from second through fifth grade.”
That love of running led to joining the cross country team in middle school and competing in the sport each fall through her senior year at Caesar Rodney High School. After playing basketball in middle school, Bailey-Perkins opted for indoor track in high school. She was an all-state sprinter as a freshman but was asked by assistant coach J.T. Tolliver the following year to start long jumping. Initially hesitant, Bailey-Perkins agreed and under Tolliver’s tutelage, broke the state long jump record.
One year later, after Tolliver passed away due to cancer, her new coach suggested that she add the triple jump. In her first year of competing in the event, she won a state title.
All-state recognition in addition to the 2019 Delaware State indoor championships MVP honor and the Gatorade Delaware High School track and field athlete of the year award attracted recruiters from high-major programs, several of them much closer to home than Campbell’s campus — a long drive “eight hours on a good day” south on Interstate 95.
CONTINUED, PAGE 48
A star in the long jump and triple jump, Destiny Bailey-Perkins' leap into teaching has been seamless. “I want these kids to know they can be more than what their life is showing them right now. I love seeing that light bulb go on and that smile on their face knowing that they just broke a barrier in their brain that they didn’t know they had, [and] they have so much higher aspirations for themselves.” Photos courtesy of Campbell Athletics
ALUMNI NOTES
1960s-70s
HUGH
COPELAND (’64) celebrated the 40th anniversary of the theater group he founded, The Hurrah Players, in Hampton Roads, Virginia. THP was created in 1984 to provide students with acting, singing and dance lessons so affordable that no one would be excluded. Copeland has grown it into one of the pillars of cultural education in Virginia.
BOB BARKER (’65) was awarded the Orange Tie Award by Campbell University Athletics at the second annual Orange Tie Gala held in Raleigh on Nov. 22. The honor was given for Barker’s longtime support and advocacy for Fighting Camel sports.
SCOTT IRBY (’70) carded his 16th lifetime hole-in-one at Willow Springs Country Club in Wilson. His ace came on a 155-yard, par3 hole, where he used a seven iron. Now 75, Irby enjoyed an All-American golf career at Campbell, where he was a member of the 1970 NAIA National Championship team.
W. BROOKS MATTHEWS (’76, ’80 MED) was named the superintendent of Harnett County Schools in September. Matthews is a native of Harnett County and was a member of the Board of Commissioners. He was named the district’s Principal of the Year in 2008.
ALUMNI NOTES
1980s-90s
Secretary of State ELAINE MARSHALL (’81 LAW) was elected to her eighth term in November, giving her the longest tenure on the Council of State. In 1996, she became the first woman elected to a statewide executive branch office in the state.
REBECCA EGGERSGRYDER (’86 LAW) was appointed to serve as chief district court judge for North Carolina’s 35th Judicial District. She has served as a district court judge since 2015. She was also the first woman to be elected as president of the Watauga County Bar and the first woman to serve as a court judge in her district.
Judge MELISSA OWENS LASSITER (’90 LAW) of the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings was named among the 50 Most Influential Women in North Carolina’s legal and business community by N.C. Lawyers Weekly
DENISE DORMINEY FOREMAN (’94) was named director of Wake County’s new Behavioral Health Department in December. Foreman joined Wake County in 2010 as an assistant county manager, where she coordinated the county’s behavioral health efforts and led research to improve health outcomes.
SCOTT BREWER (’95 PHARMD) was appointed to the Richmond Community College Board of Trustees by the General Assembly. Brewer is a pharmacist in charge at Family Pharmacy in Rockingham.
A TRAILBLAZER
The influence of a friend (Trinity Whales) — and one of her high school teachers who had attended Campbell before transferring closer to home — made Bailey-Perkins consider the option of extending her college search.
“One day, Trinity said, ‘It would be so crazy if we went to college together, I think you should look at Campbell.’ That night, I got an e-mail from (then assistant) Coach (T.J.) Harris to recruit me.’ I was like, ‘that’s really odd.’ Prior to that I had never had any contact with Campbell.
“That teacher was one of the teachers I went to for everything. We were very close,” she said. “For her to be at Campbell and say that Campbell was a really good school, and my best friend to say that she was interested in Campbell, then for Campbell to reach out to me, it was kind of like it was meant for me to be here.”
A recruiting trip left no doubt where she wanted to continue her education.
“When I walked on Campbell‘s campus, it just felt like family,” Bailey-Perkins said. “I‘m very family oriented. I like having connections with people. I also wanted to be in a program where I wasn‘t just an athlete on a team. I felt like I would be seen for who I was, not just being an athlete, being fast or jumping far.
“We had conversations about what I wanted to do outside of track. We were having conversations about my future and my family. All the things that were important to me were brought into my conversations. At other schools, I had some connections like that, but it just didn‘t feel as genuine.”
As a freshman, Bailey-Perksins finished fifth in the long jump at the Big South indoor championship before the outdoor season was halted by the Covid-19 pandemic. One year later, she set a personal record in the triple jump in the league outdoor meet. In the 2022 outdoor season, she set personal bests in the triple jump and 100 meters.
As a senior in 2023, she earned four allconference honors between indoor and outdoor competition and qualified for the NCAA East Preliminaries in the long jump — all while completing her student teaching responsibilities at Angier Elementary School.
With one year of eligibility remaining, she started her graduate studies while holding
The generosity of Fighting Camel fans, alumni, family and friends makes a difference in the lives of student-athletes. Through the newly created Women's Empowerment Fund, the Fighting Camel Club's goal is to make that experience even better, specifically for our female student-athletes.
“My scholarship was so directly beneficial to me day to day,” said former volleyball standout Maggie Salisbury. “I would not have been at Campbell without it.”
Learn more at gocamels.com
down a full-time teacher’s assistant job. And, yes, she was an all-conference long jumper both indoors and outdoors in Campbell’s first year as a member of the Coastal Athletic Association. She is even more proud of the fact that she recorded a perfect 4.0 grade-point average in the classroom while working fulltime and competing in Division I athletics.
INSPIRED TO TEACH
Not only did Bailey-Perkins have a built-in support system with her teammates, she also felt an immediate connection to the education department faculty.
She also made close connections with her teachers, just like she did in elementary, middle and high school. Professional Education Professor Olivia Wakefield made a lasting impact on a freshman who was attending school eight hours from home.
“Mrs. Wakefield got me through a lot of things she didn‘t even know she got me through. She‘s my angel here at Campbell University. Mrs. Wakefield actually, genuinely cares about people. Now, I want to be like her for my students.”
Inspired by her professors and encourage
WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT FUND
by her principal at Angier Elementary School, Bailey-Perkins helped form a mentoring program at the school during her student teaching assignment. The school started a “Campbell Character Counts“ award, which includes presentations by Fighting Camel athletes. Campbell athletes also regularly visit the school to read to and otherwise interact as mentors with students.
“I want these kids to know they can be more than what their life is showing them right now,”Bailey-Perkins said. “Being able to see that light bulb go on and that smile on their face knowing they just broke a barrier in their brain they didn‘t know they had, they have so much higher aspirations for themselves.”
Graduation Day in 2023 was significant for a number of reasons in Destiny Bailey-Perkins’ life. She not only became the first person in her family to graduate from college, but she set a standard that her siblings were excited to follow.
“When I graduated, that was the first time all of my siblings, my dad and my mom were together at once,” she said. “My
Destiny Bailey-Perkins on her family: “I like to say I have a lot of titles and while being a teacher is really high up there, my most favorite title in the whole world is being a big sister. For my siblings to be able to chase their dreams worryfree, because I paved the way for them is the best feeling I could have in the world.” Photo: Campbell Athletics
sister now wants to go [to college] after she gets out of the Army. My youngest brother wants to be a teacher. My two middle brothers, one of them wants to go to school for photography and one wants to go for engineering. Seeing them not
even think about that barrier anymore that means the world to me.”
She said growing up, she was always called on to watch over her siblings, and eventually, she knew one day she was going to help children. She said her time at Campbell fostered that calling and inspired her to seek a career in deducation.
“Campbell pulled that out of me. I had no choice but to grow here at Campbell and become who I was. I don‘t think I could put into words how meaningful being at Campbell was to me. From the relationships I‘ve made with my friends, coaches, administration, professors, the growth I made on the track and in the classroom, my experience at Campbell meant the world to me. I could not picture a different path for me that would‘ve put me in a position that made me happier than I am today.”
“I go into work early with a smile,” she said. “Being able to be my happy self in a job I love around people I love I really think I‘m living the dream.”
Read Stan Cole’s full story and learn more about the Women's Emplowerment Fund at gocamels.com.
clinical law professor Jon Powell was the guest speaker.
Restoring justice, lives
Law graduate continues to serve boys and girls caught up in North Carolina's judicial system
From a young age, Monica Veno knew she wanted to become an attorney and had a clear vision of her path to that goal. While a freshman at Campbell University, she met an academic advisor who helped expedite her path to law school. She got her undergraduate degree in just three years, and during that time, she took an introductory criminal law course where
It was that day she learned about the Campbell Law Restorative Justice Clinic, a program that works with juvenile offenders — and young people who have been affected by crime and disruptive behavior — and fosters collaborative healing, rather than punishment.
The idea intrigued Veno. She was admitted into Campbell’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at just 20 and after a year of classes with administrative and transactional components (neither of which interested her), she sought elective courses in the clinic and reconnected with Powell.
Immediately, Veno found her calling. The work at the clinic — research on how individuals and communities are hurt as a result of crime and seeking solutions to repair the damage done — resonated with her.
Monica Veno found a passion for helping young boys and girls caught up in North Carolina's justice system while a student at Campbell Law School. The two-time Campbell graduate today serves as a specialist for the N.C. Division of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency program, which partners with Campbell's Restorative Justice Clinic.
“A child who doesn’t come from the greatest community, doesn’t attend the greatest school and doesn’t come from a family where their parents are together … they have to fight so much harder in life. [The fight] can come out as aggression toward others. They get into arguments at school. They don’t know the value of an education,” she says.
“Children as young as 9 to 11 end up in court rooms. Then detention centers. And it looks sad … seeing what’s essentially a prison with a bunch of kids in it.”
The clinic showed Veno she could turn her passion into a career, and when she earned her law degree in 2021, she was ready to make a difference. The pandemic, however, presented particular challenges for restorative justice practices, which tend to thrive in educational settings, community organizations and residential facilities such as jails, prisons and youth centers.
At the time, there were rumors of a grant becoming available for a position bringing restorative justice to institutionalized youth, although it had not materialized when she graduated. Unable to find any positions in North Carolina, Veno began looking outside of the state and accepted a teaching position at a community college in Colorado. She delayed this position for a semester to spend more time working with Powell in the Restorative Justice Clinic.
Fate had other plans for Veno when a local position aligned with her passion for restorative justice opened up. She joined the Dispute Settlement Center in Carrboro as a fundraising associate. There, Veno found herself immersed in meaningful work that bridged her interests in law and social justice.
MONICA VENO ('18, '21 LAW)
While passionate about this work, the position was fundraising-focused and did not allow her to fully devote herself to restorative justice practices.
More than two years after graduation, the rumored grant became available to spearhead restorative justice initiatives within youth institutions. Veno immediately applied and secured the position. Now, she serves as a restorative justice specialist for the North Carolina Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, where she creates restorative justice programs for young people in residential facilities across the state.
Through this role, Veno now partners directly with the Campbell Law Restorative Justice Clinic to facilitate the next generation of Campbell Law students’ participation in this work.
“I wanted a law degree, because I feel I’m meant to do something good in this world,” she says. “I enjoy doing the research and learning more about issues that are important to me. Along the way, I learned more about myself.”
“I fell in love with the clinic and I have seen the impact it has on people’s lives. When students complete the program, they’re a whole new person. I’ve seen students come in after altercations find common ground and become friends again. They’re grateful they have someone who believes in them.”
— EMILY SULLIVAN
The Restorative Justice Clinic at Campbell Law School has allowed students to make a tremendous impact in the local community.
The clinic receives referrals from juvenile intake counselors, juvenile court, the local school system and private individuals who have been affected by crime or disruptive behavior. The clinic strives to bring victims and offenders together using restorative justice practices in an effort to foster collaborative healing, rather than specifically seeking punishment.
Learn more about the history of the Restorative Justice Clinic in a video featuring Professor John Powell (’98) and students like Monica Veno in the online version of this story at campbell.edu
DR. NORM CRUMPACKER (’97 MBA) was elected president of the University of Mount Olive Alumni Association Board. He is currently an associate professor of management and the assessment coordinator within Mount Olive’s School of Business.
DAVE BOLIEK (’97 LAW) was elected to the North Carolina state auditor seat. Boliek serves as chairman of the UNC Board of Trustees and previously ran a small business.
HARRY SIDERIS (’98 MBA) was named president of Duke Energy in April. His previous roles at Duke since 1996 include executive vice president of customer experience, solutions and services; state president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in Florida; and senior VP of environmental health and safety.
ADRIENNE BLOCKER (’98 LAW) of the DeMayo Law Firm in Charlotte was named among the 50 Most Influential Women in North Carolina’s legal and business community by N.C. Lawyers Weekly
2000s
BETH HOLMES (’01) was chosen to serve on the Spruce Pine Town Board in western North Carolina.
TONY PROCTOR (’03 MBA) was named chief financial officer of George Clinical, a leading global clinical research organization headquartered in Singapore, China.
Monica Veno was one of seven students featured in a Campbell Magazine article in 2020 about the Black Law Student Association at Campbell Law School and its advocacy during the Black Lives Matter movement. Photos by Ben Brown
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE CLINIC
ALUMNI NOTES
RYAN
BISPLINGHOFF (’07 LAW) was appointed to the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington’s Board of Trustees in December. Bisplinghoff is the director of project development for Clancy & Theys Construction’s Wilmington Division.
TOM MURRY (’07 LAW) won Seat 12 on the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the November election. Murry previously served in the N.C. House of Representatives 41st District and was an assistant district attorney and judge advocate in the N.C. Army National Guard.
2010s
The Hon. COURTNEY SLOANE MARLOWE (’10) became the newest District Judge for Alexander and Iredell counties on Jan. 1, 2025. Marlowe was elected in November. She became a practicing attorney in Alexander County in 2013 at the age of 25.
NAM DOUGLASS (’11 LAW) was promoted to partner at Garfinkel Immigration Law Firm in Charlotte. Douglass originally joined the firm in 2021 as a senior associate attorney.
NEAL INMAN (’12) was named to North Carolina House of Representatives Speaker Destin Hall’s office in January. Inman serves as Hall’s Chief of Staff.
Neal O'Neal, Wanda Watkins and Dr. Christopher Dague show off their Distinguished Alumni plaques received at a ceremony on Oct. 25. Said Dague: "Receiving this award ... is arguably one of the greatest accomplishments I've ever had."
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI
A teacher, a pharmacist and a legendary basketball coach
The Campbell University Alumni Association hosted the Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony on Oct. 25 at the Oscar N. Harris Student Union. The ceremony recognized three outstanding alumni — Dr. Christopher Dague (’09), Neal O’Neal (’81), and Wanda Watkins (’79) — for their professional achievements, service to their communities, and lifelong commitment to Campbell.
Dr. Christopher Dague (’09 M.Ed.) has spent the last 20 years in education, excelling as a teacher, coach and now professor. He began his career teaching world and European history and coaching baseball at Jack Britt High School in Fayetteville, where he became the winningest baseball coach in school history. After earning a Ph.D. from NC State University, Dague transitioned to higher education, teaching for Campbell University’s Adult and Online Education program and later becoming an
associate professor at The Citadel. He recently published his first book, Discussions and Democracy: Motivation, Growth and the New Social Studies Classroom
“Receiving this award, to be recognized as a Distinguished Alum, is arguably one of the greatest accomplishments I’ve ever had,” Dague said.
He also reflected on his earliest experience with Campbell, recalling a memorable conversation with former Campbell Vice President Dr. Jack Britt. “At the end of our conversation, he gave me that bone-crushing handshake and said, ‘I want you to be a Campbell man.’ Six months later, I started.”
Neal O’Neal (’81), a third-generation pharmacist, has devoted his career to advancing healthcare in rural eastern North Carolina, particularly in Beaufort and Hyde counties. He served on the board of the local hospital
Photo by Bennett Scarborough
in Belhaven and on the board of directors for Mutual Drug. Neal’s leadership played a crucial role in ensuring early access to COVID-19 vaccines in his community, and his contributions to healthcare have earned him several awards. He and his wife Helene, a family nurse practitioner, provide essential healthcare services in the region through their pharmacies and Helene’s practice.
“The things that I learned at Campbell— the community involvement and moral compass—have kept me focused on what I need to do,” O’Neal said. “Campbell helped me understand how to treat people and meet their needs.”
O’Neal’s connection to Campbell is reflected in his extensive involvement on university boards, including the CPHS Alumni Board, the Dean’s Advisory Council, the Pharmacy Advisory Council, and the Presidential Board of Advisors. Neal and Helene are also top donors to the university, having established an endowed scholarship for pharmacy students from eastern North Carolina.
Wanda Watkins (’79) is a trailblazer in Campbell Athletics, becoming the university’s first female scholarship athlete when she enrolled in 1975. A standout on both the basketball and softball teams, Watkins captained both squads and was named MVP
of the 1978-79 basketball season. She later transitioned into coaching and led Campbell’s women’s basketball team for 35 years, amassing 549 wins, making her the winningest coach in program history. Her career included 10 conference championship appearances and two tournament titles, including the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth in 2000.
Post-coaching, she went on to serve as an administrator in Campbell Athletics.
“Leadership was something I learned at Campbell early on,” Watkins said.
She reflected on the importance of purposeful leadership: “Leading with purpose is important. We all have to find our purpose and then lead by our purpose. Campbell does a tremendous job of preparing people for what’s ahead post-graduation.”
Watkins also spoke about the lasting impact of Campbell’s community.
“It’s great being part of a university where someone can sit down and maybe have a prayer with you,” she said. “I am so proud to be associated with Campbell. It has shaped and molded my entire life—from studentathlete days to coaching and administration. I’ve done a little bit of everything here, and it has taught me so much.”
JOHN HARDIN (’12 LAW) co-founded The Raleigh Group, which provides “comprehensive lobbying, consulting, government contracting and economic development services.” He is also the new firm’s president.
CAPT. SHIRLY RIVERA (’15) assumed command of the U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command at Fort Detrick, Maryland, in September. Before immigrating to the U.S. from El Salvador at the age of 12, Rivera first enlisted in the Army in 2006 and attended Campbell through the Army’s Green to Gold program.
DR. DAVID GREGORY (’17 DO) joined the Orthopedic Associates of Lancaster (Penn.) as a total joint replacement surgeon. Gregory has expertise in minimally invasive techniques, total knee replacement, revision hip and knee replacement and anterior and mini-posterior total hip replacement.
MASON SLEDGE (’18 MED ) was named head football coach at Union Academy High School in Charlotte. Sledge was the interim coach for the Cardinals during the 2024 season. Sledge was a starting center at Campbell University as a graduate student and served as a graduate assistant on the coaching staff.
DR. ALEXANDRA JOHNSON (’18 DO) joined Ballad Health Medical Association Orthopedic Surgery in Tennessee, where she will treat patients with a wide variety of musculoskeletal conditions.
David ('90) and Lorine ('93) Lewis and their children Anthony ('19) and Liza, a current freshman at Campbell, were named the University's Family of the Year in February and were honored at a ceremony during Family Weekend. Anthony was a member of the inaugural Sound of the Sandhills Marching Band as an undergrad, and Liza followed in his footsteps and joined the band in 2024. The legacy family hails from Raleigh.
FAMILY OF THE YEAR
ALUMNI NOTES
ELIZABETH YELVERTON (’18 LAW) joined the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Government Affairs team as legislative liaison. A licensed attorney, Yelverton previously served as legal affairs and policy manager and executive board attorney for the N.C. Association of School Administrators.
JOE STEADMAN (’19 BBA, MBA) was named among Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers in America for 2025-2026. Steadman is the director of instruction at The Country Club of North Carolina and is an Army veteran having served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
2020s
DR. DANIEL MOE (’20 DO) joined Essential Health-Fargo health care system located in Fargo, North Dakota.
KAYLA ZMAYEFSKI (’20 BSN) earned a Master of Science in Nursing degree from Georgetown University and is now a certified adult gerontological acute care nurse practitioner.
MIRIAM SHEPPARD (’22 LAW) was named an associate attorney in the business litigation group at Womble Bond Dickinson law firm. Sheppard previously clerked at the N.C. Business Court in Charlotte.
MARINA MADDALONI (’20, ’22 MSCR) and QUINTON EDWARDS (’19, ’21 MSPH, ’24 MPAP) were married on Aug. 9, in San Miniato, Italy. Marina also earned her Doctor of Healthcare Science degree in 2024 from Pacific University in Oregon. Quinton is currently employed as a physician assistant with CommWell Health in Four Oaks, North Carolina.
CAROLINE SALM ('20, ‘22) and QUINTON FOSTER ('21) were married on Feb. 25, 2024, in Dunn. The two met at freshman orientation at Campbell in 2016 and began dating the following spring.
JOSH HEIL ('20) and MADELINE FITCH HEIL ('20, '24 DPT) were married in December, 2022, and Madeline earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in 2024. Josh is an assistant coach for Campbell University's wrestling program.
HOLDEN COX (’23 DPT) was named vice president of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the American Physical Therapy Association of N.C.
SHELBY FERARA (’23 BSN) became a staff 3 hematology and oncology pediatrics registered nurse shortly after graduation at Brenner Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem.
CATHERINE CAMPBELL KING (1927-2024)
Grandaughter of founder saw century of family’s legacy
Catherine Campbell King, the granddaughter of Campbell University founder J.A. Campbell and daughter of its second president, Leslie Campbell, passed away at her home on Sept. 22, 2024.
She was 97 years old.
Born on June 27, 1927, in Harnett County to the late Leslie Hartwell Campbell and Ora Green Campbell, King received her associate’s degree from her family’s school — then Campbell College — and completed her bachelor’s degree in home economics from Meredith College. She completed her formal education by earning her master’s degree in home economics from the Woman’s College in Greensboro (UNCG).
After working with the North Carolina Extension Service for several years, she taught at Ohio University and then returned to Campbell where she was a professor for over 35 years.
King loved her students and loved teaching. She had a passion for housing and interior
design. She particularly enjoyed supervising and teaching home management skills while students resided in the Home Management House, the former residence of her grandmother, Cornelia Pearson Campbell. Late in her career, King joined Womble Realty and found joy in helping individuals find that perfect home.
As charter members of Memorial Baptist Church, she and her husband Bob devoted their lives to the church, Campbell University and the Buies Creek community. They worked endless hours to support these institutions that they were passionate about and to whom they were committed. The Kings also worked together to raise awareness, sponsorship of and funding for the Harnett County Historical Society Foundation, the organization responsible for the preservation of the J.A. Campbell House in Buies Creek.
King was the matriarch of the Campbell family and loved the time she spent with them. She was an inspiration, mentor and example of what it means to live a Christian life.
LOGAN BAKER (’23) joined Pendleton Square’s new Scottsdale, Ariz., office as a trust officer, managing relationships and supporting development efforts across Arizona and the West Coast.
TERESA R. FREEMAN (’24 LLM) was elected to serve another fouryear term as District Court Judge in North Carolina’s Judicial District 7, serving Bertie, Halifax, Hertford and Northampton counties.
AVERY LECLEAR (’24) was named director of the Clinton-Sampson Chamber of Commerce.
EMILY SULLIVAN (’24 LAW) joined Ward and Smith Attorneys at Law in Wilmington. Her practice focuses on real estate transactions and development projects.
BRITTANY WILEY (’24 PA, MPH) joined the medical team at Wilson Community Health Center in her hometown.
Catherine Campbell King (right) during her final year at Campbell College as the maid of honor for the 1946 May Queen, Margaret Darden (left). Photo: 1946 Pine Burr Yearbook
The case for development
Ihad never heard of CASE when I joined Campbell University in 2011. All I knew about it at the time was what former Vice President for Advancement Britt Davis said about it during my job interview — “I'd love to see this magazine win a CASE award.”
That sounded fancy. And it sounded like a challenge. So, I was all in.
Fourteen years later, CASE — which stands for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and includes professionals from the marketing, communications, philanthropy, giving and alumni relations side of higher education — has become a huge part of my career in higher development. Since 2013, the year we landed that first award, I’ve been to 12 CASE district conferences scattered throughout the Southeast (Orlando, Atlanta and Nashville), a few CASE Editor’s Forums and various planning meetings in Miami, Tampa and Charleston.
Along the way, I’ve met more colleagues than I can count, developed friendships and learned a lot from others in this industry who are far more experienced and talented than I’ll ever be. I also took Britt’s Day 1 challenge seriously, and to date, Campbell Magazine has won 56 total CASE awards, eight of them at the international level.
I say all of this because this spring’s conference in Orlando was my last as a member of the District III cabinet. And, for now anyway, it was my last CASE conference. My focus has shifted to a more local group — the College News Association of the Carolinas — an organization of higher ed marketing and communications professionals in North and South Carolina. For reasons unknown, I was named president of CNAC this past spring, and I’ve so far used everything I’ve learned from CASE to make this group and its annual conference as relevant and “worth it” as possible.
There is debate nationally on the role and value of professional development organizations and the conferences they produce. Often, when elected officials come in and promise to slash budgets, professional development is among the first cuts made.
Those who are argue that these eliminations are needed view it as a luxury — a “perk” of being in the industry and certainly not something that has a positive effect on the bottom line.
I’ve become an advocate for professional development — or as some industries call it, “learning and development” — thanks to my time at CASE. And those who argue for its inclusion in annual budgets, even during economically lean years, say organizations that don’t value it risk high turnover rates, decreased employee engagement, skill gaps and innovation stagnation [Training Industry report, December 2024].
“Having a good time in a sunny and warm city in February” and “meeting new friends” aren’t convincing reasons for your business manager to keep these trips or even online conferences in the budget.
But hearing a former Washington Post writer and published author talk about the rhythm of writing at an Editor’s Forum a few years back absolutely made me want to become a better writer. Sessions I attended in my early years on telling alumni stories without a doubt helped my transition into higher education.
Magazine design. Artificial intelligence. Social media. Departmental collaboration. Photography and videography. I’ve learned from professionals in all of these areas. I gotten to know editors from Auburn University, Virginia, Wake Forest and UNC. And now with CNAC, I’m considered the “old guy” for a new generation of professionals in this field. And I’m getting more out of these relationships than I think they are.
So is professional development worth it? Absolutely. And I’m grateful to Campbell for encouraging my own growth in this industry.
Billy Liggett Editor | Campbell Magazine
FROM THE VAULT
Barbara
pose for a group photo during Harvest Week celebrations in October of 1969. The Harvest Festival was an annual fall celebration at Campbell that ran from the 1950s through the mid 1980s — and each year, the festival named a queen and her court. From the group above, Watts was named queen in 1969.
Currie, Judy Jackson, Bonnie Love, Paula Watts, Ruthie Odom and Vada Palma
