Alumni Elected, Appointed to GAA Board

Posted on May 11, 2020

At a yet-to-be rescheduled Annual Alumni Luncheon, Jill Silverstein Gammon ’70 of Raleigh will be installed as chair of the GAA Board of Directors, succeeding Rich Leonard ’71 of Raleigh. Dana Simpson ’96 of Raleigh is chair-elect. The luncheon originally had been scheduled for May 9.

Gammon, who received a master’s degree in social work from UNC in 1972, is a retired certified integrative health coach; prior to that, she was a capacity-building consultant to nonprofits. She was chosen chair-elect in 2019 after serving on the board as first vice chair (2016-17), N.C. district representative (2013-16) and chair of the Activities Committee (2015-16). She was a charter member and vice chair of the School of Social Work’s board of advisers and received the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Champions Award for outstanding commitment and service to the school. On the UNC Board of Visitors, she was vice chair of the Best Practices Committee. As a student, she received a National Institute of Mental Health graduate fellowship, was a student representative on the School of Social Work’s dean selection committee and on the school’s governance committee and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Simpson, who also earned a law degree from UNC in 2000, is a partner with Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan. He has been on the board as first vice chair (2018-19) and as an at-large director (2013-16). As a student, he was a member of Order of the Golden Fleece and Order of the Bell Tower, was president of Graham Residence Hall and, as a law student, was on Law Review. He is a member of the School of Government Foundation and the School of Law Alumni Association. He is a former member of the UNC Board of Visitors.

Other new board members elected by Carolina Alumni members or appointed by the board are:

Jan Rowe Capps ’75 of Wrightsville Beach is first vice chair, and Mary Argentine Adams Cooper ’12 of Nashville, Tenn., is second vice chair.

Capps, retired president of the Cone Health Foundation, has been an at-large director (2017-20) and a member of the GAA’s Alumni Career Advisor Network and the Tar Heel Network. She is co-chair of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center board of visitors, a member of Lineberger’s campaign cabinet, a member of the executive committee of the UNC Global Leadership Council, a member of the Chancellor’s Philanthropic Council and a former member of the UNC Board of Visitors. As a student, she worked in Wilson Library.

Cooper, STEM instructional coach at Valor Collegiate Academy, has been on the board as an out-of-state representative (2017-20) and as an ex officio member when she was student body president (2011-12). As a student, she also was director of Hope Gardens, philanthropy chair of Kappa Delta, coxswain for the men’s crew team and a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

 

Elected to three-year terms representing N.C. districts:

Patrick J. Ballantine ’87 of Wilmington to the district for Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Edgecombe, Gates, Greene, Halifax, Hertford, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrell and Washington counties. Ballantine is president of the Ballantine Co. and a former Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina and former minority leader of the N.C. Senate. As a student, he was vice president of Pi Kappa Phi, a captain in intramural athletics, a volunteer with Campus Y/Big Buddy and a volunteer at the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center. He is a former member of the UNC Board of Visitors.

Veronica Mora Flaspoehler ’08 of Huntersville and Dr. Robert M. Selden III ’94 of Charlotte to the district for Anson, Cabarrus, Davie, Davidson, Gaston, Iredell, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Moore, Rowan, Randolph, Stanly and Union counties.

Flaspoehler is enterprise risk senior manager for Wells Fargo. She is chair of the UNC Board of Visitors’ student career services committee and a member of the Office of Development’s Alumni Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. She has been a member of the Young Alumni Leadership Council and a keynote speaker for the Hayden B. Renwick Recognition Ceremony for Academic Achievement and for the UNC Womxn of Worth. As a student, she was vice president of the senior class, president of the Public Policy Majors Club and a member of Campus Crusade.

Selden, who also earned a doctor of dental surgery degree in 1998 and a master of science in orthodontics in 2001 from UNC, is an orthodontist with Selden Orthodontics. He is an adjunct clinical faculty member at UNC Orthodontics. He is a recipient of the GAA-sponsored Black Alumni Reunion’s Harvey E. Beech Outstanding Young Alumni Award (2012), a recipient of the Orthodontic Teaching Award, former chair of the Dental Foundation of N.C. and former member of the UNC Board of Visitors. As a student, he was treasurer and community service chair of Kappa Alpha Psi, president of the Student National Dental Association, a Project Uplift counselor for the Office of Minority Student Affairs, recipient of the Undergraduate Kappa Man of the Year Award (Middle Eastern province), a Pogue Scholar, a UNC System Board of Governors’ Dental Scholar and a Brooks Orthodontic Fellow.

Donna Curtis McClatchey ’93 of Raleigh to the district for Franklin, Nash and Wake counties. She is a member of the UNC Women’s Leadership Council executive committee and a board member of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media Foundation. She is a former member of the UNC Board of Visitors and former member of the young alumni committee of the Carolina First Campaign. As a student at UNC, she was a member of Chi Omega and a volunteer with Campus Y/Big Buddy.

Elected to three-year terms representing out-of-state alumni:

Dr. Robert L. Ferris ’90 of Pittsburgh to the district for international alumni, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Ferris is director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Hillman Cancer Center and professor of immunology at the university. He was on the board as an ex officio member when he was senior class president (1989-90) and is a member of the Pittsburgh Carolina Club. He is a former member of the Carolina First Campaign’s young alumni leadership committee. As a student, he was a member of Campus Y and a recipient of the E. Eugene Jackson Award for Leadership. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Benjamin Boykin II ’72 of White Plains, N.Y., to the district for Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. Boykin is a CPA and president of Ben Boykin & Associates, as well as chair of the Westchester County, N.Y., Board of Legislators. He is a recipient of the GAA-sponsored Black Alumni Reunion’s Harvey E. Beech Outstanding Alumni Award (2013). As a student, he was a member of the Black Student Movement and a recipient of the Marvin B. Smith Business Scholarship. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society.

Samuel L. Fulwood III ’78 of Washington, D.C., to the district for the District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia. Fulwood is senior fellow for the Center for American Progress, an author and Pulitzer Prize winner while at the Los Angeles Times for coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. He is an advisory board member for UNC’s Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. He is a recipient of the GAA-sponsored Black Alumni Reunion’s Harvey E. Beech Outstanding Alumni Award (2015), a former member of the UNC Board of Visitors and a former advisory board member of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. As a student, he was a reporter and photographer for The Daily Tar Heel, a charter member of the Mu Zeta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha and a member of the Black Student Movement, the Order of the Grail and the Order of the Old Well.

Elected to a three-year term on UNC’s Athletic Council:

Meghan Elizabeth Lyons ’13 of Charlottesville, Va., is an MBA student at the University of Virginia. She is a member of the Ram’s Club board of advisers and the UNC Friends of the Library. As a student, she was member of the 2009 national champion field hockey team and three runner-up teams, a member of two ACC championship teams, two-term president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, student member of the board of the Friends of the Library, a member of the Undergraduate Honor Court, a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a finalist for the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup, a recipient of the Athletic Director’s Scholar-Athlete Award, a veteran leader of the Carolina Leadership Academy, a Carolina Dreams ambassador to UNC Children’s Hospital, a participant in Carolina Outreach, a member of the TEDxUNC organizing committee and Delta Delta Delta, a Buckley Public Service Scholar, a recipient of the field hockey Players’ Player Award and four-time member of the ACC Honor Roll.

Appointed as at-large directors to three-year terms:

Pamela Hicks Ferguson ’80 of New York. Ferguson is managing partner and wealth management consultant with Turlington Hicks LLC. She is a member, co-chair of membership engagement and regional co-chair on student recruitment of the UNC Board of Visitors; a supporter of the UNC Lacrosse Capstone Networking Program; a member of the Rams Club; and a member of the New York Carolina Club. As a student, she was a member, pledge class vice president and pledge trainer of Chi Omega; and a photographer covering UNC’s athletics for the Chapel Hill Newspaper.

Russell B. Holderness ’72 of Tarboro. Holderness is the retired owner of the Rural Equity Corp. and treasurer of the Nash-Edgecombe Down East Partnership for Children, where he had been chair. As a student, he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta.

 

 

Also appointed:

Susan Harrell Irons ’80 (MA) of Chapel Hill as the board faculty representative. Irons, who also earned a doctorate in English from UNC in 2001, is a teaching professor in the department of English and comparative literature, focusing on literature of the American South, American literature, approaches to regional theater and business communication. She is director of the Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence Program and the Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lecture. She is a recipient of UNC’s Tanner, Flora and Gaskin teaching awards.

Dwight M. “Davy” Davidson III ’77 of Greensboro was appointed treasurer, and Wade M. Smith ’60 (’63 LLBJD) of Raleigh was reappointed counsel.

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