Foundation Board

The Board of Directors of the School of Education Foundation, Inc., advises the dean on broad goals and future direction of the School. The Board members are committed to enhancing the School’s capacity to serve the educators, students and families of North Carolina and the nation. The Foundation Board meets at least twice a year in Chapel Hill.

A key responsibility of the Board is to oversee the management and disbursement of the endowment and trust funds of the Foundation. The School’s endowment assets are invested through the University of North Carolina Management Co., Inc.

In addition, the Board serves in an advocacy role for the School of Education. Board members communicate the School’s priorities, activities and accomplishments to others. They also serve as liaisons with organizations and individuals with whom the School may collaborate.

The Foundation Board also assists in strengthening the School’s financial base by helping to secure private contributions for support of scholarships, fellowships, professorships and priority initiatives.

The current officers of the Board are:

President and CEO – Bill McDiarmid, dean of the School of Education;
Vice President – Malbert Smith III, president and chief executive officer of MetaMetrics Inc. in Durham, N.C.;
Secretary/Treasurer – Moyer Smith, Sr.

Ten additional elected directors currently serve on the Board. They are:

Gail Weaver Bunn (A.B.Ed. ’72), a retired banking executive and former early childhood educator now residing in Kiawah Island, S.C.;
Fred Pfohl Crouch, II
Robert Wendell Eaves, Jr., a businessman and accountant who is majority owner of the Right Stuff Food Stores, former CEO of Globe Oil, and currently serving as North Carolina’s First Gentleman, residing in Raleigh, N.C.;
Ronald Thayer Haskins, Senior Policy Analyst at the Brookings Institute in Rockville, MD.;
Gerry House (Ed.D. ’88), president and CEO of the Institute for Student Achievement, an organization in New York that works to improve the quality of education for at-risk students;
Robena “Ben” Kendrick Hussman, a former businesswoman and advocate for educational reform from Little Rock, Ark.;
Harold Lillard Kennedy III, an attorney and partner with the firm Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy & Kennedy in Winston-Salem, N.C.;
Thomas Willis Lambeth, former executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and current senior fellow at the ZSR Foundation, from Winston-Salem, N.C.;
Sharon Rose Powell, a psychologist and founder of the Princeton Center for Leadership Training in Princeton, N.J.;
Bill Shore, director of U.S. community partnerships for GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical and healthcare company in Research Triangle Park, N.C.;
Zollie Stevenson, Jr. (Ph.D. ’84), Associate Prof in Education Leadership at Howard University in Bowie, MD.;
Ann Gobbel Sullivan; and
Clarence York, an educational consultant specializing in developmental disabilities from New York City.

In addition, six people serve as ex-officio members of the Board by virtue of the positions they hold. They are:

Robert Hornketh Bellamy, president of the Alumni Council of the School of Education;
Wendy Gratz Borman, assistant dean for external relations of the School of Education;
Laurie Jane Norman, director of alumni relations of the School of Education;
John Plummer, assistant dean for administration and finance of the School of Education;
Cynthia Cole Rigsbee, president elect of the Alumni Council of the School of Education.

The following staff functions are performed to assist the officers:

Executive Director – Wendy Gratz Borman, assistant dean for external relations of the School of Education;
Fiscal Agent – John Plummer, assistant dean for administration and finance of the School of Education;
Assistant Secretary – Michael Hobbs, director of communications of the School of Education.

For additional information on the School of Education’s Foundation Board, contact Wendy Gratz Borman, assistant dean for external relations, at wendy_borman@unc.edu or (919) 843-4536.