School of Public Health Alumnus Dr. William Carter Jenkins to be honored at University Day ceremony
| October 06, 2004 | |
| CHAPEL HILL – Dr. William Carter Jenkins, an alumnus of the University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health will be one of five university alumni to receive a 2004 Distinguished Alumna and Alumnus Award at the annual University Day ceremony on Oct. 12. The free public ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. in Hill Hall. Classes will be suspended from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. that day so that students, faculty and staff may attend the ceremony.The ceremony celebrates the 211th birthday of the nation’s oldest public university. The UNC Board of Trustees created University Day to commemorate the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the first state university building, on Oct. 12, 1793.
The university was chartered by the state legislature in 1789 and welcomed its first students in 1795. University Day became a college holiday in 1877. Jenkins, who recently retired from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, is to be honored for his life-long dedication to furthering public health, racial justice and human rights. He sought to end the Tuskegee study that came to symbolize unethical treatment of human research subjects. Public outcry stimulated new federal laws to protect research participants. Born in Mount Pleasant, S.C., Jenkins earned master’s and doctoral degrees in public health at UNC, in 1977 and 1983. Other Distinguished Alumna and Alumnus Award recipients this year are Dr. Elson S. Floyd of Columbia, Mo., president of the University of Missouri system and former executive vice chancellor at Carolina, from 1995-98; Dr. Charles Melvin Hudson Jr. of Danielsville, Ga., Franklin Professor of Anthropology and History Emeritus at the University of Georgia; Dr. John Frederick Schultz of Richmond, Va., president and chief executive officer of the Christian Children’s Fund; and Marilyn Zschau, a soprano who has performed in the major opera houses of Europe, the United States and South America. Floyd, a Henderson native, earned bachelor’s (1978), master’s (1982) and doctoral degrees (1984) from the UNC School of Education. He was a higher education administrator in Washington state before returning to Carolina, where he worked for 14 years before becoming president of Western Michigan University in 1998. He moved on to Missouri in 2002. Hudson, a native of Frankfurt, Ky., began researching Native Americans of the Southeast while earning master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology at Carolina, in 1962 and 1965. His first book, “The Catawba Nation” (1970) led to more study of the South Carolina tribe; Hudson compiled their history over 250 years and became a pioneer in the then-emerging methodology of ethno-history. Schultz, born in Raleigh, graduated in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in religious studies. He later earned master’s degrees in divinity and philosophy and a doctorate in economic geography. The Christian Children’s Fund serves more than 4.6 million children and families each year in 31 nations. Schultz joined the fund in 1990 and was elected president in 1998. He previously worked with humanitarian organizations in Africa. Born in Chicago, Zschau grew up in Raleigh. She earned a bachelor’s degree in radio, television and motion pictures from UNC in 1959, then studied at the Juilliard School. Her professional debut was with the Metropolitan Opera National Company as Angelina in Rossini’s “Cenerentola” in 1965. She also has starred with the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Dr. James H. Johnson Jr., the William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of management in UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, will deliver the University Day keynote address titled “People and Jobs on the Move: Implications for Higher Education.” Johnson will discuss challenges that colleges and universities will face in the years ahead because of dramatic demographic and economic changes occurring now in North Carolina and around the world. Johnson directs the Urban Investment Strategies Center in the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC. The center seeks innovative ways to revitalize distressed communities and narrow the gap between haves and have-nots. Among its projects is the Durham Scholars Program, a year-round educational initiative for youth in northeast and central Durham. Johnson researches topics including community and economic development; poverty and public policy in urban America; workforce diversity; and the impact of offshore movement of white collar jobs on urban competitiveness. His areas of expertise include causes and consequences of inequality in American society and entrepreneurial approaches to poverty alleviation, job creation and community development. Note: Photos of the honorees and speaker are available by contacting News Services at 919-962-2091 News Services contacts: Print, L.J. Toler, 919-962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, 919-962-9585 |
