2018 Award Recipients

2018 Award Recipients

Virgil Clark '50 Distinguished Service Award


Mr. Danny Scott '84

Danny Scott of Swansea, Illinois, graduated from the College of Business in 1984. Scott had a 30 year career in corporate business at Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto Company, and Nabisco before co-founding the specialty food company All-N-Food, LLC in 2011. Scott served on the ECU Board of Trustees for eight years, was the recipient of the Laura Marie Leary Elliott Courageous Leader Award in 2015, and established a COB scholarship in 2008. Whenever he visits campus, Scott speaks with COB classes and on student discussion panels. He also serves as mentor and coach to students.


 

Honorary Alumni Award


Dr. Austin Bunch (posthumous)

From his arrival at ECU in 1999 to his death in 2017, Dr. Austin Bunch impacted almost every major campus celebration including installations, commencements, convocations, and awards days. His talents and love of the university were felt by hundreds of people across multiple administrations. Bunch served as assistant to Chancellor Richard Eakin; an adjunct assistant professor in the College of Education; Chief of Staff to Chancellor William Muse and then Chancellor Steve Ballard; and Associate Provost and later Senior Associate Provost of Academic Affairs. Friends remember Bunch as a living embodiment of ECU’s motto, “Servire.” 

In addition to his many contributions to ECU, Bunch also served as chair of the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce, secretary of the Greenville-Pitt County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and on the Boards of Go-Science, Pitt County Arts Council, and the Oakwood School Advisory Committee.



Outstanding Alumni Award


Dr. Kodi Azari '97

Dr. Kodi Azari of Pacific Palisades, California, graduated from the Brody School of Medicine in 1997. He is now Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Plastic Surgery and the world-renowned surgical director of the hand transplant program at UCLA Health. Azari was one of the lead surgeons in the first double-hand transplant and the first arm transplant performed in the United States. He is also the medical co-director of Operation Mend, a UCLA Health program that provides free complex reconstructive surgery and psychological support to wounded service members. He credits ECU for shaping his career.

 

 

 


Lt. Commander Kathleen Ferguson Tisdale '07

Lt. Commander Kathleen Ferguson Tisdale of Atlanta graduated from the College of Health and Human Performance in 2007. As a quality assurance specialist for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, Ferguson Tisdale approves and rejects critical pharmaceutical products, medical devices and vaccines for the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and Department of Defense. She volunteered to be on the front lines in Sierra Leonne during the 2015 Ebola virus outbreak while also ensuring that the United States’ stockpile of medicines and medical devices stood ready and available if needed.

 

 

 




Dr. Charles Jenkins '66, '67

Dr. Charles Jenkins of Laurinburg, North Carolina, is a ’66 and ’67 alumnus from the College of Health and Human Performance. Jenkins is Clinical Professor/Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership at UNC-Pembroke, where he has worked in numerous roles for more than 47 years. In that time, he has served as Interim Chancellor, Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and Director of Admissions. He is also the former Chairman and Board member of the Scotland Health Care System, President of the Pembroke Chamber of Commerce, as well as a former board member of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges Board of Trustees, the Laurinburg-Scotland Area Chamber of Commerce, and currently on the Scotland Family Counseling Center Board.



 

Young Alumni Award



Ms. Tywana Lawson '07, '13

Tywana Lawson of La Grange, North Carolina, is an ‘07, ’13, College of Nursing alumna. She is now the Director of Nursing Programs at Nash Community College, where she oversaw an increase in nursing student completion rates by 30 percentage points. Lawson also worked with Nash UNC Health Care to establish scholarships for first and second-year nursing students and in partnership with Barton College to offer a seamless transition to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree for nursing students enrolled in the Associate Degree Nursing program at Nash Community College. She is a member of the American and North Carolina Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau International, and is an ECU Centennial Pirate. Tywana resides with her husband, Corey Lawson ‘06, ’08, in La Grange.