All are trailblazers in their own way. One forged a path in a male-dominated field. One led the charge for education for all. One has received national recognition for her research as well as the accolades of her students. Another has spent her life providing affordable housing to families. Another has sought to end poverty. It’s service at its finest.

As a result, five women have received The University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s top awards for service.  They are:

● Sue Woodall Cole ’72, ’78 MBA, of Greensboro, Charles Duncan McIver Award, which recognizes individuals who have rendered distinguished public service to the state or nation. The bronze medal bears the likeness of Charles Duncan McIver, the founding president of the institution that is now UNCG.

● Dot Kendall Kearns ’53, ’74 MEd, of High Point, Adelaide F. Holderness / H. Michael Weaver Award, which honors North Carolinians who have rendered distinguished public service to their community or state. It is named in honor of Adelaide F. Holderness ’34 and H. Michael Weaver of Greensboro.

● Susan Whittington ’72, ’74 MEd, of North Wilkesboro, and Patricia Gibson Garrett ’66, of Mooresville, Alumni Distinguished Service Award, presented to alumni who have rendered distinctive service on national, state or local levels, and made significant contributions to the liberal arts ideal.

● Dr. Katherine A. Rawson ’99, of Stow, Ohio, Young Alumni Award, which is presented to alumni who are 40 years of age and younger, and recognizes exceptional achievement and significant contribution to the recipient’s profession or community, society or the university.

The honors were presented by UNCG Chancellor Linda P. Brady during a May 19 program that also recognized donors to the university.

Achievements of each recipient include:

● Sue Woodall Cole, who has spent nearly 40 years in financial services, has been called one of North Carolina’s exceptional women leaders. She was the first woman to chair the board of directors for the North Carolina Chamber (formerly known as NCCBI) and is the former chairwoman of the N.C. Biotechnology Center. Her long history of public service includes serving as a director of the Moses Cone-Wesley Long Community Health Foundation, vice-chair of the United Way of Greater Greensboro, member of the N.C. Economic Development Board, board of governors for the Center for Creative Leadership, and member of the UNCG Investment Committee. In the past she has also served on the UNCG Board of Trustees and served as a member and chair of the UNCG Bryan School of Business Advisory Board. Because she is passionate about education and economic development, Cole established an endowment to support the MBA program in the Bryan School, called the “Cole Capstone Project.” In that project, students in their last semester of the MBA program team up to solve real-life business problems for area companies. “She gives freely of her time and talents to make a difference in our community and state in the areas that mean the most to her: the economic vitality of our region and education, health and welfare of our citizens,” wrote Jim Melvin in his letter of recommendation.

● Dot Kendall Kearns’ early career days gave an inkling  of the type of impact she would later make on Greensboro and the state. After college, she served as a social worker in the High Point Kindergarten for Handicapped Children and later became chair of the board for the school. In that position, she was the lead advocate in acquiring the first grant from the state to provide funding to children in public schools and her school with special needs. Her passion for education continued. She served on the Guilford County Board of Education from 1992-2004, and is credited with initiating Smart Start in Guilford County and providing a lead role in its adoption statewide. She also served as a Guilford County commissioner – the first woman to be elected as a commissioner and the first to serve as chair. During her tenure on the board, she motioned to establish the Watershed Development Task Force and co-chaired the committee which created a watershed protection ordinance. She also helped bring together the local governments and businesses of the Piedmont Triad to address public school education, land use, housing, transportation and economic development, which is now known as the Piedmont Triad Partnership. “Dot, you have done about everything that a caring, involved, dynamic leader could do in their community and always with your trademark smile and optimism. Carolyn and I consider you the ‘model’ of what a positive and effective leader should be,” former Gov. Jim Hunt wrote in a letter to her in 2008.  Kearns currently serves on UNCG’s Board of Visitors, the advisory board for the UNCG School of Education Counseling and Educational Development Department, and as secretary for the Guilford County Board of Elections.

● Susan Whittington has spent years in service to UNCG, her community and to her church. A past president of the UNCG Alumni Association, she led the board through a time of conflict with university administration. “Susan steered us through those rough waters with a great sense of calm, patience, understanding and determination,” wrote Emily Herring Wilson ‘61 in a letter of nomination. “She made alumni feel as if we had a voice, and I believe the administration respected her.” Whittington also served multiple terms on the University Investment Fund Committee, which oversees the university endowment. In addition to contributing to countless campaigns, she recently paid the entire cost of a UNCG undergraduate education for a Wilkes County student who would not otherwise have been able to attend college. In addition to her service to UNCG, she has also given her time as a member of the Wilkes Community College Board of Trustees, starting on the board in 1994 and serving as board chair from 1999 to 2007. She also served on the executive board for the NC Association of Community College Trustees. She has been president of the Wilkes Chamber of Commerce, chair of the Board of the Wilkes Art Gallery, chair of the Northwest North Carolina Forum (a nine-county alliance to improve transportation in the region) and chair of the Board of the Rainbow Center for Children and Families (a crisis intervention program). She has worked to eliminate poverty by working with and helping develop Circles of Care. She is also known as an avid horsewoman, raising and showing horses at local, state and national equestrian events. In 2010, Whittington completed the multi-year, multi-step work to become a deacon in the Episcopal Church. She now serves as deacon at St. Mary of the Hills, Blowing Rock.

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● Patricia Gibson Garrett has spent 20 years serving as president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, a private, nonprofit housing development and finance corporation organized to expand affordable and well-maintained housing within stable neighborhoods for low and moderate income families. “In the early days of the organization they were often not afraid to take on challenges and try things in a dramatically different way than had ever been tried before because they believed they could do it and nobody ever told them they couldn’t,” wrote Jim Simpson, chair of the organization’s board of directors. That included marching right into Genesis Park, then considered the heroin capital of the Carolinas, and buying up drug houses and rehabbing them for eager new homebuyers. It worked. Crime was reduced by 77 percent. The efforts of The Housing Partnership have been recognized by ABC World News Tonight, the National Institute for Justice, New York Times Magazine and NeighborWorks America, among others. In the time she has served as president, the Housing Partnership has created more than 2,000 affordable homes and provided homeownership and foreclosure prevention education to almost 13,000 families.

● Dr. Katherine Rawson, a cognitive psychologist who has been a faculty member at Kent State University since 2004, received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2010 – the highest honor bestowed by the government for scientists at the beginning of their careers. Her research focuses on the cognitive processes in learning from text and the optimization of learning in educational settings. Rawson has published 21 journal articles and several book chapters. She is associate editor for two major journals in her field and serves on the editorial board for two other journals.  In both undergraduate and graduate courses, her teaching receives high marks from students. Open-ended student evaluation comments typically praise her for how much she knows, how well-organized her courses and lectures are, how much enthusiasm she conveys for topics and how much she respects students and cares about their learning. As a mentor, she is just as successful. “They view her as an exceptional role model for how to think about research, how to use one’s time effectively and how to succeed in academia,” wrote Dr. Maria Zaragoza, chair of the Kent State Department of Psychology, in her nomination letter. “They view her as incredible supportive and helpful, generous with her time, someone who always has their best interest in mind and encourages them to develop their own program of research. …In summary, Dr. Rawson is outstanding in every way. She is an exceptional scholar, a superb teacher and mentor, and a wonderful colleague.”

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