The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has announced the recipients of the 2013 Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy.
Three professors with expertise in public policy were awarded the endowed chair: Daniel Gitterman, associate professor of public policy in the College of Arts and Sciences; Gary Nelson, professor in the School of Social Work; and Aimee Wall, associate professor of public law and government in the School of Government.
Gitterman is an associate professor as well as the director of graduate studies in public policy in the College. He also serves as director of the Honors Carolina Burch Field Research Seminar in Washington, D.C. Gitterman has received fellowships from the Institute of Arts and Humanities (Academic Leadership Program) and the Global Research Institute (inaugural program on Globalization, the Economic Crisis and the Future of North Carolina). He is a recipient of the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the John L. Sanders Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Service. In 2013, he was inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, one of North Carolina’s highest honors.
Nelson is a professor at the UNC School of Social Work. He is also the associate director for program development and training in the school’s Jordan Institute for Families. His interests include public engagement research, education and service. His public engagement activities center on leadership development, organizational and community change, social entrepreneurship and sustainable development, and individual and collective processes of self-evaluation. These commitments are designed to help citizens reconnect to and revitalize their social institutions, communities, families and personal lives.
Wall, associate professor of public law and government, coordinates the UNC School of Government’s educational programs for new North Carolina legislators and legislative staff. She serves as the school’s faculty liaison with legislators and other state-level policymakers. Her research focuses on various aspects of human services law, including public assistance programs; abuse and financial exploitation of the elderly; public guardianship; and the organization, administration and governance of local human services agencies. She also conducts research on the laws governing city and county animal control programs.
Gitterman, Nelson and Wall will begin their five-year chair on July 1, 2013.
About the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem, N.C., established the five-year chair to honor the retirement of Thomas Willis Lambeth, who served as executive director of the foundation from 1978 until 2001.
A native of Clayton, N.C., Tom Lambeth has dedicated himself to the people of North Carolina. After graduating from UNC in 1957, serving in the army and working as a journalist for the “Winston-Salem State Journal,” Lambeth worked as a staffer for N.C. Gov. Terry Sanford. From 1965 to 1969, he was an administrator at the Smith Richardson Foundation in Greensboro, and from 1969 to 1978, he worked for U.S. Representative Richardson Preyer.
In 1978, Lambeth became executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. During his tenure, the foundation awarded grants totaling more than $260 million to assist nonprofit organizations that focused on community economic development, environment, public education, social justice and equity, and strengthening democracy. This included nearly 400 grants exceeding $27 million to benefit campuses of the UNC system and affiliates such as UNC-TV and the UNC Press. Lambeth continues to work with the foundation as a senior fellow.
About the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation (ZSR) is committed to improving the quality of life of all North Carolinians. ZSR invests in statewide, regional and community-based organizations that are dedicated to building an inclusive, sustainable and vibrant state. The groups that ZSR supports both work to build healthy, robust communities at the local and regional level and engage in research, education, civic dialogue and advocacy around issues of importance to communities and to North Carolina. It currently focuses on the areas of community economic development, strengthening democracy, environment, public education, and social justice and equity. The foundation is a 75-year-old private foundation based in Winston-Salem, N.C. For more information, visit www.zsr.org.
