Alumni

UNC Charlotte Chancellor Sharon L. Gaber and several University alumni and board members have been named to the 2024 Business North Carolina Power List.
Gaber was recognized for the fourth consecutive year in the education category. The publication noted Gaber’s push to expand research and Charlotte’s projection to receive Carnegie R1, or top-tier, research classification in early 2025.

Distinguished alumna Caridad Svich ’85 was awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Svich, appointed in the field of Drama and Performance Art, is one of 188 international recipients chosen from more than 3,000 applicants through a rigorous application and peer review process.

Guggenheim Fellows are named because of prior career achievement and exceptional promise. Each fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions.”

On March 8, Michael Whatley ’91 was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee ahead of November’s national election. Whatley previously served as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party since 2019.

Whatley, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history from UNC Charlotte, attended Wake Forest University, where he completed a master’s degree in religion. He also earned a master’s in theology and a law degree from the University of Notre Dame. 

The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association bestowed its 2024 Alumni Awards to six outstanding individuals for their service to their professions, communities and the University Friday, March 1, at the UNC Charlotte Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.

UNC Charlotte’s Black Alumni Chapter bestowed Excellence in Leadership Awards upon 10 outstanding alumni at a ceremony in the Popp Martin Student Union Saturday, Feb. 3.
The Excellence in Leadership Awards, founded in 2011 under the leadership of the first BAC president and former faculty member Gregory Davis ’76, recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of Black, African American and African UNC Charlotte alumni who have achieved excellence in their respective fields and communities.This year’s honorees are:

Ten outstanding alumni were recognized recently at the sixth annual 10 Under Ten Awards ceremony sponsored by the UNC Charlotte GOLD Alumni Network.

Service is an action that comes full circle. 

Some of the most inspirational and admirable people are where they are due to a combination of hard work and a helping hand or two along the way. 

George Maya ’21 is one of those inspirational and admirable people. Each step he has taken has led him to serve and be served by others. His path included attending UNC Charlotte to major in criminology and joining the 49ers football team. Now he is honoring his country through military service and got to wave the American flag in Jerry Richardson Stadium.

UNC Charlotte is gearing up for the biggest celebration of the year with gatherings, performances, spirit contests and more, all culminating with the signature Homecoming events.

By the time Marianne Lieberman ’75 came to UNC Charlotte to pursue a Bachelor of Creative Arts, she had already faced enough challenges, had enough adventures and endured enough traumas for three lifetimes. And not just because she was a student in her 40s among a cohort of 20-somethings.

Lieberman, who graduated in 1975, started life in 1927 in Vienna, Austria, as the daughter of a Jewish doctor, enjoying the opportunities of the educated upper middle class. But in 1938, that world was destroyed.

Alumna Pooja Nair has been named “Rookie Teacher of the Year” by the North Carolina Art Educators Association, the state’s largest advocacy group dedicated to supporting visual arts education. The NCAEA honors one beginning teacher each year who has made “an exemplary initial contribution” and “demonstrates the potential for development.”