Joe Damore has served as president and chief executive officer of Mission Hospital and Health System since December 2004.
Mission is Western North Carolina’s largest health system and employer. Previously, Damore was president and chief executive officer of Sparrow Hospital and Health System in Lansing, Mich., from 1990 to 2004. He also has served as Executive Vice President of Mercy Health Services in Farmington Hills, Mich., and Western Reserve Care System in Youngstown, Ohio. He is currently a member of the Board of United Way of Buncombe County, the Asheville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina Asheville. http://missionhospitals.org
Keith Ray is director of the North Carolina Center for Health and Wellness at UNC Asheville, and previously served as chair and associate professor of the Health and Wellness Department at UNC Asheville.
The Center for Health and Wellness is a unique academic and outreach initiative built around UNC Asheville's new major in health and wellness promotion. Programs will focus on regional health problems, including childhood obesity, workplace wellness and senior wellness.
A 100,000-square-foot facility to house the Center for Health and Wellness at UNC Asheville is under construction with $35 million in state funding from the 2004 North Carolina General Assembly as well as private funds.
Sandra P. Byrd is assistant provost for Graduate and Continuing Education, and associate professor of education at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
She coordinates post-secondary and adult education at UNC Asheville, including masters programs, for-credit and non-credit education programs, certificates, and community-based leadership programs.
Virgil L. Smith is vice president for talent management for the Gannett Company, and Chairman of the Asheville Citizen-Times. (more)
Throughout his career he has earned numerous professional and community awards including being named one of the top three managers in the Gannett company. He received the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce Partners in Education “Volunteer of the Year Award” for his work in establishing the Asheville-Buncombe Education Coalition, and recently was awarded the Ida B. Wells Award for Diversity and the Asheville-Buncombe Community Relations Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a member of the UNC Asheville Board of Trustees.
David McConville is an award-winning media artist and researcher specializing in the history and development of dome-based display environments.
He is co-founder of The Elumenati, a full-service design and engineering firm in West Asheville specializing in immersive projection environments. His firm has designed projects for clients ranging from art festivals to space agencies.
McConville, a UNC Asheville alumnus, also serves on the Board of Directors for the Buckminster Fuller Institute, helping to realize Fuller’s vision of a global network of Geoscope displays for visualizing Earth data.
Jim Fox is the director of UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC).
He is principal investigator for several collaborations that deal with utilizing environmental databases, spatial visualizations and other high-end technologies to create products for decision-making in complex situations. One such project is a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service examining threats to our nations’ forests. The center also is the local engagement site for the Renaissance Computing Institute for North Carolina, which works with Asheville and Buncombe County leaders on flood mitigation and land use issues. The group also works with NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center to create education and outreach tools related to Climate Change topics.
Ronald J. Manheimer is executive director of UNC Asheville’s North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement (NCCCR), an award-winning lifelong learning, leadership, research, and community service program.
He also serves as research associate professor of philosophy at the university. Before becoming NCCCR's first director in 1988, Manheimer was director of older adult education for The National Council on the Aging (NCOA) in Washington, D.C. NCCCR’s goal is to encourage the development of an age-integrated society and to serve as a laboratory for exploring creative and productive roles for a new generation of retirement-aged people.
Imogene Radeker “Cissie” Stevens is former director of Community Leadership Programs at UNC Asheville and serves on the university’s Board of Trustees.
Although retired, she is an active volunteer in many community activities serving on the boards of Christ School for Boys, the Manna Food Bank and NC Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Bill Friday is one of North Carolina’s most treasured native sons. Friday served as president of the University of North Carolina system for 30 years until his retirement in 1986, becoming the longest-serving University president of the 20th century.
His career in university administration would allow him major roles in the formation of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the development of Research Triangle Park, the sponsorship of North Carolina public television, and the formation of the current 17-campus University system, making the University of North Carolina the “crown jewel” of higher learning in the south.
Friday continues to host the popular UNC-TV show “North Carolina People” as he has done for more than 30 years, interviewing nearly 1,500 guests from all walks of life.
Dr. Anne Ponder became the sixth Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Asheville in October 2005.
A native of Asheville and a lifelong educator, Chancellor Ponder came to UNC Asheville from Colby-Sawyer College, a private liberal arts college in New London, N.H., where she served as president for ten years.
There she led a campuswide collaboration resulting in an award-winning strategic plan and new liberal education curriculum, expanded the college’s relationship with the local community, and successfully completed a $40-million capital campaign. She is a nationally known expert on institutional effectiveness, strategic planning, and fundraising and resource development, and has been a frequent faculty member of Harvard University’s Institutes for Higher Education.
Chancellor Ponder attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in English. She began her academic career at Elon College (now Elon University) in North Carolina in 1977, where she was the first woman and first pre-tenure professor to receive the Daniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching. During her nine years at Elon, she taught English and communications and founded the college’s Honors Program.
In 1986 she joined Guilford College in North Carolina, where she was an associate professor of English and interdisciplinary studies and served as associate academic dean. She was recruited to Kenyon College in Ohio in 1989 and served as professor of English and drama, academic dean, and vice president for information technology before being named to the presidency at Colby-Sawyer College.
Now back in her home town, Chancellor Ponder is a member of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center Board of Directors, Mission Hospitals' Audit Committee, and the United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Board of Directors. She also serves as a member of the Asheville Community and Economic Development Alliance. She is a past president of the North Carolina Honors Association and the National Collegiate Honors Council, and has served on the Advisory Council of the Appalachian College Association.
Chancellor Ponder is the daughter of Eleanor Ponder, and the late Herschel Ponder, both of whom trace their Asheville family roots back to the 1780s. She is married to Christopher Brookhouse, an award-winning writer and publisher previously on the English faculty at UNC Chapel Hill.