UNCA Foundation Board Elects New Directors, Officers

The UNCA Foundation Board of Directors elected new officers and new directors to its 36-member board at its annual meeting October 26 on the UNCA campus.

David Whilden, senior trust officer, Asset Management Group of Centura Bank, was elected chair, and Alan Thornburg, attorney with Patla, Straus, Robinson & Moore, was elected associate chair. Beverly Cutter Modlin, UNCA vice chancellor for university relations, was re-elected secretary, and Arthur Foley, UNCA vice chancellor for financial affairs, was re-elected treasurer.

New directors elected to three-year terms were: Asheville architect John Ellis; private investor Alex Kosma; Russ Martin, Merrill Lynch financial consultant and former Asheville mayor; Dershie McDevitt, graduate of UNCA's Master of Liberal Arts Program and former president of Memorial Mission Board of Directors; Eleanor Owen, graduate of UNCA's Leadership Asheville Program and civic leader; Bob Peterson, retired retail executive, former UNCA Foundation Board chair and current co-chair of UNCA's comprehensive capital campaign; LaVoy Spooner, BellSouth corporate and external affairs regional director.

Beth Arrowood, Asheville civil trial attorney and a 1979 UNCA graduate, was elected to a one-year term as alumni representative.

Appointed to one-year terms were: Ryan Southern, UNCA Student Government Association president, student representative; and Larry Fincher, North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement's College for Seniors representative.

Robert Yearout, UNCA management professor, was appointed to a one-year term as a faculty representative. Faculty representatives re-appointed to one-year terms were Sheryl Sawin, UNCA assistant professor of literature, and Ellie Marsh, associate university librarian for public services.

Re-elected to second three-year terms were Luther Barnhardt, Jasmin Gentling, Greg Glance, Larry McCallum, Skip Pearlman and Douglas Piercy.

The UNC at Asheville Foundation Inc., a private charitable organization that supports the University, is currently pursuing purchase of the former J.C. Penney building in downtown Asheville. The building will become a versatile liberal arts center with space for art, music, drama, dance and other disciplines. The performance space can also translate into more cultural offerings for the public in the form of lunch-time lectures, evening readings, concerts and theater, as well as programs in the arts that are directed to area youth. The Foundation will begin the active phase of fund raising for the building in November with the hope of opening the center's first floor in about a year.

Media Contacts:

• Phyllis Hutchins, UNCA University Relations, 828/251-6525
• UNCA Public Information, 828/251-6526