Community Invited to UNC Asheville's Founders Day September 29;
Chancellor Anne Ponder to Give First State of the University Address

Dr. Anne Ponder, UNC Asheville’s new Chancellor, will present her inaugural State of the University Address at the University’s annual Founders Day celebration on Thursday, Sept. 29. The public is invited to attend the Founders Day celebration, which will be held from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in Lipinsky Auditorium.

Chancellor Ponder, who was named UNC Asheville’s sixth chancellor on May 12 by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, officially assumes her post on October 1. For the past decade she served as president of Colby-Sawyer College, a private liberal arts institution in New London, N.H.  Chancellor Ponder has written and spoken widely on institutional effectiveness, fundraising and resource development, and strategic planning.

A native of Asheville, Chancellor Ponder held previous posts at Elon and Guilford colleges in North Carolina, and at Kenyon College in Ohio. She is a past president of the North Carolina Honors Association and the National Collegiate Honors Council. She earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill.

The Founders Day program will also recognize those who will receive National Alumni Awards and those being inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame.

UNC Asheville’s Founders Day celebrates the University’s rich heritage and the men and women whose work and perseverance led to the creation and development of one of the nation’s leading public liberal arts universities.  

Founders Day is free and open to the public. For more information, please call UNC Asheville’s Office of Alumni at 828/251-6512.

Media Contact:

• Merianne Epstein, UNC Asheville Public Information Director, 828/251-6526;
  pager 828/257-5501