UNC Asheville Chancellor Anne Ponder Gives Inaugural State of the University Address;
Speech Focuses on Strategic Planning, Extending University’s Role in Region

Anne Ponder, UNC Asheville’s new chancellor, presented her inaugural State of the University Address at the University’s annual Founders Day celebration on Thursday, Sept. 29. Her remarks focused on strategic planning and extending the University’s ties to the region.

“The possibilities that we can conceive of by linking our university and its future with the surrounding region will succeed,” said Ponder. “We will prevail because we will be planning strategically and together. As we become more and more able to determine ways to make our university better and better, we will harness and celebrate our passionate engagement.”

Ponder, an Asheville native, has longtime ties in the community and will use those ties to build upon the University’s role in the region. “Being home and rooted and comforted in these mountains will only enrich and deepen the work I am able to do with all of you,” she said. “It will be entirely natural for us to find ourselves, in no time at all, working together to find new ways of extending the University into this surrounding area. We will find ways to bring more people with potential over the threshold and into our campus community,” she said. “And it will be specifically important in this effort that we look to those with different backgrounds,” Ponder added.

As she reflected on the University’s founders, Ponder said she was passionate about the work ahead as UNC Asheville’s sixth chancellor. “We find ourselves among extraordinary people, planning for an exciting future in a place uniquely our own. And it is my chosen work, my good fortune, and my honor to add my service as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Asheville.”

Ponder, who was named 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 is a nationally recognized expert on institutional effectiveness, fundraising and resource development, and strategic planning.

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 annual Founders Day celebration highlights UNC Asheville's start in 1927 as Buncombe County Junior College and its transformation into one of the nation’s leading public liberal arts colleges.

Media Contacts:

• Merianne Epstein, UNC Asheville Public Information Director, 828/251-6676
• Jill Yarnall, UNC Asheville Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526