Press release

UNC Asheville Chancellor Anne Ponder has been named a Fellow by the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC). Ponder was among several higher education leaders to receive this honor, bestowed at the NCHC’s annual conference, held last month in Boston. NCHC chooses Fellows based upon sustained contribution to honors education, including scholarly activities and leadership of national, state and local honors education organizations.

Ponder is a past president of the NCHC, which is the national professional association of colleges and universities with honors programs. She also founded and directed Elon University’s Honors Program during her first faculty appointment. Ponder then held faculty and administrative posts at Guilford and Kenyon Colleges and served for a decade as president of Colby-Sawyer College, before becoming UNC Asheville’s sixth chancellor in 2005.

The UNC Asheville Honors Program offers enhanced educational opportunities to talented and motivated students from all academic departments. Some 330 students currently participate. The program provides small classes with selected faculty, travel opportunities, special meetings with distinguished campus visitors, and more. With its new peer mentoring program pairing new and established honors students, the students and faculty in the Honors Program form a community of dedicated and enthusiastic scholars. For more information on UNC Asheville’s Honors Program, visit honors.unca.edu.