Friends of the UNCG Libraries

Camille Payton The Friends of the UNCG Libraries elected new officers at their recent annual meeting, which featured best-selling author Chris Bohjalian. Chairperson Camille Payton served as master of ceremonies at the event, attended by more than 200 members and other attendees.  Funds raised at the dinner support the University Libraries. Camille Payton of Greensboro was re-elected Chair of the Friends for the coming year.  Payton has been practicing law since 1993. She is a shareholder of Ward Black Law in Greensboro, where she heads the firm's workers' compensation department. A native of Kinston, North Carolina, Payton graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a degree in journalism. After working as a reporter and then a copy editor in New York at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, she began work as a copy editor for the Austin American Statesman in Texas until 1990, when she left the newspaper profession to pursue a different career. She received her J.D from the Uni...

Rosemary Wander Camille Payton The Friends of the UNCG Libraries elected new officers at their recent annual meeting, which featured Kathy Reichs, best-selling author, forensic anthropologist, and originator fo the Bones TV series.  Outgoing chair Karl Schleunes served as master of ceremonies at the event, attended by nearly 300 members and other attendees.  Funds raised at the dinner support the University Libraries. The new Chair of the Friends is Camille Payton of Greensboro.  Payton has been practicing law since 1993. She is a shareholder of Ward Black Law in Greensboro, where she heads the firm's workers' compensation department. A native of Kinston, North Carolina, Payton graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a degree in journalism. After working as a reporter and then a copy editor in New York at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle , she began work as a copy editor for the Austin American Statesman in Texas until 1990, when she left the newspaper p...

The Friends of the UNCG Libraries elected new officers at their recent annual meeting, which featured John Shelton Reed discussing his new book Dixie Bohemia, about the New Orleans literary scene in the 1920s. Outgoing chair Howard E. Covington, Jr. served as master of ceremonies at the event, attended by 248 members and other attendees.  Funds raised at the dinner support the University Libraries, and a special drive was initiated to renovate the landscaping in front of Jackson Library on the UNCG campus. Ms. Billie Durham The new Chair of the Friends is Billie Durham of Asheboro. She is retired from UNCG’s Library and Information Studies Program, which she joined in 2004 as an adjunct instructor, becoming an Assistant Professor and School Library Media Program Coordinator in 2008. She holds the MLS degree from UNCG. Durham’s background includes 17 years as a school library media specialist in Randolph County and five years as a public services librarian at Montgomery Commun...

The Friends of the UNCG Libraries elected new officers at their recent annual meeting, a celebration of blues featuring scholar and author Bill Ferris and blues artist Logie Meachum and friends. Outgoing chair Tom Kirby-Smith served as master of ceremonies at the event, attended by 250 members and other attendees. The new Chair of the Friends is Howard Covington of Greensboro. A native of Concord and a graduate of the University of Florida, Covington is a much-respected journalist and author. While with the Charlotte Observer, Covington was the creator and lead reporter on a multi-part series on occupational health hazards in the textile industry. This series won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service as well as more than a dozen other national reporting awards, including the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy journalism awards. He was executive city editor of the Greensboro News & Record before leaving the newspaper business to write and to manage his own publishing compa...

Mr. Tom Kirby-Smith has been elected chairperson of the Friends of the UNCG Libraries and to a new term on the Board of Directors. He was elected at the recent annual meeting of the Friends, which featured a presentation by authors Lee Smith and Hal Crowther. Mr. Kirby-Smith, who taught at UNCG for many years, was an early editor of the Greensboro Review. He is also the author of several books, including a guide to U.S. observatories, a book on the philosopher George Santayana, a book that examines free verse poetry and one on the emergence of poetry from music. His poetry and essays have been published in the Southern Review, the Sewanee Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, Poetry (magazine), the Mountain Goat, the Southern Poetry Review, Ploughshares, and the Hudson Review. He has served on the board of editors of Versification. His chapbook of poems, The Musical Constellations, was published by Unicorn Press in 2007. Among his former students is Claudia Emerson,...

Dr. Rebekah (Becky) Megerian of Asheboro has been elected chairperson of the Friends of the UNCG Libraries, and Mr. Lance Elko, vice-chair. Both were elected at the recently annual meeting of the Friends, which featured a presentation by radio host and journalist Frank Stasio of WUNC. Dr.Megerian was born in Mooresville, North Carolina, and is the daughter of the late Dr. and Mrs. Andrew McKnitt Henderson. She holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in English from North Carolina State University and did graduate work at the University of Toronto before returning to North Carolina to work in the North Carolina Community College System. She taught English at North Carolina State University, the University of Toronto, and Lenoir Community College before joining the faculty at Randolph Community College in Asheboro in 1980. In 1994 she received a doctoral degree in Higher Education Administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2008 she retired from Randolph ...

UNCG alumna Pat Sevier (shown left) has been elected chairperson of the Friends of the UNCG Libraries. Ms. Sevier is involved in many local cultural and community service organizations and has served on the Board of Trustees of the Greensboro Historical Museum, the Board of Directors of Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro, and the Board of Visitors of Greensboro College. She is also co-owner of The Perfect Wedding, an event consulting firm. The Friends are pleased to welcome five new Board members, including three alumnae: Evans Garber of Greensboro (MA in history), Sandra Hildebolt of Winston Salem (MS in library science), and Dr. Rebekah Megerian of Asheboro (Ed. D in higher education administration). Dr. Lisa Levenstein, an assistant professor of history at UNCG, and Jeri Rowe, News & Record columnist, are also joining the Board.