Leadership
GAA Installs New Officers and Board Members
Donald W. Curtis ’ 63 of Raleigh was
installed as chair of the
GAA Board of
Directors at the Annual
Alumni Luncheon on
May 7, succeeding D.
Jordan “Jordy”
Whichard III ’ 79 of
Greenville. Eric S.
Montross ’ 94 of Chapel
Hill assumed office as
chair-elect.
Curtis, chair and
CEO of Curtis Media
Group, has served on
the GAA board as first vice chair and as an N.C. district director, and he is a member of the UNC Board
of Trustees. He also serves on the School of Journalism
and Mass Communication’s board of visitors and the
boards of the N.C. Community Foundation and the
UNC-TV Foundation. He is a former member of the
UNC Health Care System board of directors. Curtis
was chosen last year as chair-elect by the GAA board.
Montross, a member of the 1993 NCAA championship Tar Heels basketball team and former professional player, is a commentator for men’s basketball
games on the Tar Heel Sports Network radio broadcast. Montross has served on the GAA board as a representative to the University’s Athletic Council and as
an appointed at-large representative. He received the
GAA’s Distinguished Young Alumnus award in 2009.
As a result of elections decided by GAA members,
Sally Price Ormand ’ 58 of Monroe is the board’s new
first vice chair and Draggan Mihailovich ’ 83 of
Stamford, Conn., is the new second vice chair.
Ormand, a retired registered nurse, has served on the
board since 2008 as an N.C. district director. She is a
former leader of the Union County Carolina Club and
member of a Morehead (now Morehead-Cain)
Scholarship regional committee.
Mihailovich, a producer with CBS’
60 Minutes, has
served on the board since 2008 as an out-of-state district director. He was a recipient of the GAA’s
Distinguished Young Alumnus Award in 2001 and has
been a Nelson Benton lecturer at the UNC School of
Journalism and Mass Communication.
Donald W. Curtis ’ 63
New directors elected to three-year terms representing
N.C. districts are:
■ Dr. Ernest Jerome Goodson ’ 76 of Fayetteville.
Goodson is an orthodontist who also received his
doctor of dental surgery degree from UNC in 1979.
He is a past recipient of the Harvey E. Beech Out-
standing Alumni Award, given by the UNC Black
Alumni Reunion, and is on the board of directors of
the UNC Health Care System.
■ Dershie Bridgford McDevitt ’ 64 of Asheville.
McDevitt is a community volunteer and fiction
writer and is a past chair of a Morehead (now
Morehead-Cain) Scholarship regional committee.
■ Emily L. Williamson ’99 of Hildebran. Williamson,
who also earned a master’s of public administration
degree from UNC in 2003, is vice president of student development at Western Piedmont Community
College as well as mayor pro tempore of Hildebran.
Williamson is a past president of the Foothills Carolina Club and in 2009 received the GAA’s Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.
New directors elected to three-year terms representing
out-of-state alumni are:
■ Peter A. Harkness ’ 65 of Washington, D.C. Harkness
is founder and publisher emeritus of Governing
magazine, a columnist for Governing and a senior adviser
to the Pew Center on the States.
■ Debra Pickrel ’ 80 of New York. Pickrel is the principal of Pickrel Communications.
New Board Members
Left to right by rows: Dr. Ernest Jerome Goodson ’ 76,
Dershie Bridgford McDevitt ’ 64, Emily L. Williamson ’99
Peter A. Harkness ’ 65, Debra Pickrel ’ 80, Eric E. Van
Loon ’ 67
James E. Delany ’ 70, Rep. Tim Moore ’ 92, Teresa
Holland Williams ’ 77
L. Ferguson “Ferg” Norton ’ 61
