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WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY – 2021 HOMECOMING AWARD RECIPIENTS
professional achievement award
LAURA LEATHERWOOD
BRYANT KINNEY
When Laura Leatherwood ’93 MA ’97 EdD ’06 discovered what higher education could do for her, she knew she had found her calling to ensure others discovered it for themselves. As a result, she has dedicated the past 23 years of her professional life to helping Western North Carolina residents realize the power of education through the community college system.
Bryant Kinney ’82 was a kid from Murphy who loved performing in his high school band and working at his local radio station when he arrived in Cullowhee to start college. He figured he would go into music in some form or another. But life has a way of moving the staircase in mid-climb and Bryant ended up with a degree in health sciences/emergency medical care. He’s never looked back.
Laura began her higher education career at Haywood Community College as its first executive director of Institutional Advancement, Foundation and Alumni Relations, which led to numerous other positions within the college. She most recently served as its vice president of Student and Workforce Development. She had been working for Haywood Regional Medical Center recruiting members to its new health and fitness center when HCC recognized her skill for developing community relationships and hired her away.
Following graduation, Bryant became director of emergency management services for Cherokee County, and four years later a nuclear energy emergency response planner for the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management, bringing his mountain sensibilities to the rest of the state.
In 2017, she was appointed president of Blue Ridge Community College, a threecampus institution, which serves more than 11,000 students in Transylvania and Henderson counties. But her reach goes far beyond WNC. As president, Laura is able to advocate for higher education at the local, regional and state levels, and now at the national level with the American Association of Community Colleges. She serves on the executive committee of the North Carolina Association of Community College Presidents and was nominated for president of the year for the North Carolina Community College System. Her list of awards and accomplishments is extensive. In 2020, she was nominated for the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce Athena Women’s Leadership Award.
Bryant worked for Duke Energy for more than 20 years, serving as vice president for its energy services group, overseeing public affairs for the development of commercial energy projects in 20 states, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. His last position was that of vice president of regulatory and government affairs for the company’s Carolinas operations.
Laura’s work doesn’t stop on campus. She is a tireless volunteer with numerous professional and social organizations throughout her community. Laura grew up in Swain County in the shadow of Great Smoky Mountains National Park knowing she didn’t want to leave the area for college, and WCU proved a perfect fit. As a nontraditional student, Laura worked her way through college and never lived in a residence hall. It was these experiences that help her relate to many of her community college students who see themselves as nontraditional students, too. She loves community colleges for the diversity of degrees, programs and certificates, and educating new and potential students about redefining what it means to go to college. “If anything can stop generational poverty, it’s what we do,” she said. “That’s essentially what higher education is about.” And she can’t see herself doing anything else. “Once you become someone who is really all in with the profession of helping students, helping families and helping to lift others up, it becomes your life’s work,” Laura said. “And that’s what it did for me. It just became my life’s work.”
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distinguished service award
vs. Mercer – Homecoming, 2021
When he eventually took a job in communications and public affairs with Duke Energy, it was those science classes from long ago at WCU that Bryant says prepared him to speak the same language as the nuclear engineers and other scientists at his new job.
Bryant is currently principal of Kinney Public Strategies in Lincolnton and has been consulting business and industry since 2010. Bryant has the late Chancellor David Belcher to thank for bringing him back to Western. Bryant says Dr. Belcher called him to ask him to consider being a member of the Board of Trustees. He had lost touch with his alma mater while working and raising a family and said yes to Belcher. He was appointed by then-Gov. Pat McCrory in 2015. He was reappointed by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors in 2019. Bryant served as its vice-chairman from 2017-2019 and chairman for the past two years. His term ended in June. His term on the board ends June 2023. As chairman of the Board of Trustees, he has served on the WCU Foundation Board and served as co-chair of the WCU Chancellor’s Search Committee that brought Kelli R. Brown to Cullowhee as the university’s first female chancellor. Bryant’s belief in his alma mater goes deep. He and his wife Brenda Kinney ’83 have endowed the Kinney Family Scholarship to help support future generations of WCU students. “I believe firmly that you will see Western have an even larger impact on the economy of Western North Carolina, as the provider of talent, as the economy of Western North Carolina changes, as new industry moves in,” he said. Is he surprised by how his life has turned out, the successes he has had? After all, he’s never had to look for a job. They have always found him. “I didn’t end up where I thought I was going to be, but I ended where I should have been.”
