Guillory receives UNC award for service

UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media professor of the practice Ferrel Guillory received the Edward Kidder Graham Award for outstanding service during Carolina’s University Day celebration on Oct. 12, 2012.

Guillory, an expert on Southern politics and demographics, founded UNC’s Program on Public Life in 1997 to build bridges between the academic resources at Carolina and the governmental, journalism and civic leaders of North Carolina and the South. 

A nomination letter described Guillory as a leader in the “public university’s mission to extend knowledge-based service” and as a mentor for “policy-oriented colleagues to make public service a part of a faculty career.” 

The nomination noted that Guillory’s “impartial and non-partisan wisdom” led to his appointment by North Carolina governors to serve on the North Carolina Education First Task Force, the Governor’s Email Record Review Panel, Council of the Southern Community of the Southern Growth Policies Board and on the Board of Trustees of the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching, among other state committees and boards.

In the lead-up to the 2012 Democratic National Convention held in Charlotte, N.C., Guillory organized a panel of six UNC scholars from various disciplines to provide journalists covering the 2012 elections with data and analysis of issues and trends influencing the region’s politics and future. More than 100 journalists attended the panel.

"Democracy seems to run through Ferrel Guillory's veins," said Susan King, dean of the journalism school. "As a journalist, as an expert on Southern politics and as a professor, the animating passion in Ferrel's work has always been the role of information in keeping a democracy robust and vital.

“Through the Program on Public Life here at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, Ferrel has been able to challenge students to see the important role politics and policy play in the civic life of the state. Students flock to his class, and it is a wonderful tribute to both Ferrel and the school to receive this prestigious award.”

Before academia, he spent more than 20 years as a reporter, editorial page editor and columnist for The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. His freelance articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist and The New Republic, among others. 

Guillory has contributed chapters to books on David Duke and the politics of race, on economic transition in tobacco regions and on North Carolina politics and government. He was inducted into the N.C. Hall of Fame in Journalism in 2007.

He has co-authored “The State of the South,” a series of biennial reports to the region and its leadership. He also co-authored the book, "The Carolinas: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: An Exploration of Social and Economic Trends, 1924-1999" (Duke Press, 1999), commissioned by the Duke Endowment.

The award is named for Edward Kidder Graham, the former University president who is credited with instilling the University’s service ethic. Graham taught UNC’s first journalism class in 1909 before becoming president in 1913. 

David W. Owens, Gladys Hall Coates Professor of Public Law ad Government, received the inaugural Edward Kidder Graham Award in 2011.