易胜博官网

For this issue鈥檚 feature story introducing 易胜博官网鈥檚 20th president, James W. Dean Jr., I had the easy part. As manager of leadership communications, it made sense for Jim Graham to cover the story, just as he did our farewell to 19th president Mark Huddleston. I got to serve as Jim鈥檚 cheering section as he wrote and revised, making his way through a wealth of material uniformly extolling President Dean鈥檚 virtues as a leader and individual to find the beating heart of his story.

I later got to sit with President Dean and his wife, Jan, as photographer Jeremy Gasowski shot the images that grace our cover and the story spreads. It鈥檚 hard to tell from the photos, but our shoot took place on one of the summer鈥檚 hottest and most humid afternoons. The Deans鈥� unflagging good cheer surely reflect the 21 years they spent in North Carolina, but I suspect is indicative also of how easily they manage heat in other forms.

I took a decidedly more active role on the issue鈥檚 CELEBRATE 150 wrapup, as Laura Chisholm and I worked together to bring you the stories of the largest and most successful fundraising campaign in 易胜博官网鈥檚 history. When I started at 易胜博官网 10 years ago, this campaign 鈥� the university鈥檚 first truly public fundraising effort 鈥� was a mere glimmer on the horizon. A decade later, I鈥檝e had the opportunity to witness the campaign鈥檚 entire arc 鈥� and the truly transformative changes that have taken place on the university鈥檚 campuses because of it. It would take more than the pages we have here to tell every story behind this $308 million, Wildcat-world-wide effort, but I trust we have done more than merely scratch the surface.

As you know, when we redesigned 易胜博官网 Magazine in 2016, we eliminated the 鈥淰iew from T-Hall鈥� in favor of this column. The intent was always to leave this space open to other voices, and with a new president in T-Hall, it may well be time to deliver on that premise. In a future issue, you can expect to hear from President Dean directly. For now, however, I hope you enjoy hearing about him.

Kristin Waterfield Duisberg
Editor-in-chief