The Pope Center’s Spirit of Inquiry award, to be presented this fall, will honor faculty members in North Carolina who meet high standards for inspiring class discussion, driving their students to greater achievements, and imbuing them with a love of knowledge. For this contest, based on nominations made during the past semester by North Carolina students, the Pope Center has selected five distinguished judges.
Their goal is to choose the best courses that embody one of the greatest needs in college today – freedom of inquiry. The judges, John Allison, Edgar Broyhill, George Leef, James Martin, and Anne Neal, will consider class syllabi, student interviews, and other course materials in making their selections.
About the judges:
John Allison has served as the chairman and chief executive officer of BB&T since 1989. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Allison earned a degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina. He also holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He is well known in academic circles as a champion of Ayn Rand and in business circles for his ethical standards, outlined in the BB&T corporate governance standards, guided by core values such as honesty, integrity and independent thinking.
Edgar Broyhill is the president and managing director of the Broyhill Group, an investment banking company in Winston-Salem. In 2004, he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the 5th District congressional seat, representing Statesville, Mount Airy and Boone. He recently joined the board of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and is a board member of the Broyhill Family Foundation. He is a trustee of Appalachian State, with which his family has had a long association.
George Leef is the vice president for research at the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. A recognized expert on higher education, he has written articles and reviews appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Regulation, the Cato Journal, and other publications including Carolina Journal. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law. Before joining the Pope Center, Leef taught economics, business law, and logic at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan. Leef is the author of Free Choice for Workers: A History of the Right to Work Movement (2005) and editor of Educating Teachers: The Best Minds Speak Out (2002).
Governor James Martin served as governor of North Carolina from 1985 to 1993. A Republican, he served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives after being elected in 1972. He also was a member of the Mecklenburg County North Carolina Board of Commissioners and later was president of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. Before taking on a political career, he taught chemistry at Davidson College after earning his doctorate from Princeton University in 1960. Retired from politics, he is chairman of the board of the James Cannon Research Center of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC.
Anne Neal is president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, which she helped found in 1995. Neal, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. in American history and literature and, received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as the first woman editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation. From 1980 to 1982, Neal specialized in the First Amendment at the New York City law firm of Rogers & Wells. She has also served as General Counsel of the Office of Administration in the Executive Office of the President, General Counsel and Congressional Liaison of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and editor of the American Bar Association newsletter, Communications Lawyer.
After the judges’ deliberation, the Pope Center will publicize the winning courses and reward the faculty members who teach them. The top award will be $1,000, to be used for books, travel, and other education- or research-related expenses. The winners and the students who nominated them will be honored at a banquet this fall.