Being a strong leader looks different in pandemic times, and so, it turns out, does honoring strong leaders.
The Richard A. Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy identifies and recognizes top leaders each year with the Leader of Distinction Award. Eighteen Tar Heel student-athletes were selected for the honor for 2020-21, but with Covid continuing to limit gatherings in the spring of 2021, Leadership Academy Executive Director Shelley Johnson had to get creative.
“Our Leaders of Distinction have put in a lot of work to become the standout leaders that they are, and we really wanted to honor them publicly,” said Johnson, an Assistant Athletic Director at UNC. “As the pandemic continues to impact the ways in which we gather, we tried to take advantage of instances in which our honorees would be together with a group of teammates or classmates as a built-in audience.”
So the 2020-21 honorees were recognized wherever possible: Courtnie Williamson, a former field hockey team captain, was recognized before a Leadership Communication course at Kenan-Flagler Business School, where she’s in her second year of MBA studies. (The professor, Dr. Judy Tisdale, collaborated with Johnson on the surprise.)
Makenna Jones, a women’s tennis All-America honoree, was honored at a seminar for her sport administration master’s program. Baddour himself, a professor of the practice in UNC’s sport administration program, was leading the seminar and thus able to present Jones with her award. Others were honored at practices, meetings and, in the case of women’s soccer standout Brianna Pinto, at a workshop where she was serving as a leadership coach.
In addition to Jones, Pinto and Williamson, the 2020-21 Leaders of Distinction are: Annabelle Archer (volleyball), Michael Carter (football), Emma Cole (women’s swimming & diving), James Courtney (men’s swimming & diving), Sara Daavettila (women’s tennis), Lauren Ferner (rowing), Katie Hoeg (women’s lacrosse), Daniel Koenigsperger (men’s swimming & diving), Rachel Jones (women’s soccer), Alexis Lynch (fencing), Ally Mastroianni (women’s lacrosse), Giovanni Montesdeoca (men’s soccer), Charles Roth (men’s fencing), Ryan Shannon (volleyball) and Emma Trenchard (women’s lacrosse).
Daavettila and Hoeg were honored for the second year in a row.
The Leader of Distinction Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Leadership Academy and recognizes student-athletes for extraordinary leadership. This group led through exceptional conditions, as teams returned to action but continued to deal with many disruptions and changes brought about by the continuing pandemic, as well as heightened mental health concerns and continuing progress around diversity and inclusion.
The 2020-21 class brings the total number of award winners to 328 over UNC’s 17 years of Leadership Academy programing.
“In tough times, strong leadership becomes even more important,” Johnson said. “This class of honorees is especially worthy of this recognition.”
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