The North Carolina Health Careers Access Program (NC-HCAP) presented its 2010 Cecil G. Sheps Leadership Award to Dr. Carolyn M. Mayo, recognizing her outstanding contributions to NC-HCAP and her commitment to students’ success both in the classroom and in the community. The award presentation took place July 9 at NC-HCAP’s Science Enrichment Preparation (SEP) Program graduation celebration.
Mayo served as NC-HCAP director from 1990-2006. During her 16 years with the program, she acquired external grant funds totaling $2.58 million, forged viable partnerships statewide and expanded pre-college and college initiatives with the addition of HCIE workshops and the NC-ARC Initiative.
Now, as an associate professor at North Carolina A&T State University in the division of speech pathology and audiology, she continues to push students to become involved with NC-HCAP and encourages them to pursue careers in the health professions.
The NC-HCAP Cecil G. Sheps Leadership Award is named for the organization’s founder and is given annually to individuals or entities who have proactively sought out and implemented strategies to increase underrepresented minorities in a health sciences discipline and/or who have worked in partnership with NC-HCAP to support its mission. Past recipients of the award were: the Honorable Eva Clayton, Dr. E. Lavonia Allison, Dr. Robert Thorpe, Larry Keith, Dr. Clay Simpson, the NC Area Health Educations Centers Program, the UNC Office of Minority Affairs, the NC Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, the UNC School of Dentistry, former Chancellor James Moeser, the UNC Eshleman School of Pharmacy and Dr. Brenda E. Armstrong.
Established in 1971 by Cecil G. Sheps, NC-HCAP is an inter-institutional program of the University of North Carolina system designed to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who successfully pursue health careers.