The Fayetteville-Cumberland Human Relations Commission recently awarded Methodist University’s Donna Pelham – chair of Business Administration, Management and Marketing and professor of Accounting and Business Administration – with its 2024 Educator Award. The prestigious award was one of only eight handed out to the community during the organization’s annual awards ceremony.
Pelham, who has taught business law, employment law and accounting classes at Methodist University for 16 years, is grateful for the honor.
“I’m humbled by the support and recognition of the Fayetteville-Cumberland Human Relations Commission, Methodist University and the local community,” said Pelham in a press release. “I endeavor to educate students who are mindful of the challenges regarding diversity, equity and inclusion that we continue to face in our society. My hope is that because of that awareness, Methodist University graduates will be better prepared to address human and civil rights issues within their workplaces and communities.”
For more than a decade, each semester, Pelham welcomes guest speakers from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Fayetteville Police Department to address discrimination and harassment in the workplace along with community and police relationships, respectively.
Pelham regularly encourages students to participate in various programs hosted by MU’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, such as the monthly “Lunch and Learn” presentations and events such as last year’s production of “Blood Done Sign My Name” and “Community Conversations with Jane Elliot.”
To wrap up the first day, attendees were able to meet up for a social event at the Brad Halling American Whiskey Ko. in Southern Pines where a $10,000 check was presented to the Joint Special Operations Foundation for their scholarship fund. Photo pr
The three-story, 200,000 square-foot business incubator space is located at 420 Maiden Lane. The building features an elevator, construction has begun on handicap bathrooms for the first floor and the second and third floors feature window walls offering views of Segra Stadium.
Image provided by FTCCFocused on building the local workforce and streamlining the education process through real world learning, the Hope, Opportunity, Prosperity through Education Program at Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC), also kno