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Board of Advisors member Tom Lambeth honored with Peabody Award

UNC School of Social Work Board of Advisors member Tom Lambeth was among six Carolina alumni honored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Education, at its 15th annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner on Nov. 1.

The School gave its highest honor, the Peabody Award, to Lambeth, former executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

“The School of Education is proud to honor these accomplished individuals,” said Bill McDiarmid, dean of the School of Education. “They each have established a record of accomplishment that has contributed to the field of education. We are indebted to them for their service and for their leadership.”

After 17 years working in state politics – during which he helped establish the state’s community college system and the North Carolina School of the Arts – Lambeth in 1978 was named executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, a position he held for 23 years. Lambeth led efforts to refashion the foundation into a change agent, helping launch and fund organizations such as the Public School Forum and the N.C. Teaching Fellows Program.

Lambeth, of Winston-Salem, has long been a supporter of the UNC system and its member universities. He recommended and often conceived 381 grants exceeding $27 million to UNC campuses.

He also helped lead the 2000 public campaign for a $3.1 billion bond package for the UNC and community college systems.

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation established a five-year rotating chair at UNC-Chapel Hill to honor Lambeth’s retirement in 2001, the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy, currently held by School of Social Work Professor Gary Nelson.

Lambeth has been a member of the School of Social Work’s Board of Advisors for over 20 years, and served as its second chair.

Information courtesy of UNC School of Education