During the annual awards ceremony for Elon College, the College of Arts & Sciences, the school recognized the first three recipients of its Distinguished Alumni Award.
The awards were given to represent the three branches of study in Elon College – Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences and Math, Computing & Natural Sciences.
Elon College Distinguished Alumni Award in the Arts and Humanities : Letitia Lee ’99
Lee was the first African American to graduate from Elon with an art degree. She has shown her work in galleries across the country and served as a muralist in 2011 for an episode of the ABC hit show “Extreme Makeover Home Edition.” An acclaimed piece of her work hangs in the office of President Leo M. Lambert on campus.
Elon College Distinguished Alumni Award in the Social Sciences: Britten Pund ’06
Pund is a manager of health care access for the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting state health programs that administer HIV/AIDS care and related services. In 2010, Housing Works, a national nonprofit, named Pund an “AIDS Hero” for her work helping states reduce their waiting lists for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program.
Elon College Distinguished Alumni Award in the Math, Computing and Natural Sciences: Niclas Stiernholm ’89.
Stiernholm, a native of Malmo, Sweden, is the chief executive officer of Trillium Therapeutic, a Canadian biopharmaceutical company. After graduating from Elon, he earned a doctoral degree in immunology from the University of Toronto and since has worked for several corporate and scientific advisory boards, including the Ontario Genomic Institute and the Ontario Bioscience Industry Organization