Over 16 years, Andy Johns has built a reputation as the indispensable fixer of thorny issues Johns has held many important titles at Carolina since he graduated in 1998 and went to work as a computer consultant for Administrative … Read more

  Renita Corbett keeps a pager on her hip. She never knows when a cleaning emergency may arise at the School of Dentistry, requiring quick action. “I’m all over the place,” she said, sitting down in the Koury Hall atrium … Read more

Randi Byrd fingered the delicate string of tiny colorful glass beads around her neck. She made the necklace herself, in the beaded jewelry tradition of her Cherokee ancestors. Beading was her hobby – until she discovered giant pumpkins. “It’s an … Read more

  In 2008, life was good for Charina Illescas Brooks. Born and raised in the Philippines, she had married Daniel Brooks, a North Carolinian, in 2001. She struggled through two years of paperwork, but she and their 1-year-old daughter, Nikki, … Read more

  Technically, he was trespassing, but Claudio Battaglini didn’t care. It was a Saturday morning, the door was unlocked, and he had come on a mission to peek inside this glimmering new building on the campus of the University of … Read more

Christopher Payne has a favorite brainteaser that never fails to stump the countless students and colleagues he has shared it with at Carolina. “My riddle for folks is that I am a UNC graduate, but not a Tar Heel alum.” … Read more

Faydene Alston grew up in Pittsboro with four brothers and sisters and looked forward to starting a big happy family of her own when she got married at the age of 31. “I was determined to be a mom,” Alston … Read more

Ernest Williamson played football with Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice in the 1940s and went on to play in the NFL with the Washington Redskins and New York Giants. James Spurling met him working at a service station on Airport Road … Read more

Larry Gallo Jr. built a legacy as a ‘friend to all’ Larry Gallo Jr. was an only child whose parents early on laid down the law about what his childhood would be like.   “My Dad said to me, ‘As … Read more

Danny Bell builds bridges between Carolina and Indian communities Danny Bell was entering his senior year of high school when segregation ended in North Carolina. After 11 years of attending East Carolina Indian School for American Indians, he moved to … Read more