ECU recognizes alumni
The ECU Women’s Roundtable honored 10 award recipients at its Incredible Women Luncheon on Sept. 23.
Mary Sue Cummings Deaton ’81 ’91 of Greenville has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. She is chief engagement officer of Patient Centered Innovation, a company offering services designed to promote patient, family, caregiver and community-centered care.
Susan M. Durrwachter ’85 of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, is an Emmy-nominated CNN producer.
Mary W. Earp ’58 of Winnabow is a community leader in Brunswick County. She and her husband, Wilbur, settled in 1960 at Funston Farm, where they adopted cutting-edge enterprises to sustain their farm operation that included a grape vineyard, swine and cattle production.
Marybeth Petteway Eason ’00 ‘01 of Greenville is a merchant services marketing and sales enablement manager with Truist.
Karen E. Evans ’80 is a former registered nurse and U.S. Air Force captain and serves as a trial attorney with The Cochran Firm in Washington, D.C.
Valerie Madden ’91 of Los Angeles is an entertainment marketing and advertising creative director at Amazon Studios.
Ariana McAuley ’16 is a senior global strategy and operations consultant for Deloitte Global in New York.
Danielle Moinet ’06 of Nashville, Tennessee, is an actor known for her work in WWE as Summer Rae as well as through her nonprofit work for the DTM Foundation — named after Dean Thomas Moinet — that provides services to families with medically fragile children at Duke University and UNC hospitals.
Windy O’Connor ’90 of Charlotte is an award-winning and globally renowned painter who has developed a lifestyle brand of textiles, wallpaper, clothing and home accessories.
LaNika Wright ’14 of Winterville is associate vice chancellor of health and well-being and the executive director of Student Health Services at ECU.
In addition, the Alumni Association recognized six award recipients Oct. 4 during Homecoming weekend.
Michael McShane ’66 of Keswick, Virginia, received the Virgil Clark ’50 Distinguished Service Award. He is a lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
Jessica Holton ’03 received an Outstanding Alumni Award. She is a licensed clinical social worker who has served in local, state and national leadership roles in the National Association of Social Workers. Holton has worked extensively with individuals who have experienced chronic stressors, adversities and traumas.
Dr. Joshua Sonett ’88 of Ho Ho-Kus, New Jersey, received an Outstanding Alumni Award. He is professor and chief of thoracic surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and the director of the Price Family Center for Comprehensive Chest Care and Esophageal Center.
Honorary Alumni Award recipient Chris S. Holder of Beaufort has been a longtime advocate for ECU’s Department of Engineering, serving as chair of the Engineering Advisory Board and a past member of the College of Engineering and Technology Advancement Council. Holder is Fleet Support Team site lead/director of Fleet Readiness Center East, a U.S. Navy aviation and maintenance facility at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, which has provided internship and job opportunities for many ECU graduates.
Jose Garcia ’01 received an Outstanding Alumni Award. He is the Greene County Schools science, technology, engineering and math education director. He leads three STEM Schools of Distinction, facilitates a regional STEM Teacher Leadership Academy, supervises summer STEM camps, and has received numerous awards as a teacher, leader and member of professional organizations.
Gray Williams ’13 of Greenville is the Young Alumni Award recipient. She was the first executive director of the Greenville-Pitt County Sports Commission, founded in 2019 under her leadership. The organization has contributed more than $45 million in economic impact in the last three years.
Finally, Thomas Arthur ’71 and Paul Singleton ’58 ’61 were inducted to the Distinguished Military Service Society in November. They join 73 other society members who have been inducted since the organization was created in 2008.
Arthur of Tampa, Florida, graduated from ECU with an MBA after serving in the Army from 1966-1969. Among his professional accomplishments was leading the Havatampa cigar manufacturing corporation. In 2021, Arthur donated $5 million to the College of Business to strengthen students’ education and to support military personnel attending the college’s graduate school. As a result, the school was renamed the Thomas D. Arthur Graduate School of Business. Arthur also made a $1 million gift in 2010 that established the Thomas D. Arthur Distinguished Professorship in Leadership.
Singleton of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science education from ECU. Through his gift of $400,000 to ECU in 2021, the Paul Singleton Military Academic Success Fund was established. It supports veterans, reservists and dependents of disabled veterans who do not receive federal funding for textbooks. Singleton served in the Air Force reserves from 1954-1956 and was an active-duty Air Force officer from 1958-1984.