RALEIGH, N.C. – Melissa Essary, Dean of Campbell University’s School of Law, was honored recently at Business Leader Media’s 2008 Women Extraordinaire Ceremony as one of the Triangle community’s top ten female leaders. Barbara Goodmon, president of the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, was the event’s keynote speaker.
According to Business Leader, a Women Extraordinaire honoree must be a woman of outstanding accomplishment, a leader, innovator, problem-solver and inspiration and mentor to others. Recipients must serve the community by making a difference, nurture family and friends, and be held in high regard by those in their circle. This year’s award winners were chosen from a record number of nearly 300 nominations.
Essary, who joined Campbell Law as Dean in August of 2006, was selected for her leadership within the Law School and the School’s upcoming relocation to downtown Raleigh. She was also recognized because of her substantive involvement in the Raleigh business and legal communities, including her recent election to the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
Joining Dean Essary at her table was a group of distinguished individuals that included her husband Larry Essary, N.C. First Lady Mary Easley, N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarah Parker, N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Campbell University President Jerry Wallace, Progress Energy Vice President Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, and Campbell Law Director of Development Britt Davis.
“Dean Essary’s influential work in bringing Campbell Law to Raleigh will have a positive impact on the community for years to come,” stated First Lady Mary Easley. “She truly is a woman extraordinaire and I am honored to call her both a colleague and a friend.”
Essary was previously recognized by Business Leader as a 2007-08 Triangle Impact Leader and a 2008 Education Impact Leader.
The ten Women Extraordinaire honorees are featured in the December 2008 issue of Business Leader magazine.
About Campbell Law School:
Since its founding in 1976, the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others and create a more just society. The School has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation’s top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation’s best Trial Advocacy Program. In 2008, the Law School’s Moot Court Program was ranked in the top ten nationally by the University of Houston’s Blakely Advocacy Institute among 196 ABA accredited law schools. Campbell Law boasts more than 3,000 alumni, including 2,000 who reside and work in North Carolina. For the past 20 years, Campbell Law’s record of success on the North Carolina bar exam is unsurpassed by any other North Carolina law school. In the fall of 2009, Campbell Law School will relocate from the main Campbell University campus to a new location in downtown Raleigh.