Three will be honored at banquet on Friday of Homecoming Week in October
On Oct. 20, Homecoming weekend, the Campbell University Alumni Association will bestow the Distinguished Alumni Award upon three of its graduates. The award is presented to Campbell alumni who have distinguished themselves in their personal and professional career and their support of the University.
Kristin Cooper (’82), Casey Langdon (’08), and Jimmy Witherspoon (’80) will be receiving the prestigious distinction at a formal dinner and ceremony inside the Oscar N. Harris Student Union. They will join a group of 184 individuals recognized as Distinguished Alumni in the University’s 147-year history.
“On behalf of the Alumni Association, I am excited to honor these very deserving alumni,” said Rebecca Brock, Alumni Board of Directors President. “Each of these honorees exemplify Campbell’s mission of leading purposeful lives and service to others. Our Distinguished Alumni are wonderful representatives of our 54,000 alumni and the impact Campbell graduates are having around the world.”
A 1982 Campbell Law graduate, Kristin Cooper is the First Lady of the state of North Carolina, wife of Governor Roy Cooper.
Cooper has used her platform to champion the well-being of children in North Carolina, focusing primarily on issues of foster care, child abuse and neglect, childhood hunger, early childhood development and literacy, and access to the arts and nature.
The First Lady has served as a Guardian ad Litem for children in Wake County since 2003, using her legal training to represent foster children in court. Cooper also served two terms on the North Carolina Arts Council, and serves on the law school’s Board of Visitors and the Raleigh Little Theatre Advisory Board.
Dr. Langdon is a Harnett County native who graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in biochemistry and biology in 2008.
Langdon received a PhD in pathology in 2015 from Yale University and continued his scholastic training as a postdoctoral research associate at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital until 2022. He recently began his own laboratory in the Department of Pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC in December 2022.
Throughout his career, Langdon’s research has focused on determining the molecular underpinnings of human cancers to develop more efficacious, less toxic therapeutics.
Witherspoon received his B.B.A. in Trust Management and minor in Finance Planning from the Campbell University Lundy-Fetterman School of Business. He serves as the Chairman of the Department of Trust and Wealth Management at Campbell University, the director of the Trust program, the Jefferson Pilot Chair of Insurance and as an Associate Professor of the Lundy Fetterman School of Business.
Witherspoon has been with Campbell University for 40 years, and in addition to his duties as a professor, he is Director of the Trust Advisors Institute; Director of the Trust Advisors Forum,; Director of the ATFA Certification Forum; and Secretary/Treasurer of the Trust Education Foundation, Inc.
Nominations for Distinguished Alumni can be submitted throughout the year by anyone. In spring, the Alumni Board of Directors Recognition Committee reviews nominations, narrows its list, and presents finalists to the full board for approval. The full Alumni Board of Directors votes on nominees during its summer meeting.
The Alumni Association welcomes guests to join in celebration of these honorees. The Distinguished Alumni Award Ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. with a reception followed by dinner at 6 p.m. Registration closes Oct. 9.