Faculty/Staff Updates

American Indian Center Director Clara Sue Kidwell retires

The American Indian Center’s inaugural director, Clara Sue Kidwell, retired in June having served in the post since July 2007. Kidwell, whose tribal affiliations are Choctaw and Chippewa, came from the University of Oklahoma, where she served as director of Native American Studies and professor of history.

AIC is one of the only centers on the East Coast to focus solely on American Indian issues and research. During her tenure, Kidwell endeavored to raise the center’s visibility as a resource for American Indian collaboration and scholarship as well as serve the growing population of American Indian students on the UNC campus. She also actively cultivated new sources of funding and built relationships between the intellectual and scholarly resources of the University and the Indian communities in North Carolina.

The AIC has named Marcus Collins as interim director. Read more...

UNC taps first-ever Latino coach, Carlos Somoano, to lead men's soccer

Carlos Somoano was named head coach of the North Carolina men’s soccer team in the spring after nine seasons as an assistant, making him the first-ever Latino head coach at UNC and one of only two minority coaches along with Interim Head Football Coach Everett Withers. Read more...




Charlotte Smith ’95 named to head Elon University women's basketball program

Former National Player of the Year and longtime North Carolina assistant coach Charlotte Smith was named the new head coach of the Elon women's basketball program on June 22.

Smith, who coached nine seasons in Chapel Hill and helped guide the Tar Heels to four ACC titles and Final Four appearances in 2006 and 2007 as an assistant under Sylvia Hatchell, replaced Karen Barefoot, who departed to take a post at Old Dominion. Read more...

Renee Craft ’95, ’99 publishes children's book on coping with the loss of a loved one

Renee Alexander Craft, assistant professor in UNC’s Department of Communication Studies and the Curriculum of International and Area studies, has published “I will love you everywhere always,” a children’s book created to help little ones cope with death and loss. Written in the wake of her friend and fellow alumna Maleikka Hardy Williams’ untimely death, the book is meant to inspire hope, healing and understanding for children facing loss of a loved one. Read more...

Scholars delve into American Indian history

Sixteen college faculty members and graduate students from across the country researched “The Ethno-history of Indians in the American South” June 12 through July 15 at UNC.

The American Indian Center received a $143,834 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the summer research seminar. A second NEH grant to the center, for $10,000, will allow digitization of the research results for posting on a new website. Read more...