Surrounded by their households and Elon mentors and associates, 5 excellent alumni have been honored by the Workplace of Alumni Engagement Friday evening for his or her contributions to their industries, communities and alma mater through the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Awards Ceremony at The Inn at Elon.

The evening included remarks by those that know the honorees greatest — members of the family and Elon mentors and associates — and plenty of moments of appreciation for what Elon has meant for every honoree all through their lives.

“I liked Elon, it was such an amazing expertise,” mentioned Kathie Sink Niven ’89, CEO of Biscuitville, Inc., who was honored because the Distinguished Alumna of the Yr. If it wasn’t for a scholarship provided to her by then Elon President J. Earl Dainley ’46, she wouldn’t have been capable of attend the college. All these years later, she will’t think about life with out her Elon expertise. “It actually set me up for the particular person and chief I’m in the present day,” Niven added.

For the previous eight many years, the Workplace of Alumni Engagement has introduced awards to honor Elon alumni who function lively companions, advocates and buyers. The Distinguished Alumni Awards are introduced every spring and are the very best accolades conferred by the workplace.

2023 Distinguished Alumni Award Honorees

Chris Bell ’92

Distinguished Alumnus of the Yr Award

This award is introduced to an alumnus who has distinguished himself in a career and locally and introduced honor to Elon.

With a steadfast dedication to enhancing shoppers’ lives by way of purpose-driven monetary companies, Chris Bell serves as regional president for Truist Monetary Company in North Carolina’s Triangle area. He’s the corporate’s senior chief out there chargeable for delivering the complete complement of the corporate’s companies to shoppers within the space and directing
the business enterprise.

Previous to being named to this place in September 2021, Chris was the center market supervisor for Truist and the area president with SunTrust Financial institution within the Triangle East Area. His focus was on professionals and privately held working firms and offering consultative relationship banking. He was chargeable for the Triangle advertising and marketing and basis efforts throughout all traces of enterprise to incorporate retail, wealth, enterprise and business banking.

Chris graduated magna cum laude with a level in enterprise administration from Elon, the place he was additionally a member of Sigma Pi fraternity. Previous to becoming a member of SunTrust, which merged with BB&T to develop into Truist, Bell held administration positions at Wachovia Financial institution and RBC.

Chris dedicates a lot of his time exterior of labor to serving his neighborhood, together with on the boards of Dix Park Conservancy, Analysis Triangle Analysis Partnership, Nice Grove United Methodist Church, Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and The 50 Group.  He additionally serves on the Wake Training Partnership Advisory Council and the YMCA board improvement committee.

He’s equally keen about giving again to his alma mater. Chris was beforehand a member of the Elon Alumni Board, together with one time period as president, and a regional committee member for the Elon leads Marketing campaign. He has additionally served as a volunteer for Elon Day, Alumni 360, class reunions and affinity reunions.

Chris lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, along with his spouse, Mason. Their son, William, is a senior on the College of South Carolina, and their daughter, Maggie, is a junior at Clemson College. In his spare time, Chris enjoys studying, touring, going to the seashore and {golfing}.

Kathie Sink Niven ’89

Distinguished Alumna of the Yr Award

Awarded to an alumna who has distinguished herself in a career and locally and introduced honor to Elon.

Kathie Sink Niven’s time as a scholar was only the start of her deep connection to Elon, having devoted a good portion of her profession to an organization with shut ties to the college.

Kathie is chief government officer of Biscuitville, Inc., a regional fast-food chain with greater than 50 areas in North Carolina and Virginia, together with at Elon. The corporate was based in 1966 by Maurice Jennings ’57 P’87 GP’13 GP’18 GP’18, and Burney Jennings ’87 P’18 serves as government chair. Kathie beforehand served as president and chief model officer on the firm.

Utilizing the abilities she first cultivated at Elon, she focuses on designing and executing model technique and organizational design. In 2014, she led the rebranding of Biscuitville, which included the addition of contemporary southern® to its identify; transforming, relocating or rebuilding 100% of its eating places; and a re-energized dedication to sourcing regionally. Since becoming a member of the corporate in 2010, she has loved an government management function in driving Biscuitville’s development from $55 million to over $150 million.

Earlier than becoming a member of Biscuitville, Kathie served as vp of discipline advertising and marketing for Quiznos Corp., senior director of promoting for Arby’s Roast Beef Company, discipline advertising and marketing supervisor for Burger King, supervisor of nationwide discipline advertising and marketing for Krispy Kreme and director of shopper companies for Bouvier Kelly, incomes six addy Awards.

After graduating from Elon with a level in English and a minor in communications, Kathie continued her training with coursework in management, branding and technique on the Middle for Artistic Management and the Kenan Flagler Enterprise College on the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and earned a certificates in design considering from Harvard College. At all times beneficiant together with her time for her alma mater, Kathie has served on the Elon Alumni Board and the President’s Advisory Council.

Kathie lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, together with her husband and fellow Elon alum, William “Drew” Niven ’89, and their two kids, Will and Ellie. They get pleasure from touring, crusing, tenting, recreation evening and all issues enjoyable and adventurous.

Wealthy ’87 P’17 & Laurie Johnson P’17

Distinguished Service to Elon Award

This award is introduced to people who’ve demonstrated excellent service that promotes the development of Elon.

Wealthy and Laurie Johnson are exemplary stewards of Elon’s dedication to creating engaged, experiential studying alternatives for all college students, routinely supporting the college with their time and funds.

Wealthy and Laurie have been amongst Elon’s most lively and impactful volunteers, at all times answering the decision to serve Elon. A pacesetter inside Elon’s alumni physique, Wealthy has been an Elon leads Marketing campaign steering committee member, Elon leads regional committee co-chair, Mother and father Council member, Elon Alumni Board member, Alumni 360 volunteer, Elon Day volunteer and social media ambassador. Laurie additionally served on the Mother and father Council and took part within the Girls’s Philanthropy Focus Group.

Devoted members of the Elon Society and the Order of the Oak, Wealthy and Laurie’s beneficiant monetary assist of Elon features a $50,000 reward naming the Alumni Room within the College of Communications, a $50,000 reward naming the Males’s Basketball Convention Room in Schar Middle and a $100,000 reward that named a room at The Inn at Elon and created an endowed Elon Engagement Scholarship. In 2020, they included Elon of their property plans with a $250,000 bequest. Laurie and Wealthy’s annual items have additionally supported Elon’s Biggest Wants, the Phoenix Membership, the Martha and Spencer Love College of Enterprise and the Division of Scholar Life.

Wealthy graduated from Elon with a level in mass communication. He spent his total profession within the banking trade, together with management roles on the Neighborhood Financial institution of Northern Virginia, PNC and Virginia Heritage Financial institution. He retired in 2022 as senior vp and chief shopper lending officer at MainStreet Financial institution. He’s now a licensed volunteer firefighter with Loudoun County, Virginia, and plans to attain his EMT certification in summer time 2023. Laurie earned her bachelor’s diploma from American College and her mba at George Washington College. She joined Accenture in 1989 and not too long ago retired as managing director. She was named Accenture’s Inventor of the Yr in 2012 for her patented “Habits Mapped Affect Evaluation Device.” Laurie now serves as director of studying on the Boulder Crest Basis, a nonprofit that helps struggling veterans and first responders overcome trauma.

Laurie and Wealthy are additionally each members of the Fairfax, Virginia, chapter of the Harley Homeowners Group. This spring, they’ll take part within the Kyle Petty Charity Experience Throughout America for the second time to learn the Victory Junction camp, which challenges kids who’ve a critical medical situation to strive issues they by no means imagined potential. The couple lives in Potomac Falls, Virginia. Their daughter, Grace ’17, is constant their legacy of service to Elon as a member of the Younger Alumni Council.

LaToya Marcus Faustin ’04 G’10

Distinguished Alumni Service Award

This award is introduced to an alumnus or alumna who has given extraordinary service to    his or her neighborhood.

A flexible strategist and artistic chief, LaToya Marcus Faustin has devoted her skilled life to enhancing her neighborhood and uplifting underrepresented voices.

As government director of She Constructed This Metropolis, LaToya supplies trade disruptive programming that sparks curiosity and builds pathways to profitable careers within the expert trades for youth, girls and marginalized communities. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based nonprofit goals to dismantle boundaries and stigmas in historically male-dominated industries by way of modern, sustainable practices, offering girls and women with exploratory alternatives and superior coaching in development, automotive, manufacturing, engineering and different maker areas.

LaToya credit her time at Elon with affording her the connections and experiences she wanted to construct the abilities she has used all through her profession. As a Management Fellow, member of the yearbook committee and even a dancer at Spring Convocation that includes Elie Wiesel, she took half in every little thing she may at Elon. After graduating with a level in company communications and a minor in Spanish, LaToya spent three years on the border of Texas and Mexico instructing highschool English to underserved youth by way of Educate for America. Her time within the lecture rooms of the Rio Grande Valley sparked her want to work in neighborhood advocacy and financial improvement.

She later returned to Elon to earn her MBA earlier than changing into regional director of Citizen Faculties, an education-based nonprofit that companions with native center colleges to convey actual world studying to the classroom by way of partnerships with main firms, small companies and neighborhood members. She was the founding government director of the Park Neighborhood Improvement Company, the place she established a imaginative and prescient and executed technique round reasonably priced housing, workforce improvement and wholesome dwelling. She additionally began her personal consulting agency, Keep Prepared Consulting Options.

Equally dedicated to neighborhood service past the scope of her work, LaToya serves on the Neighborhood Revitalization Committee for Habitat for Humanity Charlotte. She was a board member for the Charlotte Regional Enterprise Alliance – Central Chapter and concerned in West Finish revitalization efforts with the Metropolis of Charlotte’s financial improvement group. She is at present a member of the Elon Alumni Board and beforehand served on the Younger Alumni Council. LaToya lives in Charlotte together with her household.