UNCP’s Jonathan Ricks Earns National Honor for Impact on Future Counselors
Dr. Jonathan Ricks believes the most effective counselors see people not as problems to solve, but as individuals with strengths, experiences and the capacity to grow.
UNCP Occupational Therapy Program Earns Full Seven-Year Accreditation
Less than two years after welcoming its first cohort of students, UNC Pembroke’s Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program has earned full accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE), marking a major milestone for the university’s expanding healthcare education efforts.
UNCP alumna Michelle McNeil Named 2026 Gaston County Social Worker of the Year
Michelle McNeil serves as a social services director in a long-term care facility, where she has built her career around showing up for residents and families during deeply personal transitions. She helps coordinate care, supports discharge planning, provides emotional support and walks families through difficult decisions, including end-of-life care. For her, social work has never been about checking a box or completing a task. It has been about making sure people feel seen, heard and respected.
UNC Pembroke Celebrates Graduate Class Ready to Lead and Serve
UNC Pembroke celebrated 517 graduates Friday evening, honoring a class of educators, healthcare professionals, business leaders, military members and public servants prepared to take the next step in their careers and communities. Their paths to commencement were as diverse as the degrees they earned. They came from hospital floors, classrooms, military service, leadership offices and communities where earning a graduate degree means more than adding another line to a résumé. For many, the walk across the stage was a promise kept.
Ashtin Bullard Finds Calling in Helping Others Heal
After stepping away from college years ago, Ashtin Bullard returned to UNCP with a new sense of purpose. Now, the Master of Social Work graduate is turning lived experience into a career focused on advocacy, mental health and addiction support.
UNCP’s Irene Pittman Aiken Named to Conference of Southern Graduate Schools Executive Board
Irene Pittman Aiken, PhD, dean of The William Howard Dean Graduate School at UNC Pembroke, has been elected to the Executive Board of the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools
UNCP’s Dr. Irene Pittman Aiken Inducted into Prestigious Kappa Delta Pi Eleanor Roosevelt Chapter
Dr. Irene Pittman Aiken, dean of the Howard Dean Graduate School at UNC Pembroke, has been selected for induction into the Eleanor Roosevelt Chapter of Kappa Delta Pi — one of the organization’s highest and most selective honors.
UNCP Awards First Doctoral Degrees, Marking a New Chapter in University History
As the lights rise inside Givens Performing Arts Center tonight, eight nurse leaders will step onto the stage and into the history books. Their doctoral hoods, symbols of perseverance, scholarship and service, mark a moment 138 years in the making for the University of North Carolina Pembroke.
Graduate student, fourth-grade teacher Shane Henderson receives Milken Educator Award
Shane Henderson, a fourth-grade teacher at Pittsboro Elementary School and a graduate student in UNC Pembroke’s Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction program, has been named a Milken Educator Award recipient.
UNC Pembroke announces 2025-26 OPTIMISE Rural NC trainee cohort
Fifteen graduate students at UNC Pembroke have been selected for the 2025-26 OPTIMISE Rural NC cohort, a yearlong training experience that prepares future behavioral health professionals to serve in rural communities across southeastern North Carolina.