The School of Communications and Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, selected the inaugural recipients of their Distinguished Alumni Awards this spring. Jo Craven McGinty '85 and Doug Finberg '94 were honored by the School of Communications. Niclas Stiernholm '89, Letitia Lee '99 and Britten Ginsburg Pund '06 were recognized by Elon College.
McGinty was part of the Washington Post team that received the 1999 Pultizer Prize for Public Service and later earned another Pulitzer as part of a New York Times reporting team in 2005. She serves as projects editor for the New York Times. Click here to read more.
Finberg is vice president for marketing at MGM Studios, having held similar positions previously at Marvel Studios, Paramount and Dreamworks SKG. He also founded Finberg Worldwide, a consulting company that specializes in entertainment and brand marketing. Click here to read more.
Stiernholm, a native of Malmo, Sweden, is the chief executive officer of Trillium Therapeutic, a canadian biopharmaceutical company. After graduating from Elon, he earned a doctoral degree in immunology from the University of Toronto and since has worked for several corporate and scientific advisory boards, including the Ontario Genomic Institute and the Ontario Bioscience Industry Organization.
Lee was the first African American to graduate from Elon with an art degree and has enjoyed great success as a professional artist. She has shown her work in galleries across the country and in London. She served as a muralist in 2011 for an episode of the ABC hit show “Extreme Makeover Home Edition,” and an acclaimed piece of her work hangs in the office of President Leo M. Lambert on campus. Click here to see her work.
Pund is a manager of health care access for the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting state health programs that administer HIV/AIDS care and related services. In 2010, Housing Works, a national nonprofit, named Pund an “AIDS Hero” for her work helping states reduce their waiting lists for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, among many other achievements.