„ The Pendulum
NEWS
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 / Page 5
Distinguished alumni receive awards during Homecoming
alumni from page 1
Noel L. Allen ’69 — Distinguished
Alumnus of the Year
Allen has become one of the
nation’s top attorneys and legal
scholars after graduating with a
bachelor’s degree in history from Elon.
He is now a president and founding
and managing partner of Allen and
Pinnix law firm.
He focuses on public policy,
occupational licensing and
administrative, antitrust and trade
regulation law.
He was named North Carolina's
“Legal Elite,” in Business North
Carolina magazine, one of the state’s
top lawyers by North Carolina Super
Lawyers and received the International
Service Award from the N.C. Bar
Association’s International Law and
Practice Section.
He claims his greatest honor is
that he has served as a member of
Eton’s Board of Trustees since 1985,
during which time he has served as
board chair for a few terms. He was
important in the board’s decision to
open the Elon University School of Law
in Greensboro, where he serves on the
board of advisers.
He has also been an adjunct
professor at Campbell Uni\ ersity of Law
and published articles on ethics, the use
of expert witnesses and lenal challenges
for regulating Internet prai iice.
Bonnie Baxter ’88 — Disf iguished
Alumna of the Year
Since she graduated in 988 with
a degree in biology, Baxti has made
revolutionary discoveries n biology
and astrobiology.
“My career path was ri . lly
influenced by where I gn up, where
I went to college and all t' professors
who were here,” Baxter said.
Baxter is international I \ known
for her DNA cell repair research,
especially at the Great Salt Lake
where she found multiple species of
microorganisms called “halophiles.”
This evidence contradicted the theory
that life cannot exist in a high-saline
environment.
Her work has been used as a
’■ '■vy..
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
left to right; Bonnie Baxter, Noel L. Allen, Lundon B. Sims, Laith al-Majali and Joan Summers Drumond received alumni awards last weekend.
starting point for studying the
possibility of life on other planets,
particularly Mars.
Baxter was awarded the Utah
Governor’s Medal for Science and
Technology and was also profiled in
Salt Lake magazine in a story titled
“Five Women Changing Utah.”
Joan Summers Drummond ’52 —
Alumni Service Award
In 1952, Drummond graduated
from Elon with a degree in biology
and chemistry and began working for
Vick Chemical Co. as an analytical
laboratory chemist. She was the first
woman to be promoted to manager at
Vick Chemical. Even when the company
was sold to different companies,
Drummond remained an important
asset to the company.
She retired in 1990 and has since
worked with the Hospice League of
Alamance/Caswell counties, and now
serves on the league’s board. She
has also spent a lot of time working
at the Women’s Resource Center of
Burlington, the Humane Society
of Alamance County, Residential
Treatment Services of Alamance
County, Democratic Women of
Alamance County and Meals on
Wheels, where she is a coordinator.
Drummond and her husband gave
back to Elon in 2006 when they donated
$25,000 to establish the Joan and James
Drummond Endowed Scholarship in
Chemistry. There is now a research lab
in McMichael named after them.
Lundon B. Sims ’02 — Young Alumna
of the Year
Since graduating in 2002, Sims
has used her history education and
Spanish degrees to further her career
and help others.
After graduation, she spent more
than two years in Nicaragua with the
Peace Corps, where she trained school
teachers and taught students.
Since returning from the Peace
Corps, she has taught Advanced
Placement W'orld History and Spanish
II at R.J. Reynolds High School in
Winston-Salem, N.C.
She also helped develop R.J.R.
W.O.R.L.D., a program that encourages
students in the honors world history
classes to volunteer in Forsyth
County. She has assisted her students
in finding these opportunities by
bringing the Kiva.org Project to
Reynolds High School.
Sims is also a translator at the
Centro La Communidad/Community
Care Center.
Laith al-Majali ’05 — Young Alumnus
of the Year
Ever since he was a student in the
Elon School of Communications, Majali
has shown tremendous potential as a
filmmaker.
Majali was the first King Hussein of
Jordan Scholar to come to Elon in 2001.
He was active in campus organizations
and media groups.
While still an Elon student, Majali
interned in Los Angeles, where he
collaborated with Amin Matalqa,
also from Jordan. The two recently
produced “Captain Abu Raed,” the first
feature film to emerge from Jordan
in 50 years. The film received the
World Cinema Audience Award at the
Sundance Film Festival in 2008.
He has recently been working on a
sitcom for the Showtime network. It is
based on what he experienced as an
Arab student in the South.
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