2023 Planning Distinguished Alumni Awards
The ECU Planning Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes the outstanding contributions of graduates from the ECU Community and Regional Planning Program. It recognizes alumni for their outstanding achievements to the planning profession, service to society, or the ECU Planning Program.
The 2022-2023 Committee consisted of five–Michelle Nance, AICP (chair), Dr. Misun Hur (Director), Dr. Anuradha Mukherji (faculty), Ethan Flower (student), and Catherine Grimm (Alum). The committee reviewed the nomination and application packages of Mrs. Holly White and Julie Metz. The Planning Alumni Board made the decision on the finalists. During the 2023 Spring Banquet, they received the awards in front of alums, students, families, and friends.
Holly White, AICP
Holly White received the award during the banquet.
Holly B. White, AICP, is a Resilience Planner at the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR).
She graduated in 2003 with a B.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from ECU. She received the Carolinas Regional Adaptation Leadership Award issued by the American Society of Adaptation Professionals in 2018 and held leadership positions at the ECU Planning Alumni Society (2008-2012). She also volunteered for several disaster and humanitarian agencies and organizations between 2010 and 2015. She is passionate about helping people, communities, and the environment. Her work on Sea Grant and partnerships have highly acknowledged by colleagues.
Julie Metz, AICP
Jilie Metz
Julie Metz, AICP, is the Business & Membership Development Assistant Director/ARP Member Services Specialist at the North Carolina League of Municipalities. She graduated in 1991 with B.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from ECU. Before her current position, she was the Downtown Development Director of the City of Goldsboro, who led the impressive downtown transformation, which led to numerous awards and recognitions locally and nationally.
“Downtown Goldsboro is now a thriving section of the Goldsboro community. It went from a vacancy rate of nearly 80% upon my hire to roughly 15% with a 5-to-1 return on the city’s investment. But it is not the statistics that matter most in reflection. It is the overall feeling one gets when being in that place and how that place stirs them. Beyond my daughter, downtown Goldsboro will likely be my most recognized legacy. The legacy people see today is what inspired a current ECU honors student to claim planning as her degree ambition. That is the best feeling in the world,” Julie says.