W.B. Greene Jr. receives George L. Carter Award

Published 3:04 pm Monday, November 21, 2022

JOHNSON CITY — The East Tennessee State University National Alumni Association presented its 2022 Alumni Awards on Friday, Nov. 18, during a special awards dinner.

William B. Greene Jr. received the George L. Carter Award. This award is the highest honor bestowed upon graduates or friends of ETSU who have made the university a more dynamic and viable force in the world of higher education. The award is named for the industrialist, railroad magnate and philanthropist who provided land, enlisted support and organized local government agreements in the successful campaign to locate a normal school — now ETSU — in Johnson City.

Greene has enjoyed a longtime career as a banking executive. He became the youngest bank president and CEO in the United States at the age of 24, and today he is chairman of the BancTenn Corp., which owns the Bank of Tennessee, a bank he co-founded with his father in 1974 and previously served as president. The Wake Forest University and Rutgers University Stonier Graduate School of Banking alumnus is a U.S. Army veteran, certified pilot and championship golfer.

Greene, an avid supporter of education, served on the board of trustees and in other roles at Wake Forest and is presently a trustee at Milligan University, where he was awarded the Doctor of Economics degree and which named its School of Business and Technology in his honor.

At ETSU, Greene raised and contributed to establish the Warren-Greene Golf Practice Facility. The university’s $28 million football stadium is named the William B. Greene Jr. Stadium.

Lisa Carter received the Outstanding Alumna Award. Carter, who received her M.S. in nursing from ETSU in 2008, is president of Ballad Health’s Southern Region, overseeing operations at Johnson City Medical Center, Niswonger Children’s Hospital and Franklin Woods Community Hospital in Johnson City, as well as hospitals in Carter, Greene, Hawkins, Hancock, Johnson and Unicoi counties. Prior to her role as regional president, she was CEO for six years of Niswonger Children’s Hospital, where she spearheaded new programs to address such pressing issues as neonatal abstinence syndrome, trauma-informed care and other social determinants of care. She also helped bring about initiatives extending telemedicine options to the rural regions of the hospital’s 29-county service area. The former neonatal intensive care unit bedside nurse now serves on several boards, including those of the Children’s Hospital Alliance of Tennessee, Make-A-Wish of East Tennessee, Early Impact Virginia and the Southern Appalachian Ronald McDonald House.

The Outstanding Alumnus Award was presented to Steve DeCarlo. After graduating from ETSU in 1980 with a degree in accounting, he worked with Crum & Forster and The London Agency. He was a founding partner and officer of Royal Specialty Underwriting. In 2000, he joined Amwins Group Inc. and led the business through the merger of several specialty wholesalers. He has served on the board of directors and today is executive chairman of Amwins. Among his many honors for his work in the insurance industry and community service are the Ernst & Young LLC Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the national Insurance Industry Council Spirit of Life® honors and the Insurance Business America Magazine Hall of Fame. He is a member of the ETSU Board of Trustees and the ETSU President’s Circle, and is also affiliated with the university’s Distinguished President’s Trust.

Justice Jeffery S. Bivins was named the Distinguished Alumnus in Public Service Award. Bivins graduated from ETSU in 1982 with a B.A. in political science with a minor on criminal justice and graduated from the Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1986. He practiced law with the firm of Boult, Cummings, Conners & Berry PLC in Nashville and was assistant commissioner and general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Personnel. He is a former circuit court judge for the 21^st Judicial District of Tennessee and spent three years as a judge on the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. Bivins was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2014 and was elected to that body in 2016. That same year, his colleagues elected him chief justice, a position he held until 2021. He served on the board of directors of the Conference of Chief Justices from 2019-21, and acted as chairman of its Government Affairs Committee.

Betsy Bowers was named Distinguished Alumna in Higher Education. Bowers, who graduated from ETSU in 1980, worked for the Tennessee Division of State Audit before returning to ETSU. She was first a grant accountant and then worked for six years in ETSU’s Department of Internal Audit while earning her MBA in 1992 and professional certification as an internal auditor. In 1993, she joined the University of West Florida (UWF) as chief audit executive, and now serves as that university’s chief financial officer. UWF recognized her as Manager of the Year in 2014 and presented her with the Marion Viccars Award, named in honor of one of the institution’s founding leaders. Bowers is a past international president of the Association of College and University Auditors, which awarded her its international Excellence in Service Award in 2013.

Dr. Brian Noland was named an Honorary Alumnus. Since becoming the president of ETSU in 2012, Noland has led the university through two major strategic visioning processes that have led the way to numerous new initiatives, partnerships and programs. His legacy at ETSU has been characterized by significant expansion and a period of unprecedented growth. Among the building projects undertaken during his tenure are construction of the Martin Center for the Arts, William B. Greene Stadium, a student parking garage and more, as well as several renovation projects, including that of the D.P. Culp Student Center. He oversaw ETSU’s governance transition to a board of trustees from the Tennessee Board of Regents. In addition, several new academic programs and regional partnerships have come to fruition under Noland’s leadership, and ETSU recently boasted the highest six-year graduation rate in school history.

Award of Honor recipient Lendward “Lenny” Simpson Jr. was an up-and-coming tennis player who had already played three times in what is now the U.S. Open when he accepted an academic and athletic scholarship to ETSU in 1968. He won four mixed doubles titles, was a quarter finalist in the NCAA tournament and played number one in singles and doubles throughout college. In addition to being named the Outstanding College Athlete in America in 1972, he was coach of the ETSU team from 1972-73. After graduating in 1973 with a degree in both psychology and physical education, he became director of tennis at a club in Bloomfield, Mich., and helped run the Michigan Junior Development Program. In 1974, he turned pro and was the first Black player to play world Team Tennis. He went on to teach and administer tennis programs in Knoxville and his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina. In 2014, Simpson was inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame and founded the award-winning non-profit One Love Tennis Foundation.

Established in 1915, the ETSU National Alumni Association is the university’s first and longest-operating organization. The Alumni Awards began in 1970. A complete view of previous award recipients can be found at etsualumni.org/awards.