Fellow Tar Heels,
I hope you and your families are safe and well. During these unprecedented times, we turn to our communities and rely on each other for support and comfort. I want you to know that your Carolina community is here for you. I am thinking of each of you and take comfort in knowing that the Alumni Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity (ACRED) has built such an amazing network of friends. I hope we can serve as a resource to all of you and to each other.
Carolina is at the forefront of fighting COVID-19. We are focused on providing support to our students, faculty, staff and communities, near and far, through frontline research and health care services. And Carolina is continuing its mission of educational excellence and service to the people of our state and nation by providing virtual learning experiences to current students, alumni and Tar Heels near and far. Across the University, webinars and online resources are being created to ensure accessibility of timely and important information. I’d like to share a few of these resources with you here.
- As I am writing this, Carolina researchers have made a major breakthrough in the treatment of COVID-19 with a drug that will soon move into human clinical trials.
- I know many of you are parents who are now working as well as educating your children from home. The UNC School of Education has created a resource guide for parents and students who are now participating in remote instruction. Learn more here.
- UNC Health staff and researchers are working around the clock to treat patients with COVID-19 as well as bring us closer to finding a vaccine. This story highlights some of these health care heroes.
- One of our own Carolina grads, Kizzmekia Corbett ’14 (Ph.D) is working on a vaccine at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Learn more about her research here.
- I’d also like to share an example of how Carolina is taking the world-class lectures you would find on campus and making them accessible online. The Carolina Asia Center recently hosted a webinar titled “Yellow Peril and Anti-Asian Prejudice in the Shadow of Coronavirus.” You can find a recording of the talk and Q&A here. This is an important conversation, and I am hopeful that the accessibility of lectures like this can be used to help combat this intolerable ignorance.
- If you’d like to see even more resources and stories, please check them out here.
Carolina remains committed to its educational mission and is resolute in its determination to help the global community during these trying times. We are all in this together, and you are all in the hearts of your Carolina community. Please reach out if there is anything ACRED can do to support you. I wish you all well and look forward to seeing you again soon.
Yours truly,
Lucrecia R. Moore ’92
Chair
Looking for a way to help? We have created the ACRED Impact Fund focused on underserved students to help meet the immediate, critical needs of our most vulnerable students, with many already facing unexpected hardships. If you know of a student who may need help from the fund, please ask them to complete this request.