Charlotte Recognizes Anna Spangler Nelson For Creating Opportunities For North Carolina Students
On Friday, May 9, at a Spring Commencement ceremony where 1,519 new graduates from the Belk College of Business, Cato College of Education and the William States Lee College of Engineering received their bachelor’s degrees, UNC Charlotte conferred an honorary Doctor of Public Service upon Charlottean Anna Spangler Nelson.
Nelson, who has served since 2005 as chairman of Spangler Companies Inc., a Charlotte-based private investment firm, was a member of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors from 2014 to 2023, chairing its Educational Planning, Policies and Programs Committee. Through this experience and other select nonprofit leadership roles, she upholds a strong belief in the power of education to help individuals reach their potential and an abiding commitment to public education at all levels.
“Honorary degrees are the highest honor that a university can present to an individual. And I can absolutely say that this one is very well-deserved,” said Dennis Bunker ’81, chair of the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees. “Anna Spangler Nelson has distinguished herself as a leader in higher education and clearly sees the impact our University has in preparing excellent teachers for educating students in literacy in K-12 schools throughout the Charlotte region.”
In 2021, the C.D. Spangler Foundation, where she serves in a leadership capacity, established four transformative literacy professorships across the UNC System, including at UNC Charlotte, for the purpose of supporting reading proficiency in North Carolina’s children. These professorships are designed to attract and retain top scholars to play a pivotal role in training both future and in-service teachers, while contributing to the development of future literacy faculty.
“Anna Spangler Nelson’s commitment to public education has created opportunities for students across North Carolina,” said Chancellor Sharon L. Gaber. “Her leadership and vision reflect a deep understanding of how strong academic experiences transform lives. We are grateful to her and the C.D. Spangler Foundation for their generous and sustained support of UNC Charlotte.”
In total, seven endowed professorships at Charlotte, including the C.D. Spangler Distinguished Professorship of Early Childhood Literacy, have received sustaining support from the C.D. Spangler Foundation. They are: Anne R. Belk Distinguished Professorship in Music, Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professorship in Urban Education, Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professorship in Bioinformatics and Genomics, Marshall A. Rauch Distinguished Professorship of Political Science, Howard C. and Sarah H. Bissell Distinguished Professorship in Engineering and Russell M. Robinson II Distinguished Professorship of Shakespeare. These are among more than 100 endowed professorships across the UNC System supported by the foundation.
“True opportunity begins with education,” said Nelson in her remarks to the graduates, visitors, faculty and administrators in Halton Arena at the James H. Barnhardt Student Activity Center. “I believe public education in North Carolina must be a top priority; we are here today because we all have invested in the potential of the graduates, and because there is no more worthy investment.”
Nelson has served on the boards of the Arts & Science Council, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ Project L.I.F.T., Fidelity Charitable, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, myFutureNC, Novant Health and Read Charlotte. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wellesley College and with an MBA from Harvard University. The Charlotte Observer named her 2012 Woman of the Year.