Dr. Alfreda Johnson Webb Endowed Scholarship Announced

The NC State College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has announced the establishment of the Dr. Alfreda Johnson Webb Scholarship Award Endowment in the amount of $50,000. The fund will be used to subsidize the educational expenses of up to two students per year from groups that are Under-Represented in Veterinary Medicine (URVM). The endowment was announced by Dr. Paul Lunn, Dean of the CVM, and Dr. Allen Cannedy, the College’s Director of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, during a visit to the campus of the University of North Carolina-Pembroke.

The scholarship endowment was established by gifts totaling in excess of $25,000 from the North Carolina Minority Veterinarians Association and others, along with matching funds from the R.B. Terry Charitable Foundation.

[pullquote color=”blue”]“We are firmly committed to the goal of increasing the diversity and inclusiveness of our student body and college, this is a vital obligation if we are going to truly serve the needs of society and the world.” [/pullquote]

Dr. Webb was the first African American woman to graduate from a veterinary school in the United States, receiving her doctorate from what was then Tuskegee Institute (now University) in 1949. She was also the first African American woman to be licensed to practice veterinary medicine in the United States, and to serve in the North Carolina General Assembly.

Dean Lunn praised the establishment of the scholarship fund, saying “this new endowed scholarship will increase the opportunities available to students from groups that are currently under-represented in veterinary medicine. We are firmly committed to the goal of increasing the diversity and inclusiveness of our student body and college, this is a vital obligation if we are going to truly serve the needs of society and the world.”