11/24/04 — Wayne Community trustees named

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Wayne Community trustees named

By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on November 24, 2004 1:58 PM

Joanne J. Roberts, a co-owner of Pride House Realty, and Robert W. Strickland, president of Strickland Insurance Group Inc., have been named to the Wayne Community College board of trustees.

Mrs. Roberts was appointed by the governor to a two-year term, and Strickland was appointed to a four-year term by the Wayne County Board of Education.

Mrs. Roberts served as financial director for H. Martin Lancaster's congressional campaign in the early 1990s. Lancaster is now president of the state Community College System

She is a member of the local, state and national Democratic Women's organizations, has held offices at all levels and was honored as the 1998 N.C. Democratic Woman of the Year and with the 2002 Wayne County Star by the Wayne County and N.C. Democratic Women. She is also a member of the American Women's Business Association and local and state real estate associations.

Mrs. Roberts attended East Carolina University and Wayne Community College. A Wayne County native, she is married to Hugh Ellis Roberts and has two children and four grandchildren.

Strickland has been working in the insurance industry since 1967, including serving as a fiscal examiner for the N.C. Department of Insurance and an insurance company auditor.

He is a member of a number of state and national insurance agents' organizations and currently serves as the vice chairman of the N.C. Association of Domestic Property and Casualty Insurance Companies and a director of the N.C. Reinsurance Facility and the N.C. Association of Premium Finance Companies, of which is also a past president. He is also a member of the local, state and national Boards of Realtors.

Strickland has been affiliated with boards for the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, Goldsboro Family YMCA, Branch Bank & Trust, and Wayne County Airport Authority. He has been the treasurer of the Saulston Volunteer Fire Department for 20 years and serves as the chairman of the Saulston United Methodist Church's finance committee.

He graduated from Atlantic Christian College, now Barton, with a bachelor's degree in business administration. A Wayne County native, he and wife, the former Alma Sutton, have three children and four grandchildren.

W. Timothy Haithcock and Tommy Cox, the board's vice chairman, were reappointed for four-year terms by the governor and the Wayne County Commissioners, respectively.

Uvette Johnson, the college's 2004-05 student government president, was installed as an ex officio member of the board of trustees representing the student body.