New Award Honors First Black Alumni
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Endowment establishes the new Reddick-Wicker Award
Story by Kelly Collins | Published September 10, 2022
As part of GiveUNC, Carolina’s annual day of giving, the UNC Pharmacy Foundation received 187 gifts totaling $34,520 to establish a new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Endowment. The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Class of 2021 made a lead matching gift to kick off the effort.
“As a class, we wanted to make an impact by furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in our school community,” said class president Jeffrey Seals, PharmD ’21. “As the number one pharmacy school in the nation, we must ensure that we are pharmacists for all, and not just the few, and I believe an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion is key to making this a reality.”
The endowment will provide a permanent source of funding to support the pharmacy school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion strategic priorities. Additionally, it will support a new Reddick-Wicker Award honoring our pharmacy school’s first Black alumni.
Christian Brown, winner of the inaugural Wicker-Reddick Award
Fittingly, the inaugural recipient of the Reddick-Wicker Award was Christian Brown, who worked with Dr. Ben Urick to lead a project documenting the desegregation of the pharmacy school and sharing the stories of our first Black students.
Mona Reddick, RPh ’67, was the pharmacy school’s first Black graduate. She was originally from Shawtown, a Black neighborhood outside of Lillington, NC. Following graduation from UNC, Mona became the first female pharmacy intern at Mount Sinai Hospital.
William Wicker, RPh ’72, was raised in Forsyth County and was the first Black student admitted into pharmacy school at UNC. He left the program for a few years due to a challenging environment but returned to earn his degree. William owned and operated an independent community pharmacy in Greensboro for 15 years.