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An ������Ƶ communications staff member was honored in March for his service to a regional association whose mission is to support higher education public relations professionals in North and South Carolina.

Eric Townsend, director of communications at ������Ƶ Law, received the 2019 H. Lewis Gaston Award from the College News Association of the Carolinas during CNAC's annual conference, which was hosted in Greenville, South Carolina.

The award recognizes a recipient's outstanding service to CNAC and for accomplishments in public relations in higher education. It is named in memory of a former CNAC president killed in an accident June 14, 1973. Recipients are chosen from among nominations received by an awards committee appointed by the CNAC president. 

Judy Longshaw, CNAC's president-elect, presented Townsend with the honor on March 4, 2019, during the conference's awards luncheon.

"Eric is a servant-leader in every sense of the word," Longshaw said as she read from award nominations. "He doesn't do any of this for ego or validation – he does it for his love and devotion to the organization and what CNAC stands for. He is beyond deserving of this honor, and I feel he is a model to what a CNAC leader, or any leader for that matter, should aspire."

Townsend has served CNAC in a variety of leadership roles for the past decade: first as a member of its board of directors, then as secretary and, for the past two years, as treasurer, handling the finances of CNAC conferences in Raleigh and Greenville.

Townsend joined the ������Ƶ staff in 2007 as director of the news bureau and moved to ������Ƶ Law in 2016 to manage communications for the law school in downtown Greensboro. In his current role, Townsend oversees ������Ƶ Law's external marketing, alumni publications, media relations, social media accounts, and website management.