This week, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce announced that Alan Duncan, a well-known Greensboro attorney who chaired the Guilford County Board of Education for years, and Mae Douglas, a community leader and philanthropist, have won two of the chamber’s highest annual awards.
Duncan is the winner of the Thomas Z. Osborne Distinguished Citizen Award, which “honors residents who have demonstrated extraordinary community service and achievement,” while Douglas was chosen as the winner of the Athena Award – an honor presented each year to a woman “who embodies professional excellence and community service and who actively assists other women in their attainment of their own professional excellence and leadership skills.”
The awards will be presented at the chamber’s annual luncheon on Wednesday, Jan. 22 in the Guilford Ballroom of the Koury Convention Center at the Sheraton Four Seasons.
Douglas is the former executive vice president and chief people officer of Cox Communications in Atlanta. Since retiring from that job and moving back to Greensboro, she’s focused her time on community service. Among other boards, she’s served on the board for United Way Of Greater Greensboro, the Cone Health Board of Trustees, the UNC-Greensboro Board of Trustees – and also boards for Gateway Research Park, Guilford Child Development and the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ).
Douglas has also served on an advisory committee of the Community Foundation meant to expand philanthropy among communities of color.
According to information from the Greensboro chamber accompanying the announcement of the winners, her philanthropy is “focused on the most vulnerable in our community to ensure they have access to employment, education and health care.”
Duncan, an attorney who is often flying around the country to work on high profile legal cases, is a partner at Turning Point Litigation in Greensboro.
He serves as the vice chair of the NC Board of Education and participates in several other education-related boards and task forces.
Duncan famously served on the Guilford County school board for nearly two decades, including a 16-year stint as chairman of that board. He’s a past president of the NC Bar Association and the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys.
