Katherine Rock of Chapel Hill has received the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting. For her Gold Award project, Rock translated from Spanish to English a movie script about contracting and coping with HIV. She also translated a pamphlet on HIV and AIDS prevention and education for the Alliance of AIDS Services in Raleigh.

Rock is the daughter of Sue and Peter Rock and a graduate of East Chapel Hill High School. She is a freshman at Duke University. She was a member of Girl Scout Troop 243, whose advisors include Paige Barnett, Harlyn Strongoli, Deborah Greene, Nancy Greene, Nancy Kueffer, Holly Mandelkehr and Barbara Baxter.


Five artists from Orange County will receive Durham Arts Council Emerging Artists Grants at a ceremony on Jan. 12, 2007. The Emerging Artists Grant Program administered by the council is designed to enable individual artists who have mastered the basic techniques of their art form to complete projects that will establish or enhance their professional presence. Grants may not exceed $1,500. A total of $18,000 was awarded in the 2006-07 grant cycle.

Artists, their specialty and what the grant will be used for are:

• Melissa Delbridge, literature, travel to Alabama to research her new work on race relations, sexuality and segregated swimming venues in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Julie Krantz, literature, revise, edit and submit her novel for young readers, "Stella Bellarosa," to publishers.
• Alina Simone, music, create a six-song EP reinterpreting Soviet-era punk-folk songs that were circulated underground as "Samizdat."
• Mark Brown, painting/drawing, create an exhibition of new works on paper from his "Winterreise" series.
• Rachel Bernstein, sculpture, construct a creeping vine plant sprouting human wombs out of handmade felt.

The Rev. Robert E. Dunham of Chapel Hill has been elected to the board of trustees of Davidson College. He will begin a four-year term in January 2007 as a representative of the New Hope Presbytery. Dunham, who received a bachelor's degree from Davidson, is pastor and head of staff at University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill.


Alice Gordon of Chapel Hill has received the Goodmon Award for Exemplary Regional Leadership by an Elected Official from Leadership Triangle. She was cited for her outstanding efforts to promote regional thinking.

The award recognizes a Triangle elected official who has demonstrated leadership on regional issues for the advancement of the Triangle. Gordon has been an Orange County commissioner for 16 years and has been a longtime champion and distinguished leader in the areas of environmental protection and regional transportation. She helped create the Lands Legacy Program, an Orange County initiative that has protected more than 1,700 acres of farmland, park land and critical natural areas. She has served as an officer or executive committee member of several regional boards, including the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization, a multi-jurisdictional policy board of elected officials directing urban transportation planning in the western part of the Triangle. She also serves as the chair of the Triangle Transit Authority. Earlier this year, she spearheaded the creation of the Hillsborough-Chapel Hill bus route, a significant step for intercity connectivity and cooperation.


Army Pvt. James C. Wagner has graduated from Basic Combat Training at Fort Knox, Ky. He is the son of Linda Wager of Mebane and grandson of Deloras Biggs of Hillsborough.


Air Force Senior Airman Kevin M. Kimball has deployed to Southwest Asia in the Persian Gulf region to support the mission of Operation Enduring Freedom as a member of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing. Kimball is regularly assigned to the 316th Civil Engineer Squadron, Andrews Air Force Base, Camp Springs, Md.

Wing members provide support for the U.S. Central Command's Air Forces mission, assisting in the full spectrum of fueling and aerial refueling operations to U.S. and coalition aircraft engaged in the war on terrorism in the region.

He is the son of Christopher and Debbie Kimball of Hillsborough and a 2001 graduate of Orange Senior High School.


John D. Wright Jr., associate professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics in the UNC School of Medicine, has received the Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The award recognizes Wright's contributions to the academy.

To receive this award, an ophthalmologist must have made contributions to the profession through educating others, as well as serving in leadership roles. Contributions include serving as an instructor, authoring scientific papers and posters, presenting scientific exhibits, chairing a subspecialty day and serving as a committee member, state society presidents, trustees and authoring or co-authoring academy educational materials.

Wright is a pediatric ophthalmologist and ophthalmic pathologist. He has been a member of the UNC faculty since 2002.


Christopher Parham, a UNC School of Medicine postdoctoral fellow, was part of a Brookhaven National Laboratory team awarded a 2006 R&D 100 Award. Parham works in the laboratory of Etta Pisano, vice dean for academic affairs in the UNC School of Medicine.

The Brookhaven team developed the first device able to focus a large spread of high-energy X-rays. Parham's research at Carolina focuses on developing a new clinical imaging system for breast imaging called diffraction enhanced imaging. The Brookhaven X-ray research was conducted in parallel to his imaging studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.