2024 Letter to Alumni and Friends from the Pulp & Paper Advisory Board

Originally featured in the PPAB 2024 Annual Report, August 2024

Greetings on behalf of the executive team and Advisory Board. It is an honor to serve with so many talented and dedicated individuals, who work together to support our industry, and most importantly, the paper science and engineering (PSE) program at NC State. It has been a year of change both within the PSE program and the Advisory Board. Dr. Jingxin Wang started as our new Forest Biomaterials Department Head in January. Shannon Lora joined the PPAB team as University Program Associate in October following Paula Harrod’s retirement and has had an immediate impact keeping us on schedule and driving many of our social media avenues such as LinkedIn.

The two year Pulp and Paper Advisory Board officer cycle concluded in March with Bart Nicholson ascending to President and Allen Turner becoming Vice President. Mary Ellison assumes the Past President position on the Executive Council. We greatly appreciate Mary’s hard work and dedication the last four years.

Our Board hosted the spring meeting as an in-person event in March. At the annual Spring Banquet, attended by over 300 people, we recognized graduating seniors, new Board members and honored guests. Our keynote speaker, CEO of WestRock, Mr. David Sewell addressed students and the board at the general session. For the upcoming year, we have scheduled the spring meeting for March 27, 2025 and the fall meeting for September 3, 2025. We hope you are able to join us.

As you will see in other sections of this annual report, our Board, volunteers, and committed individuals have partnered with our program, to accomplish many things.

• We welcomed new members HarperLove Adhesives, Clearwater Paper and Pixelle.

• We established a Finance Committee to guide decision making.

• We increased our freshman scholarship level from $2500 to $3000 to assist in attracting more students.

• We further supported students with five new endowed scholarships funded by Sally Sutton Williard, Doug and Dani Mehlenbacher, Carson and Debbie Carmichael, and Sarah and Deanna Sassorossi.

• WestRock funded a graduate program endowment in the name of Dr. Peter Hart, a longtime friend and cohort of the PSE faculty.

• Hal and Jodie Lawton graciously endowed the Dr. Hasan Jameel distinguished professorship.

• Spraying Systems donated new spray bars and nozzles for the “Wolfpack Baby” paper machine.

• Alumni and friends supported our annual Day of Giving event, exceeding our goal, by raising $2.29M for the College of Natural Resources.

• We organized both virtual and in-person recruitment and retention events such as the freshman retreat, Senior Celebration, Paper Super Scholars, TAPPI Student Summit, exam breaks, professional development for current students and summer camp.

The success of the Advisory Board depends entirely on the participation and involvement of our directors, members, alumni and friends, industry partners and our faculty and staff. We appreciate your tremendous support and ask that you continue advocating on our behalf by participating on committees, helping us recruit new industry partners and students, and joining us at our annual fall and spring meetings.

We have challenges ahead, outreach and recruiting to attract more students to the program, and developing a comprehensive strategic plan for future growth and excellence, to name just a few. With your help, we will continue to be a positive force in guiding our world-class PSE program.

Bart Nicholson, President, NC State Pulp and Paper Advisory Board

Allen Sanders, Executive Director, NC State Pulp and Paper Advisory Board