Please join us for the retirement celebration of Vice Chancellor Terri L. Shelton on Monday, April 15, 2024.
The floating reception honoring Dr. Shelton’s dedication and exceptional 29 years of service will take place at the UNCG Alumni House, with formal remarks at 4:45 p.m.
The event is hosted by Chancellor Gilliam and Provost Storrs.
Monday, April 15
4:00PM – 6:00PM EDT
Alumni House
404 College Avenue
Greensboro, NC 27412
Dr. Terri L. Shelton has served North Carolina as a university and community leader and scholar since 1995. As Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement for the last 14 years, she has led the advancement of research and scholarship at the university, guiding administration, integrity, commercialization, and community and economic engagement. Previously, she directed UNCG’s Center for Youth, Family, and Community Partnerships for 8 years.
In addition to her accolades in these spheres, Shelton is known for her impactful advocacy for the well-being of children, youth, and families. With the first 25 years of her career spent in a clinical setting in pediatrics and psychiatry, she has dedicated her scholarship to improving the behavioral health of children and families. Because of this focus, she holds UNCG’s Carol Jenkins Mattocks Distinguished Professorship.
Shelton’s scholarly impact includes over 75 publications on topics ranging from ADHD to early childhood, two monographs, a book, and approximately $40 million in external award dollars for research and programs to improve the lives of NC children and families.
A quintessential feature of the recent decades of her work is the bridging of research, policy, and practice to create partnerships that build the capacity of communities, family and youth, providers, and policymakers. In her scholarly and community efforts, Dr. Shelton asks, “What do we know is best practice, how do we make it happen, and how do we take it to scale?” Another important ethic of her work is the incorporation of youth and family voices in the development of the programs and policies that impact them.
Shelton helped found the North Carolina Infant and Young Child Mental Health Association and the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care in Maryland, and she has been instrumental in the development of several early childhood initiatives locally, including the Ready for School, Ready for Life initiative in Guilford County. She also helped launch the now-statewide NC Juvenile Justice Behavioral Health Partnership, to address mental health and substance abuse-related needs of young people in the juvenile justice system, with the aim of preventing further involvement in that system.
In 2018, she received the State of North Carolina Collaborative for Children, Youth and Families Family-Driven System of Care Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2017, she was one of the Triad Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business, and this year she was selected by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce to receive 2024’s Athena Leadership Award.
She currently serves on the boards of Gateway University Research Park and the APLU Commission on Economic and Community Engagement, as executive director of the nonprofit Spartan Strategies in support of UNCG’s entrepreneurial activities, and as a member of the NC Biotechnology Center Piedmont Triad Advisory Committee.
She has served as a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Care Culture and Decision-Making Innovation Collaborative, the NC Institute of Medicine’s Task Force on the Mental, Health, Social, and Emotional Needs of Young Children and Their Families, the NC Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council, and the NC Practice Improvement Collaborative.
Other state-wide projects she has led tackle youth substance abuse, data-informed police and community partnerships for safer neighborhoods, and the education of youth with developmental disabilities.
Shelton was involved in the 1986 amendment and reauthorization of the Education of the Handicapped Act, which addressed early interventions, mandated states provide services to families of children born with disabilities from birth onwards, and recognized the essential role of families in child health and development. In 2007, she helped launch North Carolina’s first four-year post-secondary certificate program for individuals with intellectual disabilities, UNCG’s Integrative Community Studies. She also co-chaired an NC legislative task force on postsecondary education and employment opportunities for people with disabilities, and she is a member of Think College’s National Coordinating Center Accreditation Workgroup and the NC Post-Secondary Education Alliance.
