Source: NC A&T UNIVERSITY, 11/17/20

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University honored Michael S. Regan ’98, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality and an alumnus of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, with a Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award during Fall Convocation on Oct. 29.

As part of the Zoom program, Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. presented the state of the university and welcomed alumni to the

“Greatest Homecoming on Earth” virtual celebration. Eleven alumni were recognized for their outstanding work and accomplishments on behalf of their respective colleges and service to the alumni community.

Regan was appointed secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environment Quality in 2017 by Gov. Roy Cooper. Before he was the state’s top proponent of “going green,” Regan was Aggie blue and gold.

“A&T absolutely prepared me for this role,” Regan said in a 2019 profile. “It strengthened my understanding of who I am and what I can do for society.”

He also has served in numerous leadership roles for the Environmental Defense Fund. He also spent a decade with the Environmental Protection Agency, working in the air quality and energy programs for both the Clinton and Bush administrations. A native of Goldsboro, N.C., he has an MPA from George Washington University and a B.S. in earth and environmental science from A&T’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design.

During the convocation program, Jelani M. Favors ’97, Ph.D., served as the keynote speaker and received the Distinguished Alumni Award for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. An award-winning author and associate professor of history at Clayton State University, Favors received major fellowships in support of his research, including an appointment as a Humanities Writ Large Fellow at Duke University in 2013.

He also was an inaugural recipient of the Mellon HBCU Fellowship at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke in 2009. In addition, he was invited to co-teach the course, “Citizenship and Freedom: The Civil Rights Era,” alongside Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch in 2014 at the University of Baltimore.