News

August 10, 2006
Webb Family Stands Out at Graduation

Family members Ralph Webb, Dana Webb, and Teresa Mayo Webb had plenty of reasons to celebrate at graduation. Ralph received a teaching award from the college, and Dana and Teresa both received degrees.

August 4 was a special day for all of Edgecombe Community College’s new graduates. The day was especially gratifying and meaningful to the Webb family - Ralph, his wife, Teresa, and their daughter, Dana, who live near Fountain.

Ralph, an ECC faculty member, received a teaching award from the college, and his wife and daughter both received degrees.

Webb, who is chair of the respiratory therapy program, received the 2006 Excellence in Teaching Award. He has been a member of the ECC faculty since 1988 and has spent the last 18 years developing the college’s highly-regarded program in respiratory therapy. In 1978, he received the Michael A. McCabe Outstanding Respiratory Intern Award from Duke University. This award recognized his outstanding leadership as an intern in the field of respiratory therapy.

His wife, Teresa Mayo Webb, completed her associate degree in health information technology. Prior to attending ECC, she had worked for one employer, Sprint, for 24 years. Her department closed down, and ECC’s HIT program, which is an online offering, proved the perfect fit.

So perfect, in fact, that she had a job before receiving her degree. On the morning of graduation, she accepted a position at Duke University Health Systems as an outpatient/ancillary coder. Teresa will spend about three months in on-site training and will then then will return to Fountain to work from home.

“The fact that the HIT program is online was attractive to me,” she says. “Also, Mrs. Bell (Program Chair Kim Bell) is very excited about her program, and it’s catching. She made it sound like the best job in the world. And, the work is interesting to me.” “Mrs. Webb was a strong, dedicated, committed, and very focused HIT student,” notes Bell.

The Webbs’ daughter, Dana, also graduated. She received her associate in arts degree and will attend East Carolina University in the fall to continue course work toward her bachelor’s degree in elementary education.

Dana Webb attended ECC through Wachovia Partnership East, a teacher education program between ECU, public school systems, and community colleges serving Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Martin, Nash, Northampton, Vance, Wake, Warren, and Wilson counties.

Dana was able to take all of her general education and related courses at Edgecombe, Nash, and Wilson community colleges, along with several ECU elementary education classes. From this point forward, her remaining classes will be at ECU. She will graduate one semester early thanks to the Wachovia Partnership East program.

Teresa and Dana were outstanding students at ECC with near perfect GPAs. Both were inducted into ECC’s honor society, Phi Theta Kappa, in April 2005. Students are required to have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 to be eligible to join the society.

Teresa is so outstanding, in fact, that last spring she received the international Phi Theta Kappa Hallmark Award Distinguished Member. The award is based on character, academic achievement, and service to the organization.

“I can’t imagine a more special family than the Webbs,” says ECC President Dr. Deborah Lamm. “They are all intellectually gifted and high achievers. They are also genuinely good people, hard-working, honest, and down to earth, the kind of family you want to have as neighbors and as friends. We are very proud of Ralph, Teresa, and Dana.”

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