The Western North Carolina Regional Economic Development Commission, better known as AdvantageWest, presented Western Carolina University Chancellor John W. Bardo with one of its highest honors during the commission’s annual meeting at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville earlier this month.

Praising Bardo as a visionary for putting education at WCU on the “leading edge,” Ronald C. Leatherwood, AdvantageWest board member, noted that Western Carolina was the first campus within the University of North Carolina system to require students to have computers. It is also the first to launch a residential Honors College, nearly doubled the university in size with the recent addition of Millennial Initiative property; and has begun a number of new academic programs, including forensic anthropology and the first graduate degree program in entrepreneurship.

Bardo responded to the presentation with thanks to Dale Carroll, AdvantageWest’s president and chief executive officer, and to state political leaders for their support. He reaffirmed his commitment to make Western Carolina “the engine of development for Western North Carolina” so that young people can get a good education, find good jobs and stay in the region close to their homes and families.

Prior to the award ceremony, Marc Basnight, President Pro Tem of the North Carolina Senate who served as keynote speaker for the annual meeting, praised Bardo as “one of the finest leaders in education, not just in this state, but in all of the nation.” Basnight also commended the accomplishments of AdvantageWest and challenged the organization to continue working for progress in the region while building on and preserving the heritage of the past.