Donald Wood, ’00, Receives Young Alumni Achievement Award

Donald Wood, III, from Little Rock, AR, Class of 2000, received the Young Alumni Achievement Award given at a special Alumni Honors Convocation Ceremony held April 26 during Alumni Weekend in the Church of St. Mary, Aldermanbury on the Westminster College campus in Fulton, MO.

Wood is currently the Vice President and Foundation Executive Director for Arkansas Hospice, where he serves as Chief Development Officer for the state’s largest provider of end of life care.

Established in 2009, the Young Alumni Achievement Award annually recognizes alumni who demonstrate the Westminster mission through outstanding achievement early in their chosen career and/or dedicated leadership and service to their community.

“Westminster gave me an invaluable gift during my undergraduate years: a safe environment to try, fail and try again,” says Wood.  “That gift was made possible by the personalized, demanding and supportive guidance I received from many dedicated faculty and staff. They not only challenged me to change the world in a meaningful way. They prepared me to do it.”

Wood has spent his entire professional career serving in the not-for-profit sector and began as an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

He then served in the development offices at University of Arkansas-Fayetteville and the Sigma Chi Foundation in Chicago. While in Chicago, he was an elementary school tutor for at-risk children and Elected Board President of the tutoring program’s junior board.

Wood returned to Westminster College in 2008 to become the Executive Director of Development and was Chapter Advisor for the College’s Sigma Chi Chapter.

He has been active in the Special Olympics in Missouri and  Singapore.  He currently serves on the Boards of the Arkansas Kids Read Literacy Initiative and the Community Care Coalition and volunteers for the PEEPS program which provides childcare for developmentally disabled children.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Westminster College President Dr. George B. Forsythe (left) presented Donald Wood (right) with the Young Alumni Achievement Award on April 26, 2014.