Ms. Hellena H. Tidwell

Mrs. Tidwell was appointed by the UNC Board of Governors on August 6, 2019, to serve the unexpired term of her late husband, Mr. Isaiah Tidwell, who died on August 4, 2019.

She began her career working at Johnson C. Smith University as an off-campus counselor and assistant to the dean of women. Later, she was awarded a grant created for the Upward Bound/Special Services Program and became its first director.

Mrs. Tidwell joined the Charlotte Arts and Science Council, where she was senior vice president of resource management. In that role, she managed and implemented a comprehensive re-granting program of public and private resources, which, over the course of her tenure, directed more than $60 million in support and services to more than 50 cultural arts, science, and history organizations. She ended her professional career as an associated consultant with Wolf-Keens & Co., where she assisted in the development of cultural plans for the cities of Philadelphia, PA, Mobile, AL., Ft. Worth, TX, and Durham, NC.

She graduated in 1968 from North Carolina College and Durham (NCCU) with a Bachelor of Arts degree and was an inductee in the Society of Golden Eagles in 2018. Mrs. Tidwell continued her studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, serving as an intern for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)/Association of Fundraising Officers at Wake Forest University in 1982.

Mrs. Tidwell resides in Atlanta, GA, and is the proud parent of two sons and four grandchildren.