BY ROSE HIGHLAND-SHARPE

Special to The Pilot

Former Moore County resident Martina Kendrick Ballen was one of the recipients of the 2011 Harvey Beech Awards at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ballen was honored for her accomplishments as the first African-American woman to become a senior administrator at UNC-Chapel Hill's department of athletics.

Harvey Beech was the first African-American at UNC in the late 1940s.

Ballen is the chief financial officer and senior athletics director. She serves on many committees, is a guest lecturer in the sports administration program, and leads a session for Project Uplift. She is a 1976 graduate of Pinecrest High School, 1980 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill (Morehead Scholar), and 1984 graduate of Wake Forest (MBA).

Ballen chairs the board for the Autism Society of North Carolina. She is married to Dwayne Ballen, an executive with ESPN, and they have two sons.

Her sister Pam Kendrick McDonald, sister-in-law Mrs. Scott Kendrick, nephew Scott Jr., niece and nephews of her father, and childhood friend and college schoolmate the Rev. Rose Highland-Sharpe (UNC- Chapel Hill 1980) attended the event at the university's recent homecoming.

The honorable Howard Lee, former mayor of Chapel Hill, was among the other honorees.

Ballen takes her position at UNC very seriously.

"I've become acutely aware of the need for others to see and hear from someone who looks like me," she says, "an African-American woman in a leadership role in one of the major college athletic programs in the country."

In an emotional acceptance speech at the awards banquet, Ballen credited her beloved mother, Ruth, for her success.

Ballen is the daughter of Ruth Horton Kendrick, of Southern Pines, and the late Martin Scott Kendrick.