Laura Meyer Wellman A.B.'73, P'11
President
Charlotte, NC

Laura Meyer Wellman T'73 Laura is President of the Duke University Alumni Association and leads its Board of Directors. She was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2017 for a four-year term, two as an observer and two as a voting member, and serves on this board’s External Engagement Committee and Activating the Global Network Task Force.

A committed volunteer to Duke since graduation, Laura has been a member of the Trinity Board of Visitors and the President’s Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility. She has been active in diverse areas across Duke, including Women’s Forum, Duke Forward, the Alumni Admissions Advisory Committee, and reunion planning, and as a conference panelist.

Laura’s “non-Duke” life includes serving as Honorary Consul of the Republic of France for the Piedmont and Western regions of North Carolina. An engaged Charlotte-area community leader in international, cultural and educational organizations, she currently is on the boards of the World Affairs Council and Opera Carolina. She also is a member of the International Women’s Forum, Women Executives and the French-American Chamber of Commerce of the Carolinas.

Her professional career includes serving as the first president and CEO of E4E Relief, a position from which she retired at the end of 2016. Her prior experience includes leadership roles in marketing, investments, management, and business development at Citibank, Bank of America and Foundation For The Carolinas.

Laura received her A.B. degree from Duke, double majoring in Russian and French, and her M.B.A. from the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University. She and her husband, Ward, a retired attorney, live in Charlotte. They have two adult children, a son Alex, and a daughter, Edie (Duke A.B.’11).

Sterly Wilder '83
Associate Vice President for Alumni Affairs
(919) 684-5114

Sterly Wilder ’83, of Durham, N.C., serves as secretary-treasurer of the DAA Board and is the associate vice president, Alumni Affairs, for Duke.

After graduation from Duke, Sterly went to work in Alumni and Development Records, researching lost alumni. In 1985, she began working with the Duke Annual Fund, where she ran the phonathon program, the young-alumni program, the 55th reunion gift drive, and the Parents' Fund (but not all at once!). She was promoted to director of the Annual Fund in 1991. In August of 2004, Sterly became executive director of Alumni Affairs, and in 2009, was promoted to Associate Vice President.

Duke is integral to Sterly's life, and she views her work as a way to give back to an institution that has done so much for her and her family. Her father, Pelham Wilder, retired in 2000 as a professor of chemistry and pharmacology after more than 50 years on the faculty. He also served more than 20 years as university marshal. Now Sterly is assistant university marshal.

She is also an academic advisor for first-year and sophomore students, has served on the Duke Club of the Triangle board, and volunteered for her fifth, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th and 30th reunions and as an Alumni Admissions interviewer. She has also served as President of the Ronald McDonald House Board of Directors and the Durham Academy Alumni Board and is currently a member of the Durham Academy Board of Trustees and the Board of the Council of Alumni Association Executives. She was actively involved with the Volunteer Center of Durham as a Board member and volunteer and is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Durham and Orange Counties.