Anna Marie Switzer
Recipient of the 2025 William Stevens Powell Award
The William Stevens Powell Award was established in 2002 by the North Caroliniana Society in honor of the Society’s first president, long-time vice- president, and distinguished historian.
The award recognizes a student who, during the student’s career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has done the most to develop an interest in, and understanding of, the history and traditions of the nation’s oldest state university. Absent a deserving recipient as so adjudged, the award may be presented to the UNC-CH student who has done the most to develop interest in, and understanding of, the history of the state of North Carolina.
~ April 2025
On April 13, 2025, Anna Marie Switzer was celebrated during the North Caroliniana’s Society Annual Membership Meeting held in Pembroke, NC at UNC Pembroke.
And on April 22, 2025 the Society’s William Stevens Powell Award was presented to Anna Marie Switzer during the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Chancellor Awards Ceremony.
More information about the Annual Membership Meeting, including award recipients, can be found in Number 66 of the North Caroliniana Society Imprints, titled A Woman of the Dark Water: A Pathmaker and A Wisdomkeeper by Dr. Jo Ann Chavis Lowery.
A video of the afternoon’s festivities will be available soon on the Society’s website.
About the Recipient
English and History Honors Major Anna Marie Switzer ’25, a fine storyteller and terrific scholar, served as the archives and communications intern at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center at Harkers Island beginning in May 2024. There she produced new oral histories and emphasized community engagement. She has done magazine editorial work and writing for Walter, Cellar Door, and UNC’s Journal of History, and in Earth, Marine & Environmental Studies/English 473 (Fall ’24), she created short fiction based on her coastal interviews. “Nobody Cried When He Died” weaves strands of social history from Diamond City’s stormy 1890s, the coming of World War II, and the lead character’s wartime work at MCAS Cherry Point.
She is from Charlotte, NC, and after graduation, she will be working for Epic Systems in Wisconsin. She hopes to eventually attend graduate school.