Valley native wins teaching award

Roanoke Rapids native Pamela Laughon, the daughter of Myrtlene and Bob New and the late John Laughon, recently received UNC Asheville’s Teaching Excellence Award in the Social Sciences. Laughon is chair and associate professor of psychology at UNC Asheville.

Laughon holds a Bachelor’s in Psychology from UNC Greensboro and a Master’s and Doctorate in School Psychology from Florida State University. At UNC Asheville, she teaches general psychology courses as well as classes on psychology and law, developmental psychology and human sexuality. Laughon also works as a court-appointed mitigation specialist for defense attorneys, helping secure life sentences for inmates on death row. Last year her efforts helped overturn a wrongful murder conviction for Edward Chapman. In an effort to raise awareness of the complexity of death penalty issues, Chapman and Laughon have done national media interviews and have given talks across the state about how his case fell through the cracks in the criminal justice system and about her work as a mitigation specialist.