Carol Lyon Receives Unsung Hero Award
Carol Lyon, St. Johnsbury Academy’s Assistant Headmaster for Business Services, has received a 2020 Will Hancock Unsung Hero Award from the National Business Officers Association (NBOA).
The award is given to independent school business officers who have made extraordinary contributions to their schools. It is named after Will J. Hancock, who always went above and beyond the call of duty during his 35 years at Hawaii Preparatory Academy in various positions, where he touched many lives and inspired countless independent school business officers along the way.
Carol was one of only ten business officers nationwide to receive the 2020 Will J. Hancock Unsung Hero Award. Carol responded to the award by saying, “I am honored and incredibly thankful to receive this recognition. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with a talented team of professionals devoted to empowering our students to be the best version of themselves. Our work builds on the foundation created by the Fairbanks family to support this extraordinary community where I am proud to have lived, worked, and raised our family for the past 30 years.”
Headmaster Sharon Howell said, “This award was made for Carol. Her work happens out of the public eye, and she is an exceptionally modest, practical, and completely unpretentious person. Carol’s work has had an incalculable effect on the stability and flourishing of St. Johnsbury Academy. In her nearly 20 years at the Academy, she has brought the school through the 2008 financial crisis, and is currently helping to get us through the pandemic, by expertly overseeing the finances of the school and its operations, from Dining Services to Facilities to Human Resources. She also understands that the role of a business officer at a school is different from what it is at any other institution. The numbers here represent people’s precious children, and the people who teach and take care of both students and school, and those people are more important than anything—Carol lives out the obligation to cherish every dollar we have to make the school great for them. She has her eyes on every invoice, but never forgets our mission. She is meticulous, has perfect integrity, and does everything she does without drama or fuss. Carol inspires, amazes, and impresses us all.”
About NBOA: The National Business Officers Association (NBOA) is the only national nonprofit membership association dedicated to developing, delivering, and promoting best business practices to advance independent schools. The association supports more than 1,500 member schools from the United States and 25 other countries around the globe. NBOA offers national conferences, online professional development, original research and an award-winning magazine.
For more information about the award, visit https://www.nboa.org/about-nboa/awards/unsung-hero-award
