April Birchfield, Department Chair of Social Sciences, was honored as the UNC Asheville History Department Alum of the Year. April graduated from UNC Asheville with a double major in History and Political Science in 1998 and went on to obtain her Master of Arts in History from Wake Forest University in 2001.
In 2011, she obtained her Community College Teaching Graduate Certificate from North Carolina State University. Her research interests include Appalachian and North Carolina History, Southern Social History, Southern Economic History, and Convict and Contract Labor. She has been an instructor at A-B Tech since 2002. She has also taught as an adjunct History and Humanities Instructor at UNC Asheville several different times.
April’s remarkable leadership at A-B Tech, and her vision and determination for the future of History scholarship made her a compelling choice for alum of the year, according to the university’s announcement. Her former students extol her outstanding qualities as both a professor and a mentor, and the hundreds of students whom she has sent on to UNC Asheville from A-B Tech have been well prepared to face a rigorous four-year History curriculum.