Laura Hudson Richards ’94

Member

Chancellor's Global Leadership Council

Laura Hudson Richards is the founder and chair of the Friends of Carrollton GreenBelt, a non-profit through the Community Foundation of West Georgia. The GreenBelt is an 18 mile, multi-use circular concrete trail that has revitalized the University of West Georgia and Carrollton, Georgia, landscape and liveability. Richards received a Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of West Georgia and spoke at commencement in May of 2018. Richards served as a board member for the Georgia and Alabama Land Trust from 2009 to 2014 and on the Tanner Medical Foundation board until 2018. She is on the national board of the Trust for Public Land and formerly served on the PATH Foundation board in Atlanta. As a member of the Carroll County board of health from 2015 to 2018, she aided in the county’s health improvement from 58/159 to 49 in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation rankings. Richards’ family has a long history of philanthropy with UNC Chapel Hill scholarships for study abroad. Her merit-based support for an international studies major has allowed many students in the last decade to experience the global mindset and represent UNC abroad. Richards was an international studies and political science major. She and her husband, James Naughton, have three daughters.

---