Most students use their phones to record the tassel during Winston-Salem State University’s spring commencement in 2019 in Winston-Salem. The university surpassed its $2 million goal during a two-year effort to raise money for student scholarships.
Winston-Salem State University said it has received almost $1.7 million from a local couple, making it the largest single gift from a husband-wife pair in the institution’s history.
The donation, announced Friday, came from Anna Reilly and Matt Cullinan of Winston-Salem and pushed the university’s two-year effort to raise money for student scholarships well beyond its original $2 million goal.
“This was a community-wide effort that created an important source of support for our students,” Chancellor Elwood Robinson said Friday in a statement.
Reilly sits on the board of directors of Lamar Advertising, the outdoor advertising firm headquartered in Louisiana that’s controlled by her family. Reilly has served on numerous other boards, including those of the Bethesda Center for the Homeless in Winston-Salem and the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.
Cullinan has been a WSSU trustee since 2019. He worked as a vice president at Wake Forest University from 2006 to 2012 and previously was chief of staff to the president of the University of Notre Dame, where Cullinan earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. Cullinan also is a past board chairman of Summit School in Winston-Salem.
