ACC honors late nurse Colleen Woods Ross Martin for lifelong service

Alamance Community College used its 2026 Celebration of Excellence to honor a nurse whose work left a long mark on Alamance County health care. The college presented its Distinguished Alumni Award on May 8 to the late Mrs. Colleen Woods Ross Martin, and her son, Representative Stephen Ross, accepted the recognition on her behalf.

ACC said the award recognizes graduates whose personal and professional accomplishments reflect leadership, service and meaningful contributions to their profession and community. The college’s alumni-award criteria also include exceptional accomplishment in a chosen field, service in local, state or national affairs, or service in support of ACC. In Martin’s case, the college pointed to a career that was both local and lasting.

Martin completed ACC’s Practical Nursing program in 1965 and then spent more than 30 years as a registered nurse at Alamance Regional Medical Center. The hospital, now part of Cone Health, is a 238-bed medical and surgical hospital serving Alamance County and surrounding communities. That long span of service made Martin a familiar part of a local health system that has depended for decades on trained nurses rooted in the same community they serve.

ACC President Ken Ingle said the recognition mattered not only because of Martin’s own service, but also because of the connection to her family and the larger community. Board of Trustees Chair Julie Scott Emmons also highlighted Martin’s story as an example of the dedication ACC wants students to follow. The college’s nursing mission is built around preparing students to provide compassionate care and make a positive impact in local and global communities, a goal that fits closely with Martin’s career path.

The award also ties Martin’s life to ACC’s own history. The institution began in 1958 as a statewide industrial education center, later became the Technical Institute of Alamance and the Technical College of Alamance, and adopted the Alamance Community College name in 1988. Today, ACC says it serves more than 10,000 students each year through curriculum, continuing education and workforce development, a reminder that its role in the county still runs through the same kinds of practical careers that Martin chose.

For Alamance County, the honor reached beyond ceremony. It spotlighted a graduate who trained locally, worked locally and helped sustain local health care for more than three decades. In a county still reliant on strong nursing pipelines and dependable hospital care, Martin’s legacy remains visible in the institutions and patients that continue to depend on that kind of service.