SPC to honor Vernon Norwood, Leslie Valentine as 2024 Distinguished Alumni

LEVELLAND – South Plains College will recognize Vernon Norwood and Leslie Valentine with the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award for their noteworthy achievements. Norwood was a gold medalist in the men’s 4x400-meter relay during the 2024 Summer Olympics, and Valentine serves as the senior regional product creation director at Nike.

The public is invited to honor the recipients at a come-and-go presidential reception from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Nov. 8 in the Wilburn and Helen Wheeler Science Center on the SPC Levelland campus. The award was established in 1987 to honor outstanding SPC alumni and their noteworthy achievements.

Norwood was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana and graduated from Morgan City High School in Morgan City, Louisiana. As a first-generation college student, he attended SPC from 2011 to 2013 and majored in general studies. At the college, Norwood was a six-time NJCAA all-American who ran on 4×400 relay teams. He set personal records of 20.93 seconds in the 200-meter dash and 45.72 in the 400 in 2012. He was also SPC’s record holder in the 600-yard run after winning the event in 1:08.8 at the 2013 Texas Tech Red Raider Open.

In 2013, Norwood enrolled at Louisiana State University, where he was a four-time NCAA champion and an interdisciplinary studies major. At LSU, he earned NCAA Indoor and Outdoor titles in the 400 in 2015 and ended his career as the No. 2-ranked 400-meter runner in LSU history with personal records of 45.31 for indoor and 44.44 for outdoor. His outdoor record made him the No. 8-ranked performer outdoors in NCAA history on the all-time collegiate Top 10 list.

Since his time at LSU, Norwood has represented Team USA in multiple competitions. In the 2020 Summer Olympics, he earned a gold medal in the men’s 4x400 relay and a bronze medal in the mixed 4x400 relay. In the men’s 4x400 relay of the 2024 Summer Olympics, he ran the second leg with a time of 43.3. Team USA set a record of 2:54.43 and earned their third consecutive gold medal in the event. Norwood was also on the mixed 4x400 relay team, which had the third-best time in history and won a silver medal at 3:07.74.

“For SPC to give me this distinguished award means a lot to me,” Norwood said. “South Plains made me who I am today.”

Valentine is a Tahoka native and a graduate of Tahoka High School. She attended SPC from 1984 to 1986 and received an Associate of Arts. While at SPC, Valentine worked as a tutor in the college’s Learning Center and performed in the band. Before starting her career in the sporting goods industry, she

 graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas Tech University in 1988. In addition to her education, she has earned the Intercultural Development Inventory certification from Kaleidoscope Executive Consultants and a professional certificate in strategic foresight from the University of Houston.

After graduating from Texas Tech, Valentine juggled buyer, merchandise manager and store manager positions at Foot Locker for nearly a decade. From 1999 to 2004, she applied her skills in merchandising and product creation roles at Adidas. In the past few decades, she has worked her way up from salesaccount executive at Nike to the company’s senior regional product creation director who managed teams in Singapore and other Asian countries.

With over 35 years of experience driving strategic growth in the product creation and management space, Valentine has been recognized for her people-first approach and results-driven leadership. She has earned Nike Maxim Awards for The Consumer Decides and Master the Fundamentals and completed the Dare to Lead Training through Brene’ Brown Brave Leaders Inc.

“This is just a delightful surprise for me,” Valentine said regarding the Distinguished Alumni Award.
“It has sent me down an SPC memory lane.”

For more information about the Distinguished Alumni Award, visit https://www.southplainscollege.edu/alumni-giving/alumni-friends/distinguishedalumni.php or contact Samantha Goldie, director of SPC Development and Alumni Relations, at 806-716-2020 or sgoldie@southplainscollege.edu.