FERRUM, VA, September 29, 2026—Ferrum College Lab Supervisor Carol Love has been selected to receive the Melvin Johnston Citizen Volunteer Award from the Smith Mountain Lake Association (SMLA) for her years of service to the Smith Mountain Lake Water Quality Monitoring Program (SMLWQMP), a collaboration between Ferrum College and the SMLA. She also received a certificate of appreciation at a dinner celebrating the program’s fortieth anniversary on September 11.
Love (on the right in the group photo at the lake) plans to retire next May after thirty years as the College’s lab technician. She has served as the lab and field coordinator of the SMLWQMP for twenty-nine years, working closely with over one hundred student interns overall, as well as faculty and dozens of community volunteers each summer on the lake and in the Ferrum College labs.
The SMLA Board of Directors selected Love as the 2026 recipient of the Johnston Award. Named after the SMLA’s founder, this award goes to “one or more people who have made the greatest contribution to the quality of life at Smith Mountain Lake either during the prior calendar year or over an extended time period.” It will be presented with several other annual community awards at the SMLA Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon on October 15, 2026, at the Skelton 4-H Educational Conference Center in Wirtz, Virginia.
Past recipients of the Johnston Award from Ferrum College include Professors Emeriti Bob Pohlad and David Johnson, who still work with the water quality program and other campus and community organizations, and the late Professor Emerita Carolyn Thomas, who founded the water quality program with Johnson in 1986-87.
Pohlad called Love the “go-to person for life and physical sciences” at the College because of the many ways she helps to prepare and test-run lab sessions for science courses. He added that for the SMLWQMP “she is also an amazing scientist, editor, volunteer monitor liaison, boat driver, strawberry-shortcake-maker, and student technician supervisor.”
As a nominee for the Johnston Award, Love was commended for maintaining rigorous scientific standards, ensuring certified data integrity, mobilizing the volunteer network by helping to train and equip dozens of volunteers every May, and inspiring future environmental leaders by mentoring student interns throughout every summer. She pioneered HAB toxin testing in response to growing community concern over harmful algal blooms, helping to expand Ferrum’s lab equipment for conducting advanced toxin analysis and thus adding a vital layer of public health protection for lake residents and visitors.
Love’s nomination also commended the “collaborative bridge” created with her as “the central link connecting” program participants and government agencies, making the SMLWQMP’s collaborative model “one of Virginia’s most successful cooperative environmental programs.”
The nomination recognized Love as a tireless and “dedicated lake advocate” who applies her editorial skills in the SMLWQMP’s safety-first summer newsletters to keep the community informed and engaged, demonstrating her “deep personal connection to SML and her love for southwest Virginia.”
“I am truly honored to receive the Melvin Johnston Citizen Volunteer Award,” said Love. “It has been my pleasure to work for the Smith Mountain Lake Water Quality Program with so many wonderful people, especially the citizen scientists without whom this program would not be possible. I am proud of what I have been able to contribute to this important project.”
Professor of Environmental Science Delia Heck, director of the SMLWQMP, described this regional award as one of several recent recognitions showing “that Ferrum College’s motto, Not Self But Others, is more than words on a page.”
Katelynn Barreda ‘24, a 2024 student technician, said, “Carol Love brought so much dedication and kindness to the SML Lab that summer. I’ll always cherish our sandwiches out on the lake—those moments gave us the chance to talk, share stories, and get to know each other beyond the lab. Her warmth and genuine spirit made the summer all the more memorable.”
Love is an avid hiker. She and Heck undertook the great adventure of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, in 2022, and then shared their story with the College and the public. Pohlad wrote about Love’s retirement plans in Facebook that “you have earned a chance to kayak, travel, and hike whenever you want.”
Ferrum College President Mirta Martin said, “For nearly three decades, Carol Love has been the heart of the Smith Mountain Lake Water Quality Program. Her quiet dedication, extraordinary expertise, and steadfast commitment to our students and community have helped build a nationally respected program while touching countless lives along the way. Ferrum College is deeply grateful for Carol’s remarkable legacy of service.”
Photos courtesy of Dr. Bob Pohlad and Smith Mountain Lake Water Quality Program.
The bottom photo shows Heck (left) and Pohlad honoring Love at 40th anniversary dinner.
Read about the dinner here.
