App State honored 2025 Large Business of the Year by Boone Area Chamber of Commerce

BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University has been recognized by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce as Watauga County’s Large Business of the Year, as part of the chamber’s 2025 Watauga County Business of the Year Awards. The honor recognizes the university for a milestone year that included the installation of Chancellor Heather Norris, its designation as a Research 2 institution and its continued contributions to the local economy.

App State and other winners were formally recognized Thursday, Jan. 15, during the 10th annual High Country Economic Kickoff Luncheon, held in the university’s Grandview Ballroom on the Boone campus.

“Each of these businesses holds high the value of community partnerships,” said David Jackson ’00, president and CEO of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce and an App State alumnus. “While their individual missions and reach are diverse, their commitment to community is their unifying trait and nothing short of inspiring.”

Norris acknowledged the other awards recipients, High Country Radio, which received the Small Business of the Year Award, and King Street Flowers & Gifts, recipient of the Startup Business of the Year Award, and accepted the university’s award on behalf of the App State Community, including:

• the 21,798 students at App State — 18,000 of whom live in the Boone area and contribute to the local economy;
• the more than 3,600 faculty and staff, who live and work in the High Country;
• the more than 150,000 alumni, 75% of whom live and contribute to their communities across the state of North Carolina; and
• App State’s past leaders and its founders, B.B., D.D. and Lillie Shull Dougherty, whose vision for access and student success still guides the university.