Helen Munnerlyn awarded the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor

Helen Munnerlyn, the outgoing executive director of Leadership South Carolina, has been awarded the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor. Munnerlyn is retiring after two decades leading the nonprofit and after 40 years of service to the state. She received the honor on June 30 at a luncheon attended by Leadership South Carolina trustees.

The Order of the Palmetto commemorates extraordinary lifetime achievement and national or statewide service. Munnerlyn was honored for “decades of leadership, dedication, and unwavering commitment to public service.”

Munnerlyn, who previously served three South Carolina governors as communications director for the state Department of Commerce, took Leadership South Carolina, a nonprofit that was $80,000 in debt, and built it into the state’s most respected leadership development program.

During her tenure, she transformed the program, erasing its debt and building an endowment of $650,000. She inaugurated class projects which to date have raised almost three quarters of a million dollars for underserved communities in the state. She established legislative and military days for leadership classes and, among other accomplishments, organized the 2006 homecoming for then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a Dillion native who spoke before almost a thousand people and national media Greenville.

While Munnerlyn has retired from Leadership South Carolina, she continues her service to the state. She was nominated by Gov. Henry McMaster and unanimously confirmed by the General Assembly in May to serve a five-year term on the South Carolina Ethics Commission.