Candidate for Carrboro Alderman Theresa Watson has worked as an IT at GlaxoSmithKline, Quintiles, and other pharmaceutical companies.

But Watson says the real passion in her life is mentoring teenagers, and putting them on the higher education track.

“If they needed training, tutoring – sometimes, they might need food, or clothing, or things like that,” she told WCHL recently. “We would help them find the money for college, and take them to college tours.”

Tragedy struck Watson’s family on the way to a college tour at Howard University last April, when her husband Doval Watson was killed in a bus accident in Virginia.

Theresa Watson was injured in the wreck. Besides dealing with the great personal loss, Watson says it stalled her plans to run for Carrboro’s Board of Aldermen, which she might have done back in November if circumstances had been different.

“I wanted to run, but I just couldn’t do it at that time,” she says. “And when this came available, I just said, OK, well, I’m better, things are good, I’m out-and-about, and things are back to normal, as it relates to my health.”

Watson lives in the vicinity of the Rogers Road area, which has struggled for decades with environmental issues caused by the municipal and county landfill.

“I’ve known people to have stagnated water – polluted water just sitting in their yard,” says Watson. “And so it is a very important issue to me.”

Watson says her main issue is the availability of affordable housing in Carrboro.
“We still have real-life affordable housing issues,” she says. “And you see people taking flight out of Carrboro and Chapel Hill to other towns that are more affordable.”

Watson will run against Talal Asad and Planning Board Chair Bethany Chaney in the May 6 special election.

In February, Chaney sent out a Tweet welcoming Watson to the race, and praising Watson for bringing “more ideas, voters and diversity” to the contest.

In the coming weeks, WCHL and chapelboro.com will be profiling candidates in all local races.