ORANGE COUNTY – One of your Orange County Commissioners says it’s time to ‘Step Up or Give Up’, and she wants to step up to the North Carolina House of Representatives.

Bernadette Pelissier has served on the Board of Commissioners since December 2008. Sunday she announced she will seek the appointment to the House seat representing District 50.

Pelissier joined Ron Stutts on the WCHL Monday Morning News to express her intention to seek the House 50 seat.

***Listen to the Interview***

Pelissier said in a press release that “we can either Step Up of Give Up”. She referred to education as one of her main points of focus saying she intends to help provide access to quality education for all. She also said strong business growth in the state netting many new jobs, and a transparent government are at the heart of her plans.

Pelissier is the daughter of French parents and was born in Senegal, Africa. However, she moved to the United States when she was young and spent most of her early years in New Jersey. She returned overseas when she was a teenager as her father worked for the United Nations in Damascus, Syria.

Pelissier’s time in Orange County began in 1975 when she attended UNC. She received her Ph. D. in Sociology in 1980. Her work outside politics includes Director of Research and Evaluation for the Durham County Community Mental Health Center in the early ‘80s. She was also the Chief of Research at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner where she retired in 2006.

Other than her most recent election to the Board of Commissioners where she served as chair, Pelissier has served on the Orange County Planning Board, the Commission for the Environment, the Special Transit Advisory Committee, she was the chair of the Orange Chatham Sierra Club two times, chair of the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA), and chair of the Partnership to End Homelessness, among other boards and commissions.

Pelissier joins four other people who have announced their intention to seek the House 50 seat: Orange County’s Laurin Easthom, Tommy McNeill, Graig Meyer, and Durham County’s Drew Nelson.