Aaron Johnson, Author at Chapelboro.com

On the Porch: Heather St. Clair – Committed to Every Child’s Success

Posted by Aaron Johnson | Aug 16, 2026 | On The Porch, Town Square

This Week:

Heather St. Clair is a passionate advocate for early childhood care and education, dedicated to helping children, families, and communities thrive. She believes every child is a garden, worthy of admiration and cultivation with faith and love. For the past three years, as Executive Director of the Chatham County Partnership for Children, Heather has championed a neighbor-centered approach to supporting families with children from birth to age five. Her leadership focuses on reimagining early learning programs, strengthening teams, and improving access to services across mental health, public health, and education. Heather enjoys reading, baking, spending time with family, and loving on her fur-baby.

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On the Porch: Kristine Sloan – Training Regional Leaders

Posted by Aaron Johnson | Aug 9, 2026 | On The Porch, Town Square

This Week:

A Triangle native, Kristine Sloan brings a deep commitment to justice, interdependence, and authenticity into all of her work. She’s an entrepreneur, executive leader, facilitator and strategist. As the Executive Director of Leadership Triangle, Kristine works to connect local leaders to their values, purpose and vision, in service of greater regional collaboration and impact. Prior to Leadership Triangle, Kristine was the CEO of StartingBloc, supporting 3200+ social entrepreneurs and activists as they made significant social change. Earlier in her career, Kristine led a multimillion dollar grant project in Burundi for All Across Africa, designed cross-cultural programming for NC State University, worked on water advocacy rights with indigenous populations in South India and co-founded a social enterprise in West Africa.

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On the Porch: C.L.A.W.S. – Second Chances for Wildlife

Posted by Aaron Johnson | Aug 2, 2026 | On The Porch

This Week:

Kindra and Vinny Mammone of CLAWS, Inc. have dedicated their lives to wildlife. With more than 30 years of rehabilitation experience, Kindra has worked with native and exotic species, taught wildlife rehabilitation, contributed to USDA guidance, and is licensed in North Carolina to rehabilitate small mammals, all native birds, and white-tailed deer fawns. Since 1991, Vinny has worked alongside Kindra in wildlife rehabilitation, helping care for countless animals while designing and building the enclosures and habitats that make CLAWS, Inc.’s lifesaving work possible. Together, they are committed to giving wildlife a second chance and inspiring others to care about the natural world.

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August 1, 2026

Posted by Aaron Johnson | Aug 1, 2026 | If You Only Knew

This week, Dr. Deborah Stroman is joined by Darrick Johnson, founder of Sherpa Sports AI. They discuss the need for technological innovation in sports.

Disclaimer: I believe in the transformative promise of artificial intelligence, while deeply recognizing and opposing the environmental strain and disproportionate harm its energy and land demands place on at-risk communities.

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On the Porch: Emily Thompson – Farming & Community

Posted by Aaron Johnson | Jul 26, 2026 | On The Porch

This Week:

Emily Thompson has been a vendor with The Pittsboro Farmers Market since 2021. She has served as the farmer market board president for the last two years and has started a new 2 year term. Emily owns and runs her farm, Heart Song Farm, located between Siler City and Pittsboro. She’s known for her large varieties of peppers, flowers, produce, and value added products like seasonings, herbal teas, and tinctures. Emily finds farming an honor to care for her community and family. The goal is to leave the land and people better than you found them.

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July 25, 2026

Posted by Aaron Johnson | Jul 25, 2026 | If You Only Knew

This week, Dr. Deborah Stroman discusses the WNBA.

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On the Porch: Landis Wade – History’s Mysteries

Posted by Aaron Johnson | Jul 19, 2026 | On The Porch

This Week:

Landis Wade is a recovering trial lawyer turned mystery/thriller author who interviewed 500+ authors on his popular Charlotte Readers Podcast. His publications include six works of fiction, eight writing quote books, and numerous short stories. His novels in the Indie Retirement Mystery series won more than ten awards. Kirkus Reviews said, “Mystery fans who love Richard Osman’s cozy Thursday Murder Club books will enjoy the similarly energetic take on mystery-loving retirees.” Before he moved to Durham, the Charlotte Writers Club awarded Landis their Founders Award for service to the club and the literary community.

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On the Porch: Carlos Lima and Daisy Butzer – United Way for a Better Chatham

Posted by Aaron Johnson | Jul 12, 2026 | On The Porch

This Week:

Carlos Lima is a native of Caracas, Venezuela. He moved to North Carolina with his family in 2001. Before coming to United Way, Carlos was Director of Operations and Finance at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Chapel Hill for 20 years. Carlos has been the Executive Director of United Way of Chatham County for the past year, and he has learned firsthand the value of service to the community and the benefits of collective impact in addressing the most critical needs of the residents in our county. Carlos and his wife and four grown children have called this area home for over two decades. When he’s not working, he enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, reading, and playing board games.

Daisy Butzer is the Impact Manager at United Way of Chatham County, where she leads the Chatham Housing Collective and the Chatham Success Network. Through both collaboratives, Daisy works closely with community partners to coordinate services and use data to better support individuals and families. She draws from her professional experience supporting various public health programs, research studies, and philanthropic initiatives. Originally from Oklahoma, Daisy and her husband moved to North Carolina in 2022 to attend graduate school at UNC.

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On the Porch: Dr. James Wood – Sports Around the World

Posted by Aaron Johnson | Jul 5, 2026 | On The Porch

This Week:

James Wood is currently Professor of Latin American and modern world history at North Carolina A&T State University. He is the author of The Society of Equality: Popular Republicanism and Democracy in Santiago de Chile, 1818-1851 and the co-editor of “Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations”, now in its fifth edition with Rowman and Littlefield. As a Fulbright scholar for Chile in 2016 he was a visiting professor at the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago (where he observed Chilean student activism up close).