With the start of campaign filing just a month away, the Chapel Hill Town Council’s 2023 elections gained a challenger candidate on Tuesday.

Melissa McCullough, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employee, announced she is entering the race for one of the four seats on the ballot this fall. McCullough is a longtime resident of Orange County who moved to Chapel Hill in 2011.

In her campaign launch, McCullough touts her three decades working for the EPA and says environmental sustainability on a regional scale is one of her focus areas. She says she wants her background to influence some of the top “interconnected” issues she’s running to address: building more affordable and missing middle housing, investing in non-car transportation infrastructure, and improving environmental resilience.

“I spent my career at the EPA trying to understand the causes of problems, and figuring out how to solve those problems to create sustainable communities,” said McCullough. “Everyone deserves a prosperous, joyful future, and I want to use my background as a problem-solver to fight for a sustainable, vibrant Chapel Hill, for now and for generations out.”

Beyond her professional experience, McCullough served on the Town of Chapel Hill Planning Commission for seven years. She’s also been involved with the local Sierra Club and the Bicycle Alliance of Chapel Hill.

As with every two years, there will be four Chapel Hill Town Council seats up for election in this local government cycle. Incumbents Jessica Anderson, Tai Huynh, Michael Parker and Amy Ryan each will see their terms come to a close. As of Tuesday, none of the sitting council members have announced their intentions to run again or step down at the end of the year. Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger’s role is also up for election, as is the case with mayors every two years.

The filing period for the 2023 local election cycle in North Carolina begins on Friday, July 7.

 

Photo via Melissa for Chapel Hill.

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