North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein made a handful of appointments to state-run boards and commissions this week, including several Orange County community members.
A release from the governor’s office shared the latest additions to the Historic Hillsborough Commission, which keeps track of the Town of Hillsborough’s history and preserves its various historic sites. Among the nonprofit’s responsibilities are maintaining and preserving the Burwell School Historic Site on North Churton Street. Commission members, as selected by Stein, are meant to be representative of the greater community and serve six-year terms.
On Thursday, Stein made a trio of appointments: Ebony Bryant, Elizabeth Frankenburg, and Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood. Bryant and Frankenburg are both educators, with Bryant working 15 years with the Duke Law School and Frankenburg as a professor and the director of the Carolina Center for Population Aging and Health at UNC-Chapel Hill. Blackwood, meanwhile, is an Orange County native who has worked at the sheriff’s office for more than 45 years. He won the Democratic primary in March and is running unopposed in November for a fourth term as sheriff.
Blackwood is no stranger to serving on statewide commissions. Former Gov. Roy Cooper appointed the sheriff to the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission — where Blackwood currently serves as its chair, in 2017 — and he previously served as the president of the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association.
Additionally, Stein appointed Orange County resident and former attorney John Watson to the North Carolina Land and Water Fund as an at-large member. Watson, who retired in 2015 after more than 30 years of legal practice, previously served as a member and chair of the Nature Conservancy of North Carolina’s board of trustees. The North Carolina Land and Water Fund aims to protect the state’s natural and cultural resources, providing grants for land acquisitions and project funding to groups to help keep streams, rivers and surrounding lands clean.
The governor also appointed Dr. Gregory Moon to the North Carolina State Health Coordinating Council. Moon is the vice president of provider experience and strategy and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, with a focus on its digital platforms. His leadership helped develop the provider’s reporting platform and other divisional technology efforts to improve both provider and patient experiences. He holds a medical doctorate from Stanford University and its School of Medicine. The council helps craft the State Medical Facilities Plan each calendar year, which is used as a framework to determine the need for new health care facilities and improved services across North Carolina.
Featured photo via Governor Stein’s Press Office.
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