The North Carolina Open Government Coalition swore in new officers and members at its fall meeting.
The executive board will be led by President Steve Riley, President-Elect Sue Rowland, Treasurer Beth Grace and Secretary Pauletta Brown Bracy. Rick Willis is the NCOGC immediate past president. The NCOGC also welcomed two new members to its board: Annette Privette Keller and Kelly T. O’Brien.
Riley is the senior editor for investigations at the Raleigh News & Observer, the newspaper for which he’s worked since 1986. He’s a former state government and projects reporter who also has been state government editor, sports editor and metro editor. He’s a past winner of the National Headliner Award and the Silver Gavel Award for his reporting on the state juvenile justice system. As metro editor, he led the paper’s coverage of Hurricane Floyd, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Rowland works as the Cary, N.C., town clerk. She reports directly to the Town Council and is responsible for giving notice of Town Council meetings, preparing the Council agenda, recording Council proceedings and serving as custodian of all permanent town records.
Grace is the executive directory of the North Carolina Press Association, where she’s worked since 2005. Before that, Grace worked for Associated Press for 20 years. She held the position of chief of bureau in New York and Missouri/Kansas. She began her journalism career in 1980.
Bracy is an executive board member of the North Carolina Library Association and an associate professor of in the School of Library and Information Studies at North Carolina Central University. She’s also taught at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Iowa.
Willis, who’s worked as a broadcast journalist since 1976, is currently the news director at News 14 Carolina. He’s worked at news stations in North Carolina, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas and Ohio. He served as NCOGC president for 2012.
Privette Keller is the communications director for the Town of Matthews in Matthews, N.C. She’s previously held positions as the director of public relations for the city of Concord and public relations manager for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a master’s from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
O’Brien is the director for strategy and innovation in the School of Government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She joined the School of Government in 2002 as project director for the NC Civic Education Consortium’s 2003 Civic Index. O’Brien teaches grant proposal writing and professional communications for the Master of Public Administration program. She earned a bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Georgia and her master’s from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.