Candidates for Co-President
Joanne Whitney Hill RN MSN
Joanne retired from her 3rd career as Research Administrative Officer at Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune in 2017. Initially a “Member -at -large,” she has been active in AAUW since learning about branches in 1995.
In addition to serving as co-president of Tar Heel Branch, she is also co-president of the Jacksonville Regional Branch, and a member of Twin Rivers Branch and a member of the NC Women’s Forum. She served as AAUW North Carolina State President from 2004-2006. She lives in Maysville NC with her husband Jim.
Christi Whitworth
Christi Whitworth is Education Director at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, located in Rosman, North Carolina. She plans to strengthen the AAUW commitment to STEM Education Programming in North Carolina. She worked with gifted students and science education in Tennessee public schools before moving into informal education in 2005 while living in Texas. She has worked as a science educator and then Education Director at PARI since 2006. She has been a member of AAUW since 2010.
As Education Director at PARI, she maintains, manages and creates programming for PARI’s StarLab portable planetarium, science education, and outreach programs including homeschool programs, distance learning and citizen science programming. She also serves as the collaborative lead for the North Carolina Girls STEM Collaborative in affiliation with the National Girls Collaborative Project. The collaboratives work to connect programs and resources across the state of North Carolina in the effort to encourage, mentor and promote organizations that serve girls in STEM fields and builds strong connections between the girls and future careers.
Candidate for Treasurer: Nancy Shoemaker
Nancy, one of the branch co-founders, is running for her fourth consecutive one-year term as treasurer. In the ten years she’s been in branch leadership she has worked to make this model of connection to AAUW succeed and has been pleased to see the branch grow.
She serves as AAUW NC web manager (and as past state president helps in other capacities at the state level) and supports a few online, nationwide AAUW communities. She is a member of nine other branches (six of them virtual). Her academic background is in mathematics (BA, MA, PhD), and her professional life has been spent in a variety of computer support/consulting roles. She has a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke Continuing Education. She lives in Wake County with her husband.
Candidates for Directors at Large
Nancy Akley-Henderson
I graduated from Simmons College in 1979 after a long route to get the degree in Cell Biology finishing at the UVM in Vermont with a MS in cell biology. In the intervening years I raised a family and watched the field transform into Molecular Biology . I arrived in North Carolina in 1987 to work in the field at College of Veterinary Medicine in the field of molecular research! I have kept books for several businesses and personal work. I am interested in helping the virtual in general, and I hope I will be able to work with the present Treasurer-Nancy Shoemaker and be ready to take over in 2019.
Jean D’Addario
Jean D’Addario was born in Troy, Ohio and moved with her family to Baltimore, Ohio where she graduated from high school. Jean received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. During her junior year she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and is fluent in French. She has a Master of Science Degree in Administration from Central Michigan University. She spent many years as a teacher and supervisor of teachers in the public schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Jean joined AAUW in 1965 in Westchester County, New York. She moved to New Jersey in 1967 and has been active in AAUW ever since. She is currently a member of the Cape Fear (formerly Wilmington NC) Branch. She has held many local and state offices including President of the Freehold, NJ and Wilmington, NC branches and Vice President of Programs for AAUW NJ. Most recently she has just completed a two year term as Co-President, AAUW NC.
Jean retired as Registrar of Southeastern Community College in Whiteville, North Carolina. As an experienced teacher, she has led many workshops for local and state groups. She is a trained workshop leader for $tart $mart and has worked closely with the Women’s Studies and Resource Center at UNCW on this program and” Elect Her” as well. Jean resides with her husband, Ben, in Supply, North Carolina.
Diana Gray
Diana Gray moved to Winston Salem July 2014 after 4 years in New Orleans, LA along with the family of her younger daughter, Melissa Harris-Perry, now faculty member at Wake Forest University, Diana is a 22 year AAUW member-Virginia, Chicago & New Orleans. She holds BS and MA degrees in sociology. Her last paid position (retired 2007) was student affairs administrator at the University of Chicago in the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences and the Committee on International Relations. Prior to that she was lead analyst and manager of the evaluation unit at the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice. She worked twenty-five years in nonprofit program management, program evaluation, grants administration, and grant writing after graduate school. She has published on black community development and adolescent prostitution. Before entering the University of Washington, she worked as a juvenile parole counselor in Seattle and Spokane, Washington.
Laura Tew
Laura Braxton Tew lives in Greensboro with her husband, composer Christopher C Tew. She began her professional career as a chemist for Almay Cosmetics in Apex, NC in 1972 and joined Olin Corporation as a process chemist in 1976 at its facility in Brandenburg, Kentucky. Laura worked in positions of increasing responsibility in manufacturing and marketing before becoming Olin’s first female plant manager in 1988 in Livonia, Michigan. She joined the leadership team of Arch Specialty Chemicals in 1999 as global Director of Stakeholder relations which included responsibilities for government affairs and philanthropy.
After receiving her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from UNCG in 1969, Laura attended Duke University graduate school on a teaching assistant fellowship. While working full time, Laura earned an MBA in marketing from Pace University in White Plains, NY, and a Certificate degree from the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College.
Laura’s active retirement began when she completed her intern year as a Guilford County Master Gardener Volunteer in 2010. She also trained to become a certified tax counselor in the AARP TaxAide program and currently is the site coordinator for tax prep services at Smith Senior Center in Greensboro. In 2011, Laura returned to UNCG as a graduate student in political science and completed the Certificate in Nonprofit Management Program in 2013. While a student, Laura served on the Friends of the Libraries Board and on the Tuition Committee. After graduation in May 2013, Laura joined the Greensboro Branch of the American Association of University Women. Her Branch involvement has included fundraising chair for Triad Tech Savvy, Public Policy Chair, and supporting the website, social media and electronic newsletter and communications.
AAUW Tar Heel Branch 