Candidate for President
Nancy Shoemaker
Nancy has served the branch as co-founder, treasurer (two terms), and president. She is past president of AAUW NC and admin of several AAUW Facebook groups, including one that encourages the statewide virtual branches to share information with each other. She is also co-founder of Open Up AAUW, and is deeply disappointed that AAUW has not opened membership to those without degrees, but she has not yet been able to walk away from the organization. Since 2019, she has been serving as treasurer of NC Women United, a coalition that includes AAUW NC.
Her academic background is in mathematics (BA, MA, PhD), and after a few years in academia, her professional life was 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. She is also fortunate to have her mother living nearby and the family plans to celebrate her 100th birthday this fall.
Candidate for Treasurer
Christi Whitworth
Christi Whitworth lives in Arden, North Carolina, near Asheville. She is an informal educator primarily in astronomy education. She currently works as an educator at Zaniac, in Asheville and Roper Mountain Science Center in Greenville, South Carolina. She also volunteers as the Executive Director for the North Carolina Science Education Leadership Association and as Volunteer Instructor Trainer Educator for the American Red Cross. She spent twelve years working as an educator and Director of Learning Experiences at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman, North Carolina. She has previously worked as a science museum and zoo educator, public school science teacher and teacher of the gifted, preschool educator and camp counselor. She holds a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction and a Bachelors in Elementary Education from Tennessee Technological University.
She joined the AAUW Tar Heel branch in 2012 and served on its board from 2014 to 2019, including two and a half years as co-president.
Candidates for Directors at Large
Sandy Bernard
Sandy Bernard joined AAUW in 1971 and was president of New York State, the Legal Advocacy Fund and national (1997-2001). She currently serves on the AAUW Racial and Social Justice Working Group, appointed by Board chair Julia Brown, which is assisting with the open membership campaign and diversity/inclusion training. She is a member of the Asheville, Hendersonville, and Tar Heel, NC Branches and the Horry County SC Branch.
Her work experience included K and Head Start teacher, freelance
landscape designer, interim executive director for several organizations and executive director of the (then) largest women’s network of its kind in the county. During those years she also served on the National Women’s Hall of Fame Board and on the NY Legislative Advisory Committee on Women’s Issues.
Sandy is now happily retired but clearly still interested in ACTION
moving women and girls forward. She also loves a lively book group,
gardening, travel, good friends and the beach.
Paula Munger
Paula joined the AAUW Tar Heel branch board in the fall of 2021, and has been elected 2022-2024 Treasurer for AAUW of North Carolina. In her career as an educator and school administrator, Paula was the 20 year owner/director of Munger Academy, an innovative early learning school for children ages 2 to 10, in northern Virginia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood/elementary education, a master’s degree in reading education, and a specialist’s degree in school administration, all from Indiana University.
Paula has been an active member of AAUW for a number of years, serving on the Colorado Springs Branch board as VP of Programs, VP of Community Outreach, Branch President elect, and Branch President. She is the past state president of Colorado. Currently she serves as NC State membership chair and works closely with the Branch Advocate on branch issues.
She has served on the Finance Committee of her Colorado branch as well as for the Colorado state Finance Committee for many years. She has also served on the Colorado governance committee. As owner of a business, she was responsible for maintaining accounting policies and procedures for the business.
AAUW Tar Heel Branch 