Business North Carolina December 2023 by Business North Carolina

BNC’S SMALL BUSINESSES OF THE YEAR PEER RATINGS OF THE STATE’S TOP DOCS | COLLEGE ATHLETES AND NIL | RED CARPET BUSINESS

DECEMBER 2023

PIPING HOT

An iconic Charlotte business pours its future into a small town.

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DECEMBER 2023

UP FRONT

POWER LIST INTERVIEW

How Lynn minges helped get $500 million for the state’s hospitality industry after the pandemic.

10 NC TREND How David Moritz created the high-end awards manufacturers category; Lumos bringing high-speed internet to small towns; Feetures makes socks for active lifestyles; WithersRavenel helps engineer North Carolina’s growth.

COVER STORY

PIPE DREAMS

One of Charlotte’s most iconic manufacturers has found the grass greener in the country. BY KEVIN ELLIS

88 GREEN SHOOTS Meet the Ashe County family that will supply the White House with its official Christmas tree.

28 NC PORTRAITS: DOWNTOWN HICKORY

COVE R PH OT O CO U R T E SY O F C H A R LOT T E P I PE A N D FO U N D R Y

Known for manufacturing furniture, hosiery and textiles, this town credits public and private investments for urban renewal.

30 ROUND TABLE: TRAVEL & TOURISM Tourism leaders discuss North Carolina’s variety making it attractive to visitors seeking all kinds of travel destinations.

76 COMMUNITY CLOSE UP: NASH & EDGECOMBE COUNTIES These two counties are focused on optimism, not the rearview mirror.

SMALL BUSINESSES OF THE YEAR

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Our 2023 winners consist of a resale boutique, a wine shop, a waterproofing company and a builder. BY UMA BHAT, KEVIN ELLIS, EDWARD MARTIN AND CHRIS ROUSH

WRANGLER’S TEXAS TWIST How Greensboro-based Kontoor Brands is using NIL to attract younger customers. BY CHRIS ROUSH

TOP DOCTORS

A report on the state’s most respected doctors in 65 specialties as selected by their peers. BY BUSINESS NC

Start your day with business news from across the state, direct to your inbox.

December 2023, Vol. 43, No. 12 (ISSN 0279-4276). Business North Carolina is published monthly by Business North Carolina at 1230 West Morehead Street, Suite 308, Charlotte, NC 28208. Phone: 704-523-6987. All contents copyright © by Old North State Magazines LLC. Subscription rate: 1 year, $30. For change of address, send mailing label and allow six to eight weeks. Periodicals postage paid at Charlotte, NC, and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Business North Carolina, 1230 West Morehead Street, Suite 308, Charlotte, NC 28208 or email circulation@businessnc.com.

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UPFRONT

Chris Roush

Uma Bhat

GOING TO BHAT

first encountered Uma Bhat, our fall intern who profiled one of our Small Business of the Year winners in this issue, on Twitter back in the summer, when she responded to a tweet saying she was interested in talking to people about careers in business journalism. I replied, and told Bhat that I was back in North Carolina and could meet with her and talk .We met on a Friday afternoon at an ice cream shop in Cary, where she grew up and graduated from Green Hope High School. By that time, Bhat had already interned for WUNC and was working as an intern for the Triangle Business Journal. And she had attended the Bloomberg 2023 Journalism Diversity Program in New York in May. What quickly became apparent when we met at the ice cream shop was that she had done her homework as well. She knew all about me and my career in business journalism. She knew the names of my former UNC Chapel Hill students now working in business journalism. She knew the names of my two sons and that one of them worked in business journalism. She had asked people in the industry about me – they told her I was “passionate” and “intense” about business journalism. It reminded me, frankly, of myself, and what I would have done before meeting someone in the industry. Doing research before you

ask questions is often more important than the questions you ask. And I’ve always prided myself on knowing someone before I meet them. Bhat had turned the tables, and I was unprepared for that. We kept in touch during the summer, and she would occasionally ask for advice on a story she was working on for the Business Journal. When her internship ended, she asked to meet. She wanted to talk about whether she was cut out to be a business reporter. My response was an emphatic yes. If you’ve followed her byline for us this semester, you’ve seen her write a variety of stories for our website, from retail expansion to a private company raising funds. In the November Issue, she profiled 321 Coffee, which focuses on hiring workers with disabilities. I’ve typically found the stories she’s written to be “clean,” which means they don’t need much editing. She learned journalism well working for her high school newspaper, and in her classes at UNC Chapel Hill and during her internships. And she asks tons of questions. She’s one of those people who is somewhat annoying by the volume of the questions she asks. But I quickly saw it’s because she wants to learn and she wants to make sure that she gets her stories as complete and accurate as possible. It’s not annoying to me because I understand that she just wants to learn. A business editor for a large metropolitan newspaper emailed me recently, looking for summer 2024 interns. I’ve sent him students interested in business journalism for internships and jobs in the past. I immediately connected him with Bhat, who’s a junior. And here’s, to me, what makes her different: She responded immediately, even though it was around 8 p.m. on a weeknight. She followed up with another email after she applied. She also responds immediately to texts and emails I send her. She understands that journalism is all about communicating with people and developing those relationships. If Uma Bhat personifies the future of journalism, then we are all in great shape. She’s thorough, fair, a strong writer and a great communicator. Contact Chris Roush at croush@businessnc.com.

VO L U M E 4 3 , N O. 1 2 PUBLISHER

Ben Kinney

bkinney@businessnc.com EDITOR

David Mildenberg

dmildenberg@businessnc.com MANAGING EDITOR

Kevin Ellis

kellis@businessnc.com EXECUTIVE EDITOR, DIGITAL

Chris Roush

croush@businessnc.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Ray Gronberg

rgronberg@businessnc.com

Cathy Martin

cmartin@businessnc.com SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Edward Martin

emartin@businessnc.com SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

Katherine Snow Smith CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Uma Bhat, Dan Barkin, Page Leggett CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Peggy Knaack

pknaack@businessnc.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Cathy Swaney

cswaney@businessnc.com MARKETING COORDINATOR

Jennifer Ware

jware@businessnc.com

ADVERTISING SALES ACCOUNT DIRECTOR

Melanie Weaver Lynch, eastern N.C. 919-855-9380 mweaver@businessnc.com

ACCOUNT MANAGER AND AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST

Scott Leonard, western N.C. 704-996-6426 sleonard@businessnc.com

CIRCULATION: 818-286-3106 EDITORIAL: 704-523-6987 REPRINTS: circulation@businessnc.com

BUSINESSNC.COM OWNERS

Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels III, Lee Dirks, David Woronoff, in memoriam Frank Daniels Jr. PUBLISHED BY

Old North State Magazines LLC PRESIDENT

David Woronoff

The November edition provided incorrect information about Dr. Shelley Earp, who is stepping down next year as the director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC Chapel

Hill. He will remain a professor at UNC.

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LIST INTERVIEW

with Nido Qubein at High Point University

HOSPITALITY CHAMP Lynn Minges, president of the N.C. Restaurant & Lodging Association, joined High Point University President Nido Qubein in the Power List interview, a partnership for discussions with influential leaders. Interview videos are available at www.businessnc.com.

Representing the state’s powerful hospitality industry has been a long-term pursuit for Minges, including 10 years as the president and CEO for the North Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association. The industry represents more than $27 billion in annual sales and about 11% of the state’s workforce. Prior to her trade association role, Minges was a key part of N.C. Department of Commerce tourism efforts. The native of Bladen County is a graduate of Peace College and N.C. State University. This story includes excerpts from Budd’s interview and was edited for clarity. Lynn Minges, welcome. You’re the president and CEO of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, which has an enormous impact on our economy. It’s an honor to be here with you and be on your beautiful campus here in High Point, certainly a bright spot here in our state. It has been my honor to serve the North Carolina hospitality industry for my entire career. There are about 20,000 food service establishments across North Carolina and about 2,000 lodging properties. There are restaurants and hotels in each of the 100 counties, so they’re important employers all across the state. We’re also the sixth-most visited state, after California, Florida, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania. About 60 million people visit North Carolina a year. Is it a growth industry? Our industry is growing. We look at pre-pandemic and post-pandemic, and a lot has changed in our state. We’ve added a tremendous number of restaurants and hotels in the state. We need more employees today than we did even pre-pandemic. And that, perhaps, is our biggest challenge.

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You served under two or three different governors as the deputy secretary of the Department of Commerce. I did work for three governors and five secretaries of commerce, and I’ve had experience working under some amazing dynamic leaders. My role is to work inside the government to help grow the hospitality sector and tourism sector. Now, 12 years later, I find myself working for the private sector, trying to get government to stay out of the way, or add value so that businesses can continue to thrive and continue to support people. We do a better job in North Carolina in that regard, don’t you think? I think we do. We’ve got a diverse economy which bodes well for us. We are not entirely tourism dependent, which is a good thing when things like COVID hit. And we have a diverse economy, a diverse workforce, a diverse topography. We have urban centers and rural areas, we have amazing natural scenic beauty as well as conference centers and conventions.

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And thriving regions like the Triangle, Charlotte and the Triad. And all these businesses like Honda and Toyota coming here and making enormous investments in North Carolina and creating all kinds of jobs. Certainly that helps your business. Oh, it does. With that comes the need for more restaurants and more hotels, more business travel, more meetings, conventions. You know, it all works together really well. You mentioned COVID. It was a period in which all of us had to adapt and adjust and show grit and courage and faith. It was a frightening period for large business and small business. What did your association do to encourage and inspire these many small business owners. COVID was a dark day for our industry. I’ll never forget on March 17, the governor went on TV and issued an executive order that folks were to stay home, that restaurants across the state were to be closed. My phone began to ring from business owners across the state. Many of these folks, restaurateurs particularly, live hand to mouth. They live on such thin profit margins that they were literally seeing their businesses evaporate. They laid off about half their workforce in North Carolina. And we stepped up in an important way during that time. We were fortunate in North Carolina to have a good relationship with government officials, and I think that bode well for us. So, every time there was an executive order, we had a role in working with the administration to craft that in a way that did as little harm as possible to our industry. We were involved in every single executive order making sure that when that announcement was made, we could answer all the questions from the business owners. And we fielded thousands and thousands of calls from business owners. We also stepped up to try to make consumers feel comfortable when they could come back into restaurants, and that was on May 22. Even when we opened back up, there were still protocols, mask mandates, tables 10 feet apart, the kinds of things that we had to do to protect our guests, patrons and employees. So we were very much on the front line of all of that. Obviously since COVID, we’ve continued to be engaged today in helping our industry recover. Are we back to 100% of pre-COVID level of business? We can’t just go back to 2019 because we’re living in 2023 and, that’s a long time – business growth, new restaurants, new hotels, increased demand. But what I will say is that business is strong across our state. Revenues are up, but largely that’s because prices are up, the cost of doing business is up. Labor costs are up, and so if you look at dollars spent, we are well ahead of where we were in 2019. It costs a lot more to eat out. People are spending a lot more to travel these days, and that’s having an impact. The association provides legal and legislative guidance. Besides that, do you do seminars on hiring people, motivating employees? What I like to say to our members is, “We are watching that for you. While you’re running your business. We are interacting with government at every level. Any decision they make that impacts your business, we’re going to tell you about it, we are going to monitor that. We are going to advocate for you if it’s a bad decision that’s going to impact you adversely, we’re going to work to stop that legislation. If it’s a good policy, we’re going to work to get those passed. We’re going to keep you informed and engaged.”

The thing that we do best is that we harness the collective power of the industry. What has been the most fun for me in this role is trying to harness that voice, and reach out across the state to get people involved in effecting change. We got a $500 million appropriation to help offset the losses of restaurants and hotels in North Carolina. The appropriation was part of the federal American Rescue Plan. And the way it worked was pretty amazing. Any restaurant or hotel that was down in gross sales by 20% got a check for 10% of their losses. It was amazing. What do you see happening with the labor situation? It is a big challenge. It was before COVID, and it certainly is today. I think it’s the No. 1 concern of every single restaurant and every single hotel. But a number of our businesses across our state are feeling that pain as well. We’re preparing to execute a campaign to talk about careers in the hospitality industry. So we think we have an opportunity to lure some of those folks back, to get students interested in careers in the industry, to understand that there are amazing and incredible career opportunities. Are the larger owners of restaurant chains coming back quicker and more profitable? To be fair, it impacted large, small, chain, independent probably equally. There were many restaurant concepts that were dramatically impacted, even if they are chains. When you’re shut down for eight weeks, there are huge losses. And many of them had to adapt their business models. They had to reformulate their dining establishments. They had to pivot to take-out windows, delivery and many of those made huge investments in technology and design. Many large businesses took on an immense amount of debt during COVID. What makes a restaurant successful? Good leadership. Managers who take care of their people. I’m always amazed at the incredible lengths that people go to to take care of their people, to be good employers. A keen business sense. It takes a real smart business owner to run a restaurant in this environment. What would be the general profit of a restaurant? Does your association figure out what generally is the gross margin? Perhaps 20%? Not nearly that, I don’t think. I’m not involved in that side of the business. I do know it’s a thin margin. Some obviously operate on volume, so if they make a dollar a meal, they get that in volume. Finedining restaurants probably have a little bit greater margin but also pretty significant risks. What is your view for 2024 and 2025 for the industry? Business is brisk. Hotels are working at pretty high levels of occupancy. They’re seeing bookings coming in on an expected basis. I think there are really three challenges they are facing today. One is workforce issues, then inflation with increased cost of supplies. And I’m watching an emerging trend about the health of our urban centers and declining business travel. These are issues we’ll have to reckon with, but business is strong. I’m encouraged talking with you. Thank you for your leadership and I wish for you great things always. ■ D E C E M B E R

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EMBRACING THE SEASON OF GIVING WITH PURPOSE AND IMPACT This is the twenty-ninth in a series of informative monthly articles for North Carolina businesses from PNC in collaboration with BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA magazine.

rom the sound of coins being deposited into red kettles to the warmth of donated coats at winter clothing drives, the spirit of giving appeals to every sense during the holiday season. Add to that the impending deadline for securing end-of-year tax deductions and it’s not surprising that as much as 30% of charitable giving activity in the U.S. occurs during the month of December. The confluence of holiday goodwill and year-end financial decisions often motivates donors to consider strategies that can help maximize the charitable impact of their contributions and reduce income tax liability, from submitting employer matching gift requests to making qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) to public charities from individual retirement accounts (IRAs). While these methods can help some donors achieve their philanthropic objectives in the near term, PNC Private Bank leaders encourage families to lean into the togetherness of the season and consider the long-term impact they can create through defining their purpose. “Discovering and articulating the ‘why’ behind a family’s purpose is foundational to creating lasting impact and legacy,” says Raleigh-based Denny Terzich, who leads PNC Private Bank in the Carolinas. “Our teams fully understand and appreciate that each family has its own unique dynamics, values and goals – and we work closely and collaboratively to help them deliver on their purpose within the context of a comprehensive wealth plan.” Terzich and Greensboro-based David Leppert, PNC Private Bank’s wealth director for the Western Carolinas market, point to a variety of planned giving vehicles that high net worth individuals and families may consider leveraging. One strategy that is sometimes overlooked for its simplicity, says Leppert, is designating a charitable organization as a beneficiary within a donor’s will, retirement plan, IRA, life insurance policy, annuity or any other asset that passes by contract. Another strategy, which has increased in popularity in recent years because of its lower monetary threshold and ease of administration, is to establish a donor advised fund (DAF), a charitable fund sponsored by a 501(c)(3) entity. By giving to a DAF, usually managed by a financial institution, public charity or community foundation, a donor may receive an income tax deduction at the time a contribution is made – and then makes 8

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recommendations for distributions to charitable beneficiaries over a longer period. “A DAF is particularly helpful for donors who are interested in front-loading their giving for tax reasons, while also having the flexibility to research and select charities to fund in the future,” says Leppert. Private family foundations continue to be both popular and useful in a stack of vehicles to drive change or support a specific cause. While administratively more involved, irrevocable and requiring a deeper financial commitment, a private family foundation is often the cornerstone of a family’s sense of purpose and community involvement. For families seeking to manage an asset to provide both income and a charitable gift, a charitable remainder trust provides an option for donors looking to achieve this dual purpose, says Terzich. Charitable remainder trusts can be funded with qualified appreciated stock, cash, real estate or other tangible property. Donors retain the right to a stream of payments David Leppert Denny Terzich – either a fixed amount, such as with a charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT), or a fixed percentage of trust asset value, such as with a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT). Payments are made for a number of years or for the life of the non-charitable beneficiary. When the trust ends, the assets pass to one or more charitable entities. As Terzich, Leppert and colleagues advise families on all phases and aspects of wealth planning, they acknowledge there has never been a more consequential time for individuals and families to translate their purpose into impact. “As we embark on what experts are calling the greatest generational wealth transfer in history, families are placing an increasingly pronounced focus on making arrangements to pass down, preserve and continue to grow their purpose,” SPONSORED SECTION

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says Terzich. “This entails helping prepare a new generation for the responsibilities and opportunities that accompany a transfer of wealth.” In the ultra-high net worth and family office space, for example, families are increasingly moving beyond traditional grant-making to deploy capital, based on their values and impact goals, across a spectrum of business models to help solve societal problems. As such, many families take a portfolio approach to capital deployment – funding nonprofits with grants and low-interest loans, for example, or supporting local impact entrepreneurs with equity. To facilitate this shift in mindset and stewardship, Terzich and Leppert enlist the resources of PNC Private Bank Hawthorn’s Philanthropy & Impact team, which helps ultrahigh net worth families define their purpose and deliver on the impact they seek. While the scope of purpose-driven advice once focused overwhelmingly on the “how,” the Philanthropy & Impact team

works with families to first define their “why” and “what” before deciding which combination of vehicles is right for them. The team also manages the complexities of private foundation administration for ultra-high net worth families and the PNC Fund for Charitable Giving, PNC’s donor-advised fund. What happens when a family is not ready to work together on a shared purpose? PNC Private Bank Hawthorn’s Institute for Family Success helps families navigate the complex practical and emotional aspects of managing and transferring wealth, with an emphasis on fostering healthy communication and family dynamics. Throughout Leppert’s 20-year private banking career in North Carolina, he has found inspiration and motivation in the generosity of local families. “Helping families give to organizations and causes that are meaningful to them reminds me that I am helping manage more than assets and wealth,” he says. “I am helping families make the most of their purpose and create legacies that will continue far into the future.”

For more information, please contact your PNC Private Bank advisor. | www.pnc.com REGIONAL PRESIDENTS: Weston Andress, Western Carolinas: (704) 643-5581 Jim Hansen, Eastern Carolinas: (919) 835-0135

These materials are furnished for the use of PNC and its clients and do not constitute the provision of investment, legal, or tax advice to any person. They are not prepared with respect to the specific investment objectives, financial situation, or particular needs of any person. Use of these materials is dependent upon the judgment and analysis applied by duly authorized investment personnel who consider a client’s individual account circumstances. Persons reading these materials should consult with their PNC account representative regarding the appropriateness of investing in any securities or adopting any investment strategies discussed or recommended herein and should understand that statements regarding future prospects may not be realized. The information contained herein was obtained from sources deemed reliable. Such information is not guaranteed as to its accuracy, timeliness, or completeness by PNC. The information contained and the opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Neither the information presented, nor any opinion expressed herein constitutes an offer to buy or sell, nor a recommendation to buy or sell, any security or financial instrument. Accounts managed by PNC and its affiliates may take positions from time to time in securities recommended and followed by PNC affiliates. Securities are not bank deposits, nor are they backed or guaranteed by PNC or any of its affiliates, and are not issued by, insured by, guaranteed by, or obligations of the FDIC or the Federal Reserve Board. Securities involve investment risks, including possible loss of principal. The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (“PNC”) uses the marketing names PNC Private Bank® and PNC Private Bank Hawthorn® to provide investment consulting and wealth management, fiduciary services, FDIC-insured banking products and services, and lending of funds to individual clients through PNC Bank, National Association (“PNC Bank”), which is a Member FDIC, and to provide specific fiduciary and agency services through PNC Delaware Trust Company or PNC Ohio Trust Company. PNC does not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice unless, with respect to tax advice, PNC Bank has entered into a written tax services agreement. PNC Bank is not registered as a municipal advisor under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. “PNC Private Bank” and “PNC Private Bank Hawthorn” are registered marks of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. Investments: Not FDIC Insured. No Bank Guarantee. May Lose Value. ©2023 The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. All rights reserved. D E C E M B E R

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NCTREND ››› Entrepreneurship

AND THE AWARD GOES TO... A Queen City CEO immerses himself in the red-carpet world of awards shows.

By Page Leggett

uring law school, David Moritz had a friend who considered starting a promotional products business. After attending a trade show, the friend told Moritz he was surprised by the dearth of high-end offerings. There were pens, keychains and koozies as far as the eye could see. But there were few other products. Moritz, an NYU alum who planned to be an entertainment lawyer, thought about the iconic statues presented at black-tie awards shows. Were executives browsing tchotchke showrooms? Didn’t they deserve a more sophisticated way to source sought-after awards? The founder and CEO of Charlotte-based Society Awards says high-end awards manufacturers didn’t exist until he created the category. Moritz aspires for the brand to be known among the award recipients themselves. Yes, that means Meryl Streep, Beyoncé, Garth Brooks and the like. “A lot of award winners are already aware of us,” he says. “If you’re in advertising, you know about the industry’s Clio Awards, and you probably read in the trades that Society Awards is producing them now. Even in the entertainment industry, some people know us.” When Steven Spielberg accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2009 Golden Globes, he held it up and said, “Look; it’s been redesigned and everything. It’s beautiful.” Society didn’t just redesign the DeMille Award. Over nearly two years, the company redesigned the iconic Golden Globe, too.

The globe sits on a marble base, weighs 5.5 pounds and stands 10.75 inches high. Each is presented, with a certificate of authenticity, in a red velvet-lined, leather-bound chest with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association logo stamped in gold. Moritz understands: Presentation matters. WHITE GLOVES, RED CARPETS Founded in 2007 in New York, Society Awards offers what the company calls “white-glove concierge services.” The company employs about a dozen concierges who are assigned to a client from initial meeting through delivery. They act, Moritz says, as “the client’s command center. They review materials, design options and logistics. They handle quality control and delivery. The concierge makes everything happen.” Society’s awards are made in China and finished (plaques affixed, polished, shipped) in the company’s Grove, Oklahoma, facility. Society employs about 60 people in Charlotte and Oklahoma. Moritz and his family moved Society’s headquarters to Charlotte in 2020 seeking “a better quality of life.” He and his wife Charlotte have two children – ages 9 and 6 – and appreciate “the grass, the green space and the weather” in their adopted hometown. The company maintains two offices in South End, one in Atherton Mill and the other in The Line, a 16-story, mixed-use complex. Atherton Mill offers visibility and is ideal for client meetings, while the larger Line space is more conducive to company meetings.

Pictured left to right at the top of page: The Hip Hop Honors Award, the Academy of Country Music Award, the Billboard Music Award, the SOCAN Award, NBC’s The Voice Trophy, the American Music Award, the iHeartMedia Award and the YouTube Red Diamond Creator Award

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PHOTO CREDITS: AMANDA ANDERSON AND CAROLINE LAWSON, COURTESY OF SOCIETY AWARDS

STARTING AT THE TOP Moritz says he started the business at the top. “We were creating a better product than already existed and felt confident going after notable accounts,” he says. Society’s reach goes beyond show biz to encompass sports, social media, cars and more. “Within every field of endeavor, there’s a world-class champion,” Moritz says. Whether being honored for acting in a Hollywood movie or for selling more carpet than their colleagues, these champions deserve more than a standard-issue trophy, he stresses. Moritz’s first foray into the awards world was an acrylic memento. The award was small but the client, Billboard magazine, and the honoree, Neil Diamond, are known globally. Society Awards’ client roster now includes the Video Music Awards, the Emmy Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, NAACP Image Awards, NBC’s “The Voice” and ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” Impressive, but one award is conspicuously absent: the Oscar. Surely, Moritz wants to manufacture that golden statuette? Nope. “We’re already the supplier for the most prestigious awards show – the YouTube Creators Awards,” he says. “If you have 100 million subscribers to your YouTube channel, you’re eligible for the Red Diamond Award – made of red Baccarat crystal.”

Along with Vicky Fotopoulou, the company’s co-creative director of 3-D design, Moritz helps create the awards. Those designs include creative wonders like the MTV Movie Award – a popcorn box replica with golden popcorn piled high and spilling out onto the base of the statue. Moritz’s design sensibility might be the dictum often attributed to German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: “Less is more.” An award “needs to be simple,” he says. “If you try to complicate the design, you end up with something fussy.” Moritz’s process for creating an award is meant to be painless for the client. There are no thumbnail sketches to review. “If you’re not a sculptor, do you really want to sit around reviewing sketches for sculpture?” Moritz asked rhetorically. Instead, the team begins with a creative brief, gets buy-in from the client and comes back with what Moritz calls a “Pixar-level photo/ illustration” for the client to approve. The costs for Society’s white-glove treatment varies. Moritz says clients can generally get something impressive in the “ready-to-award” category for between $150 and $1,000 per unit. A custom award usually starts at $10,000. “It’s got to be good,” Moritz says. “And it is. What we show up with is a literal work of art.” ■

THE SECRET WEAPONS What made Moritz think he could convince Hollywood honchos to buy his product? It may have been his high-end suits. “I was exceptionally polished,” he says. “I know what I’m doing. I had a law degree and had read manufacturing textbooks. I interviewed professional artists. I understood the assignment – replicating a series of miniatures that must be identical. It’s an artisan process. Our awards are akin to a high-end, limited-edition piece of art.” From the beginning, Moritz knew he had to sell more than an award. He had to make the buying, production and delivery process smooth – and even enjoyable. His self-confidence and swagger are probably his secret weapons: Business NC: Who are your competitors? Moritz: They’re all out of business. BNC: OK, then. Who were your competitors? Moritz: [Starts to answer, before stopping himself.] No, no. I’m not going to mention them. If they can’t get press on their own, I’m not getting it for them. GETTING IN THE DOOR There’s nothing easy about uncovering the person in an organization responsible for buying awards. “It’s often a CEO or someone else in the C-suite,” he says. “But it can be someone in the marketing department who happens to love awards shows.”

More than 150 Society Awards designs will be displayed in an exhibit opening Dec. 1 at the Mint Museum Uptown.

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NCTREND ››› Communications

DAILY FIBER

A High Point company sees a winning strategy for high-speed internet service in less densely populated areas.

By Chris Roush

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Lumos CEO Brian Stading wants to put high-speed internet in rural areas.

Stading joined Lumos in August 2022 after nearly three years as chief operating officer of Ziply Fiber in Washington state. He says he was attracted by the chance to launch the Lumos brand and create a new culture. “When you develop a new brand, it takes time,” he says. “The good news is we had a great foundation. We’re not screwing up what was done in the past. We’re a fiber optic builder. We’re not a historical telephone provider.” His basic pitch is that businesses and consumers should switch from old, somewhat unreliable copper cable-provided internet service to new fiber options. A detailed market study by Lumos asked, “What are the communities that are underserved or unserved? It was really assessing what we think is a reasonable and aggressive undertaking,” he says. While gobs of money is backing rural broadband, Lumos’ timing may be risky. In November, Gov. Roy Cooper signed a letter with 25 other governors urging Congress to reauthorize the Affordable Connectivity Program. The program, administered by the Federal Communications, provides qualified low-income households $30 per month off the cost of internet service or $100 off the cost of a router. Without action, the program could run out of funds as early as next April, affecting more than 861,000 North Carolinians. Lumos has competitors. Indiana-based Metronet expanded its fiber-optic service into Havelock in September, for example. It’s also entering Fayetteville, Greenville and Rocky Mount, among other eastern North Carolina cities. But Lumos appears to be among the state’s most active broadband investors, having restructured nearly $1.1 billion debt this summer

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LUMOS

xpanding high-speed fiber networks into rural areas is a national priority that has lots of upside for North Carolina. Corning, CommScope and other companies make massive amounts of fiber at several Tar Heel locations. Now, High Point-based Lumos is accelerating its goal to install fiber for a major network that serves less-dense areas where Spectrum, Comcast, Google and others won’t enter. The company has a goal of passing 1 million homes and businesses by 2026, or nearly four times the current total. It has the backing of Sweden’s largest private-equity group, EQT, which manages more than $220 billion in assets. Lumos is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in places like Burlington, Lexington, Mebane and Wilmington, working with county governments and state mandates to expand internet service. While mainly focused on North Carolina and Virginia, CEO Brian Stading looks for much of its growth to occur in South Carolina. He’s also mulling expansions in other mid-Atlantic and Southeast states. The expansion is buoyed by the federal government’s $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. A key goal is to help rural areas remain competitive as a location for promising companies. Lumos is the successor of the old High Point Telephone Exchange, which local businessmen had formed in 1895. It became North State Telephone in 1905 and was led by the Hayden and Tucker families for most of the next century. It primarily served retail and commercial customers around High Point and Thomasville, and parts of Greensboro and Kernersville. EQT expanded in the telecom sector service by buying Lumos Networks of Waynesboro, Virginia, in 2013 and North State in 2020. It later created the Segra brand, then sold North State’s regional fiber network to Atlanta’s Cox Communications last year. C A R O L I N A

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF LUMOS

and adding a line of credit to fund expansion. In September 2022, Lumos said it would spend $50 million to lay 600 miles of cable in Durham and Orange counties. The same month, it received franchise approvals for 900 miles of cable in Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach in Virginia. Its biggest announcement came in January, with plans for 1,200 miles of cable in South Carolina’s Richland and Lexington counties at a cost of $100 million. Two months later, it began adding 706 miles of cable in Spartanburg County, and it has received franchise approval to go into the Columbia, South Carolina, market. Back in North Carolina, the company is spending $56 million in New Hanover County and $50 million in Johnston County, east of Raleigh. In Alamance and Orange counties, Lumos is building infrastructure that will pass nearly 70,000 homes across Burlington, Elon, Gibsonville, and Mebane. In June, the N.C. Department of Information Technology, a state agency, announced that its challenges to the FCC’s National Broadband Map found an additional 115,000 homes and businesses, primarily in rural areas, without access to high-speed internet. The FCC says there are more than 250,000 locations that are unserved by broadband internet, with download speeds of less than 25 megabytes per second. About 300,000 sites have speeds of less than 100 megabytes per second. The basic Lumos service for a home is 500 megabytes per second download and upload speed. “The reason you want fiber is that you want the best,” says Stading. “Your upload and download feeds are synced. Having that video capability is paramount, and fiber is a lot more stable and more reliable than traditional copper technology.” For consumers, Lumos charges start at $50 a month and reach $100 for faster speeds. By comparison, Google Fiber starts at $70 a month in the Triangle. That’s a deal that Stading hopes will attract customers to Lumos. “We want to provide a fair price for a fair service and distinguish ourselves on service,” he says. “Our goal is to provide great value.” ■ D E C E M B E R

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NCTREND ››› Retail

FETCHING FEETURES

Two decades after their Catawba Valley business failed, the Gaithers rebound in the sock market.

By Kevin Ellis

SOCK VETERANS The Gaither family are longtime Catawba County business owners. Hugh Gaither’s great-grandfather, Joseph Albert Gaither, started Ridgeview, a hosiery and sock manufacturing business

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in Newton, in 1912. Hugh Gaither went to work for Ridgeview in 1975 after earning an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill and completing his service in the U.S. Army. He recalls turning down a job from Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh at twice the Ridgeview salary level to join the family business. “Ridgeview was a terrific company in many ways, including starting one of the very first on-site day care centers, (and) supporting an innovative way for parents to meet with their children’s teachers for monthly reviews on site without loss of pay,” he says. When Ridgeview closed in 2000, it had annual sales of around $100 million but struggled to make a profit, says Hugh Gaither. Using debt for two acquisitions, extending its resources and changes at the bank that financed the company combined to force its closure after almost 90 years, says Gaither, who was CEO at the time. Still, he learned about the sport sock market at Ridgeview, with some of those lessons now evident at Feetures. “I noticed that sport socks hadn’t changed much, and thought we could make a performance sock,” he says. The company is considering launching a line of performance shirts next year.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOSEPH GAITHER, FEETURES

ugh Gaither started Hickory-based Feetures 22 years ago by selling high-performance socks to runners. The company, which reported $45 million in revenue last year, is now hustling after new customers who enjoy different active pursuits, including golfers, cyclists, hikers and tennis players. “The running market is a small market in the big world, but Feetures is becoming a better known brand,” says Gaither, 73. He now runs the business with his two sons, John, 45, who took over as CEO in January, and son Joe, 37, the chief marketing officer. Joe came up with the Feetures name when he was a student at Newton-Conover High School. The company sold more than 5 million pairs of socks last year, with a retail price averaging about $18, and it has doubled its workforce and sales in the past three years. The business has grown every single year, aided by steady growth of retail customers, such as REI, which started selling Feetures in 2021. It has “relentlessly focused” on gaining market share at Dick’s Sporting Goods and other key retailers, and increasing business in international markets, Joe Gaither adds. The brand sells in 50 countries and about 10,000 stores, including specialty running shops such as Carrboro-based Fleet Feet.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOSEPH GAITHER, FEETURES

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NCTREND ››› Retail So what distinguishes an $18 Feetures sock and white tube socks besides the splash of colors? Feetures socks “hug the foot,” says Hugh Gaither. Targeted compression keeps the sock in place and prevents friction that can lead to blisters. Feetures socks are anatomically designed, meaning just like shoes there’s a “right” sock and a “left” sock, marked with a “L” and an “R.” “You don’t want to have to think about your socks, so we sell to active people who don’t want to worry about their socks,” he says.

Feetures will remain rooted in Catawba County, though leaders Hugh Gaither and his sons, CEO John Gaither (left) and Chief Marketing Officer Joe Gaither (seated), are now based in Charlotte.

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES Direct-to-customer online sales soared during the pandemic, going from about 15% of Feetures sales to 30% in 2020. “Due to the shutdown of gyms and other activities, a lot of people turned to running, walking and hiking as their primary form of exercise,” Joe Gaither says. Many active lifestyle brands flourished during the pandemic, but when the world “returned to normal,” Feetures found its retail business stronger than ever and revenue outpacing projections in all channels, he says. COVID presented unique challenges, including an eight-week factory shutdown by Feetures’ primary supplier in Vietnam. It could have been devastating, but Feetures had added new U.S. suppliers and was able to partner with other factories in Asia. “All of this allowed us to find capacity” and keep up with customer demands, Joe Gaither says. “We did depend heavily on air freight at the time, which was extremely expensive, but we felt necessary.” North Carolina factories in High Point and Burlington make about 25% of the company’s socks, with the rest coming from plants in Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan.

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ROOTED IN CATAWBA The company employs about 55 workers, including 30 in its 40,000-square-foot customer service and distribution center in Hickory. The rest, including the three Gaithers, work at a Charlotte office that opened with four people in 2014. The Queen City group grew as Feetures recruited talent for marketing and planning teams, Many staffers preferred not to commute 50 miles to Hickory. Parents Hugh and wife, Julie, moved to Charlotte in 2016, and work at the Charlotte office. It didn’t hurt that the move put them closer to their grandchildren. “It was a hard decision for my dad to break up our workforce, but ultimately he came around to the idea as well,” Joe Gaither says. But Feetures will remain rooted in Catawba County, they say. Next fall, it plans to move into an expanded distribution and customer service center. It will be a 60,000-square-foot building under construction by Hickory-based contractor David E. Looper and designed by Holland and Hamrick Architects of Shelby. The site has a Newton mailing address, although it’s in the Hickory city limits. Feetures is leasing the building from Winston-Salem-based Southeastern Industrial Solutions, which is also developing an adjacent 40,000-square-foot spec building. Pending continued growth, Feetures expects to add 25 workers to its distribution and customer service center in the next five years, Joe Gaither says. The building’s high ceilings give Feetures twice the actual warehouse space, and it will offer technological advantages in filling orders as the company transitions to selling to larger stores and adding more direct sales to customers. The Gaithers say they recognize each other’s strengths, which has helped achieve positive results at Feetures. “Our differences do sometimes lead to spirited debate which can be challenging, but in the end we respect each other enough to get through it and find compromise and ultimately consensus, which has been critical,” Joe Gaither says. ■

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NCTREND ››› Engineering

A GOOD FIT

WithersRavenel makes a difference with its work behind the scenes. By Dan Barkin

nless you are a land developer or someone who works in local government, the name WithersRavenel may not resonate. But it is possible you live in a subdivision that was designed by WithersRavenel. Or you live in a town whose master plan was drafted with its help. The company’s more than 400 engineers, land planners, environmental specialists and surveyors work all over North Carolina. Sam Ravenel and Tony Withers earned engineering degrees at N.C. State University in the mid-1970s. They met working in dam safety for the state. Eventually, they both went to work for private engineering firms. By 1982, Withers went out on his own. He needed help, and reached out to his former colleague, Ravenel. “I said I can’t do this by myself, and we had a good relationship, so I said let’s just form a partnership.” In 1983, the firm began in Raleigh. At that time, Cary was transforming from a small western Wake County town to a booming suburb. Research Triangle Park was taking off, and Interstate 40 had been built right by Cary between Raleigh and RTP. Fast-growing startup SAS Institute had arrived from Raleigh. WithersRavenel was getting work from developments that were springing up. “We knew Cary was on the move,” says Withers, “so we said let’s move our office out here.” They had a draftsman and a secretary and there were four of them in a three-room sublease from a dentist. In 1990, the partners recruited Jim Canfield, who eventually became CEO and president of the company. Two of the leading developers in the Triangle were Tim Smith and Bubba Rawl. From 1990 to 2005, WithersRavenel would grow to 100 employees. One reason was the work it was doing for Preston Development, a company founded by Smith and Rawl and backed financially by SAS co-founder Jim Goodnight. By 2007, the firm had 280 employees. And then the housing market collapsed in 2008, triggering a financial crisis that ripped through the development industry. WithersRavenel reduced its staffing to below 100 employees. “It was awful,” says Withers. “Banks were calling notes on everybody. Many, many builders went bankrupt.” Fortunately, the firm had what he called “a little bit of government work to sustain us. And we had a couple of good developer clients that were not affected as badly. They could afford to pay their bills.” 18

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Sam Ravenel and Tony Withers

One reason WithersRavenel had government work was engineer Cameron Patterson, says Canfield. “He was our early champion for public sector work. A lot of what he did in the mid-90s, especially early 2000s, allowed us to have the public sector work we did that got us through the recession.” WithersRavenel worked with municipalities throughout North Carolina. Engineering firms like WithersRavenel become the go-to resource for a myriad of local projects: land use plans, street construction and repair, water and sewer installations and the like. Government work has balanced the ups and downs of private development. Today, the firm’s $60 million annual revenues are split 55% private, 45% public. “We’ve added 200 people in the last three years, during Covid,” says Canfield. A challenge in this hiring is ensuring new employees share the company’s core values. The engineering business is a technical one, but it is also a relationship business because WithersRavenel personnel interact with clients daily. “If our employee experience here is great, they’re going to give our client a great experience,” says Canfield. WithersRavenel now has offices in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Pittsboro, Raleigh, Southern Pines and Wilmington. “At some point in the very near future, we will be outside of North Carolina. We need to in order to continue to grow and scale, but importantly, to give our teammates opportunities to grow with us. We’ve been thinking in 10 years, we’d be a Southeast regional firm.” The founders are still active in the business, which is now 100% employee-owned through a stock plan. Withers works on client relationships, and Ravenel works in the stormwater group. They are different people, says Canfield. “Sam’s very much head down, wanna do the engineering work. Tony’s much more about developing business, developing client relationships, big picture, putting things together. And so the two of them made an awesome team of Tony, he’d bring the work in, and Sam would make sure it got done and got done well.” ■

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THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT: YOUR QUESTIONS, ANSWERED By Adam M. Beaudoin and Matthew A. Jones

onfused by what you've read about the Corporate Transparency Act?

You're not alone. Read on to learn what it is, who it applies to, what it will do, and the requirements for compliance. WHAT IS THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT? The Corporate Transparency Act was created to provide law enforcement with beneficial ownership information related to specific business entities to detect, prevent, and punish terrorism, money laundering, and other misconduct. WHEN DOES THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT TAKE EFFECT? The Corporate Transparency Act will go into effect on January 1, 2024. Reporting entities created before the end of 2023 will have until January 1, 2025, to file beneficial ownership information. For companies registered after January 1, 2024, the requirement for filing ownership information is 30 days after the proposed registration, but there are proposed regulations that would extend the reporting time to 90 days, with the 30-day reporting period not going into effect until January 1, 2025. WHICH COMPANIES NEED TO FILE BENEFICIAL OWNER INFORMATION UNDER THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT? The Corporate Transparency Act applies to a variety of domestic reporting companies, including corporations, LLCs, LLPs, LLLPs, LPs, non-profit corporations, and business trusts, as well as any other entity that is created by the filing of a document with the Secretary of State or Native American tribe.

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Any foreign company doing business in the US with a physical location in the US will also need to file ownership information under the Act. WHAT COMPANIES ARE EXEMPT FROM FILING UNDER THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT? There are 23 exemptions from the definition of "Reporting Company" in the Corporate Transparency Act. Companies in already heavily regulated industries, such as insurance, banking, financial brokerages, exchanges, clearing agencies, public accounting firms, political organizers, investment advisors, investment companies who pooled investment rewards, accountants, and Commodity Exchange Act registered agencies, are typically going to be exempt. However, most importantly, large domestic corporations with at least 20 employees AND tax returns showing more than $5 million in gross receipts or sales will be exempt from the Act. ARE NON-PROFITS EXEMPT FROM FILING FOR THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT? Various tax-exempt entities and entities assisting tax-exempt entities are also not required to report ownership information (tax-exempt entities are generally formed as non-profits). To be tax-exempt under the Corporate Transparency Act, the entity must be a 501(c) and exempt under 501(a) of the code. ARE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS OR HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATIONS EXEMPT FROM FILING WITH THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT? Not at this time. Community Associations organized under 528 will be subject to the Act. Only Community Associations organized under 501(c)(4) or under 501(c)(7) will be exempt. SPONSORED SECTION

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WHAT IS A "BENEFICIAL OWNER"? For the purpose of the Act, the definition of a beneficial owner is an individual who directly or indirectly, through any contract, arrangement, understanding, relationship, or otherwise: exercises "substantial control" over a reporting company OR owns or controls 25% or more of the "ownership interests" of a reporting company. WHAT IF MY COMPANY IS OWNED BY A TRUST? Companies owned by a trust will have to report the name of the trustee and any beneficiaries designated more than 25% benefits. Essentially, anyone who has authority to dispose of trust assets. What if the beneficiary of a trust is a minor? The parent or guardian information would be reported until the child reaches the age of majority. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CHANGES IN OWNERSHIP HAPPEN IN THE ORDINARY COURSE OF BUSINESS? The Reporting Company has 30 days to file the updated report. WHO WILL BE ABLE TO SEE THE OWNERSHIP INFORMATION? IS THIS INFORMATION PUBLIC? Beneficial ownership information submitted via the Act's portal will not be publicly available. Instead, the information will only be available to: • The Federal Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) • Certain other law enforcement agencies with court approval • Non-US law enforcement agencies, i.e., foreign governments • Financial institutions and regulators with the consent of the reporting company HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO FILE MY BUSINESS INFORMATION UNDER THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT? There is no fee associated with filing. HOW MUCH WILL IT COST IF I DECIDE NOT TO FILE MY BUSINESS UNDER THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT? Willful reporting violations carry a $500 per day civil penalty; criminal violations are up to $10,000, or two years in prison. Unauthorized disclosure or use carries civil fines of $500 per day and criminal penalties of up to $250,000 or five years in prison or both. The fines start at $500 a day, up to $250,000 per day if the government finds you are trying to perpetrate a fraud.

WHAT, EXACTLY, WILL MY COMPANY BE REQUIRED TO REPORT TO THE GOVERNMENT UNDER THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT? Reporting companies will be required to share the legal name, trade name, DBA, taxpayer ID, and street address. Beneficial owners will have to report their name, date of birth, residential street address, and valid state-issued photo ID (i.e., Driver's License or passport). The corporate street address for beneficial owners may NOT be used. WHAT SHOULD I DO TO FILE TO BE COMPLIANT WITH THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT? FinCEN's filing system is currently under development and will not be available until January 1, 2024. WHAT IF I AM UNCLEAR ON WHAT I OR MY COMPANY SHOULD DO NOW? Please ask your business attorney for counsel. If you are unrepresented, we are accepting new clients and are assisting businesses with the issues surrounding filing for compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act. Public information regarding FinCEN's filing requirements and timeline may change. We will post new information on our website as it becomes available. ■

Adam M. Beaudoin Business Attorney amb@wardandsmith.com

Matthew A. Jones Business Attorney majones@wardandsmith.com

wardandsmith.com

This article is not intended to give, and should not be relied upon for, legal advice in any particular circumstance or fact situation. No action should be taken in reliance upon the information contained in this article without obtaining the advice of an attorney. D E C E M B E R

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NCTREND ››› Statewide

CHARLOTTE

and his family were major donors to the education schools at UNC Charlotte and Queen’s University. Family members still control publicly traded Cato Corp. Cedar Fair, a Sandusky, Ohio-based company that owns Carowinds, will combine with Arlington, Texas-based Six Flags Entertainment in what the two companies are calling a merger of equals. The combined company will be headquartered here and will operate a portfolio of 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

CHARLOTTE Chicago-based TTX, a railroad car company, will relocate its headquarters here to the top two floors at The Line complex. TTX will invest $14.5 million and create 150 jobs in Charlotte.

Months after celebrating 50 years in business, the land beneath beloved Brooks’ Sandwich House is up for sale. Owner David Brooks said the business will stay open until the sale.

Former Truist banker Heath Campbell joined Huntington National Bank as executive managing director of the Carolinas. Huntington said last month it would place its newly formed fund finance team in uptown Charlotte next year. The Ohio-based bank has more than 1,000 branches in 11 states, but none in the Carolinas. Wayland Cato Jr., who built a major women’s apparel chain with more than 10,000 employees, died at age 100. He

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A federal lawsuit accuses Charlotte Hornets star LaMelo Ball, his family’s business and sneaker maker PUMA of fraud, claiming damages in excess of $200 million. Ball’s former business adviser Alan Foster’s lawsuit also includes claims of trademark infringement and unfair business practices. Representatives for Big Baller Brand and the Charlotte Hornets did not have an immediate comment.

Celgard, a manufacturer of membrane battery separators, is adding more capacity to meet growing demand tied to electric vehicles. Some 100 jobs will be added in an expansion starting next year, according to the company.

KINGS MOUNTAIN Coca-Cola Consolidated, the largest U.S. Coca-Cola bottler, reported net income of $92.1 million in the third quarter, down from $118.8 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue gained 5.1% during the quarters to $1.7 billion. The company’s shares have gained 26% this year through early November.

Actega plans a 238,000-square-foot production facility here. The relocation is set to take place in the second quarter of 2024. It will put all of the company’s ink technology development under one roof, which will assist workers involved in R&D, technical service and quality control.

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EAST FAYETTEVILLE Dansons, a manufacturer of grills and smokers, is closing its distribution and warehouse operations in early 2024 and laying off 49 workers, according to a filing with the N.C. Department of Commerce. The layoffs are expected to start in February and be completed by April. The company is consolidating the Fayetteville operations in Columbus, Georgia.

MANTEO

The Outer Banks Association of Realtors hosted a meeting to discuss significant increases in property insurance premiums. While higher insurance rates in coastal communities are not unusual, CEO Willo Kelly said the 10% statewide average rate increase seems to have caused more worry than in the past.

Birmingham-based real estate firm Capstone Communities partnered with Newland Real Estate Group to develop the Riverlights community here. More than 200 cottages are available within a 120-acre mixed use village at the southern end of the community, which will cater to young professionals, empty-nesters and those looking to rent instead of buy.

WINSTON-SALEM Javara, a clinical trials company based here, raised $9.4 million from five investors. The company has previously raised about $35 million. It employs 250 people and is led by CEO Jennifer Byrne.

TRIAD LIBERTY Toyota plans to invest an additional $8 billion and hire 3,000 more employees at its electric battery manufacturing site under construction in Randolph County, the company said. The expansion brings Toyota’s total investment to $13.9 billion and more than 5,000 jobs. The expansion adds capacity to support battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, Toyota said. The company announced the Liberty project in 2021 with plans at the time calling for 1,750 jobs.

Another quarterly sales slump from its Champion brand contributed to HanesBrands having a $38.8 million loss for the third quarter, the basic apparel manufacturer reported. By comparison, net income was $80.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022. Sales dropped 9.5% to $1.51 billion, while Champion-branded sales were down 19% overall.

WILMINGTON

The N.C. State Ports Authority will receive almost $11 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to move the Port of Wilmington’s North Gate farther away from surrounding neighborhoods. The money is part of its Port Infrastructure Development Program and will fund 38% of the port’s North Gate Relocation and Access Optimization project.

LIBERTY Separately, Toyota is raising the wages of its factory workers, all of them non-unionized, after the UAW strikes at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis culminated in pay hikes for unionized employees. Toyota has a battery plant under construction about 20 miles southeast of Greensboro. D E C E M B E R

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NCTREND ››› Statewide

TRIANGLE

New York-based biotechnology firm Covera Health has acquired CoRead, a diagnostic technology firm based here. Terms were not disclosed. Lawrence Ngo, a Duke University School of Medicine alum and radiologist, cofounded CoRead alongside University of Wisconsin alum Dr. Jacob Johnson in 2018 aiming to find radiological screening misdiagnosis at scale using artificial intelligence.

BUTNER

DURHAM

UNC Health opened a new behavioral health facility for children to help address the state’s crisis in youth mental health. The new facility, located 30 miles north of Raleigh, will add 54 new beds for children and teens experiencing psychiatric crises. The site will be enough to treat around 800 children and teens a year.

CARY AQuity Solutions, a medical transcription and clinical documentation firm with some 7,000 employees globally, has been sold. IKS Health, which is based in Irving, Texas, bought the firm for $200 million.

LOUISBURG

China-based hemp company Q-Power is setting up shop near here in Franklin County. The company is initially investing about $10 million in phase one and expects to hire about 20 to 30 people.

MORRISVILLE

The US Food and Drug Administration approved the Type 2 diabetes drug tirzepatide for use in chronic weight management, making official the use of a medicine viewed as a major boost for weight loss. The approval allows for production and distribution of Eli Lilly’s Zepbound drug. The Indianapolisbased company is producing the drug at its manufacturing complex here.

California-based Invitae appears unlikely to occupy a large facility here that was once considered part of its plans for a major East Coast expansion. More than two years ago, the genetic testing company announced plans to invest more than $100 million and create hundreds of jobs as part of a Triangle expansion. It hasn’t progressed on those plans.

OXFORD A fire destroyed two businesses in the historic downtown. No one was injured. The brick building was built in 1901. It’s been home to Farrer Jewelers, and for the past three years, to a wellness center called The Healing Haven.

PERSON COUNTY

CHAPEL HILL Raising Cane’s, a fast-growing fried chicken chain started in Louisiana, opened its first Triangle location on downtown Franklin Street. The restaurant occupies perhaps the city’s most prominent corner — Franklin and Columbia streets — and has been under construction for two years. Cane’s has more than 720 locations nationwide.

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Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Energy plans to build the Moriah Energy Center, two 25-million-gallon liquified natural gas facilities on 485 acres in southeastern Person County, about two miles from the Durham and Granville county lines. The facility itself would require 50 to 60 acres, with additional for possible expansion.

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NCTREND ››› Statewide RALEIGH

The Golden LEAF Foundation and the NC Chamber Foundation announced NC Ag Leads, a strategic planning effort intended to bolster the state’s $103 billion ag industry. The project is directed by a board of top N.C. officials, including N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.

North Carolina’s total charter-school enrollment climbed, while most traditional districts were virtually flat or declined slightly. That’s based on the state’s firstmonth report for the current school year. Enrollment for charter and lab schools, which don’t report to local school boards, grew almost 5% to 147,436, from a year earlier. About 1.38 million students attend traditional schools. City leaders are considering a gondola to connect Dix Park to the downtown area. Right now, the four-lane Western Boulevard makes it tricky for pedestrians to visit the park.

Workplace Options, the largest independent provider of well-being and mental health care, bought The Diversity Movement, which focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for employers. It is also based in Raleigh. Terms weren’t disclosed. Workplace Options 116,000 clients employ 79 million workers and their dependents. Rise Capital, the investment firm led by Harry Smith, Travis Stephenson and Dale Jenkins, bought Fortune Electrical Contractors of Fort Myers, Florida. It’s the first out-of-state acquisition by Rise. Fortune employs 150 people.

Leapfrog Group data gave A grades for health safety to Duke University, WakeMed and UNC Rex in Raleigh hospitals in an annual study. Duke’s three hospitals made the “A” list along with WakeMed’s main Raleigh campus, WakeMed Cary Hospital and WakeMed North Hospital.

Indivior, a Richmond, Virginia-based company that focuses on addiction treatments, plans to add 35 jobs and invest $60 million in the next five years on a pharmaceutical production facility here. The company plans to hire production operators and quality control engineers, maintenance workers and an engineering manager. The plant was previously owned by Sagent Pharmaceuticals.

WEST ASHEVILLE The North Carolina Attorney General’s Office notified Dogwood Health Trust that HCA Healthcare has violated the asset purchase agreement regarding cancer and emergency services at Mission Hospital. The AG’s office said it could sue if the problems are not resolved within 40 days. The attorney general “concluded that HCA Healthcare failed to comply with its obligation” to the agreement. HCA denied any wrongdoing.

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BREVARD Pisgah Hospitality plans a $30 million hotel project here that will emphasize nature and sustainability, partner Brice Bay says. Brevard Staytion is expected to break ground next year with the 54 rooms, including a 36-room lodge, opening in 2026.

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Atlanta-based Printpack will lay off 90 workers and close its site here by the end of the year, according to a filing with the N.C. Department of Commerce. The plant, which has been operating since the mid-1970s, makes labels for water bottles and candy wrappers among other things. ■

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DOWNTOWN HICKORY

URBAN INVESTMENT Almost a decade ago, the city of Hickory embarked on a plan to reinvigorate its downtown by investing $98 million in transformative projects to spur economic growth, attract residents and businesses and create a better quality of life. Part of that money went to the Hickory Trail, a 10mile multimodal urban trail that connects walkers and bicyclists to some of Hickory’s assets – Lake Hickory, the renovated downtown, educational centers, sports and entertainment venues and the regional airport. It includes a bridge across U.S. 321. Private investments downtown include One North Center, a $19 million mixed-use development that opened in 2021 along the City Walk portion of the trail. Additional mixed-use developments have also been announced. This fall, Appalachian State University opened its satellite campus in a 225,000-square-feet, five-story building that had been vacant for about four years. The App State building is about a fiveminute drive from downtown. The city already had private Lenoir-Rhyne University and Catawba Valley Community College. The public and private investments downtown have resulted in urban renewal for the Piedmont city of about 44,000 residents with a historical manufacturing base in furniture, hosiery and textiles.

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DOWNTOWN HICKORY. WELL CRAFTED. As the Central Business District, Downtown Hickory is filled with a variety of unique retail shops, restaurants, corporate headquarters, professional offices, and entertainment venues, all in a park-like setting in the heart of Hickory. In November 2018, City Council unanimously approved the renovation of Union Square in Downtown Hickory, while additionally enhancing streetscapes to complement the plans for the new Hickory Trail. The Hickory Trail (www.hkytrail.com), a 10-mile multimodal urban trail system connecting destinations across the city, is the result of a now $98 million investment to generate economic development and attract industry.

myhky.com

The Downtown makeover increased “dwell time” by creating spaces where visitors can comfortably enjoy solitary or group activities. The Square maintained its historic feel while modernizing aesthetics. A new multi-purpose shade structure, now called the CommScope Stage, was added. The Sails on the Square Stage remained intact and continues to host a variety of entertainment. An elevated cannon on a multi-tiered structure, nicknamed Cannon Hill, serves as an interactive feature, as well as offers additional seating and a unique vantage point of the Square. Increased lighting and security, atmospheric music, and complimentary Wi-Fi for Downtown visitors were all added during the renovation.

visithickorymetro.com

A ribbon cutting was held on September 23, 2019, to celebrate the completion of the Union Square renovations. In addition to the newly renovated Square, Downtown Hickory is home to Lowes Foods City Park with fun, interactive features and a splash pad area. New Downtown living, including shops, restaurants, and breweries have opened and continued to be built, offering new amenities for those who seek an active Downtown lifestyle. On March 15, 2022, the Hickory Downtown Social District was established to allow residents to enjoy alcoholic beverages in its newly revitalized downtown area. Hickory was one of the first in the state to adopt a Social District. This is a benefit to downtown establishments and enhances any event that is held in that area. The Sails Original Music Series is one of those events that brings people from all over to enjoy downtown Hickory and the renovated Union Square. D E C E M B E R

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BRINGING TOURISTS AND GUESTS TO NORTH CAROLINA North Carolina set a record for visitor spending with $33.3 billion in 2022, a 15.2% increase according to the Department of Commerce. Growth in direct tourism employment was more evenly distributed among rural and urban counties with more than a quarter seeing double-digit increases. Still, the tourism and hospitality industry faces challenges to continue that growth. Leaders from across the state recently gathered to discuss tourism and hospitality’s growth and where it’s headed in the future. Photography by Edde Burgess

The discussion was sponsored by: •Greenville-Pitt Convention & Visitors Bureau •Halifax County Convention & Visitors Bureau •Convention & Visitors Bureau for the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area •Richmond County Tourism Development Authority •Mount Airy Tourism Development Authority •Visit Winston-Salem Chris Roush, executive editor of Business North Carolina, moderated the discussion. It was edited for brevity and clarity.

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PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELVES AND TELL ME ONE ISSUE IN TOURISM RIGHT NOW. ROBERTS: I’m Jessica Roberts, executive director of the Mount Airy Tourism Development Authority. And one of our biggest challenges is finding a workforce that can be available to work in several of our different employers. WERZ: I’m Phil Werz, president and CEO of the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area Convention and

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Visitors Bureau. I would agree with Jessica that workforce development and affordable housing is a big deal. In fact, at Pinehurst resort, they’re going to take into consideration lodging for some of their workers. It is a big factor not just for the resort, but for tourism in general, in Moore County. LAMBETH: My name is Meghann Lambeth, and I am the executive director of Richmond County Tourism next door to Moore County. And I agree with both of their statements, I feel like those are applicable in Richmond County. SPONSORED SECTION

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Also we have limited lodging. For some weekend events, it’s sufficient for what we have going on. But when we have larger national events, whether most of them are racing related, some kind of competitive sports, we don’t have anywhere near what we need. So that’s a big issue for us.

several of my colleagues have said about the workforce.

TUTTELL: And I’m Wit Tuttell, executive director of Visit NC. I think one of our biggest issues is balancing the needs of rural areas and urban areas and spreading out visitation so that everyone’s getting as much as they need, but not too much.

MEDLIN: I’m Lori Medlin with the Halifax County Convention and Visitors Bureau. So we’re on the I-95 corridor, just as you enter North Carolina from Virginia, and our hotels and restaurants are telling us they’re basically fully staffed. But what they’ve done, especially our restaurants, is cut back on days of service. No one’s open on Mondays. You know, a lot of people aren’t open for lunch until maybe Thursday. So getting everybody up to full speed is a challenge for us.

MINGES: I’m Lynn Minges with the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, and I would echo what

SCHMIDT: And I’m Andrew Schmidt, president and CEO of Visit Greenville, NC. Obviously, I think I would echo

what our colleagues also said, but I think one thing that’s affecting us is our growth. We have a lot of growing going on at the same time and a lot of the same areas. So communicating to our visitors, what roads might be closed this particular week while this hotel is going up or what detours might be available for certain events has been challenging for us over the last few months. DO YOU STILL FEEL THAT YOU’RE RECOVERING FROM COVID? IS THERE STILL A COVID AFTEREFFECT THAT IS IMPACTING YOUR COMMUNITIES? ROBERTS: I think us being in a rural community, we weren’t really that

Meghann Lambeth

Lori R. Medlin

Lynn Minges

executive director, Richmond County Tourism Development Authority

president and CEO, Halifax County Convention & Visitors Bureau

president and CEO, North Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association

Jessica Icenhour Roberts

Andrew Schmidt

Wit Tuttell

Phil Werz

executive director, Mount Airy Tourism Development Authority & Tourism Partnership of Surry County

president and CEO, Greenville-Pitt County Convention & Visitors Bureau

executive director, Visit North Carolina

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SCHMIDT: One of the good things that happened with COVID is people had to go outside. They learned that they loved camping, or they took up golf. Being in eastern North Carolina, we have a lot of outdoor assets, and they are being utilized to the point where sometimes there’s not enough space for everybody, especially on certain event weekends. HOW IS TECHNOLOGY OVERALL IMPACTING TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY?

heavily impacted about the pandemic. We fared very well. And being in a location that has lots of outdoor recreation and wineries. It hasn’t really impacted us. We have surpassed our 2019 numbers. WERZ: For golf, it was probably the best thing that ever happened. It was a tragedy as well. But it really impacted the golf industry. It’s an absolute boom, and the demand for golf now is through the roof. And now Gen Z is getting more involved. Golf is becoming more of a lifestyle kind of thing. So with COVID, we were impacted for maybe three or four months. But after that golf has taken off, and we haven’t looked back. MINGES: I think we’re still feeling a whole lot of impact, not necessarily from COVID. The industry has changed, people have changed, workers have changed, priorities have changed. During COVID, we displaced, in the hospitality industry, about half of our workforce. So over the last two years, we’ve had to hire 100,000 people a year to build back. 32

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Working to onboard them and train them has been a challenge. We saw mass numbers of retirees, and so that whole population left the workforce, many of them earlier than we had anticipated. I think our industry has, in a big way, embraced technology because they had to during COVID. They had to shift the way they do business. But in no way has it filled the void of workers. We still need more workers than we needed before COVID. TUTTELL: What fascinates me is there were so many changes that came with the pandemic. And we didn’t know which ones were permanent changes and which ones were temporary. It’s been like a lot of people said Zoom meetings are going to take 50% of the meetings. But we’ve seen in urban areas this year, and last year, meetings have come back. But work from home is still around. Nobody’s in the office. So therefore, if you’re a restaurant, why would you be open for lunch on a Monday or Friday? And that’s a challenge to trying to do business.

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MINGES: During COVID, we got used to contactless payment. And so we’re all using that today to rent cars, to check into hotels, to purchase things, to view a menu. And pre COVID, we were terrified of that. We’re doing it because we’ve learned to do it, and it’s more efficient. So we’re seeing that take place. We’re seeing efficiencies that are created by technology in front of the house and in the back of the house. But surprisingly, even with those efficiencies, when we look at the hard numbers, we need more employees to date than we needed pre COVID. So those technologies are making us more efficient, better suited to deliver high-quality service, but they’re not necessarily reducing the demand for workers. So we’re using technology. It’s a good thing, but it’s not replacing the need for workers to deliver quality customer service. WERZ: The biggest thing we look at in destination marketing is artificial intelligence. There are certain things we can do with AI. As far as copywriting, you’re going to be able to do videos with AI. But is it going to replace my staffer? Probably not. So it’s something that we’re looking at on a daily basis, at least my colleague is. And I know the (Pinehurst) resort is looking at it as well, because they always want to be

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MEGHANN, ARE YOU DOING SIMILAR STUFF IN RICHMOND COUNTY?

end because we’re not going through and making diagrams.

on the forefront of what’s going on in technology. And so AI has been a big, big topic for us.

LET’S GET BACK TO THE WORKFORCE ISSUE. WHERE ARE YOU GETTING YOUR WORKERS FROM? AND HOW ARE YOU RECRUITING THEM TO COME FOR THOSE JOBS? THAT SEEMS LIKE A MAJOR ISSUE FOR ALL OF YOU.

TUTTELL: A new platform comes along like TikTok. Suddenly it’s massive, and you need to be on it when you didn’t have a TikTok strategy a year ago. Things like Booking.com, those types of sites can come in and just change the game. And those changes are happening faster and faster than they did before. WHEN I THINK ABOUT AI, I ENVISION BEING ABLE TO GO TO A WEBSITE OF MOUNT AIRY AND BEING ABLE TO VIRTUALLY WALK THROUGH IT AND SEE THE ANDY GRIFFITH STATUE. ARE Y’ALL DOING THINGS LIKE THAT? WERZ: We’re launching a new website beginning in 2024, that will incorporate AI. So you’ll be able to go in and you’ll be able to ask questions, you will get responses back, you’ll be able to book your room. Everything will be able to be done online, in real time. I need to learn more about that myself. But I mean, it’s amazing the technology and the capabilities that are there. SCHMIDT: It actually gives more control to that meeting planner. So on our convention center website, anybody can go in and design their own setup now. They can go in and say, “I want my convention hall to look like this,” or “I want my meeting room to look like this.” So we give them an opportunity to design it. It saves us time on the back 34

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SCHMIDT: One issue is education. So we’re going into high schools and other places, and educating these kids that are going to be in the workforce that maybe are not going to college, about careers in our industry. How do you become a general manager at a hotel? And there’s a clear path, but these kids don’t know what that path is. And they also don’t know the kind of living you can make in a career like that. It’s a good living. And then the other part is really working with parents and others to educate them about careers in the hospitality industry as well. So it’s really exposure in education. MEDLIN: We’ve been talking to our community college about this career path and how fast people move in this industry. And so we’re looking at not necessarily a two-year program, but some certificate programs where they go into the schools before they even graduate from high school and talk to them about this industry and offer a certificate and then going into the hotels and the restaurants. We’re kind of excited about that. And then hopefully, there’ll be a two-year curriculum there soon that’ll lead people into this industry.

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LAMBETH: Richmond Community College is our local community college and they’re very much immersed into our community. And the high school has hired a teacher that is now just focused on career development. So there’s a new bond that’s growing, not too new, but it is developing. MINGES: Largely, we’re talking about not having enough workers to work in hotels and restaurants. During COVID, when we displaced half of our workforce, we went to the General Assembly and asked that they allocate some of the state’s portion from the American Rescue Plan to help our industry recover. And so the North Carolina Restaurant Lodging Association received a grant of $5 million to develop and execute a hospitality workforce recruitment campaign. It’s all centered around a website that is intended to introduce people to careers in the hospitality industry. It’s a centralized job portal that today lists about 20,000 restaurant and hotel jobs that are open and available in North Carolina. It allows people to search by location, or it will default to the location they are currently sitting in. And it will pull jobs from their area, they can search by the kind of job. This morning when I checked, there were over 5,000 jobs in our industry that pay close to $50,000 a year just in North Carolina. The second thing we’re trying to do on that website is to really talk about the career opportunities because of some of the research we did in the industry. When you drill down and ask them in focus groups, “Why did you leave?” and they said “well, I just didn’t see a career pathway. I was doing that. So I could earn a living to get through high SPONSORED SECTION

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school or to buy a car.” They saw that as a transactional sort of job. And so what we’ve tried to do on the website is interview over 100 employees who are currently working in our industry across the state. And they talk about their stories and what they like about the industry and they talk about their career path. LET’S SWITCH GEARS AND TALK ABOUT THE END PRODUCT. HOW ARE YOU GETTING MORE PEOPLE TO VISIT YOUR COMMUNITIES? IS THERE ANYTHING NEW OR INTERESTING YOU’RE DOING? SCHMIDT: What we’ve done differently over the last year, is going away from traditional marketing avenues and spending where the streaming services are, whether it’s audio streaming, or television streaming. Less people have cable. People are watching things like Hulu. The other thing is seeing how your target market has changed. For us, we’re looking at more sustainable tourism opportunities for people. That’s what the research really shows that people are looking for. And also multigenerational travel is something that we’re seeing more of as well, whether it’s for leisure, travel, or even we’re seeing it for sports travel. I think it’s just looking at what is going on in your particular area and how you’re reaching your particular target market. MEDLIN: We sort of decided that we need new products on the I-95 corridor to bring new visitors in. We’re really excited to share that the legislature looked at developing rural tourism districts for rural areas in North Carolina. So we’re hopeful when they

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get back in session in May, that they’ll look at that seriously and put those areas in North Carolina so we can build new products. We’re also really excited about America’s 250th birthday, which is coming up in 2026. And it all started in Halifax, North Carolina. So the state is kicking off that celebration in April in Halifax with a two-year long celebration for our state and the nation. I think we’ll see some new visitors, some history travelers and people coming in because we have a lot of Revolutionary War history here in North Carolina. ROBERTS: Being in an area where I am with not great broadband and Wi-Fi, we’ve added lots of new wayfinding and signage throughout our county, which has really helped drop people into the downtowns and to the hotels to destinations and that’s just a constant thing for rural areas, especially in the western part of the state. WIT, TAKE A MORE STATEWIDE VIEW OF WHAT THE ISSUES ARE FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM INSTEAD OF A COUNTY VIEW OR A REGIONAL VIEW. TUTTELL: North Carolina is so diverse. It’s an incredible blessing. We run from the most undeveloped beaches in the eastern United States, the highest mountains in the eastern United States and incredibly fascinating communities in between. That’s great, but when you’re trying to get that into seven seconds, that’s an incredible challenge. You really have to balance things to showcase. We try to do things that are open to anyone in the state that anybody in the state can participate in and aren’t specific to the coast or specific to the mountains, or specific to the Piedmont.

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your golf dollars? Where can we kind of fill in?” It’s great to have that flexibility where we can kind of lay it on the resort a little bit and then kind of do our own thing as well. WHEN I LIVED IN ATLANTA, SUGAR AND BEECH WERE THE ONLY PLACES I EVER WENT SKIING. AND I JUST KEPT GOING BACK. IF YOU HAVE A GOOD EXPERIENCE AT A PLACE, YOU JUST WANT TO KEEP REPEATING THAT GOOD EXPERIENCE. IS THAT WHAT YOU’RE ALL TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH?

DO YOU GET MOST OF YOUR VISITORS FROM IN THE STATE, OR DO THEY COME IN FROM OUT OF STATE? ROBERTS: We get a lot from the urban areas in North Carolina. We get a lot from Virginia, like the Roanoke area. And then Ohio was huge for us (with people from there) coming down on their way to Florida. We get them coming and going. So we’ve been targeting them to get them to come back and play on more vacations our way. So that’s a big, big destination for us. MEDLIN: I’m a little unusual in that department. I’m on the I-95 corridor. Yeah, we’re getting visitors from New York to Florida, a lot of visitors from the Northeast. So we advertise that way. We do a lot of billboard campaigns that way. The impact of that corridor and people coming back and forth all the way up and down the United States, coming in and 38

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out of our communities, is tremendous. Probably 70% of our visitors are traveling on that corridor, and they’re planning to stay with us on their way up and down. And then we try. And our goal is to try to get them to stay longer. TUTTELL: Even though we have fantastic airports, we’re still a drive market for mostly domestic visitation. So it’s really those drive-in markets that are important. It’s usually about a 60-40 split. So 40% of the visitors are in-state visitors and 60% are out-of-state. But those out-of-state visitors, even though they don’t visit as often, they spend more and stay longer, so they have more impact. WERZ: In Moore County, because we have Pinehurst, it’s unique because we have our marketing budget. Obviously Pinehurst resort has its marketing budget, too. So we’ll coordinate and say, “Hey, where are you spending

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LAMBETH: You find something, and you’re like, “This works. This is where now I can go.” We just got a new digital sign that is enormous. I don’t recall the exact number of measurements, but it’s in front of the dragway, which is across from the former NASCAR track which can be a NASCAR track again. But it has been such a wonderful marketing tool, because there’s so much traffic coming in from Raleigh and other places. WHERE DO YOU SEE TRAVEL AND TOURISM CHANGING IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? WHAT CAN YOU DO TO KEEP GROWING? ROBERTS: We’ve seen tremendous growth with our wine region being the Yadkin Valley wine region. And we are working tremendously with our partners in Wilkes County and Yadkin County and collaborating with them to spread our advertising out. So I see that growing still. We’ve also expanded our food trails. Of course, Mayberry is still our biggest hook, and will continue to be very important to our tourism. We’re a big wedding destination as well. We have a lot of wedding barns, a lot of higher end restaurants that have come around since I’ve been there. SPONSORED SECTION

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WERZ: Moore County is already a globally recognized destination. So people are already coming from around the world. There are so many Department of Transportation projects that have been put on hold that the day after the US Open in 2024, it will be the highest concentration of highway projects in the state with 12 different projects going on. So by the 2029 US Open, it is going to be a completely different destination, every road in and out of there is going to be five lanes and much easier to get into and out of that area.

in the woods. So I think just the growth of those things, which is another continuation of COVID. People got really into their sport, especially if it happened to be something that was conducive to doing during that time period, they got even more engaged in it. I didn’t want to keep going off to all my random stories. We did have an Andre the Giant festival for the first time this year.

LAMBETH: I think (we have) the spillover from that growth, which we already have a lot of, coupled with the growth of our established things that are already bringing so many people from racing to a motocross track in Ellerbe, that you would never know that it’s even there because it’s

LAMBETH: The guy who is the chair of the museum board called me maybe in April and told me about it. So the consensus was, well let’s have a festival. So I got really nervous. It was just three of us planning this event. And the day before the festival, I’m getting all these texts. Here’s one (feature)

HOLD ON. ANDRE THE GIANT? THE FAMOUS WRESTLER?

in Sports Illustrated. It was all these national things. And I was like, “This is really good. It was a wonderful day.” YOU NEED AN ANDRE THE GIANT IMPERSONATOR ENTERED INTO A DRAG RACE. LAMBETH: Crazy. Awesome. OK. TUTTELL: Our goal would be to see North Carolina be a year-round destination. That’s the best travel destination in the South. And I say that because we don’t include Florida in the South because it’s not really southern. And I think we have an opportunity to grow in a smart way. And a lot of other states haven’t done that. And I think we have the foresight and the people that care enough to see that we grow it to be the biggest destination in the South in the right way. ■

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SMALL BUSINESSES, BIG AMBITIONS

electing Business North Carolina’s Small Businesses of the Year offers an inspiring look at the entrepreneurial spirit that helps the state thrive. Many of 70 or so nominees offered compelling stories of achievement, but these enterprises topped the judges’ list. • Dry Otter Waterproofing, a Lincoln County-based company that protects crawl spaces and basements. • VPC Builders, a Banner Elk firm specializing in commercial and residential construction and remodeling in North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina. • Taylor’s Wine Shop, a Raleigh convenience store that offers a wide selection of fine wine and craft beer, locally roasted coffees, local products, live bait and gasoline. • MODE Consignment Boutique of Raleigh, which enables customers to buy and sell clothing and accessories at affordable prices. Judges for the contest were Byron Hicks, the state director of the N.C. Small Business and Technology Center; Jennifer Curtis, cofounder and CEO of Firsthand Foods, a Durham distributor for local farms and meat processors, and one of the 2022 Small Businesses of the Year; and Business North Carolina Publisher Ben Kinney.

The judges considered creativity, community impact, persistence and other factors in making the selection. The business had to be in operation for at least five years and have fewer than 100 employees. The four selected businesses employ between 15 and 31 employees. “This was not an easy job to select just four,” says Curtis. Judges also noted their favorites: “MODE management went through an extensive rebranding and overcame significant obstacles in moving locations, twice, and through all of this was able to increase sales,” says Hicks. Taylor’s Wine Shop rose to the top of the list for Curtis because of “their family owned business model, their connection to place and community, and that they have grown a fixed retail business during difficult times. They have a colorful story to tell and some hard-won lessons learned.” This marks the 28th year Business North Carolina has published the Small Business of the Year award, sponsored this year by Duke Energy. The goal is to honor smaller businesses that form the backbone of the state’s economy. The state had more than 157,000 companies with between one and 19 employees in 2022, about 2,000 more than the year before, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. There were also about 816,000 sole proprietorships.

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FASHION MODE Raleigh boutique keeps coming back stronger. By Uma Bhat

move came on the heels of a major rebrand for the store, Elmore wrote, auren Elmore was working as a district sales manager for Jones in addition to the new, permanent site for the store being upfitted. Apparel Group, now known as Nine West Holdings, in 2009 To ensure customers and consignors continued following the store when “everything went sideways for a lot of companies.” despite all the chaos, the staff had to think fast. MODE staff got to The Great Recession caused retail sales to drop sharply. Plus, work on flyers, announcements and banners to alert customers about Elmore had a 9-year-old son, and the company she worked at wanted the shifts, Elmore wrote, and offered incentives for people to visit the her to travel almost every day. So she began looking for a position that temporary location, like a raffle and gift card giveaway. would better accommodate her family. With the support of loyal customers and dedicated staff, MODE’s That’s when Elmore says she found a job listing on Craigslist for a sales skyrocketed beyond its record-breaking 2021 numbers small store in south Durham that was looking for somebody to work and hit almost $2 million. Thursdays. “And my schedule was wide open,” says Elmore, who grew up in Wilmington and spent her senior year Why did you select the name, of high school in Raleigh. MODE? Elmore got the job and became When I was rebranding, there was a lot friendly with the store owner, who she says of pressure. I’m like, “Oh, what if I pick a didn’t live in North Carolina. The owner name and everybody thinks it’s stupid, and was planning to close the store because it I think it’s the coolest thing ever.” I have wasn’t generating any revenue — unless, no marketing background, so I was also Elmore says, Elmore was interested in thinking about how this [name] would doing something with it. look on business cards and on a sign on “I was up for the challenge,” she says. the front of the store. I wanted to keep it “I took over the store, changed locations, simple. The word “mode” means fashion in eventually rebranded to the name MODE, French, and I just thought it was fun, easy and then I moved it to Downtown and relatable. The word looked really cute Durham, that was my in print when I was playing around with it. first space.” It’s really not much more than that. About a year and a half later, she says, MODE bought a second location What resources did you use in Cameron Village, now called Village when you reopened the store? District, near downtown Raleigh. I didn’t qualify for the Raleigh up-fit “And we’ve just continued to expand grant because I already had permits and and grow from there,” Elmore, now 44, says. things when the grant became available. The store has faced its fair share of I had already started a few things, which challenges – like when it was forced to relocate to a temporary space as new projects Lauren Elmore has been in the resale trade since 2010. automatically disqualified me. Through COVID, I definitely got some arrived in the Village District last year. The

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assistance with Paycheck Protection Program loans and Small Business Administration loans, just the general stuff that I think a lot of small businesses used. That definitely helped me get back on track to be able to run my business profitably. Really, when I did upfits or remodels with my store, luckily I had enough personal capital to fund it myself. But it’s always good to look for any grants you can get. I’m always on the prowl for stuff. Why did you decide to focus on reused clothing? For a long time there was a stigma against thrifting, if you will. I remember being a teenager and going to Goodwill — and I didn’t do that a whole lot with my friends, but we always thought it was fun to see what we could find. Finally, through boutiques like mine, we’ve kind of mainstreamed this reuse concept to where it’s not shameful anymore to buy used clothing. You hear a lot of the older generation talk about their stories. If they came up in poverty, they say, “Well, we never got new clothes.” It was a sad thing, obviously. But this has definitely shifted to where it’s [buying reused clothing] healthy for the environment. It doesn’t have a stigma attached to it anymore and it can really be fun. We have a carefully curated selection of clothing in our stores to make it a really great experience. What sets MODE apart from other thrift stores? Logistically, just like operations, we’re different. Plato's Closet (a Minneapolis-based chain with more than 370 used clothing stores) buys your clothes outright at a really low price, and you never have to deal with them or see them again. I think they also cater a little bit more to the younger, junior crowd. But we have a huge demographic of people that shop in our store. We have the moms bringing in the high school girls wanting their first pair of designer shoes, all the way up to our old lady friends that need their church outfits, and everything in between. We cater to every single female fashion out there. Anybody can come in our door and find something because we have so many amazing brands.

MODE CONSIGNMENT BOUTIQUE OWNER Lauren Elmore LOCATION Raleigh NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 20 YEAR FOUNDED 2010

What challenges did you face during the pandemic? We were closed for 56 days, in both locations. During that time, I was in panic mode, not knowing if we were going to be able to reopen or how to reopen. There are a lot of people that work for me who have families. That really weighed heavy on my shoulders – how was I going to take care of my employees? Am I going to have to let half of the staff go just to keep the store afloat? There were a lot of unknowns that were really scary when we were closed. When we got the order from the governor that we could reopen, we opened that day. I was like, “Let's go guys.” And we figured it out. Financially, we had a huge hit. Obviously, there was zero money coming in. Money was still going out to pay the landlord and the electric bill and all the things that you need to just keep a building. When we closed the store, it was March. We reopened in mid-May. So when we closed the store, we had a bunch of late winter and some early spring items, and everything just sat stagnant until we reopened in May. Then all of a sudden, it was summertime. We didn’t even have the proper inventory to sell, so that was a challenge in itself. How have your sales trended since then? We have, since our reopening, continuously had double-digit increases year over year, which is just more than I could have hoped for or imagined would happen. Have people bought into the concept of MODE as a social-driven business? Everybody that comes into the store has a different mission. Some people shop at my stores because they only buy second-hand, and we’re one of many that they shop in. Some people come to my stores because they like really nice things and they’re on a budget – so they like the price points. And they don’t care if it’s used or new or whatever. It’s on sale, it’s the price point that works for them. Some people like the balance where they can consign and buy, and they use their store credit. It's almost like a swap they can trade out. That drives a lot of people to come in. It's not just one mission that we're putting out there. It's amazing that we're a part of the circular economy – that part makes me feel like I'm doing something really great, not just going to work. But my personal passion is retail and sales, and the customer-facing part of it. It’s my favorite thing to be on my sales floor. That fills my cup. When I'm in my flow is when I'm on my sales floor, and I'm talking to customers, and they find something that they love that fits them perfectly.

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FROM MERLOT TO MINNOWS Taylor’s Wine Shop shifts with the times. By Chris Roush

Valley areas each year to check out the latest wines. Taylor’s sells about hen Taylor Cash bought a country store on Six Forks 140,000 bottles a year, and the best sellers are California cabernets. Road in north Raleigh in 1980, it was in the middle of nowhere. The street hadn’t been paved, and Interstate How did the store get into shipping wine nationally 540 was just a dream, more than two decades away. The nearest through online sales? residents were miles away. Kelli Beck: It mainly came about because of COVID. It really Cash made the business work by adapting to the times. When ramped up then because people weren’t able to get wine, or were not construction started on nearby neighborhoods, he did a brisk lunch comfortable coming in to get wine. They would pick up in the parking business selling hot dogs and hamburgers to carpenters and electricians. lot, and then we just expanded across the country, any state that allows In the 1990s, he switched to movie rentals and then video games. wine to be shipped. Now, the store is called Taylor’s Wine Shop. In addition to the BP How did your dad get into gas available at the pumps outside, wine and expanding the spot carries 1,500 types of wine the business? from all over the world, plus a healthy Ben Cash: In the late 1990s, selection of breakfast sandwiches, made once [Interstate] 540 was finishing, by longtime employee “Biscuit” Bill all of the construction had shifted Brown. There’s also typical convenience to the north, so the lunch business store fare. Some of Raleigh’s largest wasn’t prominent any more. For years, residential neighborhoods, such as we had movie boxes on the walls, Sutton Estates and Bridgepoint, now renting videos. We did that for 10 surround the property, reflecting one of years, and then Blockbuster opened the fastest-growing U.S. cities over the up down the street. So then we had a past 30 years. full videogame arcade with Joust and And fish bait is still available for Donkey Kong, and that was a lot of those going to nearby Falls Lake. fun as a kid. But then people started to The store is now run by Taylor stay home to play them. So in the late Cash’s son, Ben Cash, and manager ‘90s, my dad was kind of thinking, we Kelli Beck, and it ships wine need some kind of profit center that purchased through its website across is a draw for people. My dad got into the country every day. It also partners wine, and he started with a little end with local restaurants on wine dinners cap. It quickly grew, and he started and holds wine tastings on Fridays, making trips to California with this when customers can sit in a rocking wine group and met these boutique chair on the front porch. Cash and Taylor Cash, his son Ben Cash and manager Kelli Beck. winemakers that pretty much only Beck visit the Sonoma and Napa

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sold from their location. He convinced them to send him two or three cases a year. Once those wineries sold out in California, the only place you could get it was here. People would come in and say, “Gosh, I can only get this in California.” Do the wineries now come to you? Cash: They do. We met with four wineries last week. They’re just coming back to the state post-COVID for distribution and want partners that can give them exposure. Kelli and I try to go every year, or every other year, and my dad goes the year we don’t go. We refer a lot of people when they travel and help a lot of customers set up tours. Wine is just a lot of fun. When I was a kid, it was primarily a bait shop and a convenience store. Do you still sell a lot of bait? Cash: Just worms and nightcrawlers. The minnows just weren’t working. Kids would go by and put their hands in, and minnows are communal. If one gets sick, they all die. So almost weekly, you’d lose your whole batch. And crickets are so noisy. It just wasn’t worth it. Does gas bring in customers? Cash: Fuel is like an amenity. Since we only have one location, there’s really no profit. You can sell 3 million gallons of fuel, and if you break even, you’re in good shape. We did a pretty substantial remodel, right before COVID, in October 2019, and shifted the pumps from the front to the side of the building. That opened up the front for parking lot parties and wine tastings. With the fuel customers lined upfront before the remodel, it was kind of chaotic.

TAYLOR'S WINE SHOP

How have you partnered with others? Beck: We have great relationships with restaurants around here, and we love supporting other family-owned restaurants. So we would partner with them to do wine dinners and work with the chefs to make custom menus. Our customer base loves those off-site wine dinners. They crave them. We just got creative during COVID, and we’re working with large venues. It’s a way to create more business outside of this footprint. It does take a lot, me, especially, to work it in our schedule. Have you considered adding another location? Cash: Oh yeah. I have two picked out. Beck: We go back and forth on this. My personal opinion is I don’t want to own a bar. Staffing has been an issue since COVID, and we have employees who have been here 10 and 15 years. I feel like if we were having to staff a later evening establishment, I would be stuck working that. If we had another wine shop, that would be fun and most likely not involve a gas station. How difficult has staffing been? Beck: It has been extremely difficult. We want people that want to come to work, be reliable, work hard, and return. We will pay well. We want to pay people what they’re worth and are great with our customers. We are such a small family business that it’s important that everyone gets greeted when they come in and gets great service. It’s not a convenience store where you come in and get your coffee and then check out and leave. Every person that comes in here is important. We need someone who can manage the cash register and sell a $500 bottle of wine. We need those kinds of employees. The reason we have weathered COVID well is because we have these long-time employees who are like family.

OWNER Taylor Cash LOCATION Raleigh NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 15 YEAR FOUNDED 1980

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KEEP IT DRY

An independent waterproofing company finds its space thanks to owner’s ‘grit.’

more than doubled that amount to $600,000, then topped $1 million the next year. In 2022, Dry Otter sales reached $3.4 million. This year, the company will top $4 million, Sanders says. Dry Otter now has 25 employees – almost all of them having been with the company more than two years. To grow real equity, Sanders says, Dry Otter should reach $6 million to $8 million in annual revenue. He thinks the company is poised to hit that mark. Dry Otter leased a Charlotte office in November, and is mulling a Winston-Salem location. For now, the company services a 50-mile radius – an area Sanders describes as being from north to south, Lenoir to Rock Hill, South Carolina, and from east to west, Albemarle to Shelby. “If you're not expanding, you’re going backward,” Sanders says. Sanders hired his first employee in 2014. A year later, Dry Otter had three laborers, including himself, and a salesperson. He hates sales, he says, so he counted that as a win. His wife helped out with the books and ensured everyone got paid on time. By 2016, he hired someone to answer calls and he felt like he had created a real company. “It took a few years before I could start putting other people’s names in those boxes,” Sanders says. “The real trick is, with all those boxes, you put somebody else’s name in there, and hopefully they’re better than you. “And that’s what’s helped lead to Dry Otter’s success. We’ve been able to hire some really good people and retain those people,” Sanders says. Sanders hired Mark Johnston in 2015 to help with sales and installations. The company wasn’t making any money at the time, so Sanders gave Johnston equity as part of his compensation. Johnston later invested in the company and now owns a 25% stake, Dry Otter Founder Kevin Sanders with Sanders owning the rest.

evin Sanders wasn’t mad, but it was time for a change. So without much thought about his Plan B, he quit his job working for a national waterproofing company. The company treated him well, he says, but at age 44 he didn’t think he earned enough to support his wife, Wendy, and their young son. After 16 years working for someone else’s company, he felt he had hit the top rung of the ladder. That was 10 years ago. Sanders credits his wife and her parents with giving him the encouragement to start Dry Otter Waterproofing in Denver, a Lincoln County town about 25 miles north of Charlotte. He put the “small” in the term small business, he recalls. “In October 2013, I got a 1,000-square-foot office in this same area, actually right across the street from here,” he says while seated in Dry Otter’s storefront space off N.C. 16 Business. “I had two offices, a desk, a computer, a truck and zero employees. My name was in every hierarchical box – CEO, accountant, installer – my name was in every single box.” Sanders survived by hiring hit-or-miss temporary workers and getting people he knew who worked for other companies to help him finish jobs on the weekends. “At first, you’re doing everything and you’re working all the time,” he says. “But at (his former employer) Dry Pro, I worked 7075 hours a week, so I was used to that.” Sanders’ drive continues to push the company forward, says Dry Otter marketing director Erin Blackburn. “He has grit and that’s made this company a success,” she says. “He is generous and is always teaching us important things about business and life.” A REAL BUSINESS Sanders’ company posted $250,000 in sales in its first year. In 2015, Dry Otter

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF DRY OTTER WATERPROOFING

By Kevin Ellis

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FROM MISSISSIPPI TO NORTH CAROLINA Sanders is a native of Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Sanders started playing soccer in elementary school. He was still 5 foot 2 in eighth grade so when his bigger classmates gravitated toward football and basketball, he says he stuck with soccer. In 1987, he was the state’s Gatorade soccer player of the year. “Mississippi was terrible in soccer back then, so that wasn’t that big a deal.” He was good enough to play soccer at Belmont Abbey College, where he earned a business degree. After college, Sanders took a restaurant job. “I was making at best $150 a week, living in Pineville, with no furniture,” he says. Two waitresses had boyfriends with jobs for a waterproofing company. “They were making 800 to 1,000 bucks a week. Digging ditches under houses. It was purely monetary,” Sanders says. “It took six months of me bugging them for them to hire me. I started in January of ‘93 with Professional Waterproofing doing installs.” The owner of the company had two sons who were helping him, so advancement proved difficult. “Before I knew it, I had been there 10 years, just digging ditches, and I had a college degree,” he says. Sanders moved to Dry Pro in 2007, and stayed there until starting Dry Otter. At Dry Pro, Sanders worked on the business side, helping him understand the finances of waterproofing. Beyond his great experience at Dry Pro, he credits Michael Gerger’s book “E Myth – Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work And What To Do About It’ as a big factor in his success. The book attempts to explain the “entrepreneurial myth,” noting that it takes more than skillful technical work and a good idea to form a business foundation. “Most businesses start up because you’ve probably met somebody who’s great at making cookies and someone says, ‘Oh, you should start your own business.’ Or you’ve met somebody that's the best plumber in the business. He’s the one they always call when there’s a problem no one else can solve. So he says, “I should start my own business.’ “But he doesn't know how to manage. He doesn’t know how to get the leads. He doesn’t know how to sell them and convert them into a job once he gets them. He’s a great plumber, but you learn that business is made up of about 10 other things you’ve got to be great at. Or at least hire somebody who’s great at it.”

GROWING A COMPANY Taking advice from Gerber’s book, Sanders transitioned from a person who did everything to someone focused on growing equity. For the past two years, he has emphasized budgets, streamlining processes and moving Dry Otter toward an $8 million-a-year company. He hasn’t done any of what he calls the “in company” work. “Once I decided to start a business, I said I wanted to own a business, I don’t want to work in a business. That’s the only way the business will grow,” says Sanders. He still comes into the office five days most weeks, but no longer at 6:30 a.m. or earlier. When he leaves the office, he heads out to watch his son’s sports practices or games at North Lincoln High School. “If I don’t come in on Monday, Dry Otter’s still going to work all day. Now I don’t do any in-company tasks on the business. No payroll, no marketing. I hire someone to do those jobs,” he says. “The company isn’t me. I have a lot of friends who own their own company, but they are the company. If they go on vacation for two weeks the company stops.” Dry Otter budgeted $30,000 a month this year on marketing, and Sanders says he’ll bump that to $35,000 in 2024. Chasing leads, he says, is constant. “The saying is 50% of marketing works, you just don’t know what 50% it is, and I definitely believe that because we struggle,” Sanders says. “You have to keep up with your cost per lead, and last year our cost per lead was $245 per lead. We’d love to drive that cost down.” Dry Otter only does waterproofing, and contracts out other work. Its average job costs about $10,000. MAKING IT HAPPEN During his talks to high school students about business, he rarely mentions Dry Otter. Instead he tells them what it takes to be a success. “I tell them, ‘You can really start anywhere and kill it just by showing up everyday with a Get ‘er done attitude and a little pride in whatever you’re doing. Every trade out there is hiring. You guys at 18 can start tomorrow, and you can be running the company by the time you’re 25 if you show up every day for work and work hard. You’re 100 miles ahead of everybody.’” For Sanders, it was a push from his wife and her parents to start a business. “It’s worked out really well.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DRY OTTER WATERPROOFING

DRY OTTER WATERPROOFING OWNERS KEVIN SANDERS AND MARK JOHNSTON LOCATION Denver NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 25 YEAR FOUNDED 2013

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MANSION MAN

Demand for mountain getaways propels a Banner Elk builder. By Edward Martin

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if the soil of a lot will perk, or absorb moisture for septic tanks. That hen the work day is done, Matt Vincent often goes for put him closer to the community. “I enjoyed doing things with my walks near his home in Boone. The mountains are serene, hands,” he says. “Here in a small town, you get to know everybody and particularly in the evenings. “This is the place I love,” he everybody is somebody you are proud to call your neighbor.” says. “I have three boys and we go on hikes. I grew up here. It’s a beautiful He obtained his general contractor’s license in 2003 and created place and you can see why so many other people want to live here.” VPC in 2010. As the son of Jay Vincent, owner of Vincent BerkshireHathaway, “At the time, we were doing mainly residential building but have one of the region’s oldest and most prominent real estate agencies, he’s since diversified into commercial,” he says. The company has a home the echo of his own youth. products division that does roofing, windows and similar work. Indeed, the lure of the Tar Heel high country is the magnet that has New, high-end residential construction still makes up about twomade his VPC Builders of Banner Elk a successful builder of high-end thirds of VPC’s work, but the company has segued into other ventures residential, commercial and other properties. Vincent’s business has such as converting basements into heated living space. enjoyed revenue gains of 20% to 30% in recent years, and is on track to top $30 million this year. Clients, suppliers and others that deal with Vincent and his 30-member staff every day say that the business reflects values sometimes missing in modern commerce. His company’s name reflects that with letters standing for value, professionalism and communications. “Matt’s real serious, but level-headed,” says Alex Hooker, executive director of the Watauga Habitat for Humanity. The agency builds homes for the needy and Vincent has been a long-time supporter. “I like the fact that he’s local. A lot of the builders here are from out of town. He comes from a great family.” Vincent, 41, graduated from Appalachian State University in 2004 with a degree in banking and finance. He admired his father’s work ethnic – up at 4:30, a workout, then his day job – but discovered real estate was “not my cup of tea.” Among other things, he laughs, he dug Matt Vincent and Thor at the VPC Building office and Vincent with his wife Casey and their three children. perk holes that enable builders to determine C A R O L I N A

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That, Vincent says, can keep employees busy even during the high country’s tough winters, one of the challenges his company faces. Count rugged terrain, sloping lots and high rainfall among others. “In the flatlands you can take just about any house and put it on any property,” he says, “Up here in the mountains you can’t do that. You have to design the house around the lot.” The result in VPC houses is often striking. The company has won more than a half-dozen industry awards this year for design originality. It also been recognized as one of North Carolina’s best places to work. That’s notable given the lack of affordable housing in the state’s mountain areas. Mountain Building Supply owner Tammy Mantooth, one of VPC’s suppliers, says she knows of at least one worker living in a tent because he can’t afford more permanent housing. VPC has responded by paying higher than national wages and upping other compensation, Vincent says. Most of VPC’s residential construction is in the $2 million range, while its biggest project exceeded $7 million. It has its own drafting staff, relying on outside architects for design-build contracts. The bulk of VPC’s clients, says Vincent, are business owners from Charlotte and Raleigh. Absentee owners are still common, though, and covering all bases, VPC offers a home-watch program for seasonally vacant homes. Increasing costs, material scarcities and high interest rates have hammered even top-end builders, and though easing recently have taken its toll.

“We have had a lot of good friends who went out of business and bankrupt,” Vincent says. However, more than good market strategy and placement has served the company. Some who deal with it on a daily basis say its professionalism is noticeable. Mantooth says VPC is a longstanding customer, never missed a payment and that Vincent is known for his integrity. “All I’ve ever needed was his word,” she says. Vincent concedes that professionalism is important to him. Employees wear what he calls the uniform, and though not formal, it’s effective – knit shirts, same colors, cut. “It looks like in the morning; you got ready to go to work for the day. And the simplest things my dad taught me, many people have forgotten – following up on your emails, returning calls and always doing what you say you’re going to.” Such measures are more than superficial. VPC routinely sends employees to sales-training courses, seminars and similar exercises. Clients notice the result. “I’ve never interfaced much directly with Matt, but I work mostly with his senior staff,” says Bob Pudney, Beech Mountain town manager. The town recently awarded VPC a $2.1 million contract to build a city hall and visitor center. “It’s going extremely well and I would call them the top tier contractor in our area. Their attention to detail is great, and their customer service is impeccable.” Vincent enjoys his hikes with his three sons, but he’s determined not to push them into following his steps. “But one of things they most enjoy is going to work with daddy.” ■

VPC BUILDERS

PHOTOS COURTESY OF VPC BUILDERS

OWNER Matt Vincent LOCATION Banner Elk NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 30 YEAR FOUNDED 2010

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Wrangler's

Texas twist How the jeans giant is using NIL to attract younger customers. By Chris Roush

reensboro-based Kontoor Brands has used professional sports to promote its Wrangler jeans and clothing for decades. Its relationship with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association dates back to 1948. The denim brand has also been a longtime NASCAR sponsor, and Wrangler recently became the official jeans of the Dallas Cowboys. But name, image and likeness (NIL) rules for college athletes are allowing it to go after a younger customer base more aggressively. In the last two years, the company has signed NIL deals with 10 athletes, primarily in Texas, to help promote a collection of licensed collegiate apparel. University of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers (pictured), Ohio State University tight end Cade Stover and Texas volleyball middle blocker Asjia O’Neal post regularly on social media in their Wrangler clothes, giving the company a bigger presence with the under-35 age group.

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Since Kontoor began promoting college athletes, it’s had more than 240 million media impressions for the Wrangler college collection of clothing. Sports Illustrated and The Houston Chronicle covered its deal with Ewers, for example. And it’s seen higher scores when it measures brand awareness and purchase consideration. “It’s the evolution of sports sponsorships,” says John Meagher, senior director of marketing for Wrangler. “It is the intersection between sports marketing and influencers, engaging with audiences. That’s what we like about it. It feels authentic.” While the company is in a “test and learn phase” with NIL, he’d like to see the marketing around colleges and college athletes become a major way it sells Wrangler clothing. He’s looking at adding deals with Southeastern Conference teams for 2024. “This is one part of a range of tactics that look at college sports and a younger audience, where we can to some degree see some sell-through.” The $70 billion annual denim clothing market is expected to reach $130 billion over the next decade, according to market researcher Fact.MR. Companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch are entering the field, meaning Kontoor needs to find new ways to sell its brands, which also include Lee jeans. It helps that college football, and other college sports, are especially popular in the South and Southwest, where Wrangler wants to expand its sales. “Quinn Ewers was someone that had reached out to us because he was such a fan of Wrangler,” says Meagher. “He had grown up with the Wrangler logo on his back pocket, and his values aligned with Wrangler.” Kontoor held photo shoots with Ewers and the other athletes wearing Wrangler clothing, which were then used on their social media accounts. In addition to Ewers and O’Neal, Wrangler also had NIL deals last year with athletes on UT’s baseball, swimming and softball teams. “Texas is the heartland for us,” says Meagher. “It’s the heartland for cowboys, and our brand is strong there. Texas made so much sense.” This year, Wrangler added Stover and signed O’Neal for a second year. Stover, projected to be an NFL draft pick in 2024, grew up on a cattle farm in Ohio and has done promotional work for the Ohio Beef Council, as well as agriculture company Ag-Pro. (He has said he’d prefer to be paid for his NIL sponsorships in tractors, not money.) O’Neal, a volleyball All-American and a sports management major, has become “professional” in how she promotes the brand on her social media accounts, says Meagher. Noting the growing interest after the University of Colorado signed Deion Sanders to be its football coach, Wrangler also signed on this year to be the official clothing supplier of students

Texas volleyball middle blocker Asjia O'Neal was tapped by Wrangler because of her impressive "professional" social media strategy.

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Ohio State tight end Cade Stover, who has an NIL deal with Wrangler, is expected to be an NFL draft pick in 2024.

who run onto the school’s Folsom Field before football games with school mascot Ralphie, an 850-pound buffalo. Supplies include a cowboy hat, button-up shirt and jeans. NIL deals for brands such as Wrangler are smart, says Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico, a Penske Media operation, because they are usually cheaper than signing a professional athlete and because the people who live in many college towns and cities are fans of those teams because they’re alumni. “In a specific city like Austin, the UT athlete is better than partnering with someone on the Mavericks or the Cowboys, and cheaper as well,” says Novy-Williams. “Someone like Quinn Ewers would be a way to reach that fan base.” To be sure, some companies, particularly those run or owned by success-obsessed alums, are using NIL deals to attract athletes to the university. Miami billionaire John Ruiz has used NIL deals with his company LifeWallet to encourage football players to transfer to the University of Miami, where he’s a longtime booster. Typically, larger universities can offer more extensive NIL packages than smaller programs. After Wake Forest University quarterback Sam Hartman transferred to Notre Dame this past year, he signed NIL deals with UnderArmour, Homefield Apparel, Topps and Beats by Dre. Kontoor, a publicly traded company that split off from VF Corp. in 2019 and has a market capitalization of $2.6 billion, wants deals with athletes that personify its product’s image. For Wrangler, it’s about grit, confidence, and humility, says Meagher. “It helps us punch above our weight in terms of a media spend and a marketing spend.” Kontoor spent about $140 million annually on advertising and marketing during 2021-22, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. NIL deals are beneficial to the athletes, particularly with potential professional careers, by giving them experience in 52

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negotiating contracts and aligning with credible brands, says Michael McCann, a law professor at the University of New Hampshire and founding director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute. “They’re getting real-life training,” he says. “A lot of them won’t go onto the pros, so whatever they get is something that they will value and could help them with costs.” Meagher likes how the deals connect Wrangler with teams and athletes. “It makes people connect with them,” he says. “They feel true and down to earth and someone they can root for."

Highly touted quarterback Quint Ewers spent a year at Ohio State before transferring to Texas in 2022. The Longhorns ranked No. 7 in the AP poll in early November.

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PICKLE BALL? A Tar Heel linebacker who knows how to deal.

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE SUMNER GROUP

fter the first seven games of the 2023 season, UNC linebacker Cedric Gray had recorded 70 tackles as well as an interception and two fumble recoveries. Gray, a Charlotte native and second-team All-American in 2022, had also recorded a Mt. Olive Pickle commercial before the season opener against South Carolina and taped a commercial for All About Insurance, a Chapel Hill-based Nationwide agency. There’s also the Big Ced burger – topped with bacon, cheese, egg and lettuce – at Al’s Burger Shack in downtown Chapel Hill. It’s part of the new frontier in college sports, where athletes can use their notoriety to make some money after the NCAA approved name, image and likeness (NIL) guidelines in July 2021. Gray won’t disclose his finances, and the value of NIL agreements are rarely disclosed. But college sports website On3’s algorithm projects his deal-making potential at $429,000 in the next 12 months. By comparison, On3 predicts UNC quarterback Drake Maye could attract $1.3 million in transactions. Gray works with NIL agent Pet Sumner, an account executive at The Sumner Group in Gastonia. Sumner, who played college basketball at Maine-Farmington, sees NIL work as expanding the agency and using his sports knowledge. “Brands aren’t going to reach out unless you’re making a name for yourself,” he says. “They want a guy who gets on TV and makes a lot of plays.” Mt. Olive considered a national commercial for its Pickle Juicers, but Sumner suggested they start with a regional ad. He recruited Gray and another client, South Carolina linebacker Debo Williams, for a spot in which the two argue about which university is the real “Carolina.” They agreed that Pickle Juicers helped their workouts. “I just thought it was a great idea and a good opportunity and related to sports,” says Gray, a sports administration major. Mt. Olive looked for college athletes who personified the privately owned pickle company – reliable folks who do simple things well. Pickle juice is a favorite rehydration drink for exercise enthusiasts.

Gray says he is interested in NIL deals with companies that are professional and responsive. “If I have a deal in a particular field, I try not to crisscross,” he says. Regulations prevent agreements related to gambling and alcohol. Sumner says deals with auto dealerships or companies that are run by alumni are good for the athletes. He also struck a deal with Al’s Burger Shack for former UNC basketball player Puff Johnson and a suit deal for former UNC wide receiver Emery Simmons, now playing at Utah. Gray also works through Heels4Life, a collective for UNC football players, where companies can enter proposed agreements, athletes can accept them, and then the university’s compliance officer can review the deals. Once the work is completed, the athlete is paid. Few college athletes get NIL deals, despite the fact that NIL has turned some college students into millionaires. On3 says Southern Cal basketball player Bronny James – LeBron’s son – has the highest NIL value potential at $5.9 million. UNC basketball player Armando Bacot has an NIL value potential of $930,000. Sumner plans to speak at a lawyers conference in January to see if any firms are interested in working with college athletes, particularly those who, like Gray, specialize in defending. He dreams of using the phrase, “You want the best defense,” with a couple of hard-hitters. Sounds like Gray may have another opportunity for a commercial.

NIL values of North Carolina college athletes (As of Nov. 5, 2023)

NAME

UNIVERSITY

SPORT

VALUE

NAME

Drake Maye

UNC

Football

$1.3M

Jared McCain

Duke

Basketball

$1M

Eliot Cadeau

UNC

Basketball

$467,000

Armando Bacot

UNC

Basketball

$930,000

R.J. Davis

UNC

Basketball

$462,000

Kyle Filipowski

Duke

Basketball

$795,000

Payton Wilson

N.C. State

Football

$435,000

Kaimon Rucker

UNC

Football

$630,000

Cedric Gray

UNC

Football

$429,000

Omarion Hampton

UNIVERSITY

SPORT

VALUE

UNC

Football

$579,000

source: On3 D E C E M B E R

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PIPE DREAMS

How the Dowd family moved from their historic Charlotte foundry to a glistening new rural setting. By Kevin Ellis

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C A R O L I N A

11/16/23 11:36 AM

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE PIPE AND FOUNDRY AND KEVIN ELLIS

harlotte Pipe and Foundry forged cast iron into pipes near the Queen City’s center for more than a century before moving in September to a new foundry in pastoral Stanly County. Opening the $460 million plant 35 miles from its traditional home was a huge decision for the Dowd family, which has been among Charlotte’s most prominent business owners for generations. The fact that Roddey Dowd Jr., the company’s vice chair, bought a Stanly County farm 31 years ago didn’t hurt the relocation decision. He passes three stop signs on rural roads on his five-minute commute to the foundry, which sits on 700 acres in the town of Oakboro. The proximity is mostly coincidence, he says. He moved to Stanly County to get out of Charlotte so he “could shoot and hunt, you know, stuff like that.” “For some reason, I wanted to have a farm, and so I bought a farm,” says Dowd, part of the fourth generation running the business. ”It was falling down, and we picked it back up.” To be sure, family members had long discussed the increasing challenges of operating a major manufacturing business so close to a fast-growing center city. “I mean I heard (uncle) Frank and Dad [Roddey] say we needed to get out of Charlotte. That’s been in our DNA since the mid-60s. But I had no idea. That wasn’t even in the filter back then.” The Dowds have traditionally been extremely private, rarely talking with the press. Financial details are closely held. The name is perhaps most associated with the YMCA near downtown Charlotte. “We’ve never pounded our chests or said a whole lot about ourselves over the years,” says Hooper Hardison, who succeeded Roddey Dowd as CEO in December 2021. His father, Ned, was a veteran company executive. “We’ve kinda tried to stay beneath the radar.” But Charlotte Pipe provided a tour of the foundry and interviews with top officials, reflecting the momentous occasion of opening a plant after three years of construction. It’s one of the state’s largest privately held companies, making cast-iron and plastic pipes and fittings for commercial and residential plumbing. Charlotte Pipe has more than 2,700 employees spread across 10 plants in eight states, including 530 who work at the Oakboro foundry. Plastics represent about 60% of Charlotte Pipe’s business, the remaining 40% in cast-iron pipes. A July 2022 acquisition added Wisconsin’s Neenah Enterprises, a leading producer of manhole covers. Hardison, dressed in a button-down shirt, red tie and dark trousers, described the process that led to the company’s move. “When you have a plant that's 100 years old, you've done a lot of adding on and fixing this and fixing that,” says Hardison, who has a bachelor’s degree from UNC Chapel Hill and a University of Virginia MBA. “And while we were very productive and very efficient, there were also a lot of things that could be vastly improved to make us even better, and we needed more space.” At the interview with Business North Carolina, Dowd's dress reflects his less formal style. The sleeves of his half-unbuttoned, stained blue work shirt, are rolled up. Two patches – one with his

Hooper Hardison and Roddey Dowd Jr.

first name, the other with the company name – are above the shirt’s two front pockets. One sleeve of the shirt has a patch that says “safety first,” the other sleeve adorned with a patch of the U.S. flag. Dowd remains hands-on, having started his morning working with a team on the foundry’s floor. While he never felt city leaders appreciated Charlotte Pipe’s contributions, the relocation decision came down to practicality, he says. “We always knew we needed to get out [of the Uptown location] because we were landlocked in Charlotte,” says Dowd, whose great-grandfather, W. Frank Dowd, started the company in 1901 with 25 employees. He wasn’t the only person happy about the relocation, which is benefiting from more than $50 million in state and local incentives. For many years, much of the uptown foundry’s workforce has lived in Stanly or Union counties, with routine hour-long commutes into Charlotte. One employee told Hardison the move to Oakboro would save him $4,800 a year in fuel costs. Some employees now live close enough to drive their golf carts to work. When the company announced the move to Oakboro, employees played Kool & the Gang’s classic funk song “Celebration” over the PA system, Hardison says. Charlotte Pipe chose Charlotte-based Barringer Construction as general contractor for the project. While it has worked on company projects for more than 30 years, it had never built a foundry, says Josh Ramsey, senior project manager for Barringer. The development’s size, safety protocols and technology required working together with multiple specialty engineering firms to build one of the world’s most sophisticated foundries. Over nearly three years of construction, more than 500 construction workers were on the job site each day. More than 1.2 million hours of work were registered. Construction supplies and materials for the foundry were 100% made in the U.S. D E C E M B E R

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“The point of the matter is, Charlotte Pipe believes in doing the right thing,” Dowd says. “You do the right thing environmentally and do the right thing by your people, your customers, (and) safety. “You just walk the talk and, and to the extent that, you know, whatever kind of arcane argument that wants to be made about the environment, there are environmental laws and, we're gonna meet those laws and exceed them,” he says. “I mean, if you don't, you're gonna be out of business or you're gonna be in jail. I'm not going to jail for anybody.” Pivoting to heating by electrical induction over coke made the environmental permitting process much easier with state and federal officials, Dowd adds. An on-site 70,000-megawatt substation for the plant, which is fueled by natural gas distributed by Union Power Cooperative, produces enough electricity to power 70,000 single-family homes. Charlotte Pipe chose the Monroe-based electric cooperative as its energy partner over Duke Energy following a lengthy analysis. For workers, the plant is a major contrast to the old foundry, which got extremely hot even on chilly winter days. High ceilings and systems to pump in air and collect dust make the new foundry more comfortable for workers, and make the plant less susceptible to weather extremes, says T.J. Costello, vice president of cast iron operations.

global conflict

Senior Vice President Greg Simmons and Charlie Ponscheck, Charlotte Pipe engineering manager for the cast iron division, led the planning for the facility.

Heat exchange

Dowd says the new foundry has a “good green story” to tell. Charlotte Pipe invested $58 million in the foundry’s environmental systems and controls. The biggest change: the new foundry uses electricity to forge the iron, while the old foundry used a coal product known as foundry coke. The change reduces annual carbon emissions by 40,000 tons, which the EPA says is equivalent to a year’s worth of carbon emissions of 32,638 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles. Environmentalists should be pleased, though that didn’t motivate the investment, he says. 56

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Opening a foundry in Stanly County also aligns with the Dowds’ long-time commitment to North Carolina and battling foreign rivals. “It’s a poor rural county that had a textile base that got wiped out when we were stupid enough to let” the Chinese take the industry away, says Dowd. “This is a real shot in the arm for the county. It's a rural farming community. Really good people.” Charlotte Pipe has spent “tens of millions” of dollars fighting Chinese trade practices dating back to the 1980s. Dowd says he went to China in the late 1980s to study competitors, whose products were imported at lower prices than Charlotte Pipe’s. “We were over there not because we wanted to partner with them, but they were dumping all this stuff. Our goal was to try to find out if they could really do what they were doing,” he says. “We found out that there was no damn way. I mean, these were primitive foundries. They would have looked like Charlotte Pipe in 1915.” In 2019, the International Trade Commission voted unanimously in favor of Charlotte Pipe in an anti-dumping case involving imports of cast iron soil pipe from China. The U.S. Department of Commerce concluded that Chinese products undersold the fair market value of Charlotte Pipe’s cast iron, prompting new duties of more than 250% to level the playing field. That same year, the company got global attention by publicizing how a Shanghai company has been illegally using the “Charlotte” trademark for its products for more than a decade. Earlier this year, U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Sherrod Brown of Ohio introduced the Fighting Trade Cheats Act, which would strengthen U.S. trade law enforcement. “This anti-circumvention trade legislation is critical to holding Chinese and other bad actors accountable when it comes to enforcing lawful dumping and subsidy duties,” Dowd said at the time in a press release issued by Tillis. The legislation is pending.

C A R O L I N A

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Neither political party nor any administration has done enough to curb China’s trade practices in the last 40 years, Dowd says. “They are bad people,” Dowd says of the Chinese government. Roddey Dowd Jr. has given almost $73,500 to Republican candidates in federal elections since Jan. 1, 2022. Hardison has given about $54,000 to Republicans in federal elections in that same time period. “Our job is to make money,” says Dowd, “but it's also not to let anybody get put out of work. We have a duty to protect our workers’ jobs. This is a family company and most of them have worked for us for generations.” Charlotte Pipe hasn’t laid off anyone in its plastics divisions since 1982 and no one at the foundry since 1957, Dowd says. When the company lost money in 2009 and 2010, everyone kept working. “We invested in brooms and paint back then,” Hardison says. The plant was kept particularly clean in those lean years, he notes.

NEW USE, but no stadium

Charlotte Pipe still owns its huge land parcel adjacent to Interstate 277 and near the center city and South End areas. It’s in no hurry to make a decision on what to do with that property, says Hardison, who joined the company in 1988. A third of that land was used for production and the rest for storage and warehousing. A few years ago, Charlotte Pipe secured the intellectual property rights to the term “Iron District” for its valuable property. The company engaged real estate services company CBRE last year to market the property. For years, popular perception was that Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper would buy the Charlotte Pipe property for a new stadium. Now, the focus is on renovating Bank of America Stadium through a partnership with the city of Charlotte. Charlotte Pipe has not spoken with Tepper or his colleagues about the property for years, Hardison says. Still, he often runs into people who think the hedge-fund CEO owns the site. Charlotte Pipe wants to ensure the land will make a positive contribution. “We do have a legacy there that we want to preserve, and we want to do something to make the city and the citizens of the city proud of it. So it'll be something nice. But who knows what it'll be? We're a long ways away from that.”

Key dates in Charlotte Pipe

and Foundry History

1901

W. Frank Dowd opens a foundry in Charlotte

1926

Frank Dowd’s son, Frank Dowd II, takes the helm

1950s

Frank Dowd II’s sons, Frank Dowd Jr. and Roddey Dowd, take over and mechanize the foundry

1967

Plastics division launched in Monroe

1981

Cameron, Texas, plastics plant built

1989

Muncy, Pennsylvania, plastics division plant built

1998

Frank Dowd IV and Roddey Dowd Jr. take the helm

1999

Wildwood, Florida, plastics plant built

2005

Huntsville, Alabama, plastics plant acquired

2008

Cedar City, Utah, plastics plant built

2021

Hooper Hardison named CEO

2022

Acquires Neenah Enterprises, with factories in Wisconsin, Florida and Nebraska

2023

Workers at Charlotte Pipe's Oakboro foundry earn an average wage of about $48,000, which is 140% greater than the average Stanly County wage of $34,211.

Foundry opens in Oakboro. Construction of plastics division plant in Maize, Kansas, begins.

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By Kevin Ellis North Carolina’s most respected doctors in 65 specialties are presented in this annual report. Those cited were selected by their peers with a goal of saluting the state’s leading medical practitioners.

ethodology and disclaimer: This report was produced by DataJoe Research, a software and research company specializing in data collection and verification. The Lakewood, Colo.-based company conducts various nominations across the United States on behalf of publishers. To create the “top doctors” list, DataJoe Research facilitated an online peervoting process, also referencing government sources. DataJoe then tallied the votes per category for each doctor to isolate the top nominees in each category. After collecting nominations and additional information, DataJoe checked and confirmed that each published winner had a current, active license status with the state regulatory board. If we were not able to find evidence of a doctor’s current, active registration with the state regulatory board, that doctor was excluded from the list. In addition, any doctor who has been disciplined, up to the time-frame of our review process for an infraction by the state regulatory board, was excluded from the list. Finally, DataJoe presented the tallied result to the magazine for its final review and adjustments. We recognize that there are many good doctors who are not

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shown in this representative list. This is only a sampling of the huge array of talented professionals within the region. Inclusion in the list is based on the opinions of responding doctors in the region and the results of our research campaign. We take time and energy to ensure fair voting, although we understand that the results of this survey nomination are not an objective metric. We certainly do not discount the fact that many, many good and effective doctors may not appear on the list. DataJoe uses best practices and exercises great care in assembling content for this list. DataJoe does not warrant that the data contained within the list are complete or accurate. DataJoe does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions herein whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. All rights reserved. No commercial use of the information in this list may be made without written permission from DataJoe. For research/methodology questions, contact the research team at surveys@datajoe.com.

C A R O L I N A

11/16/23 11:36 AM

ADDICTION MEDICINE

ANESTHESIOLOGY

Robyn Jordan

UNC Department of Psychiatry

Chapel Hill

T. Wesley Templeton

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Stephanie Newby

Atrium Health Behavioral Health

Charlotte

Christopher Terry

WakeMed Cary Hospital

Raleigh

Brian K. Thwaites

Providence Anesthesia Associates

Pinehurst

Chuanyao Tong

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Nancy Wilkes

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

James V. Winkley

Providence Anesthesiology Associates

Pinehurst

David A. Zvara

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

North Carolina Heart & Vascular

Smithfield

ALLERGY IMMUNOLOGY Peter Bressler

Duke Asthma, Allergy, and Airway Center

Durham

Leslie Cristiano

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Gurvinder Deogun

Allergy Partners of Western North Carolina

Raleigh

Heather Gutekunst

Allergy Partners of Western North Carolina

Raleigh

Joel M. Hartman

Allergy Partners of Western North Carolina

Winston Salem

Caroline Hobbs

Atrium Health Allergy Asthma & Immunology Charlotte

Edwin Kim Mildred Kwan

UNC Hospitals Children's Specialty Clinics UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill

Diane Krane Laber

Allergy Partners of the Piedmont

Pinehurst

Patricia Lynne Lugar

Duke Asthma Allergy & Airway Center

Durham

J. Gray Norris Maeve O'Connor

Carolina Asthma & Allergy Center Allergy Asthma & Immunology Relief

Charlotte Charlotte

Vandana Patel

Carolina Asthma & Allergy Center

Ekta Shah

Atrium Health Allergy Asthma & Immunology Charlotte

Sofija Volertas Aerik Williams

UNC School of Medicine Allergy Partners of the Piedmont

Gastonia

Chapel Hill Salisbury

ANESTHESIOLOGY

CARDIOLOGY Benjamin Atkeson

Matthew Stephen Baker UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Elijah Hamilton Beaty

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Michael A. Blazing

Duke Cardiology Arringdon

Morrisville

Matthew Cavender

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Craig Clinard

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Cody Scott Deen

UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus

Hillsborough

Michael David Elliott

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Joseph M. Falsone

North Carolina Heart & Vascular

Raleigh

David Jonathan Framm Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

David Frazier

ECU Health Medical Center

Greenville

Anil Kishin Gehi

UNC Health Care Panther Creek

Cary

Christian Gring

North Carolina Heart & Vascular

Clayton

Joseph F. Hakas, Jr.

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Warwick Ames

Duke University

Durham

J. Kevin Harrison

Duke Cardiology Arringdon

Morrisville

James Balfanz

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Robert W. Harrison

Duke Infusion Center South Durham

Durham

John Berry VII

FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital

Pinehurst

John W. Holshouser

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Matthew V. Buck

Duke Birthing Center

Durham

Brett Izzo

Asheville Cardiology Associates

Asheville

David Chiu

Salem Professional Anesthesiology

Advance

Eric M. Janis

North Carolina Heart & Vascular

Smithfield

Ashraf S. Habib

Duke Birthing Center

Durham

Charles B. Jones

Vidant Heart & Vascular Care

Greenville

Robert Scott Isaak

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Anita Kelsey

Duke Cardiac Diagnostic Unit

Durham

Benjamin J. Judd

Providence Anesthesiology Associates

Pinehurst

Jeffrey L. Klein

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Lavinia M. Kolarczyk

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Igor Klem

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Daniel LaValley

East Carolina Anesthesia Associates

Greenville

Daniel N. Koehler

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Lincolnton

Marley Lawrence

North American Partners in Anesthesia

Burlington

Richard A. Krasuski

Duke Cardiology Arringdon

Morrisville

Chapel Hill Internal Medicine

Chapel Hill

Kendall B. Leonard

Providence Anesthesiology Associates

Pinehurst

Jack Joseph Kuritzky

Maria Concetta Lupa

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Olujide G. Lawal

FirstHealth Cardiology

Laurinburg

David C. Mayer

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Jan Fox Leverne

Fryecare Cardiology Associates

Boone

Mark Mueller

Mission Community Anesthesiology Specialists Marion

Angelo S. Milazzo, Jr.

Duke Children's Cardiology Creekstone

Durham

Thomas Mulford

NorthStar Anesthesia

Asheville

Chelsea Ngongang

Wakemed Brier Creek Healthplex

Raleigh

Bryant Murphy

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Agodichi Nwosu

Carolina Heart Physicians

Fayetteville

Katherine Nicholas

East Carolina Anesthesia Specialists

Gastonia

Ryan M. Orgel

WakeMed Heart & Vascular

Raleigh

Kimberley R. Nichols

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

K. Dale Owen, Jr.

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Matthew L. Oldroyd

Pinehurst Anesthesia

Pinehurst

Chetan B. Patel

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Anthony Passannante

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Jan Pattanayak

Asheville Cardiology Associates

Asheville

Sara Pittenger

UNC School of Medicine - Anesthesiology

Chapel Hill

Dermot Phelan

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Jay ReVille

Providence Anesthesia Associates

Pinehurst

Brian Douglas Powell

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Farrukh Sair

Providence Anesthesiology Associates PA

Charlotte

Geoffrey Rose

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Joshua D. Schwartz

East Carolina Anesthesia Associates

Greenville

Joseph Stuart Rossi

Thomas Slaughter

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Hari Saini

Carolina Heart & Leg Center

Fayetteville

Kathleen A. Smith

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Jonathan Schwartz

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Emily Graham Teeter

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Rony Labib Shammas

FirstHealth Cardiology

Laurinburg

D E C E M B E R

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CARDIOLOGY

COLON AND RECTAL SURGERY

Marc Silver

WakeMed Heart & Vascular

Raleigh

Laura K. Altom

North Carolina Surgery

Holly Springs

Patrick J. Simpson

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Patrick Brillant

Physicians East

Greenville

Michael H. Sketch, Jr.

Duke Cardiology Arringdon

Morrisville

Bradley Davis

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

George A. Stouffer

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Samuel A. Heathcote, Sr. Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

H. Allen Strunk, Jr.

FirstHealth Cardiology

Pinehurst

Kevin Kasten

Atrium Health Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Charlotte

Sunit Yeshwant Tolia

Piedmont Cardiovascular

Greensboro

Christopher Mantyh

Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center

Durham

Peter J. Vassallo

FirstHealth Cardiology

Pinehurst

Julie K. Marosky Thacker Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center

Durham

John Paul Vavalle

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

John Migaly

Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center

Durham

Andrew Wang

Duke Cardiology Clinic

Durham

Joseph M. Payne

Novant Health New Hanover Regional

Wilmington

Thelsa Weickert

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Reza Rahbar

North Carolina Surgery

Raleigh

Brandon Williams

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Timothy S. Sadiq

North Carolina Surgery

Raleigh

David X. Zhao

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Carl J. Westcott

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

COSMETIC SURGERY

CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY Bret David Borchelt

Novant Health Cardiothoracic Surgeons

Winston-Salem

Joseph Madison Clark II UNC Ear, Nose and Throat

Chapel Hill

Ker Boyce

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Brenda McCain Draper

Draper Plastic Surgery

Asheville

Greenville Plastic Surgery

Greenville

Stephen Davies

FirstHealth Cardiovascular & Thoracic Center

Pinehurst

J. Lynne Garrison

Peter Isaac Ellman

FirstHealth Cardiovascular & Thoracic Center

Pinehurst

Charles R. Kays

Wilmington Plastic Surgery

Wilmington

John Richards Frederick Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Jefferson K. Kilpatrick

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Jeffrey Giles Gaca

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Andrew M. Schneider

Forsyth Plastic Surgery Associates

Winston-Salem

Donald D. Glower, Jr.

Duke Heart Transplant Clinic

Durham

Angelo Tellis

Aegean Medical

New Bern

Mark Allen Groh

Asheville Heart

Asheville

Jeffrey August Hagen

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Edward Hal Kincaid

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

William C. Kitchens

FirstHealth Cardiovascular & Thoracic Center

Pinehurst

Neal D. Kon

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Mark D. Landers

FirstHealth Cardiology

Pinehurst

Adrian Lata

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

L. Wiley Nifong

East Carolina University - Department of Cardiovascular Sciences

Jacob Niall Schroder Eric R. Skipper Medhat Takla

CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE Mashael Al-Hegelan

Duke University Hospital

Durham

Christina E. Barkauskas Duke Pulmonary Clinic

Durham

Benjamin Bringardner

Atrium Health Jan & Ed Brown Center

Charlotte

Shannon Carson

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Lydia Chang

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Greenville

Stephen G. Cochran

Atrium Health Pulmonology

Charlotte

Duke Heart Transplant Clinic

Durham

German DeJoya

WakeMed Raleigh Campus

Raleigh

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Travis L. Dotson

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Concord

Elizabeth Dreesen

UNC Hospitals Multispecialty Surgery Clinic

Chapel Hill

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Larry Thomas Watts

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Daniel Clark Files

John Mark Williams

East Carolina Heart Institute

Greenville

Christopher B. Granger

Judson Williams

Wakemed Heart Center

Raleigh

Douglas William Haden Atrium Health Pulmonary Critical Care

Charlotte

Michael Wade Haley

Atrium Health Pulmonary Critical Care

Charlotte

Alan C. Heffner

Atrium Health Pulmonary Critical Care

Charlotte

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE Herman Barrett Cheek

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

High Point

Allison Evans Johnson

Haywood Surgical Associates

Clyde

John M. Fedor

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Todd L. Kelly

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Durham

Lisa R. Lindauer

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Greenville

Russell Miller III

First Health Moore Regional Hospital

Pinehurst

Atrium Health Pulmonary Critical Care

Charlotte

Terry Ann Fortin Christopher P. Gregory

Duke Cardiology Clinic ECU Health Heart & Vascular Care

David M. Herrington

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Thomas Przybysz

Jason Neil Katz

Duke Heart Transplant Clinic

Durham

Craig Rackley

Duke Pulmonary Clinic

Durham

Morrisville

Justin Swartz

Atrium Health Jan & Ed Brown Center

Charlotte

John Wynne

Atrium Health Pulmonary Critical Care

Charlotte

Todd L. Kiefer

Duke Cardiology Arringdon

Dalane W. Kitzman

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Joseph D. Mishkin

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Neha J. Pagidipati

Duke Cardiology South Durham

Durham

DERMATOLOGY

Cheryl Russo

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Zeynep Meltem Akkurt Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Svati Hasmukh Shah

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

James Appel

Wilmington Health

Wilmington

Cary Cecile Ward

Duke Cardiology Arringdon

Morrisville

Elias E. Ayli

Wake Skin Cancer Center

Wake Forest

Hadley Wilson

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

April Atkins Boswell

Atlantic Dermatology

Charlotte

B U S I N E S S

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DIAGNOSTIC RADIOLOGY

DERMATOLOGY Claude Shreve Burton

Duke University Medical Center

Durham

Stewart Rasmussen

Pinehurst Radiology

Pinehurst

Marc Carruth

Carolina Skin Surgery Center

Charlotte

Amy H. Sobel

Charlotte Radiology

Charlotte

Elvira Chiritescu

New Age Dermatology

Apex

Grant Thaxton

Eastern Radiologists

Greenville

Robert E. Clark

Cary Skin Center

Cary

Laura Oliver Thomas

Raleigh Radiology

Raleigh

Donna A. Culton

UNC Hospitals Dermatology & Skin Cancer

Chapel Hill

Glen A. Toomayan

Pinehurst Radiology

Pinehurst

Logan D'Souza

Forest Dermatology and Medical Spa

Asheville

Michael D. Tripp

Eastern Radiologists

Greenville

Meredith Leigh Dasher

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Audrey Echt

Anne Arundel Dermatology

Raleigh

Hazem M. El-Gamal

Charlotte Dermatology

Charlotte

Steven R. Feldman

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Jennifer Helton

Steele Creek Dermatology

Charlotte

Erin Hodges

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

William Wei-Ting Huang Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Mark Hutchin

Dermatology of North Asheville

Asheville

Brooke Jackson

Skin Wellness Dermatology Associates

Durham

Martie Lee Price

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Daniel B. Jones

Greensboro Dermatology Associates

Greensboro

Joseph L. Jorizzo

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

William Ketcham

Anne Arundel Dermatology

Garner

David Lane

Dermatologic Surgery of the Carolinas LLC

Charlotte

Aida Lugo-Somolinos

UNC Hospitals Dermatology & Skin Cancer

Chapel Hill

Lisa May

Biltmore Dermatology

Asheville

Amy McMichael

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

John Carroll Murray

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Sarah A. Myers

Duke University Hospital

Durham

Rita O. Pichardo

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Patricia Koury Roddey

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Christopher John Sayed

UNC Hospitals Dermatology & Skin Cancer

Chapel Hill

Lindsay Chaney Strowd

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Michael D. Sullivan

Carolina Dermatology & Skin Cancer Surgery

Wilmington

Nancy Ellen Thomas

UNC Hospitals Dermatology & Skin Cancer

Chapel Hill

Carol Ann Trakimas

Forefront Dermatology

Goldsboro

Sarah Vieta

Vieta Dermatology

Pinehurst

Phil M. Williford

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

DIAGNOSTIC RADIOLOGY

EMERGENCY MEDICINE Anthony Terrance Allen Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Bradley L. Anglemyer

Mid-Atlantic Emergency Medical Associates

Charlotte

Don Robert Bahner

Moore Regional Hospital

Pinehurst

Kevin James Biese

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

William P. Bozeman

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Jane H. Brice

UNC Hospitals Emergency Department

Chapel Hill

John A. Bridgman

Moore Regional Hospital

Pinehurst

Jonathan Brower

Moore Regional Hospital

Pinehurst

Frank L. Christopher

Atrium Health Anson

Wadesboro

Herbert G. Garrison

East Carolina University

Greenville

Charles John Gerardo

Duke University Hospital

Durham

Michael Gibbs

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Joseph Grover

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Michael Harrigan

UNC Hospitals Emergency Department

Chapel Hill

Laura Hester

Chatham Hospital

Siler City

James O. Lewis

Moore Regional Hospital

Pinehurst

Chad D. Listrom

Moore Regional Hospital

Pinehurst

Emily Champe MacNeill Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Paul F. Malinda

Cone Health Alamance Regional

Burlington

Arun Manikumar

UNC REX Hospital Emergency Department

Raleigh

David E. Manthey

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Daniel Jason Martinie

Mid-Atlantic Emergency Medical Associates

Charlotte

David A. Masneri

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Abhishek Mehrotra

UNC Hospitals Emergency Department

Chapel Hill

Jason A. Mutch

Mid-Atlantic Emergency Medical Associates

Charlotte

Christina L. Shenvi

UNC Emergency Medicine

Chapel Hill

Erin Mancuso Smith

Mid-Atlantic Emergency Medical Associates

Charlotte

Linda Morris Taylor

Atrium Health High Point Medical Center

High Point

John G. Alley, Jr.

Raleigh Radiology

Raleigh

Julie G. Verchick

Sandhills Emergency Physicians

Pinehurst

Ersan Altun

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Matthew Vreeland

FirstHealth Convenient Care

Asheboro

Mustafa Shadi Bashir

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Amanda Korzep Watts

Moore Regional Hospital

Pinehurst

Lauren M.B. Burke

UNC Radiology

Chapel Hill

John Childress

Charlotte Radiology

Charlotte

Michael D. Edwards

Pinehurst Radiology

Pinehurst

ENDOCRINOLOGY DIABETES AND METABOLISM

Scott Hees

Charlotte Radiology

Charlotte

Joseph A. Aloi

Pinehurst

Pinar Gumus Balikcioglu Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Lynne Hurwitz Koweek Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Francisco Bautista Vitiello Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Tracy Anne Jaffe

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Denis I. Becker

Raleigh

Brian Scott Kuszyk

Eastern Radiologists

Greenville

Robert Walker Benjamin Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Michael Lavelle

Charlotte Radiology

Charlotte

Alex Bonnecaze

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Carolyn H. Maynor

Pinehurst Radiology

Pinehurst

D. Allen Brantley

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Mark Howard Neely

Durham Radiology Associates

Durham

Cynthia Anne Burns

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

James Oliver III

Charlotte Radiology

Charlotte

John B. Buse

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

William B. Hudgins

Pinehurst Radiology

Diabetes and Endocrinology Center

Raleigh Endocrine Associates

D E C E M B E R

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ENDOCRINOLOGY DIABETES AND METABOLISM Donald Caraccio

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

David A. D'Alessio

Duke Endocrinology Clinic

Durham

Kelli Coop Dunn

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Adva Tal Eisenberg

Novant Health Endocrinology

Charlotte

Josh M. Evron

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Cristina Gherghe

LeBauer Healthcare - Endocrinology

Greensboro

Tahereh Ghorbani

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Kristen Gill Hairston

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Elizabeth Harris

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Morgan Simonds Jones UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Tripuraneni Deepa Kirk UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Brooks Mays

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Southern Pines

K. Patrick Ober

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Laura Caitlin Page

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Gary Charles Rolband

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Ellen Shannon Story

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Maya Shalev Styner

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Charles T. Upchurch

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Mark Warren

Physicians East

Greenville

Julia Warren-Ulanch

Creedmoor Centre Endocrinology

Raleigh

FAMILY MEDICINE

Thomas Joseph Weber

Duke Endocrinology Clinic

Durham

Brian Lanier

FAMILY MEDICINE

BRIAN LANIER FAMILY MEDICINE WILMINGTON

Brian Lanier was inspired to become a physician after his experiences as a Marine communications officer in Iraq. He joined the Marines shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Pender County native studied music at UNC Wilmington and earned a business degree from N.C. State University. He returned to N.C. State in 2007 to prepare himself for medical school. He earned a four-year, full tuition, merit-based scholarship ( John and Kit Latimer Excellence Fund Scholar) to the UNC School of Medicine. He graduated in 2014. In 2017, Lanier founded Promina Health in Wilmington. The practice uses a direct primary care model, charging a monthly membership fee that covers patients’ primary care office visits and services rather than billing insurance.

Promina Health

Wilmington

Brenda A. Latham-SadlerAtrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston Salem

Thomas R. Leonard

FirstHealth Family Medicine

Carthage

Elena Adamo

Scott Community Health Center

Burlington

Andrew LePorte

Scotland Health Care System

Laurinburg

Angela M. Bacigalupo

Cone Health Burlington Family Practice

Burlington

James R. Liffrig

FirstHealth Family Medicine

Pittsboro

John Baker

J Scott Baker Md - Family and Community CareHighlands

Richard William Lord, Jr. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Amir H. Barzin

Chatham Hospital

Siler City

Marshall P. McMillan

Novant Health Crown Point Family Physicians Charlotte

Lateef Cannon

Pardee UNC Health Care

Hendersonville

Mimi Chandler Miles

Jenny Lee Chen

Atrium Health Primary Care Mint Hill CommonsMint Hill

Winston-Salem

Chatham Hospital

Chapel Hill

Benjamin James Missick Novant Health Blakeney Family Physicians

Charlotte

Clark Rohwer Denniston UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Amina Moghul

FirstHealth Family Medicine - Seven Lakes

West End

Crystal Sanchez Dorsey Novant Health Maplewood Family Medicine

Winston-Salem

Mary Catherine Moree

FirstHealth Family Medicine

Rockingham

Andrew J. Drabick

Family Medical Associates of Raleigh

Raleigh

Andrew James Morris

Hendersonville Family Health Center

Hendersonville

Chrystal F. Eller

FirstHealth Transition Care Clinic

Pinehurst

Dana M. Neutze

Chatham Hospital

Siler City Charlotte

Sandra Bryant Farland

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston Salem

Augustus Garland ParkerNovant Health Blakeney Family Physicians

Jorge L. Franco

Carolina Family Practice Centre

Fayetteville

Justin Parker

Asheville Family Medicine

Asheville

Garett Franklin

Cary Medical Group

Cary

Brent Douglas Penhall

Novant Health Lakeside Family Physicians

Mooresville

Steven Lee Gilchrist

Novant Health Steelecroft Primary Care

Charlotte

Ginger Poulton

MAHEC Family Health at Newbridge

Asheville

Joseph Gillham

FirstHealth Family Medicine

Rockingham

James Robert Powell

East Carolina University

Greenville

Mark D. Gwynne

Chatham Hospital

Siler City

Alicia Shute Reams

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Revella Harmon

MyCare 365 Primary & Urgent Care

Zebulon

John F. Redding II

White Oak Family Physicians

Asheboro

Michael J. Harris

Carolina Family Practice & Sports Medicine

Raleigh

Derek Reed

Gaston Family Practice

Gastonia

Margaret Rose Helton

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Ann Marie Richards

FirstHealth Family Medicine

Pinehurst

Milton Mark Hester

Novant Health Crown Point Family Physicians Charlotte

Benjamin Simmons

Atrium Health Primary Care Union

Monroe

Laura Klatt House

Chatham Hospital

Siler City

Karen L. Smith

Karen L. Smith MD

Raeford

Amy Howerton

Howerton Family Medicine

Roseboro

Caroline Dove Stephens Piedmont Urology Associates

Belmont

Charlotte

Dominick Trapani

WakeMed North Hospital

Raleigh

Vidant Family Medicine Chocowinity

Raleigh

Lauren Bennett-Ale Hull Atrium Health Primary Care Carmel Megan Johnson

Cone Health Crissman Family Practice

Graham

Jessica L. Triche

Melissa Jones

Priority Care

Charlotte

Carolyn Vaught

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Adam J. Kinninger

McDowell Family Practice

Marion

Christopher Vieau

Atrium Health Primary Care Union

Monroe

Gregory Knapp

East Carolina University

Greenville

Craig White

Davidson Family Medicine

Davidson

Bo Kopynec

FirstHealth Family Medicine

Ellerbe

Geoffrey T. Wrinkle

Atrium Health Primary Care Carmel

Charlotte

Kourtney Lane Krohn

Physicians East

Greenville

Brian Wysong

Gaston Family Practice

Gastonia

B U S I N E S S

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GASTROENTEROLOGY

GASTROENTEROLOGY Shoukath Ansari

FirstHealth Gastroenterology

Hamlet

Nicholas J. Shaheen

UNC Hospitals Endoscopy Center

Chapel Hill

Amit Aravapalli

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

D. Scott Smith

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Todd Baron

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Thomas Swantkowski

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Eugene M. Bozymski

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Melissa Teitelman

Duke Gastroenterology Clinic at Brier Creek

Durham

M. Stanley Branch

Duke Endoscopy Clinic

Durham

Ravikant V. Varanasi

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Oscar Sven Brann

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Kerry Whitt

RMG Gastroenterology

Raleigh

Joel T. Bruggen

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Diane M. Williams

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Rebecca Ann Burbridge Duke Endoscopy Clinic

Durham

Farra Wilson

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

John Clements

Lake Norman Medical Group

Mooresville

Justin A. Crocker

Duke Gastroenterology of Raleigh

Raleigh

Evan Samuel Dellon

UNC Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease Chapel Hill

Jeffrey Abrams

WakeMed General Surgery

Raleigh

UNC Hospitals Endoscopy Center

Chapel Hill

Elizabeth Acquista

Novant Health General Surgery

Wilmington

Duke Endoscopy Clinic

Durham

Matthew Alleman

WakeMed General Surgery

Raleigh

Christopher Dean Ferris Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Vedra Augenstein

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Eric Frizzell

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Erin Baker

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

John H. Gilliam III

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Aaron Eli Bergsman

Surgical Specialists of Charlotte

Huntersville

Surgical Specialists of Charlotte

Huntersville

Spencer David Dorn Darin Lyn Dufault

GENERAL SURGERY

Ian S. Grimm

UNC Hospitals GI Procedures

Chapel Hill

Bryan Drew Blitstein

Hans Herfarth

UNC Hospitals Endoscopy Center

Chapel Hill

Brian Burlingame

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Eric G. Hilgenfeldt

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Anthony G. Charles

UNC Hospitals Multispecialty Surgery Clinic

Chapel Hill

Kent Holtzmuller

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Ashley Britton

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Winston-Salem

H. Willy Chu

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Christopher T. Jue

Digestive Health Specialists

Jason Lewis

Atrium Health Gastroenterology & Hepatology Charlotte

Paul Colavita

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Millie D. Long

UNC Hospitals Endoscopy Center

Chapel Hill

Carolyn S. Day

North Carolina Surgery

Raleigh

Wayne B. Lucas

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Chirag S. Desai

UNC Hospitals Jason Ray Transplant Clinic

Chapel Hill

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston Salem

Jyothi Nat Mann

Guilford Medical Center

Greensboro

Fuzz Fernandez, Jr.

Jeffrey Roy Medoff

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Greensboro

David W. Grantham

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Girish Mishra

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

B. Heniford

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

John H. Moore III

Charlotte Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Mooresville

Kent Kercher

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Thomas Pacicco

Atrium Health Gastroenterology & Hepatology Charlotte

Cynthia W. Lauer

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Murtaza Parekh

REX Digestive Healthcare

Raleigh

Carl Jarrett Lowe, Jr.

Novant Health Carolina Surgical

Charlotte

James C. Rholl

Digestive Health Partners

Hendersonville

Matthew B. Martin

Central Carolina Surgery

Greensboro

Martin W. Scobey

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

J. Wayne Meredith

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Anthony A. Meyer

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Preston R. Miller III

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston Salem

Natalie L. Nowak

Surgical Specialists of Charlotte

Matthews

Andrew Mitchell Nunn

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

David Wayne Overby

UNC General Surgery Clinic

Hillsborough

Theodore N. Pappas

Duke Advanced Abdominal Disease Clinic

Durham

Lee C. Pederson

Surgical Specialists of Charlotte PA

Charlotte

Arielle Jaclyn Perez

UNC Hospitals Multispecialty Surgery Clinic

Chapel Hill

ANTHONY CHARLES GENERAL SURGERY CHAPEL HILL

Anthony Charles followed a well-worn path to becoming a physician. His father is a doctor. His uncles are physicians. His older sister and younger brother are physicians. His grandfather was the first African to head the Public Health Service in Sub-Saharan Africa. “I never thought of anything else than being a physician,” says Charles. Charles sees patients at the UNC Hospitals Multispecialty Surgery Clinic. He says he likes being part of a research hospital that’s on the cutting edge of medical advancement. Charles graduated from the University of Lagos College of Medicine. He served with the Nigerian Army Medical Corps. Residencies include North Middlesex University Hospital in London and Saint Joseph Mercy in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A passion is serving as director of the UNC Malawi Surgical Initiative. The southeastern African nation has fewer than 50 surgeons serving 18 million people. The program works with doctors and trains them to become surgeons.

Kolandaivelu Ramaswamy Mission Trauma Services

Asheville

Jonathan C. Routh

Duke Children's Health Center Urology Clinic

Durham

Bailey Sanders

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Lynnette M. Schiffern

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Courtney Sommer

Mission Trauma Services

Asheville

Kristin E. Wagner

Surgical Specialists of Charlotte

Charlotte

Matthew C. Wakefield

Central Carolina Surgery

Greensboro

Eric L. Wallace

Surgical Specialists of Charlotte

Matthews

Raymond G. Washington Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Christopher R. Watters

Duke General Surgery

Raleigh

Leslie T. Webster III

Surgical Specialists of Charlotte

Charlotte

R. Frederick Williams, Jr. East Carolina University D E C E M B E R

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GERIATRIC MEDICINE

HEMATOLOGY

Hal Huntley Atkinson

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Gregory Knight

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Lee R. Berkowitz

UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

Mary Ann Knovich

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Maureen C. Dale

UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

Jonathan Levine

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Franklin S. Watkins

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Darla K. Liles

East Carolina University

Greenville

Jeff D. Williamson

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Alice D. Ma

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

David Mack

Maria Parham Cancer Center

Henderson

Stephan Moll

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY Victoria Lin Bae-Jump

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Ifeyinwa Osunkwo

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

John F. Boggess

UNC Hospitals Gynecologic Oncology Clinic

Chapel Hill

Charles H. Packman

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Jubilee Brown

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Misbah U. Qadir

Oncology Services

Kinston

Brian Burgess

FirstHealth Cancer Center

Pinehurst

Brittany K. Ragon

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Ashley Case

Hope Women's Cancer Centers

Asheville

Saritha Ravella

FirstHealth Cancer Center

Pinehurst

Leslie Horn Clark

UNC Hospitals Gynecologic Oncology Clinic

Chapel Hill

Hendrik Van Deventer

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Erin K. Crane

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Peter Voorhees

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Brittany A. Davidson

Duke Cancer Center

Durham

Janelle Marie Fauci

Novant Health Cancer Institute

Charlotte

HEPATOLOGY

Cameron Blair Harkness Hope Women's Cancer Centers

Asheville

A. Sidney Barritt IV

UNC Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease Chapel Hill

R. Naumann

Charlotte

Carl Berg

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Angeles Alvarez Secord Duke Cancer Center

Durham

Jama Darling

UNC Hospitals GI Procedures

Chapel Hill

Diane Semer

Greenville

Andrew Scott DeLemos Transplant And Liver Center

Charlotte

Elizabeth Naisang Skinner Novant Health Cancer Institute

Winston-Salem

David Friedlander

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

John Tunnicliff Soper

Chapel Hill

Matthew R. Kappus

Duke Liver Clinic

Durham

Duke Endoscopy Clinic

Durham

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Physicians East

UNC Hospitals Gynecologic Oncology Clinic

Erin Marie Stone

Novant Health Mintview OB/GYN

Charlotte

Lindsay Yount King

Michael J. Sundborg

FirstHealth Cancer Center

Pinehurst

Mark W. Russo

Transplant And Liver Center

Charlotte

Linda Van Le

UNC Hospitals Gynecologic Oncology Clinic

Chapel Hill

Neil Devendra Shah

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Steven Zacks

Atrium Health Liver Care & Transplant Pineville Charlotte

HAND SURGERY Mark Brenner

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE

Erika Gordon Gantt

OrthoCarolina

Charlotte

Aaron M. Gavett

FirstHealth Hospice

West End

Glenn Gaston

OrthoCarolina

Charlotte

Carl Robert Grey

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

John S. Gaul II

OrthoCarolina

Charlotte

Julie L. Jones

FirstHealth Hospice

West End

Casey D. Jenkins

Wake Orthopaedics

Raleigh

Ellen M. Willard

FirstHealth Hospice

West End

Christopher M. Johnson Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

John Eldridge Barkley

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

L. Andrew Koman

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Joshua Baru

Messino Cancer Centers

Asheville

Gary R. Kuzma

The Hand Center of Greensboro

Greensboro

Anthony N. Galanos

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Kevin Robert Kuzma

The Hand Center of Greensboro

Greensboro

Laura C. Hanson

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Cape Fear Orthopaedics

Fayetteville

Christopher T. Lechner

Carolina Hand and Sports Medicine

Asheville

Jason Bernard Lowe

John Li

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Bermuda Run

Gina Morrill

Atrium Health Union

Monroe

Bruce Irving Minkin

Carolina Hand and Sports Medicine

Asheville

Emily Rogers Sawyer

Four Seasons Compassion for Life

Flat Rock

Okechukwu E. Nwoko

Wake Orthopaedics

Raleigh

Beth Elisa Susi

Atrium Health Supportive Oncology

Charlotte

Lois K. Osier

OrthoCarolina

Charlotte

James Post

Raleigh Hand to Shoulder Center

Raleigh

INFECTIOUS DISEASE

David S. Ruch

Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center

Durham

Gretchen S. Arnoczy

FirstHealth Infectious Diseases

Pinehurst

Ryan Tarr

OrthoNC

Raleigh

Luther A. Bartelt

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Lacy Eugene Thornburg Carolina Hand and Sports Medicine

Asheville

Claire Elise Farel

UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

Harrison G. Tuttle

Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic

Cary

Thomas Ryan Gallaher

ECU Health Multispecialty Clinic

Kinston

Ethan R. Wiesler

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Cynthia Leigh Gay

UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

Julie C. Woodside

OrthoCarolina - Gastonia

Gastonia

Bruce Israel

Mission Infectious Disease Associates

Asheville

Jaspaul S. Jawanda

FirstHealth Infectious Diseases

Pinehurst

Kristine Erica Johnson

Mission Infectious Disease Associates

Asheville

HEMATOLOGY Edward A. Copelan

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Anne Lachiewicz

UNC Hospitals Jason Ray Transplant Clinic

Chapel Hill

Nilanjan Ghosh

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Joseph P. Lang

Atrium Health Infectious Disease

Charlotte

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N O R T H

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INFECTIOUS DISEASE Michael Leonard

Atrium Health Infectious Disease

Charlotte

Lewis H. McCurdy

Atrium Health Infectious Disease

Charlotte

Heather C. Michael

Novant Health Infectious Disease Specialists

Charlotte

Christopher A. Ohl

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Christopher H. Parsons

Pardee Center for Infectious Diseases

Hendersonville

Catherine Passaretti

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

David Harding Priest

Novant Health Infectious Disease Specialists

Kernersville

John Walton Sanders III Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Nicholas A. Turner

Duke Infectious Diseases Clinic

Durham

David Weinrib

Atrium Health Infectious Disease

Charlotte

James Whitehouse

Mission Infectious Disease Associates

Asheville

David Alain Wohl

UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

INTERNAL MEDICINE

LAURA DIEFENDORF INTERNAL MEDICINE HENDERSON

Laura Diefendorf dreamed of becoming a doctor while playing doctor to her dolls. Board certified in both internal medicine and pediatrics, her patients range from the youngest to oldest. Her specialties allow her to follow patients with chronic childhood illnesses who may have had a short life expectancy, but who now live past their 50s. “I love following my chronic children all the way through adulthood.” Diefendorf graduated from medical school at Saint George’s University in the West Indies in 2008. Her community involvement includes providing sports physicals and screening mammograms.

INTERNAL MEDICINE Peter Stinnett Justis

Atrium Health Primary Care Charlotte

Charlotte

Tina Kennelly

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Winston-Salem

Benjamin Kirk

Atrium Health Primary Care Charlotte

Charlotte

Daniel Anthony Aquino Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Eric Landis

Tryon Medical Partners

Pineville

Lorri A. Ayers

Charlotte

Andre Leonard

Intracoastal Internal Medicine

Wilmington

Anne Elizabeth Barnard Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Steven Liebowitz

Internal Medicine Associates

Raleigh

Daniel R. Barnes

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Adam Ligler

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Erika L. Bono

Atrium Health Primary Care Medical Clinic

Charlotte

Bobby R. Maynor Jr.

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Southern Pines

Kerry Patterson Briones Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Leigh Medaris

Atrium Health Infectious Disease

Charlotte

Jenifir J. Bruno

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Justin Gregory Miller

Novant Health New Hanover Primary Care

Wilmington

Eric Wayne Byrd

Carolina Mountain Internal Medicine

Hendersonville

Justin Britt Miller

Tryon Medical Partners

Matthews

Aubrey D. Calhoun

Blue Ridge Hospitalist Group

Morganton

Daniel Joseph Mollin, Jr. Wake Internal Medicine

Raleigh

Faye S. Campbell

Novant Health Ballantyne Medical Group

Charlotte

Walter S. Morris III

MDVIP

Southern Pines

Jason Anthony Carnes

Tryon Medical Partners

Huntersville

Luiz M. Nascimento

FirstHealth Internal Medicine

Hamlet

Iris S. Cheng

Atrium Health Primary Care Charlotte

Charlotte

Francis X. O'Brien

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Sitarama R. Chintalapati

Atrium Health Pineville

Pineville

Jose E. Paz

LeBauer Primary Care at MedCenter High PointHigh Point

Erin L. Clark

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Mark Andrew Perini

Guilford Medical Associates

Alicia Wight Cole

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Elizabeth Marshall Perry Signature Healthcare

Charlotte

Russell Coletti II

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Shana Ratner

UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

Cristin Colford

UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

William Y. Rice III

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Gregory V. Collins

Atrium Health Primary Care Randolph

Charlotte

Douglas E. Schultz

Randolph Health Internal Medicine

Asheboro

Peter Copsis

Tryon Medical Partners

Matthews

John W. Sensenbrenner MDVIP

Charlotte

Christopher Cosgrove

Intracoastal Internal Medicine

Wilmington

Kevin P. Shah

Durham

Michael B. Daley

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Amy Wiegner Shaheen UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

Temple Day

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Gary Ryan Shelton

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Darren DeWalt

UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

Joshua Shoemake

H3 Healthcare

Charlotte

Laura P. Diefendorf

Duke Primary Care Henderson

Henderson

Van Slaughter, Jr.

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Benjamin Fischer

Fischer Clinic

Raleigh

Michael Soboeiro

Wakemed Primary Care

Garner

Kelly M. Forb

Atrium Health Pineville

Pineville

Michol Stanzione

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Southern Pines

Michelle Lynette Foster Novant Health Southern Piedmont Primary Care Monroe

Jennifer G. Szurgot

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Michael B. Friedland

Atrium Health Primary Care Charlotte

Charlotte

John Angelo Tenini

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Kym Orsetti Furney

Tryon Medical Partners

Pineville

Lisena G. Verka

Duke Primary Care South Durham

Durham

Mohammad L. Garba

Cone Health Patient Care Center

Greensboro

Kathleen A. Waite

Duke Signature Care at the Center for Living

Durham

Joseph G. Gibbons

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Robert M. Watt

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Mariel K. Gillham

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Hala Jubran Webster

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Jane Harrell

H3 Healthcare

Charlotte

Julianne F. Weidner

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Jessica Heestand

Wake Internal Medicine

Raleigh

Amy Brett Weil

UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

Charles B. Howarth

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Mary Belle Weitzel

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Lane Knox Jacobs

Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center

Charlotte

Caroline Lee Wilds

Tryon Medical Partners

Matthews

Prachee Jain

The Hometown Doctors PA

Kannapolis

Addison Zhang

FirstHealth Primary Care

Sanford

Megan M. Alexander

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Perspective Health & Wellness

Duke Primary Care South Durham

D E C E M B E R

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Greensboro

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INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGY Peter Matthew Belford

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston Salem

Tiffany Bonnecaze

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Kurt Daniel

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

High Point

Keith E. Davis

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Scott Denardo

FirstHealth Cardiology

Laurinburg

William L. Harris

FirstHealth Cardiology

Pinehurst

William Schuyler Jones Duke Infusion Center South Durham

Durham

Sun Moon Kim

FirstHealth Cardiology - Reid Heart Center

Pinehurst

Glen Kowalchuk

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

James Steven Mills

Duke Cardiology of Raleigh

Raleigh

Mohit Pasi

North Carolina Heart & Vascular

Raleigh

Michael J. Rinaldi

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Tony W. Simmons

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

James Enlou Tcheng

Duke University Hospital

Durham

Archie A. Tyson, Jr.

Novant Health Heart & Vascular Institute

High Point

MATERNAL AND FETAL MEDICINE

James Tcheng came to Duke University Medical Center in 1986 for a cardiology fellowship and has remained for more than 35 years. In addition to being a professor at Duke University, he treats patients with heart disease, specializing in cardiac catheterization and coronary angioplasty procedures. His passion is clinical informatics, the discipline that centers on the use of computer technologies to help clinicians deliver the best JAMES ENLOU TCHENG possible care. INTERVENTIONAL Tcheng is a 1982 graduate of Johns CARDIOLOGY Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has varied interests outside his DURHAM work. He describes himself as a “closet architect” who has designed and built several homes. He enjoys computer technology and does programming on the side. He also plays several musical instruments, including alto and tenor saxophone, trombone, guitar and piano.

John Raymond Allbert

Novant Health Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Cornelius

Carol Coulson

MAHEC OB/GYN Specialists

Asheville

Elizabeth Coviello

UNC Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Raleigh

Chad A. Grotegut

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Brenna L. Hughes

Duke Birthing Center

Durham

MEDICAL ONCOLOGY AND HEMATOLOGY

Thomas Ivester

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Asim Amin

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Julie M. Johnson

Maternal Fetal Medicine

Pinehurst

Navin Anthony

Hendersonville Hematology And Oncology

Hendersonville

Nikki Koklanaris

Atrium Health CMC Women's Institute

Charlotte

Jennifer Atlas

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

M. Kathryn Menard

UNC Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Chapel Hill

Ethan Basch

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Charlotte

Jeremiah C. Boles

REX Hematology Oncology Associates

Raleigh

Kathryn W. Brownlee

Novant Health Cancer Institute

Matthews

Lisa Anne Carey

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Chapel Hill

Elizabeth Claire Dees

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Julie Fisher

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Gary Frenette

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Juneko Grilley-Olson

Duke Cancer Center

Durham

Daniel E. Haggstrom

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Bei Hu

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Kunal Kadakia

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Jeffrey Klotz

FirstHealth Cancer Center

Pinehurst

Alan Kritz

REX Hematology Oncology Associates

Raleigh

Charles S. Kuzma

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Mark Maddox

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Kathryn F. Mileham

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Matthew I. Milowsky

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Robert A. Pohlmeyer

FirstHealth Cancer Center

Pinehurst

Brandi Reeves

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Thomas J. Richard

FirstHealth Cancer Center

Pinehurst

Richard Francis Riedel

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Tracy Lynn Rose

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Jonathan S. Serody

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Chapel Hill

Gary “Brad” Sherrill

Cone Health Cancer Center

Greensboro

Amanda Sherrod

REX Hematology Oncology Associates

Cary

Sascha A. Tuchman

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Chapel Hill

Hope Elizabeth Uronis

Duke Cancer Center

Rebecca Pollack

Atrium Health CMC Women's Institute

Alison M. Stuebe

UNC Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Raleigh

Geeta K. Swamy

Duke Perinatal Consultants of Durham & Fetal Diagnostic Center

Durham

Lorene A. Temming

Atrium Health CMC Women's Institute

Charlotte

James Enlou Tcheng

Duke University Hospital

Durham

Archie A. Tyson, Jr.

Novant Health Heart & Vascular Institute

High Point

NAVIN ANTHONY MEDICAL ONCOLOGY AND HEMATOLOGY HENDERSONVILLE

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Part of being an oncologist is building relationships with patients. As the patient deals with a serious diagnosis, the doctor can learn who that patient really is, what’s important to them and then use those insights to develop the best course of care, says Dr. Navin Anthony. “The best approach in practicing medicine is that when you are treating a patient, you should see them as you’re treating a loved one or family member,” says Anthony. “I think one of the most important things is openness and communication.” Anthony graduated from the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2006. He did his residency at Providence Hospital and Medical Center in Southfield, Michigan. N O R T H

Durham

C A R O L I N A

11/16/23 11:36 AM

NEPHROLOGY

NEUROLOGY

Michael Scott Berkoben Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Joel Travis Callahan

Pardee Neurology Associates

Arden

Paul Stephen Blake

Metrolina Nephrology Associates

Charlotte

James Bayard Caress

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Anthony J. Bleyer

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Michael S. Cartwright

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Isai G. Bowline

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Jill Marie Conway

Novant Health Multiple Sclerosis Care

Charlotte

Randal Detwiler

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Jeffrey Ward Cooney

Duke Nephrology Clinic

Durham

Kathleen Anne Doman

Nephrology & Hypertension Consultants

Charlotte

Andrea L. Diedrich

Atrium Health Neurology

Charlotte

John V. Duronville

Duke Nephrology Clinic

Durham

Danielle Englert

Atrium Health Specialty Care

Charlotte

Ronald J. Falk

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Ana Cristina Goncalves Felix UNC Faculty Physicians Center

Chapel Hill

Maxwell E. Fisher

ECU Health Medical Center

Greenville

William Ferrell

Raleigh Neurology Associates

Raleigh

Jennifer E. Flythe

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Laura B. Fleck

AdventHealth Hendersonville

Hendersonville

Chris Neil Fotiadis

Metrolina Nephrology Associates

Charlotte

Michael Forbes

UNC Hospitals Neurology Clinic

Chapel Hill

Barry I. Freedman

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Karissa Lorraine Gable

Duke Neurological Disorders Clinic

Durham

Nancy Jo Gritter

Metrolina Nephrology Associates

Charlotte

Gwenn Garden

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Gerald A. Hladik

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Ajmal Gilani

UNC Neurology

Clayton

Pinehurst

Susan Glenn

Raleigh Neurology Associates

Raleigh

Duke University Medical Center

Durham

Edward W. Hoehn-Saric Pinehurst Nephrology Associates PC Heather H. Jones

Eastern Nephrology Associates

Greenville

Lisa D. Hobson-Webb

John P. Middleton

Duke Nephrology Clinic

Durham

Keith Hull

Raleigh Neurology Associates

Raleigh

Shahriar Moossavi

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Delores Ann Johnson

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Mount Airy

Amy K. Mottl

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Vern C. Juel

Duke Electromyography Laboratory

Durham

Michael V. Rocco

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Steven C. Lewis

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Prabir Roy-Chaudhury

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Kaiwen Lin

Atrium Health Neurology

Charlotte

John D. Shepherd

Pinehurst Nephrology Associates

Pinehurst

Joel C. Morgenlander

Duke Neurological Disorders Clinic

Durham

Harpreet Kaur Singh

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Cormac A. O'Donovan

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Matthew A. Sparks

Duke Nephrology Clinic

Durham

Casey Olm-Shipman

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Jennifer K. Stoddard

Pinehurst Nephrology Associates

Pinehurst

Emily Poole Pharr

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston Salem

Hanna Von Hardenberg Pinehurst Nephrology Associates

Pinehurst

Gautam S. Popli

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Kimberly M. Yates

Huntersville

Jonathan Richman

Pinehurst Neurology

Pinehurst

Aarti Sarwal

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Richard Arnold Sater

Cone Health Guilford Neurologic Associates

Greensboro

Metrolina Nephrology Associates

NEUROLOGICAL SURGERY Anthony L. Asher

Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates

Charlotte

John Scagnelli

Raleigh Neurology Associates

Raleigh

Charles L. Branch, Jr.

Spine Center

Clemmons

Alexander Schneider

Mission Neurology

Asheville

Daniel E. Couture

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Mustafa Saad Siddiqui

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

E. Hunter Dyer

Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates

Charlotte

Mary Silvia

Allan H. Friedman

Duke Cancer Center Brain Tumor Clinic

Durham

Rajdeep Singh

Atrium Health Neurology Specialty Care

Charlotte

Lars Gardner

Raleigh Neurosurgical Clinic

Raleigh

Mark Brian Skeen

Duke Neurological Disorders Clinic

Durham

Martin M. Henegar

Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates

Charlotte

Henry Tellez

Sandhills Neurologists

Pinehurst

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

UNC Hospitals Neurology Clinic

Chapel Hill

Laith Khoury

Raleigh Neurosurgical Clinic

Raleigh

Sarah H. Uffindell

Erin Nicole Kiehna

Novant Health Brain & Spine Surgery

Charlotte

Angela Wabulya

Adrian Walter Laxton

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Richard Lytle

Carolina Spine & Neurosurgery Center

Asheville

NUCLEAR MEDICINE

Deanna Sasaki-Adams

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Shawn Paul Quillin

Joseph David Stern

Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates

Greensboro

Stephen B. Tatter

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

James B. Walker

FirstHealth Neurosurgery & Spine

Pinehurst

John A. Wilson

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Stacey Quintero Wolfe

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

NEUROLOGY

Mecklenburg Radiology Associates

Charlotte

OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY Natasha Adams-Denny Atrium Health Women's Care Creek Pointe

Charlotte

Allison Bell

Atrium Health Women's Care Charlotte

Charlotte

Carlos F. Bendfeldt

UNC Women's Health

Clayton

Mark Leekley Bland

Novant Health Rankin OB/GYN

Charlotte

Kim A. Boggess

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Breanna Bolivar

MAHEC OB/GYN Specialists

Asheville

Antonia B. Ahern

Cone Health Guilford Neurologic Associates

Greensboro

Bari Byrd

Kamm McKenzie OBGYN

Raleigh

Richard S. Bedlack, Jr.

Duke Nephrology Clinic

Durham

John W. Byron

Southern Pines Women's Health Center

Southern Pines

Liya Beyderman

Charlotte Neurological Services

Charlotte

Grant Campbell

Atrium Health Women's Care Eastover

Charlotte

Melanie J. Blacker

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Lisa N. Chitour

Biltmore OB-GYN

Asheville

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ONCOLOGY

OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY Mina N. Choi

Harris & Smith OB-GYN

Durham

Jing Ai

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Alice Chuang

UNC OB/GYN

Chapel Hill

Carey Kernodle Anders

Duke Cancer Center

Durham

Sheronette A. Cousins

Saura Silverbell OB/GYN

Greensboro

Chasse M. Bailey-Dorton Atrium Health Supportive Oncology

Charlotte

Bernard R. Chinnasami

Hayworth Cancer Center

High Point

Mark Graham

Waverly Hematology Oncology

Cary

Arielle Heeke

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Shiaowen David Hsu

Duke Cancer Center

Durham

Andrea Karen Dickerson A Woman's Place

Fayetteville

Ginger Dickerson

Atrium Health Women's Care Eastover

Charlotte

Michael Dollish Evers

Chatham Hospital

Siler City

Walter Stewart Fasolak Southern Pines Women's Health

Southern Pines

Amy Fletcher

Thrive Carolinas

Charlotte

Ann Ford

Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center

Durham

Carrie Beth Lee

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Beverly A. Gray

Duke Birthing Center

Durham

Glenn J. Lesser

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Angela Haskins

Physicians East

Greenville

Jessica-Lyn Masterson

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Jennie Jarvis Hauschka Tryon Women's Center

Charlotte

Stergios Moschos

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Laura Jean Havrilesky

Duke Cancer Center

Durham

Bayard L. Powell

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Michelle M. Homeister

Wilkerson OBGYN

Raleigh

George Sanders

High Point Medical Center

High Point

Jennifer O. Howell

Duke Birthing Center

Durham

Hanna Kelly Sanoff

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Claude L. Hughes

Duke University School of Medicine

Morrisville

Emily E. Hutcheson

Atrium Health Women's Care Eastover

Charlotte

Paul D. Savage

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Roy E. Strowd III

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Ashley Sumrall

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Antoinette Roslyn Tan

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Kelly E. Westbrook

Duke Cancer Center

Durham

Mohamed A. Y. Ibrahim FirstHealth OB/GYN

Rockingham

Lisa A. Jackson-Moore

UNC OB/GYN

Chapel Hill

Bradley E. Jacobs

Lyndhurst Gynecologic Associates

Winston Salem

Astrid Jain

Atrium Health Women's Care Eastover

Charlotte

William M. Johnstone, Jr. William M. Johnston MD

Southern Pines

Shayna S. Jones

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

OPHTHALMOLOGY

Jennifer Kalich

Atrium Health Women's Care Eastover

Charlotte

Arghavan Almony

Carolina Eye Associates

Southern Pines

Leslie Kammire

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Winston-Salem

Andrew N. Antoszyk

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Pamela G. Kantorowski Southern Pines Women's Health Center

Southern Pines

Michael J. Bartiss

Family Eye Care of the Carolinas

Aberdeen

Caroline M. Lewis

UNC Women's Health

Clayton

Brent Bond

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston Salem

Leslie Hansen Lindner

Atrium Health Women's Care Charlotte

Charlotte

William A. Branner III

Horizon Eye Care

Charlotte

Lissette Machin

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Donald Lyle Budenz

UNC Kittner Eye Center

Chapel Hill

Anthony L. Masciello

Hawthorne Obstetrics and Gynecology

Winston Salem

Diana S. McCarthy

Wakemed Obstetrics & Gynecology

Cary

Christina H. Choe

Carolina Ophthalmology

Hendersonville

Eleanor Mark McCurdy

Novant Health Providence OB/GYN

Charlotte

Derek DelMonte

Carolina Eye Associates

Greensboro

Diana Bures McNeill

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Anna Fakadej

Carolina Eye Associates

Southern Pines

Maria Cristina Munoz

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

John French

Carolina Eye Associates

Southern Pines

Jennifer Mury

UNC Women's Health

Smithfield

Winston Garris

Carolina Eye Associates

Southern Pines

Pinehurst

Matthew Giegengack

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Chapel Hill

Galen Grayson

Atrium Health Ophthalmology Care

Charlotte

Greenman Eye Associates

Charlotte

Ryan Nance George E. Nowacek

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic UNC OB/GYN

Latoya Patterson

Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center

Durham

David Greenman

Laura Pekman

Atrium Health Women's Care Charlotte

Charlotte

Herb Greenman

Greenman Eye Associates

Charlotte

Christie Secrest

Atrium Health Women's Care Charlotte

Charlotte

Craig M. Greven

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Kiran Sigmon

MAHEC OB/GYN Specialists

Asheville

Margaret Ashley Greven Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Aviva Stein

Atrium Health Women's Care Charlotte

Charlotte

Margaret H. Sullivan

Mission Women's Care McDowell

Marion

Zeina Haddad

Carolina Eye Associates

Southern Pines

Charles Termin

Atrium Health Women's Care Charlotte

Charlotte

Kerry E. Hunt

Raleigh Eye Center

Raleigh

Rebecca Usadi

Atrium Health CMC Women's Institute

Charlotte

Joseph H. Krug, Jr.

Horizon Eye Care

Charlotte

Kori Whitley

Physicians East

Greenville

Anthony Leonard

Carolina Eye Associates

Greensboro

Robert Wicker, Jr.

Atrium Health Women's Care Charlotte

Charlotte

Miguel A. Materin

Duke Eye Center

Durham

Kathryn J. Hull Wood

Novant Health Providence OB/GYN

Charlotte

Casey Mathys

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Charlotte

John Yoon

Kamm McKenzie OBGYN

Raleigh

Daniel Messner

Carolina Eye Associates

Southern Pines

Kendall R. Zmiewsky

Southern Pines Women's Health Center

Southern Pines

Pradeep Mettu

Raleigh Eye and Face

Raleigh

Tarra Millender

Carolina Eye Associates

Southern Pines

Andrew Mincey

Carolina Eye Associates

Winston-Salem

Vandana R. Minnal

Horizon Eye Care

Charlotte

Paula Pecen

Carolina Eye Associates

Greensboro

Isaac W. Porter

Porter Ophthalmology

Raleigh

Nehali V. Saraiya

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Charlotte

OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE Jill Ohar

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Kristen Said

Duke Employee Occupational Health and Wellness Clinic

B U S I N E S S

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N O R T H

Winston-Salem Durham

C A R O L I N A

11/16/23 11:36 AM

ORTHOPEDICS

OPHTHALMOLOGY Christopher Shah

Carolina Eye Associates

Greensboro

Bryan J. Loeffler

OrthoCarolina - South Park

Charlotte

Lisa V. Sitterson

Carolina Eye Associates

Fayetteville

Kevin J. Logel

Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic

Cary

Jan Niklas Ulrich

UNC Kittner Eye Center

Chapel Hill

David F. Martin

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

James P. McDonald

OrthoCarolina

Mooresville

Patricia L. McHale

OrthoCarolina - Gastonia

Gastonia

Claude Moorman III

OrthoCarolina

Charlotte

David C. Pollock

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Bermuda Run

Michael Ruffolo

Wake Orthopaedics

Raleigh

Keith A. Walter

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Kendall Wannamaker

Carolina Eye Associates

Fayetteville

Jeffrey White

Carolina Eye Associates

Southern Pines

ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY Brian Farrell

Carolinas Centers for Oral & Facial Surgery

Charlotte

James Sanders

UNC Orthopaedics

Chapel Hill

John Carson Nale

Carolinas Center For Oral & Facial Surgery

Charlotte

Shadley C. Schiffern

OrthoCarolina - Shoulder & Elbow Center

Charlotte

Adam David Serlo

Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Associates

Chapel Hill

Aaron T. Scott

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Stephen Hubert Sims

Atrium Health Musculoskeletal Institute

Charlotte

Bryan D. Springer

OrthoCarolina - Hip & Knee Center

Charlotte

ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY Michael P. Bolognesi

Duke Orthopaedics Arringdon

Morrisville

Kevin J. Stanley

OrthoCarolina

Mooresville

Eben A. Carroll

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Gregory Tayrose

UNC Orthopedics & Sports Medicine

Clayton

Bruce E. Cohen

OrthoCarolina - Foot & Ankle Institute

Charlotte

Christopher J. Tuohy

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Bermuda Run

Neil A. Conti

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Kurt P. Wohlrab

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Mark L. Wood

Wake Orthopaedics

Raleigh

Robert J. Esther

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Timothy E. Harris

Wake Orthopaedics

Raleigh

Adam Kaufman

Mission Orthopedic Trauma Services

Asheville

Justin Kauk

WakeMed Orthopaedics

Cary

Andrew Kersten

EmergeOrtho

Hendersonville

Gaurav Aman Luther

Gaurav Aman Luther MD

Apex

Greig McAvoy

UNC Orthopaedics

Rocky Mount

Ward S. Oakley

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Matthew David Ohl

OrthoCarolina - University

Charlotte

Christopher W. Olcott

UNC Orthopaedics

Chapel Hill

Christopher D. Parks

EmergeOrtho

Wilmington

Gary G. Poehling

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Daniel Todd Rose

EmergeOrtho

Wilmington

Jeffrey T. Spang

UNC Orthopaedics

Chapel Hill

Marc Stevens

Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital

Elkin

Mark D. Suprock

OrthoCarolina

Huntersville

Alison P. Toth

James R. Urbaniak MD Sports Sciences Institute

Durham

Clifford R. Wheeless III

OrthoNC

Raleigh

ORTHOPEDICS

OTOLARYNGOLOGY EAR NOSE THROAT Marcus S. Albernaz

Eastern Carolina ENT, Head and Neck Surgery Greenville

John Redmond Blumer Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Charlotte

Daniel S. Brickman

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Charlotte

J. Dale Browne

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Nathan Calloway

Wakemed ENT

Garner

John Clinger

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Winston-Salem

Brian William Downs

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Charles S. Ebert, Jr.

UNC Ear, Nose and Throat

Chapel Hill

Michael Ferguson

WakeMed Raleigh Campus Andrews Center

Raleigh

John A. Garside

REX Ear Nose And Throat Specialists

Cary

Willard Harrill

Carolina Ear Nose & Throat - Sinus and Allergy Hickory

Brett Heavner

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Charlotte

Hunter A. Hoover

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Charlotte

Kenneth Lee Johnson

UNC Ear, Nose and Throat

Clayton

Eric O. Lindbeck

Eastern Carolina ENT, Head and Neck Surgery Greenville

Allen Marshall

WakeMed Raleigh Campus Andrews Center

Raleigh

Wyman T. McGuirt

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

EmergeOrtho

Greensboro

Justin D. Miller

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Christopher M. Barsanti Orthopaedics East & Sports Medicine Center

Greenville

James Mims

Brenner Children's Hospital

Winston-Salem

Michael Bates

Charlotte

Brendan P. O’Connell

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Charlotte

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Winston-Salem

Frank V. Aluisio

OrthoCarolina - University

Christopher R. Brown

Duke Orthopedics of Raleigh

Raleigh

Drew P. Plonk

David Joseph Casey

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Jeevan B. Ramakrishnan Raleigh Capitol Ear Nose & Throat

Raleigh

Patrick M. Connor

OrthoCarolina - Shoulder & Elbow Center

Charlotte

Waldemar L. Riefkohl

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Milan M. DiGiulio

Performance OrthoPaedic Surgery & Sports MedicineCary

Brent A. Senior

UNC Ear, Nose and Throat

Chapel Hill

Michael Lee Dockery

OrthoCarolina - University

Charlotte

David Shoemaker

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Greensboro

Reid Wilson Draeger

UNC Orthopaedics

Chapel Hill

Michael W. Sicard

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Matthews

Josiah William Duke

Orthopaedics East & Sports Medicine Center

Greenville

Christopher A. Sullivan

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Christopher L. Elder

Asheville OrthoPaedic Associates

Asheville

Brian Thorp

UNC Ear, Nose and Throat

Chapel Hill

Cynthia L. Emory

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

William Curtis Eward

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

PAIN MANAGEMENT

Harold Frisch

Mission Orthopedic Trauma Services

Asheville

Puneet K. Aggarwal

Atrium Health Musculoskeletal Institute

Charlotte

Nady Hamid

OrthoCarolina - Shoulder & Elbow Center

Charlotte

Hsiupei Chen

Carolina Pain & Spine

Wake Forest

Curtis A. Hanson

Wake Orthopaedics

Raleigh

Kevin Costello

Southeast Pain And Spine Care

Charlotte

Christopher C. Hasty

Orthopaedics East & Sports Medicine Center

Greenville

James E. Hancock, Jr.

Atrium Health Cabarrus Pain Management

Concord

Scott S. Kelley

North Carolina Orthopaedic Clinic

Durham

Jon-David Hoppenfeld

Southeast Pain And Spine Care

Charlotte

Jeffrey Kneisl

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Paul J. Kuzma

Advanced Medical Group

Pinehurst

Maxwell K. Langfitt

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Bermuda Run

Lauren Sylvester Mokris Providence Anesthesiology Associates D E C E M B E R

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PAIN MANAGEMENT

PEDIATRIC ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY

Jennifer Betts Oliver

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Christian Clark

OrthoCarolina

Charlotte

Jason Ali Ravanbakht

Atrium Health Cabarrus Pain Management

Concord

John Frino

Brenner Children's Hospital Orthopaedics

Winston-Salem

Binit Shah

Carolinas Pain Center

Huntersville

Sami Mardam-Bey

WakeMed Orthopaedics

Raleigh

Shaun Williams

Atrium Health Cabarrus Pain Management

Concord

Michael D. Paloski

OrthoCarolina - Pediatric Orthopedic Center

Charlotte

Joanna Wroblewska-Shah Carolinas Pain Center

Huntersville

PEDIATRIC OTALARYNGOLOGY ENT

PATHOLOGY

Amelia Fischer Drake

UNC Ear, Nose and Throat

Chapel Hill

Kiran Adlakha

Carolinas Pathology Group PA

Charlotte

Eleanor Pitz Kiell

Brenner Children's Hospital

Winston-Salem

Rex Colle Bentley

Duke University Hospital

Durham

Jonathan Randall Moss Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Matthews

Jared G. Block

Carolinas Pathology Group PA

Charlotte

Sajeev Kumar Puri

Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Charlotte

Diana M. Cardona

Duke Raleigh Hospital

Raleigh

Austin S. Rose

UNC Ear, Nose and Throat

Chapel Hill

Arthur R. Cohen

Presbyterian Pathology Group

Charlotte

Carlton Jude Zdanski

UNC Ear, Nose and Throat

Chapel Hill

Megan J. DiFurio

Pinehurst Pathology Center

Pinehurst

Akosua B. Domfeh

Carolinas Pathology Group

Charlotte

PEDIATRIC SURGERY

Joshua Jeanty

Pinehurst Pathology Center

Pinehurst

Daniel A. Bambini

Pediatric Surgical Associates

Charlotte

William Jeck

Duke University Hospital

Durham

Katherine Chan

UNC Specialty Care

Sanford

Edward H. Lipford

Carolinas Pathology Group

Charlotte

Kimberly Erickson

WakeMed Raleigh Medical Park

Raleigh

Chad Allen Livasy

Carolinas Pathology Group

Charlotte

J. David Hoover

WakeMed Raleigh Medical Park

Raleigh

Chad McCall

Carolinas Pathology Group

Charlotte

Paul Kirshbom

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

Omar P. Sangueza

The Skin Surgery Center

Winston-Salem

Thomas Maxey

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

Charles C. Schirmer

Pinehurst Pathology Center

Pinehurst

Colin Muncie

WakeMed

Raleigh

John Daniel Shelburne

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

J. Duncan Phillips

WakeMed Raleigh Medical Park

Raleigh

Elton T. Smith, Jr.

Carolinas Pathology Group

Charlotte

Leah Marie Sieren

Brenner Children's Hospital

Winston-Salem

Kyle Craig Strickland

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Carol Weida

Carolinas Pathology Group

Charlotte

Herbert Whinna

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

PEDIATRIC ALLERGY IMMUNOLOGY Michelle L. Hernandez

UNC Allergy & Immunology Clinic

Durham

PEDIATRIC CARDIOLOGY Michael G. W. Camitta

Duke Children's Hospital & Health Center

Durham

Gregory Allan Fleming

Duke Children's Hospital & Health Center

Durham

Joseph Paolillo

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

Matthew C. Schwartz

Atrium Health Levine Children’s

Charlotte

Gonzalo Alberto Wallis

Atrium Health Levine Children’s

Charlotte

PEDIATRIC DERMATOLOGY

PEDIATRICS GENERAL Amina Ahmed

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

Jeffrey Paul Baker

Duke Children's South Durham

Durham

Brian Bowman

Cary Pediatric Center

Apex

Sarah L. Brewington

Sandhills Pediatrics

Southern Pines

Jonathan I. Brownlee

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Shelby

Laurie Demmer

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

Christoph Diasio

Sandhills Pediatrics

Southern Pines

Lubna S. Elahi

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

Marisa Flores

Kernodle Clinic - Pediatrics Department

Elon

Natalee French

Sandhills Pediatrics

Southern Pines

Richard R. Gessner

Raleigh Children & Adolescents Medicine

Raleigh

Lillian R. Harris

Raleigh Children & Adolescents Medicine

Raleigh

Charles Sigman Hayek

Twin City Pediatrics Winston Salem

Winston-Salem

Lawrence B. Hurst

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Gastonia

Diana B. McShane

UNC Hospitals Dermatology & Skin Cancer

Chapel Hill

Jon R. Hutchinson

Piedmont Healthcare

Statesville

Dean Scott Morrell

UNC Hospitals Dermatology & Skin Cancer

Chapel Hill

Alison Kavanaugh

UNC Pediatrics

Durham

Neil Prose

Duke Global Health Institute

Durham

John McClure Kerr III

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Amanda Lanier

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

Sarah Brier Leonard

East Carolina University

Greenville

Anitha Leonard

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

George A. Manousos

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Matthews

PEDIATRIC ENDOCRINOLOGY Ali Suha Calikoglu

UNC Hospitals Children's Specialty Clinics

Lisa Durham Houchin

Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes Specialists Charlotte

Raleigh

Amy Elizabeth Levenson UNC Hospitals Children's Specialty Clinics

Chapel Hill

Nancie Jo MacIver

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

Jakub Mieszczak

Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes Specialists Charlotte

Diane Lee Miller

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

PEDIATRIC GASTROENTEROLOGY

Gabriela Maradiaga Panayotti Duke Children's Primary Care

Durham

Catherine Mason

Sandhills Pediatrics

Southern Pines

Nicole S. McMahon

FirstHealth Hospitalist Service

Pinehurst

Ansley Miller

Mission Children's Specialists

Asheville

Michael F. Minozzi

Chapel Hill Children & Adolescents' Clinic

Chapel Hill

Beatriz Blanco Morris

Duke Children's Primary Care

Durham

Rhonda Patt

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

Virginia F. Casey

OrthoCarolina - Pediatric Orthopedic Center

Charlotte

John Kenneth Petty

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Jason Dranove

Atrium Health Levine Children’s

Charlotte

Jodie Player Prosser

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Matthews

Michael D. Kappelman

UNC Hospitals Children's Specialty Clinics

Chapel Hill

Laurie Pulver

ABC Pediatrics of Asheville

Asheville

B U S I N E S S

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PEDIATRICS GENERAL

PSYCHIATRY

Amy Garrett Ryan

Novant Health Eastover Pediatrics

Charlotte

Mary T. Mandell

FirstHealth Behavioral Services

Pinehurst

Kasey Wymer Scannell

Novant Health Pediatrics Symphony Park

Charlotte

Kevin York Marra

HopeWay Campus

Charlotte

Andrea Scholer

Triad Adult & Pediatric Medicine

Greensboro

Mark Thomas Mason

Mission Medical Associates

Asheville

Hope Seidel

Cary Pediatric Center

Cary

Jonathan McKinsey

Atrium Health Behavioral Health

Concord

Andrew R. Shulstad

Novant Health Pediatrics Symphony Park

Charlotte

Jean Allen Melvin

Allen Melvin MD PA

Charlotte

May K. Slowik

Duke Pediatrics South Durham

Durham

Albert J. Naftel, Jr.

UNC Child And Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic

Chapel Hill

Charles Smoak

Atrium Health Levine Children's

Charlotte

Kateland Napier

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

John Templeton

French Broad Pediatric Associates

Asheville

Jason Peck

HopeWay Campus

Charlotte

Mike Villareal

Cary Pediatric Center

Cary

Kenan Penaskovic

UNC Adult Psychiatry Clinic

Chapel Hill

Laura C. Windham

Chapel Hill Children & Adolescents' Clinic

Chapel Hill

Donald L. Rosenstein

UNC Adult Psychiatry Clinic

Chapel Hill

David R. Rubinow

UNC Adult Psychiatry Clinic

Chapel Hill

David C. Ruck

FirstHealth Behavioral Services

Pinehurst

PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION John Baratta

UNC REX Rehabilitation and Nursing Care

Raleigh

Jeffrey L. Snow

North Raleigh Psychiatry

Raleigh

William Bockenek

Atrium Health Carolinas Rehabilitation

Charlotte

Meredith Stanton

FirstHealth Behavioral Services

Pinehurst

Kevin Carneiro

UNC Hospitals Spine Center

Chapel Hill

Kellie Tolin

Wake Psychiatry

Raleigh

Alexander W. Chasnis

OrthoCarolina

Huntersville

Amy Ursano

UNC Child And Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic

Chapel Hill

Walter Sherwood Davis Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

J.W. Scott Wallace

Eastover Psychiatric Group

Charlotte

Jairon D. Downs

Carolina Rehabilitation & Surgical Associates

Raleigh

Kristopher R. Karvelas

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Jimmy Mali

EmergeOrtho

Durham

Daniel P. Moore

East Carolina University

Greenville

David Reese O’Brien, Jr. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Derek Philip Watson

OrthoNC

Raleigh

John Arthur Welshofer

Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates

Charlotte

PLASTIC AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY

PULMONARY MEDICINE Adam R. Belanger

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Christina Bellinger

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

James F. Donohue

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Michael Drummond

UNC Specialty Care

Sanford

Azeem Elahi

Atrium Health Pulmonology

Concord

John Fogarty

Physicians East

Greenville

Kevin Ward Gibbs

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Duke Pulmonary Clinic

Durham

Matthew W. Blanton

Specialists in Plastic Surgery PA

Raleigh

Daniel Lee Gilstrap

Leslie Grace Branch

Forsyth Plastic Surgery Associates

Winston-Salem

Ashley Glyn Henderson UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Parag Butala

Piedmont Plastic Surgery and Dermatology

Gastonia

Daniel Howard

Atrium Health Jan & Ed Brown Center

Charlotte

Peter J. Capizzi

Capizzi MD

Charlotte

Scott Shannon Lindblom Atrium Health Jan & Ed Brown Center

Charlotte

Nicholas Clavin

Atrium Health Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Charlotte

Leonard Jason Lobo

UNC Hospitals Jason Ray Transplant Clinic

Chapel Hill

Lynn Ann Damitz

UNC Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Chapel Hill

Drew A. MacGregor

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston Salem

Lisa Renee David

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Wendy C. Moore

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Anthony J. DeFranzo

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Rodolfo M. Pascual

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Detlev Erdmann

Duke Wound Management Clinic

Durham

Michael A. Pritchett

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Eric G. Halvorson

Halvorson Plastic Surgery

Asheville

Jaspal Singh

Atrium Health Jan & Ed Brown Center

Charlotte

Enam Haque

Queen City Plastic Surgery

Charlotte

James R. Snapper

Duke Asthma Allergy & Airway Center

Durham

Joseph P. Hunstad

HK Plastic Surgery & MedSpa

Huntersville

David C. Thornton

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Thomas G. Liszka

Ballantyne Plastic Surgery

Charlotte

Christine Lee Vigeland

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Joseph A. Molnar

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Momen M. Wahidi

Duke University School of Medicine

Durham

John Robinson

Atrium Health Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Charlotte

Christopher M. Runyan

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Edward Teng

Atrium Health Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Charlotte

Michael Zenn

Zenn Plastic Surgery

Raleigh

Richard Stephen Zeri

ECU Plastic Surgery Center

Greenville

Hasan A. Baloch

Johnston Health

Smithfield

David Freeman

MMA Psychiatric Services

Asheville

Gary J. Gala

UNC Adult Psychiatry Clinic

Chapel Hill

Luciana Giambarberi

Tourette Syndrome Specialty Clinic

Winston-Salem

Karen E. Green

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Winston-Salem

Jason Jerry

FirstHealth Behavioral Services

Pinehurst

David W. Litchford, Jr.

Atrium Health Behavioral Health

Charlotte

Scott Nord Lurie

Scott N Lurie Md

Charlotte

Erin Marie Malloy

UNC Hospitals

Chapel Hill

Winston-Salem

PSYCHIATRY

PATRICIA MCHALE ORTHOPEDICS (p. 69) GASTONIA

Patricia McHale sees patients limited by injury, so she never tires of seeing them getting back to doing the things they love. “When they are able to return to activity, whether that be daily activities at home or competitive sports, it is affirming and reminds me why I wanted to become a doctor in the first place,” says McHale, who works out of the Gastonia and Belmont offices of OrthoCarolina. She’s also head team physician at North Gaston High School. McHale is a rarity. In 2020, females made up just 6% of practicing orthopedic surgeons, according to the National Institute of Health. McHale is a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine. D E C E M B E R

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RADIATION ONCOLOGY

RHEUMATOLOGY

Jeffrey C. Acker

FirstHealth Cancer Center

Pinehurst

Rumey C. Ishizawar

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

William Bobo

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Alison Johnson

Tryon Medical Partners

Huntersville

Courtney M. Bui

UNC Hospitals Radiation Oncology

Chapel Hill

Beth L. Jonas

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Catherine Lee Chang

Duke University

Raleigh

Andrew J. Laster

Arthritis & Osteoporosis Consultants of The Carolinas Charlotte

Carolina Fasola

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Gwenesta B. Melton

LaFayette Clinic

Fayetteville

Ellen L. Jones

UNC Hospitals Radiation Oncology

Chapel Hill

Leslie Pack Ranken

Atrium Health Rheumatology

Charlotte

Andrew Ju

East Carolina University

Greenville

Karen Schorn

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

Pinehurst

Stephen C. King

Pinehurst Radiation Oncology

Pinehurst

Hajra Zehra Shah

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Clemmons

Eric Kuehn

Mountain Radiation Oncology and Mission

Asheville

Mohammad Shahsahebi Duke University

Durham

Sushma M. Patel

Pinehurst Radiation Oncology

Pinehurst

Saira Z. Sheikh

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Hadley Jean Sharp

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Rupak Thapa

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Matthew C. Ward

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Christopher Tracy

Pinehurst Medical Clinic

West End

Ashley Aston Weiner

UNC Hospitals Radiation Oncology

Chapel Hill

Jill Scott Vargo

Asheville Arthritis & Osteoporosis Center

Asheville

Nina Jaime Verdino

Growing Child Pediatrics Pa

Knightdale

Amanda Wakeley

Atrium Health Rheumatology

Charlotte

RADIOLOGY Nicole Abinanti

Mecklenburg Radiology Associates

Charlotte

Manika Zeri

Atrium Health Rheumatology

Charlotte

Deborah Agisim

Charlotte Radiology

Charlotte

Jill E. Zouzoulas

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Emmanuel J. Botzolakis Mecklenburg Radiology Associates

Charlotte

Charles Thomas Burke

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

SLEEP MEDICINE

Eithne Burke

Wake Radiology

Raleigh

Saima Athar

Charlotte

Nancy Virginia Behrens Novant Health Sleep Medicine

Monroe

Greenville

Ruth Benca

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Chapel Hill

Giridhar Chintalapudi

Sandhills Neurologists

Cary

Charlotte

Jacob Coleman

Tryon Medical Partners

Huntersville

Wilmington

Carmen Dohmeier

Cone Health Guilford Neurologic Associates

Greensboro

Charlotte

Kimberly Mims

Atrium Health Sleep Medicine

Charlotte

Andrew Michael Namen Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Chapel Hill

Michael S. Reif

Atrium Health Jan & Ed Brown Center

Charlotte

Chapel Hill

Maria C. Sam

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Pinehurst

Narayanachar C. Sekaran Vidant Sleep Medicine

Roanoke Rapids

Chapel Hill

Ehrlich Cu Tan

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

Bradley K. Vaughn

Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic

Raleigh

Chien-Chung P. Chang Karl Sy-Cherng Chiang

Charlotte Radiology Eastern Radiologists

Clayton W. Commander UNC School of Medicine Andrew Demmert Michael John Fisher William Stuart Hartley Shannon Hill Valerie Jewells Sheryl G. Jordan Allen M. Joseph Maureen Kohi

Mecklenburg Radiology Associates Delaney Radiology Charlotte Radiology Charlotte Radiology UNC School of Medicine UNC School of Medicine Pinehurst Radiology UNC School of Medicine

David Matthew Mauro

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Matthew A. Mauro

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

James Patrick O'Brien

Mecklenburg Radiology Associates

Charlotte

Jorge Oldan

UNC School of Medicine

Chapel Hill

Kirk Peterson

Raleigh Radiology

Raleigh

John P. Roberson

Pinehurst Radiology

Pinehurst

Daniel Raymond Scanga Mecklenburg Radiology Associates

Charlotte

Paul J. Tobben

Mecklenburg Radiology Associates

Charlotte

Rodney D. Welling

Pinehurst Radiology

Pinehurst

Danielle L. Wellman

Wake Radiology

Raleigh

Kendall W. Yokubaitis

Delaney Radiology

Wilmington

REPRODUCTIVE ENDOCRINOLOGY Kelly S. Acharya

Duke Fertility Center

Morrisville

Ashley M. Eskew

Reproductive Specialists of the Carolinas

Charlotte

Clifford C. Hayslip, Jr.

East Carolina University

Greenville

Bradley Hurst

Atrium Health CMC Women's Institute

Charlotte

Michelle Matthews

Atrium Health CMC Women's Institute

Charlotte

David Walmer

Atlantic Reproductive Medicine Specialists

Raleigh

RHEUMATOLOGY

Cone Health Guilford Neurologic Associates

Greensboro

SPINE SURGERY Adedayo Ashana

OrthoNC

Raleigh

Deb A. Bhowmick

Duke Spine Center

Durham

John P. Birkedal

Spine Center

Clemmons

Byron C. Branch

Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates

Concord

Domagoj Coric

Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates

Charlotte

Gurvinder S. Deol

Wake Orthopaedics

Raleigh

Henry Joseph Elsner

Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates

Greensboro

Eldad Hadar

UNC Hospitals Spine Center

Chapel Hill

Michael M. Haglund

Duke Spine Center

Durham

John M. Hicks

EmergeOrtho

Hendersonville

James Joseph Hoski

Carolina Spine & Neurosurgery Center

Asheville

Hilal A. Kanaan

ECU Health Neurosurgery & Spine Center

Greenville

Teddy E. Kim

FirstHealth Neurosurgery & Spine

Pinehurst

Alexander C. Lemons

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Moe R. Lim

UNC Hospitals Spine Center

Chapel Hill

Keith M. Maxwell

Southeastern Sports Medicine and OrthopedicsAsheville

Mark L. Moody

Carolina Spine And Neurosurgery Center

Asheville

Conor M. Regan

Wake Orthopaedics

Raleigh

Jonathan Lee Wilson

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Clemmons

Dennis C. Ang

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

Duncan Fagundus

Physicians East

Greenville

SPORTS MEDICINE

Diane George

Tryon Medical Partners

Charlotte

David J. Berkoff

UNC Orthopaedics

Chapel Hill

Abigail Gilbert

UNC Hospitals Outpatient Center

Chapel Hill

Joshua N. Berkowitz

UNC Orthopaedics

Chapel Hill

B U S I N E S S

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SPORTS MEDICINE

UROLOGY

James G. Blount

Carolina Family Practice & Sports Medicine

Cary

Joseph Corey Allen

North Carolina Urology Clayton

Clayton

Mario Frank Ciocca Jr.

UNC Campus Health

Chapel Hill

Jennifer Ballinger

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Alexander Creighton

UNC Orthopaedics

Chapel Hill

Marc D. Benevides

Associated Urologists of North Carolina

Cary

Megan Ferderber

East Carolina University

Greenville

Marc Bjurlin

UNC Urology Medical Center

Chapel Hill

Karl Bertrand Fields

Cone Health Sports Medicine Center

Greensboro

Kristy M. Borawski

UNC Hospitals Urology Clinic

Chapel Hill

Brent Edward Fisher

Asheville Orthopaedic

Arden

Robert J. Chamberlain

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Brett H. Foreman

Carolina Family Practice & Sports Medicine

Raleigh

Peter Clark

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Mark W. Galland

OrthoNC

Raleigh

Matthew A. Collins

ECU Health Urology

Greenville

Chad Greer

WakeMEd

Raleigh

Manish N. Damani

Urology Specialists of the Carolinas

Charlotte

Aaron Leininger

UNC Orthopedics & Sports Medicine

Clayton

Jacques Paul Ganem

Urology Specialists of the Carolinas

Charlotte

Michael Sean McCartney Gaston Medical Partners

Gastonia

Manlio Adam Goetzl

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

John M. Neidecker

OrthoNC

Raleigh

Chad Gridley

Duke Raleigh Hospital

Raleigh

Patrick O'Connell

Sentinel Primary Care

Raleigh

Greg L. Griewe

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Augustus Garland ParkerNovant Health Blakeney Family Physicians

Charlotte

Jonathan N. Hamilton

ECU Health Urology

Greenville

Dana P. Piasecki

OrthoCarolina

Charlotte

Brant Allen Inman

Duke University Hospital

Durham

David Charles Price

Pardee Surgical Associates

Hendersonville

Mark W. Jalkut

Associated Urologists of North Carolina

Raleigh

Catherine R. Rainbow

Atrium Health Musculoskeletal Institute

Charlotte

Carmin Kalorin

Wakemed Raleigh Medical Park

Raleigh

Bryan M. Saltzman

OrthoCarolina

Charlotte

Michael Kennelly

Atrium Health Women's Care

Charlotte

Brian Waterman

Brian Waterman MD

Winston-Salem

Aaron Lentz

Duke Urology Men's Health Center

Raleigh

Michael E. Lipkin

Duke Urology Clinic

Durham

Catherine A. Matthews

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

High Point

John R. Michalak

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Charlotte

Matthew E. Nielsen

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Durham

Andrew C. Peterson

Duke Urology Clinic

Durham

Charlotte

Glenn M. Preminger

Duke University - Duke Surgery

Durham

Raleigh

Mathew C. Raynor

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Raleigh

Stephen Riggs

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Atrium Health Urology Kenilworth

Charlotte

SURGICAL ONCOLOGY Mark Arredondo Ilan D. Avin Dan G. Blazer III Anthony J. DiNome Maggie DiNome David B. Eddleman

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Novant Health Carolina Surgical Duke Cancer Center Atrium Health Behavioral Health Duke Women's Cancer Care Raleigh North Carolina Surgery

Michelle M. Fillion

Novant Health New Hanover Regional

Wilmington

Angela Schang

Meghan R. Forster

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Josh P. Sesek

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Kristalyn Kay Gallagher UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Angela B. Smith

UNC Hospitals Urology Clinic

Chapel Hill

David A. Gerber

UNC Hospitals Jason Ray Transplant Clinic

Chapel Hill

Hung-Jui Tan

UNC Hospitals Urology Clinic

Chapel Hill

Lejla Hadzikadic Gusic

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Jonathan Taylor

Physicians East

Greenville

Joshua Hill

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Davis P. Viprakasit

UNC Specialty Care

Pittsboro

Marissa Howard-McNatt Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Clemmons

Eric M. Wallen

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

David A. Iannitti

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

John Samuel Wiener

Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center

Durham

Hong Jin Kim

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Edward Allen Levine

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

John Martinie

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Frank R. Arko III

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Michael Owen Meyers

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Clinton K. Atkinson, Jr.

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Zvonimir Milas

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Daniel Barzana

Wilmington Health

Wilmington

David W. Ollila

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

Matthew S. Edwards

Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Winston-Salem

Jonathan Salo

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Mark A. Farber

UNC Hospitals Vascular Interventional Radiology Chapel Hill

Randall P. Scheri

Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center

Durham

Peter Ford

Vascular Solutions

Charlotte

Perry Shen

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem

H. Hobson

Atrium Health General Surgery

Shelby

Karyn B. Stitzenberg

UNC Hospitals Adult Oncology Clinics

Chapel Hill

John Richard Hobson

Vascular Surgery at Pardee

Hendersonville

Peter Smith Turk

Novant Health Cancer Institute

Charlotte

Ashish Kumar Jain

Novant Health Heart & Vascular Institute

Charlotte

Gregory S. Waters

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Greensboro

Lemuel B. Kirby

Carolina Vascular

Asheville

Mark C. Weissler

UNC Ear, Nose and Throat Oncology Clinic

Chapel Hill

Douglas MacMillan, Jr.

Carolina Vascular

Asheville

Richard L. White, Jr.

Atrium Health Levine Cancer

Charlotte

Katharine L. McGinigle

UNC Hospitals Heart and Vascular Center

Chapel Hill

Emmanuel E. Zervos

ECU Health Cancer Care

Greenville

Erin Heather Murphy

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Charlotte

Luigi Pascarella

UNC Hospitals Heart and Vascular Center

Chapel Hill

Danielle Smith

FirstHealth Vascular & Vein Clinic

Pinehurst

THORACIC SURGERY

VASCULAR SURGERY

Christopher Cicci

Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular

Concord

Paul A. Vieta, Jr.

Pinehurst Surgical Clinic

Pinehurst

Benjamin E. Haithcock

UNC Hospitals Jason Ray Transplant Clinic

Chapel Hill

David A. Weatherford

Coastal Vascular Institute

Wilmington

John S. Ikonomidis

UNC Hospitals Jason Ray Transplant Clinic

Chapel Hill

Jason Michael Long

UNC Thoracic Surgery Clinic

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ANNUAL UPDATE from BOARD CHAIRMAN BILL LEHNES Over the last year, UNC Health Nash continued to focus on providing exceptional care with every patient, every time. These efforts are rooted in our four core values – Trust in Compassion, Above & Beyond, Committed to Connections and Service Leadership – which remind our teams to focus on what is important for our patients, their families, our colleagues and our community. This work has paid off with several major recognitions. This past year, Nash was one of only 32 hospitals across the entire country to receive the Top General Hospital designation by Leapfrog, a national organization that tracks and reports hospital performance data. Only elite hospitals that meet the nation’s toughest standards for safety and quality achieve this prestigious designation. Additionally, Business North Carolina recognized Nash as a Top 25 Hospital in NC for the second year in a row. Nash also remained an American Nurses Credentialing Center Pathway to Excellence Program and received national recognitions for heart, stroke, rehabilitation and maternity care. A major driver in these improvements is our dyad leadership approach to quality, which designates a physician and nurse leader for every service line to drive unit-specific improvements with involvement and support from every role. In the Emergency Department, we implemented a new patient flow model to improve efficiency and patient satisfaction. Using this model, patients are evaluated at the front door based on their ailment and routed through the best pathway to manage their condition quickly and effectively. This maximizes resources for patients with complex needs while providing more efficient and higher quality care to all of our patients.

The UNC Nash Foundation partnered with us to address social barriers to health and improve the health and well-being of our community beyond the walls of the hospital. Thanks to the generosity of our staff, medical staff and community donors, we expanded our Community Paramedic Program and Inpatient Food Pantry and bolstered our Patient Assistance Fund. These programs provide needed resources to our most vulnerable patients, contributing to reduced readmissions and better health outcomes. Our employees volunteered at more than 30 events in the community, providing health education and other wellnessrelated activities. Our Employee Giving Campaign raised nearly $100,000 to directly support the health and well-being of our community through our Foundation and the United Way Tar River Region. Several new providers and specialists were added to our medical staff to stabilize and expand our service line offerings in heart, urology, cancer, ENT and primary care. Looking forward, we developed a new five-year strategic plan with input from the community, medical staff, team members and a variety of stakeholders. The plan focuses on solidifying Nash as the region’s market leader, distinguished by ease of access, expanded service offerings, exceptional quality and patient experience and workforce and community engagement. As we live out our mission to improve the health and well-being of our community, I’d like to thank our dedicated team for positioning Nash to meet our community’s needs for years to come. Sincerely,

On the inpatient side, new care models improved efficiency and the patient and family experience. Our patient engagement navigators meet with every patient to answer questions and address concerns. We launched “First Touch Rounds” where the nurse and physician round on each patient together to discuss goals for the day and answer questions. We also implemented a new staffing model that allows nursing aides and licensed practical nurses to perform at the top of their scopes.

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Bill Lehnes Chair, Board of Commissioners UNC Health Nash

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I-95 NC 97 Aerial

COUNTIES

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH Despite setbacks, Nash and Edgecombe counties are ready to shine

PHOTO CREDIT: NASH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

ocky Mount straddles the Nash and Edgecombe county line. A railroad track, anchored by the Helen P. Gay Rocky Mount Historic Train Station, separates the sides. Like the Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses that rush through, the city and both counties are moving forward. It’s a rebuild, of sorts, interrupted by upended business investments and Mother Nature. In December 2021, a fire took out the QVC plant and distribution center in Edgecombe, destroying 75% of the $1.5 million building and putting 2,000 employees out of work. In May 2022, China-based Triangle Tyre pulled out of a $580 million deal at the Kingsboro megasite that was to create 800 jobs. Then last July, a tornado estimated at 600-yards wide ripped through Rocky Mount and touched down in Dortches.

“The most important thing that has “We continue to celebrate that by the changed downtown in the past year grace of God no one was killed,” says and a half is the hope of the downtown David Farris, president and CEO of the business owners,” adds Bryant. “Many Rocky Mount Chamber of Commerce. when we first met were not too optimistic, “We had well over 100 homes and they made sure to let me know with damaged or destroyed, but we really lots of passion. However, that has changed were very lucky.” tremendously. We are a big family working For officials in these counties 45 together to rebuild downtown.” minutes east of Raleigh, the focus is on optimism, not rearview mirrors. Rocky Mount Downtown Development manager Tanika Bryant saw potential in the town of 54,300 when she came from Kentucky in 2022. “What made me say yes to this job was the people,” she says. “Seeing their belief in the city, and downtown, as well as their passion to put the needed work in, along with the great food, friendly people and beautiful historic downtown, I was sold. A tornado in July damaged the Pfizer plant in Rocky Mount.

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Rocky Mount Mills hosts Chamber Power Breakfast with Superintendent of Public instruction Catherine Truitt.

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“We created a marketing campaign and have new shell buildings and are working really hard on workforce development campaigns with Nash Community College and N.C. Wesleyan (in Rocky Mount) to provide our industries with the resources they need,” she says. The Carolina Gateway Partnership, headquartered on Main Street in Rocky Mount, recruits industries to eastern North Carolina, specifically in Edgecombe, Rocky Mount and Tarboro. Its Kingsboro site, with a 400acre ready-to-go lot nixed by the tire company, is rated the No.1 megasite in the Southeast, based on a study by the state’s General Assembly. Partnership Vice President Oppie Jordan mentions three “very active” projects eyeing Kingsboro: a $4.2 billion C A R O L I N A

Crump Group and Millennia celebrate ribbon-cutting celebrations.

investment, a $2 billion investment that could bring 1,000 jobs and a third at $1.4 billion and 1,400 jobs. “If you add those three together, it’s more than $7 billion in investment and (with) one of them, we’re the only site in North Carolina they’re looking at,” Jordan says. “They plan to have a site picked by [the] first quarter 2024. We have a padready site ready to go, all the utilities and infrastructure in place and one of the best

PHOTO CREDIT: NASH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Four new apartment complexes have opened, she says, with another scheduled for December. “We’ve also welcomed roughly 10 new businesses downtown during my tenure,” she says. “So yes, downtown revitalization is very real for Rocky Mount.” On the Edgecombe side, County Manager Eric Evans says his leadership team last spring created four focus areas, including its being 99th out of 100 on a Community Health Needs Assessment, an evaluation required every four years by the N.C. Division of Public Health. “About eight or nine months ago, I realized we have a generic mission statement we’ve had for 20 or 30 years, but we never had a vision statement. We needed to describe that place on the hill that we aspire to get to,” Evans says. “Our goal is to have a task force for each focus area by the end of December and have our first meeting.” On the Nash side, Economic Developer Susan Phelps sees tangible progress in the county’s Strategic Action Plan crafted in 2020 to address infrastructure, workforce and housing.

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Downtown Rocky Mount, which is undergoing a rebirth, features several vibrant murals, including one of native son and jazz legend Thelonious Monk.

advantages is, we have the location. I mean, that’s more than 3,000 jobs.” Adds Farris: “Our economic growth continues to move the needle in a positive way. We have several business parks that are all receiving a lot of inquiries, and in some places, plans have been made to relocate or expand. After the tornado, we’re back in operation. That’s the best way to put it.”

Edgecombe: Get off the lists!

At a leadership retreat last March, Evans says, the question arose: Who do we want to be? “It’s a two-sided statement,” he says. “One side faces our citizens and asks who, and how, they want our county to be. The other side faces us and asks how we, as an organization, can help our county. We’re tired of being at the top or bottom of every bad list.” Influenced by that 99th-ranking in community health, the county adopted a pledge called Get Off the Lists!, hosted community engagement sessions in Tarboro, Rocky Mount and virtually, and established four focus areas: youth and families, affordable housing, education and workforce development and health equity.

PHOTO CREDIT: CITY OF ROCKY MOUNT

The Rocky Mount Sports Complex features sports fields, disc golf, picnic shelters and a walking trail, as well as basketball and volleyball courts.

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Pfizer plant is coming back, Win Academy student and Nashville Business Center site map.

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Tarboro campus and online, and Edgecombe Works! Earn as You Learn for county employees to increase their skill sets. The Turning Point Workforce Development Board in Rocky Mount, one of 23 such boards in the state and part of NCWorks, is a non-profit governed by a board of directors in partnership with elected officials. Services include on-the-job training, incumbent workforce development, specialized training and company needs assessments. “They are a great resource for us,” Farris says. “They have direct ties with some of our largest employers like Cummins, Pfizer, Honeywell, Cheesecake Factory. They help get people onboard.” Cummins’ Rocky Mount Engine Plant in Whitakers, a 1.3-million square-foot factory that employs more than 2,000, opened in 1983 and in May marked the production of its 5 millionth engine. “We’re working feverishly to bring more jobs,” Evans says. “We’ve had the housing crisis, hurricanes, floods but the folks here don’t give up. We have the ingredients; it’s all right here. We can change the future of this county. I really believe that.”

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Nash: If they build it…

The Middlesex Corporate Center is 25 minutes from downtown Raleigh. In October, a life sciences company agreed to buy its 62,500-square-foot shell building and its 30-acre plot for $4.6 million. The company intends to create 72 jobs with an average annual salary of $78,000. “They have a five-year plan,” Phelps says. “They’re adding another 200,000 square feet. That’s why they needed the land.” In August, Nash County and the town of Nashville reached a joint agreement for the county to build a 40,000-squarefoot shell building at the Nashville Business Center, owned by the town. Construction will begin within two years. “Middlesex is probably our most active industrial park in the county because of the proximity to the Triangle, and we have another supply type company in that park that’s looking to expand,” she says. Andy Hagy, Nash’s Economic Development director, notes that the county has one of the few 1 millionsquare-foot sites in the region and is hoping to acquire a major logistics and SPONSORED SECTION

PHOTO CREDIT: NASH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

“My theory is we have all the right things, it’s just not enough. So, under each area, we have ‘existing efforts,’ and we ask, where are the gaps? How do we help these entities increase their positive output?” Evans says. “We need better funding, more collaboration, increased leadership abilities, all of those. That’s our model on the table. This is the lens we look through to make decisions.” The N.C. Department of Commerce shows Edgecombe with the secondhighest unemployment rate in the state on average at 6.1%. “It’s one of the many lists we look at. It stares us in the face,” Evans says. “So, I talked with the community college and said, we can have students apply for Pell Grants, we can have scholarships and student aid, but sometimes there’s still a gap.” Edgecombe Community College in Tarboro recently began its Edgecombe Works! Promise Program for high school graduates, county employees, jobseekers and the under-employed, with scholarships of $500 to $1,000 to cover transportation, child care or other needs so students can study fields such as auto repair, medication aide, nail technician, construction, nurse aid, real estate prelicensing and others. The community college added an Edgecombe Works! Office Skills Academy, taught at the

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distribution company, or manufacturing and distribution. “That’s the size of a couple of super Walmarts,” he says. “And at our I-95 and I-97 Industrial Site, we also have some hot property.” That 142-acre site, with access to highways, airports and the CSX Carolina Connector Intermodal Terminal, is billed as a “high priority for

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state incentives” because of Nash’s Tier 1 economic ranking. “It’s a love-hate relationship because you don’t want to be Tier 1, but with the incentives you do want Tier 1,” Phelps says. “We’re working really hard on a workforce development campaign to provide our industries with the resources they need, and that goes back to the community college

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and them providing customized training to help us grow our own.” A non-profit agency called the Strategic Twin Counties Education Partnership is working with K-12 students, she says, “to align coursework with what our industry workforce is.” In November 2022, towns in Nash County partnered with the county’s Board of Commissioners to create the Nash County Economic Development Alliance to focus on small business, entrepreneurship and downtown revitalization, thereby acknowledging a broader picture of business in the county. “In addition, we’re also supporting private landowners who want to see development on their land,” Phelps says. “And we’re working with them to get certified through the Duke Energy Site Readiness program.” In October, the North Carolina Rural Infrastructure Authority, a division of the Department of Commerce, approved $2.6 million in grants for seven rural communities in hopes of attracting $53.7 million in investments and creating 321 jobs, according to a release. Nash County, the report says, will receive $750,000 to assist with creation of a lift station and additional sewer line expansion for Middlesex Corporate Centre. This project will open up more than 170 more acres of the park for industrial usage.

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PHOTO CREDIT: NASH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Interstate 95 and U.S. 64 interchange, left, and progress shown in a N.C. 97 Shell building.

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Some good news

Several developments in the area show promise for the future. They include: • The city of Rocky Mount has applied for the Main Street America program, a division of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which coordinates with local communities to “bring economic vitality back downtown, while celebrating their historic character, and bringing communities together.” “We should find out in the spring,” Farris says. “We’re seeing the livework-play trend, and more and more townhouses are being developed on upper floors of our businesses that would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anything you’d see in a metropolitan city.” • In May, QVC sold its property to RMQ Ventures, listed as a North Carolina foreign limited liability company, for $20.8 million. Plans for its use haven’t been disclosed. •Nash Community College had its largest enrollment ever for the 202223 academic year at 16,007 students. “They, and Edgecombe Community College, work very closely with our manufacturing partners, and they pay

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close attention as technology changes,” Farris says. “Cummins (engine plant in Whitakers) is in the process of upgrading every piece of technology in that plant, and it’s one of the largest Cummins plants in the world. When you have partnerships and relations in the likes of Nash Community College and Edgecombe Community College and N.C. Wesleyan, it’s great for recruiting industries and seeing them expand, because they know they have the resources to train the workforce.” • In October, N.C. Wesleyan partnered with Rocky Mount to offer educational opportunities to city employees, to “develop practical skills that they can apply to their careers through certificate, undergraduate and graduate degree programs at N.C. Wesleyan University,” according to a release. The partnership allows N.C. Wesleyan to offer a one-time $250 University Award of enrollment in certificate classes to each Rocky Mount employee during their last semester of enrollment. •The CSX Carolina Connector that opened in 2021 on 330 acres near Rocky Mount joined with the Port of Savannah’s

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Mason Megal Rail Terminal in September for daily rail service. According to the release, with 37 weekly services, the Port of Savannah offers more containership calls linking more world markets than any other port in the mid-Atlantic or U.S. Southeast. Overall, what community leaders see is optimism. Says Farris, “I go by [residential/ business development] Rock Mount Mills every day and it looks like a Norman Rockwell setting, with the townhouses that overlook the river, the homes, the breweries and restaurants, the businesses and shops. It’s a beautiful place to spend the evening or start your day. We are excited about where we’re going. Everything seems to be breaking our way.” Adds Evans: “I think we have all the right ingredients. We suffer from some of the same problems as other places, but I think the difference is that we have everything here we need to move forward. It’s all available to us. We’ve got it; we just need to coordinate it and use it.” ■ — Kathy Blake is a writer from eastern North Carolina.

PHOTO CREDIT: NASH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

CSX Carolina Connector and food company SinnovaTek are two examples of the diversity in industry in Nash and Edgecombe counties.

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GREENSHOOTS

Revitalizing rural N.C.

STANDING TALL

North Carolina supplies Christmas tree to White House for record 15th time.

ow did Cline Church Nursery top the experience of delivering a Christmas tree to Vice President Kamala Harris last year? This year, the Ashe County business expects to present a 19-foot Fraser fir to first lady Jill Biden for display in the Blue Room as the official White House centerpiece to holiday decorations. “It’s such an honor,” says Amber Scott. “It’s the White House’s tree. It’s the people’s tree. It belongs to everybody.” Scott and younger brother, Alex Church, share the distinction of growing the White House tree at the business started by their parents, Cline and Ellen Church, in the early 1970s. The brother and sister have two children each, all four in Ashe County elementary schools. “We get to take our children and our families to the White House, which is so cool,” says Scott. Cline Church Nursery felled the selected tree on its approximate 700-acre Christmas tree farm in Fleetwood on Nov. 15 with the help of a cranelike boom truck. Traditionally, the donated tree gets delivered to the White House by horse-drawn carriage in a televised ceremony seen by millions. Getting picked to provide the White House tree involves more than luck. “It’s a competition,” says Jennifer Greene, director of the N.C. Christmas Tree Association. “Most people don’t realize that.” Church and Scott first had to win the state competition. Their peers at the National Christmas Tree Association picked their tree as grand champion at the competition held this summer in Minnesota, giving Church and Scott the honor of providing a Christmas tree to the White House. North Carolina farmers have now sent a Christmas tree to the White House a record 15 times since 1966. Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm in Avery County will receive the honor in 2024, having already won grand champion in the biennial competition. White House chief usher Robert Downing and grounds superintendent Dale Haney picked the tree on a visit to the Cline Church Nursery in October. “They said it fit the theme of the White House decorations this year,” says Scott. The tree has a nice shape and blue-green color. She says it’s 11½-foot wide. The Cline Family Nursery planted the seedling of the chosen tree in 2004, which means it likely started out as a seed in 2000, Scott says. Twenty-three years is a long time, says Scott, but even a 7-foot Christmas tree bought retail is likely 12 years old. 84

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Their parents planted seedlings in the early 1970s and harvested their first Christmas trees in 1981, Scott says. “My (younger) brother could drive any piece of equipment on the farm by the time he was 12,” says Scott. They are not new to the competition, either. Two years ago, the siblings were runner-ups in the contest, which meant they delivered the Christmas tree to Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband. “They were very gracious hosts,” says Scott. The vice president also bought an additional 24 trees – at retail prices, along with wreaths and garland from the nursery. “We got to go see all of our trees decorated on the property. It was beautiful,” she says. Christmas trees represent big business in North Carolina, says Greene, with the state association. In 2017, which represents the last figures available, some 850 Christmas tree farmers sold about $86 million worth of trees wholesale. Those numbers are based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture census, when trees were selling at about $21 wholesale. Current wholesales prices are more than double that, Greene says. New figures based on 2022 sales should be available in early 2024. The Cline-family business sells trees at its nursery but expects to sell up to 65,000 Christmas trees this year wholesale. The second-generation of the business gets the White House win, Scott says, but the founders – who are in their 60s and still active in the business – deserve the glory. “We competed for it, but we’re still riding the coattails of our parents who put in many years of blood, sweat and tears for us and built this business.” ■

BY THE NUMBERS Fraser firs represent 94% of all trees grown in North Carolina for Christmas trees N.C. farmers harvest 4.3 million Christmas trees annually North Carolina ranks 2nd, behind Oregon, in Christmas tree production

26.7% of live Christmas trees in homes across the nation come from N.C.

Source: North Carolina Christmas Tree Association

PHOTO COURTESY OF CLINE CHURCH NURSERY

BY KEVIN ELLIS

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