Civic Engagement

Jul 30, 2020

Director’s Log | July 2020

Lifting Up the Laboratories of Democracy The past twenty years have given all of us a steady set of reminders of what it means to live interconnected and interdependent in… 

Jun 23, 2020

First in Future: Rev. James White on Juneteenth

Summary: Juneteenth or sometimes called Freedom Day, is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June… 

May 29, 2020

Civic Conversations In Time Of Pandemic

Summary: Leslie Boney, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, hosts a series of virtual conversations discussing the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) and some of the ways our state is… 

May 21, 2020

First in Future Remembers Andrea Harris

Summary: First in Future Remembers Andrea Harris North Carolina lost a really good citizen on May 20. Andrea Harris died at the age of 72. Andrea spent 50 years standing… 

Apr 29, 2020

First in Future: Paula Henderson

Summary: This episode of First in Future features Paula Henderson of SAS. We get to hear about growing up on a farm in rural eastern North Carolina and how it… 

Feb 11, 2020

First in Future: Director of community engagement at Forward Wilkes LB Prevette

Summary: We all know people in our hometowns or neighborhoods who have a way of bringing people and ideas together in a community, big or small. Some may call them… 

Nov 12, 2019

First in Future: Mayor of Troy, North Carolina Sherri Allgood

Summary: Being a mayor is hard. How do you deal with a bypass that diverts traffic around your city? Will improvements to a struggling part of town affect property values… 

Sep 24, 2019

First in Future: Institute for Emerging Issues Policy and Programs Manager Alicia James

Summary: At IEI, we’re getting ready for our next Emerging Issues Forum, ReCONNECT to Economic Opportunity, coming up on October 15 in Charlotte. It’s going to be a day focused… 

Aug 27, 2019

First in Future: President of the state association of County Commissioners Kevin Austin

Summary: The Institute for Emerging Issues recently provided a series of workshops at the state’s biggest gathering of underappreciated elected officials—the annual meeting of the North Carolina Association of County… 

Aug 20, 2019

First in Future: Director of the Mountain Area Workforce Board Nathan Ramsey

Summary: We are living in strange economic times. Right now we have a greater number of jobs in the US – 7 million – than we have people officially looking…