Kody Kinsley serves as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. In his role, he led operational aspects of COVID-19 response, including purchasing and distribution of personal protective equipment, scaling access to testing, and contact tracing. In addition to the COVID-19 response, Kinsley leads North Carolina’s behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disability policies and systems. His work focuses on re-designing the public insurance system, combating the opioid epidemic, and improving operations of state organizations and the broader delivery system. His policy efforts have focused on supporting trauma-informed and resilient communities and schools, diverting and treating justice-involved populations, and increasing community levels of care. Kinsley’s past experience spans the public and private sectors, including positions at the White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, leading operations for a behavioral health care service provider in western North Carolina, and most recently serving as the presidentially-appointed Assistant Secretary for Management for the United States Department of the Treasury. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Brevard College and his master of public policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Eric Fotheringham is director of strategic academic initiatives in academic affairs for the UNC System Office. In this role, he serves as the project director for a number of adult learner and returning student initiatives, as well as grant-funded projects focused on expanding student success in innovative ways. He is the project director for the Adult Promise grant from the Lumina Foundation which, in partnership with the North Carolina Community College System, is expanding data analysis efforts around degree completion, developing a statewide, online platform for adult learners, and coordinating the development of prior learning assessment programs for both systems. Eric also works on research, evaluation, and assessment of strategic initiatives throughout the division and with the system’s 17 constituent institutions. Eric has served as an adjunct instructor for three years in the MPA program here at the School teaching courses on nonprofit management. Previously, he worked extensively in the public and nonprofit sectors working with immigrant and refugee communities throughout the United States, particularly Latinos in the south. He received his Ph.D. in public administration from North Carolina State University, a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Georgia, and a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University.

Selected Publications

Clerkin, R.M., and Fotheringham, E. Exploring the relationship between public service motivation and formal and informal volunteering. Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, 2017

Akos, Patrick; Greene, Jeffrey A.; Fotheringham, Eric; Raynor, Samantha; Gonzales, Junius; Godwin, Jeremy. The Promise of Noncognitive Factors for Underrepresented College Students. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice.

Stater, K.J. and Fotheringham, E. Mechanisms for institutionalizing service-learning and community partner outcomes. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement.

Evan Johnson is a teaching assistant professor at UNC–Chapel Hill. He previously served as a research fellow at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in public policy from the University of Wisconsin and the University of North Carolina. His research focuses on firm innovation and public policy, with specific foci including energy innovation, climate stabilization and the impacts of Federal R&D funding on high-tech firms. His published work appears in Research Policy and Energy Research & Social Science. He serves as Principal Consultant on two evaluation panels at the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, where he has authored reports for congress to aid in evaluating Public R&D programs for innovation and entrepreneurship. He has taught numerous courses in public policy and public administration, including research design, methods for analysis and evaluation, quantitative methods for policy analysis, and energy policy. His work involves heavy use of econometric, geo-spatial, and data science tools to solve economic problems in energy and innovation.

Tracy Miles is an independent consultant in nonprofit management, operational excellence, strategy development, and human-centered continuous improvement. In a career that includes private, public, and nonprofit-sector experience, from Fortune 100 companies to grassroots nonprofits, the common thread has been connecting, developing, and managing relationships and strategies for organizational success. Tracy’s work focuses on leading teams and empowering individuals of diverse backgrounds toward common goal achievement. Her facilitation efforts help organizations to develop a strategy that connects mission and priorities to outcomes, develop cross-functional and cross-sectorial relationships, analyze, and improve organizational and service performance, and increase public awareness.

Tracy’s past experience includes working for General Electric, John Deere, The American Heart Association, Girls on the Run, and serving as deputy director of the School of Government’s Center for Public Leadership and Governance. Tracy earned a B.A. in psychology from North Carolina State University, an M.P.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and also a Lean Six Sigma Certification.

Tracy works across the state and enjoys serving on nonprofit boards for organizations she is passionate about, including the UNC MPA Alumni Association.

Jerri L. Bland joined the School of Government in 2019 as an adjunct instructor with the MPA program. Jerri is the managing director and virtual CIO for Cloud CIO. Bland previously served as the deputy chief information officer for Columbia University and assistant vice chancellor for enterprise applications for The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After 20 years of implementing enterprise-level application and business process technology for government agencies and higher education institutions, Bland refocused her talents to help organizations maximize their technology investments. Jerri believes that a positive connection between people, processes, and technology is a pivotal component to achieve operational goals. Bland also works with minority-serving institutions and surrounding communities to improve technology capacity and maximize workforce development opportunities. Bland is a project management professional (PMP) and a Six Sigma Green Belt. Bland has a BA from the University of New Orleans, a MPA from UNC-Chapel Hill, and a doctorate in higher education administration from The George Washington University.

Emily Roscoe works and researches at the intersection of law, government, and information. Roscoe earned her MPA from UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government, her JD from UNC School of Law, and her PhD from UNC School of Information and Library Science. She has held previous positions in state government writing policies about public records management. Since 2010, she has been an advisor to the North Carolina Registers of Deeds Association on a variety of information management issues, including the drafting of new regulatory minimum indexing standards for real property instruments. She managed a more than $840,000 federal grant awarded to the School of Government and the School of Information and Library Science to facilitate the future of public information professionals with the understanding that stewardship of public information is a fundamental responsibility of a democratic society. She worked in various capacities at UNC’s Law Library, particularly in reference and faculty research support. Since 2016, she has taught undergraduates in the School of Information and Library Science in a course about retrieving and analyzing information for which she was awarded the department teaching award in 2020. Her research is currently focused on legal liability risks for public collecting institutions like libraries and archives and information privacy issues for government.

Selected Publications

Roscoe, E. Potential of Legal Liability for Collecting Institutions: An Empirical Study of Legal Claims Involving Collecting Institutions and a Comparison with How Legal Issues are Included in LIS Graduate Curricula (Dissertation)

Szypszak, C. and Roscoe, E. Privacy and Public Real Estate Records: Preserving Legacy System Reliability Against Modern Threats, 49 The Urban Lawyer 355 (2017)

Szypszak, C. and Roscoe, E. Registers’ Public Records in the Digital Era, UNC School of Government Land Records Bulletin #34 (Nov. 2010)

Tara L. Fikes joined the School of Government as an adjunct instructor in 2017. In 2014, she retired after 30 years serving as the housing, human rights, and community development director for Orange County, NC. In that role, she administered federal and state housing and community development programs and was instrumental in the county’s initial development of many affordable housing plans and initiatives. Fikes is an active member of various professional and community-based organizations, particularly in her local community of Durham, where she serves on the board of trustees for Durham Technical Community College. She earned a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina Central University, an MPA from North Carolina State University, and a doctorate in public administration from the University of Southern California.

Christopher A. Cody is a Principal Researcher at American Institutes for Research, where he serves as the project director for their postsecondary administrative data division and longitudinal studies work with the National Center for Education Statistics. Prior to joining American Institutes for Research, Cody was the director of research and public policy at The Public School Forum of North Carolina. While there, he was also a fellow with the education policy fellowship program sponsored by the Institute for Education Leadership. Cody earned his bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University, his master’s degree in public affairs from Western Carolina University, and his Ph.D. in public administration from North Carolina State University.

Selected Publications

Cody, C. A., Lawrence, K. L., Prentice, C. R., & Clerkin, R. M. (2022). Examining the relationship between board member selection criteria and board boundary spanning into internal, upward, and outward accountability environments. Nonprofit Management and Leadership,1-23. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21511CODYET AL.23

Joy Wilkins joined the School of Government as adjunct faculty in 2015. She is an advisor, speaker, facilitator, instructor, and author on community development, economic development, and leadership development matters. She has served as a senior public service associate with the University of Georgia, as a group manager and project director with Georgia Tech, as a researcher with the Metro Atlanta Chamber, and as a private consultant. Wilkins has delivered research, planning, and consultation services for clients in the United States and Canada. A Certified Economic Developer by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), she is also a registered mediator in the state of Georgia. She has an M.A. in city planning from Georgia Tech, a graduate certificate in real estate from Georgia State University, and a B.A. in sociology and political science from the State University of New York at Fredonia.

Sarah Towne has been teaching at the School of Government since 2017. After earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology and applied business, she spent a year teaching English in Mexico before pursuing a master’s degree in public administration at Appalachian State University. She moved to Washington, DC to pursue a doctorate in public administration and policy at American University’s School of Public Affairs. Her research focuses on public human resources management, workplace policies and programs, family-friendly policies, nonstandard work arrangements, gender, and diversity in the Federal Government. For three years, she served on the board for the Section on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations (American Society for Public Administration).

Selected Publications

Pitts, David W., and Sarah E. Towne. “Realizing the promise of diversity.” Handbook of Public Administration (2015): 366-381.

Towne, Sarah. “Developing Family-Friendly Policies in the Public Sector in Wake of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” In APSA 2013 Annual Meeting Paper. 2013.