Current student Emma Gilliam attends the North Carolina State of the Child Summit

This post was written by Emma Gilliam.

Emma Gilliam is a first year student in the MPA program at UNC Chapel Hill. She is the co-founder of the student organiziation Leaders for Good. Emma is from Hendersonville, NC and received her undergraduate degree from UNC with double majors in Political Science and Advertising/Public Relations.
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Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to attend the NC State of the Child Summit in Raleigh, hosted by NC Child and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. I joined fellow MPA student Lilly Parker, who is also my co-founder in Leaders for Good, a student organization we created to connect graduate students interested in the nonprofit sector. Lilly is currently studying NC Child in our Organizational Theory class and was the one who connected us to this summit.
The day brought together nonprofit leaders, educators, lawmakers, public health experts, and advocates to reflect on one big question: How are we doing when it comes to the health and well-being of North Carolina’s children?

We heard from an amazing lineup of speakers, including Erica Palmer Smith, Executive Director of NC Child. She asked, “Why can’t North Carolina be number one in children?” After all, we’re already #1 in basketball (sorry, Lilly, who’s from Kentucky), #1 in BBQ, and first in flight. So why not first in making sure our kids are safe, healthy, and supported?

Governor Josh Stein also took the stage and shared highlights from his budget proposal, which includes major investments in early childhood education and family well-being. He’s proposing to expand NC Pre-K, increase teacher pay, and offer free school breakfast to all students, along with a $300 stipend for teachers to buy classroom supplies. He reminded us that affordable childcare isn’t just a family issue — it’s a workforce and economic development issue. Right now, there’s only one childcare spot for every five families, and the average annual cost is higher than in-state tuition at UNC.

Throughout the day, we attended sessions that discussed foster care, disaster response, and food insecurity. The statistics shared were often tough to hear, like how 9.5% of NC high school students reported attempting suicide in the past year, but what came through was the need for system-level collaboration. Solving these complex issues will take shared goals, aligned policies, and sustained partnerships.

As someone from Western North Carolina, I was especially moved by the panel on Hurricane Helene’s impact. Communities are still feeling the effects of the storm, especially young people dealing with trauma. One therapist shared that many kids she works with have developed an intense fear of wind and rain. But I also saw examples of powerful community response, like the work of Centro Unido Latino Americano in McDowell County, which partnered with local government to provide translated resources and direct outreach to Spanish-speaking families.
Another session I attended focused on foster care, where I learned that 16,000 kids are in the system in NC right now. That’s not a small problem — it’s a complex, structural one. Every panelist emphasized the same solution: collaboration. We can’t solve problems like these in silos. We need shared goals, better policies, and a lot more resources.

One of the most unforgettable moments of the summit came from Rwenshaun Miller, a therapist and founder of Eustress, Inc. He held up two items: his UNC football jersey and a straitjacket. That stark visual showed his journey from student-athlete to mental health advocate. His mantra, “Be who you needed when you were younger,” resonated deeply. He now works with youth in unconventional ways, shooting hoops, drawing, playing video games, because he knows traditional therapy settings don’t work for everyone. His words were a powerful reminder of why so many of us pursue public administration: to become the kind of leader, advocate, or support system we once needed ourselves.

I left feeling inspired, motivated… and honestly, a little overwhelmed. There’s a lot of work to do, but this summit was a clear reminder that North Carolina is full of people committed to making things better for kids. As a public administration student, it reinforced what we talk about in class: that complex problems demand collaborative solutions. If we want lasting change, we have to work across sectors, across systems, and across differences, and do it together.