The Collective Voice Kevin Maurer

Maddie – an African-American woman living with her family in New Hanover County – is part of the American middle-class. But, as we talk, you’ll hear the reality of her every day from just making rent to overcoming systemic racism. The hope is these conversations will entertain and inform and give you another perspective to consider when you look at our community.

On this episode, we’re talking to Linda Thompson. She was selected by New Hanover County to lead its new Office of Diversity and Equity. The new department was announced in June. Thompson came from the Wilmington Police Department where she last served as Diversity and Inclusion Officer. We talk about the meaning of equity, how she feels like she was called to the job and her plan to build the department’s goals around feedback from the county’s employees and citizens.

On this episode of Collective Voice we’re talking to Andre Brown, a local attorney and community leader, about growing up as a Black man in Wilmington. During our conversation, we talk about how he felt isolated growing up in a working middle class neighborhood, how moving to Houston for law school changed his life and if he thinks race relations in our country will be better 10 years from now.

On this episode of the Collective Voice, we see the Confederate monuments through the eyes of three people. Terri Everett, a Wilmington resident who grew up in the region when it was segregated and is now running for Congress, Andre Brown, a local attorney and member of the African American Business Council and Chris Fonvielle, a historian and one of the region's experts on the Civil War.

This is community voice. My name is Kevin Maurer, director of community engagement for the Cape Fear Collective. In this episode, I’m talking to Terri Everett, a Wilmington resident and write-in candidate for the 7th Congressional District. Before retiring to the Cape Fear, she worked in the intelligence community. This podcast came after Terri wrote an email about her upbringing. She agreed to sit down and talk about growing up in a segregated society, the daily stresses of being Black in America and how JFK inspired her to a career in public service.

On this episode, we’re talking to Audrey Hart, director of the New Hanover Disaster Coalition, a collaborative group of faith communities, non-profit organizations, businesses and governmental agencies working toward long term hurricane recovery and disaster preparedness. Audrey and I talk about the uptick in COVID-19 cases, what we might expect over the summer and how to prepare for hurricane season in the midst of a pandemic.