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Common Sense Staff

Email: david@common-sense.org

David was Research Director at Common Sense for over a year before he was named Executive Director in 2003.  He came to the Common Sense Foundation from the Durham-based Center for Death Penalty Litigation, where he worked as an investigator for three years. David holds an undergraduate degree in religion from Princeton University and a Master’s in Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. A Charlotte native, David has lived in Durham since 1996.

Common Sense Board of Directors

Mig provides consulting, accounting, and planning services exclusively to nonprofits on a variety of issues. She teaches courses through Duke University's Nonprofit Program and other organizations. Mig holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University as well as a Masters of Accounting and B.S. degree with Highest Honors in Business Administration from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Jillian Johnson

Jillian Johnson is longtime student organizer and has been active in the labor movement, anti-war movement, and human rights struggles. Originally from northern Virginia, she is a current resident of Durham, NC and an alumni of Duke University. She became the co-director of SURGE in August of 2006 and works to support the work of student activists in North Carolina. She has also done work in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Palestine.

Michael Gulley

Michael is the Director of Annual Giving and Stewardship at WakeMed Foundation. He holds a B.A. in sociology and history from the University of South Florida and has successfully completed the Duke Certificate Program in Non-profit Management. Before joining WakeMed, he was a senior development officer with North Carolina State University Libraries. He also served as the director of development for Curamericas and as the vice president of Workplace Campaigns with the United Way of the Bay Area, in San Francisco. Prior to his career in fundraising, he worked as a wilderness counselor for adjudicated juvenile delinquents in Tennessee. Born in Agana, Guam, Michael now lives with his wife in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Richard Hart

Richard Hart, a longtime North Carolina journalist, is communications director at MDC, Inc., a 40-year-old nonprofit in Chapel Hill that studies ways to close the gaps between people and better jobs. He works with MDC's projects to connect their insights and solutions with the media, policymakers and the community at large, and assists in writing and editing MDC's "State of the South" report and other research papers. Richard is a native of New Orleans and a graduate of Columbia University, where he earned a degree in urban studies and was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator. Since then, he has been a reporter, editor and columnist for newspapers across the South for more than 25 years. He was a reporter and editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh, managing editor of The Chapel Hill News, and was editor of the Independent Weekly, which covers politics, social issues and the arts in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill region He lives in Durham with his wife, Sally Hicks, and their two children.

Janelle Jackson

Janelle Jackson Janelle is an implementation analyst for Fidelity Investments. A New York City native, Janelle holds a B.A. and an M.P.A. from N.C. Central University and lives in Durham.

Caitlin Fenhagen

Caitlin is an adjunct professor of law at UNC-Chapel Hill, supervising the UNC Law School's criminal law clinic while on leave from her job as a public defender in Orange County. Caitlin lives with her husband and daughter in Carrboro.

Sarah Walls

Sarah is a Language Arts teacher at Carrington Middle School in Durham. Prior to earning an MA in Social and Cultural Foundations in Education at DePaul University, she worked in nonprofit youth programs and administration dedicated to leadership development and social justice. A Guilford College alumna, Sarah has lived and worked in North Carolina for more than ten years.

Jack is Dean of the Law School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1978 to 1990, he was an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc., in New York, litigating for clients in education, housing, anti-poverty and death-penalty cases. He is chair of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council.

Yolanda Carrington

A lifelong resident of Raleigh, Yolanda is a college student, writer, and activist. Her passions for social justice and human equality motivate her every day. Yolanda joined the Board of Common Sense in January 2001.

Stephanie Carter

Stephanie is communications director for the Center for International Understanding in Raleigh. Former press secretary to Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, she has had careers as a sports writer and lobbyist, and has managed a department of state government in the Dean administration. Stephanie arrived in North Carolina in 2003.

Becky Carver

Becky is the Executive Director of Cornucopia House Cancer Support Center in Chapel Hill. She serves on the Board of Directors for Planned Parenthood of Orange and Durham Counties, Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Orange and Durham, and North Carolina Community Shares. She actively opposes the death penalty, primarily through her membership in People of Faith Against The Death Penalty. In addition to volunteer activities, Becky enjoys dancing and gardening.

Randolph Cloud

Randolph is president of Randolph E. Cloud and Associates, a Raleigh based consulting firm specializing in government affairs and administrative management. Randolph grew up in Fayetteville. He has a baccalaureate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from East Carolina University. He is a former member of the Raleigh Appearance Commission, the administrative board of Hayes Barton United Methodist Church, and vice-president of the Raleigh Host Lions Club. He was appointed by the Governor to the Commission on Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse and by the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives to the Mental Health Study Commission. He has served on the board of directors for The Tammy Lynn Center and The Triangle Educational Advancement Foundation. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for SouthLight, an addiction treatment center.

Ruth Cook

Alan Kritz

Alan is a practicing hematologist-oncologist in Raleigh with Raleigh Hematology/Oncology Associates. He enjoys the reading of history and political science as a passionate hobby and continues to be interested in progressive issues and politics. Previously he has served on the board of the Upper Valley Jewish Community in New Hampshire where he was involved in development and membership recruitment.

Tracy Lovett

Tracy, a Durham native, is the District Liaison for Congressman David Price. She has worked on the staff of Congressman Price and Congressman Mel Watt, serving the Triangle area since 1993. She stays active in the community by serving on several boards. Her hobbies include travel and reading.

Dwight Mullen

Dwight B. Mullen serves as special assistant to the chancellor for diversity and multicultural affairs and political science professor at UNC-Asheville. He has developed expertise in the examination of the development of the social, economic and political nature of communities in Africa and their comparison to African-American communities in large American cities. His particular areas of interest are local government in West Africa and North Carolina, the delivery of social services, such as education and health care, and interracial/interethnic relations.

Jane Preyer

Jane is Southeast Regional Director and a public policy specialist with Environmental Defense. She manages policy strategy and Environmental Defense collaborations with other environmental groups and interested parties.

Steve Schewel is a Durham activist who co-founded and published the Independent Weekly for 16 years. He left that job in 1999 and is currently a "soccer mom" -- PTA president, basketball and soccer coach and a member of various boards. In January 2000 he became a visiting assistant professor in the Hart Leadership Program at Duke University.

Jane has been on the CSF board since its inception. She is an independent consultant in research and evaluation, a lecturer in the Maternal and Child Health Department at UNC's School of Public Health, and author of Empowerment and Women's Health: Theory, Methods, and Practice. Jane coordinated the issue of the Journal of Common Sense on public education in NC.

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