WORKING FOR CHANGE

Nicole Bernard

Director of Shield North Carolina

Shield North Carolina is dedicated to eliminating human trafficking at the community level. After serving in a Durham-based anti-trafficking organization, Nicole Bernard recognized a need in Wake County for community-level protection for individuals vulnerable to trafficking. Shield North Carolina educates people in direct-service work on how to identify and interact with victims of human trafficking. It also advocates for policy change on every level of government and seeks to reduce demand for human trafficking by reducing consumption of products that use trafficking as a labor source. The group disseminates information in many ways: By consulting with groups, public speaking events, research resources, podcasts and even Bernard’s young adult novel, “A War Against the Cowbird.” Bernard hopes other communities will build similar shield programs focused on grassroots prevention and awareness.

Mandy Cohen

Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen’s department includes health care, child welfare and employment services, among many others. Her current primary focus is leading North Carolina’s COVID-19 response, in which her policies have emphasized slowing the spread of the virus through prevention efforts and increased testing capacity. Cohen has also focused on building long-term health in the community by encouraging people to take a more proactive approach to their health. “We really get to help people in many aspects of their lives, and at most of the levels where health is determined,” she notes. She aims to coordinate DHHS care systems to support one another in establishing the wellbeing of the whole person. Cohen’s mother, a nurse practitioner, made her aware from childhood of the health care system’s challenges, motivating Cohen to get involved in building health care policy as an adult. An internal medicine physician, Cohen ran North Carolina’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services before becoming DHHS secretary in 2017.

Eliz Colbert

Director, North Carolina Virtual Public School

North Carolina Virtual Public School, the second-largest state-led virtual education program in the country, allows North Carolina students to enhance their base curricula with subjects formerly relegated to metropolitan areas— forensics, for example, as well as many world languages and specialized advanced placement courses. Virtual courses also allow students who live far from business centers to learn about prospective careers from professional experts. As director, Eliz Colbert brings a rich history of outside-the-box teaching to NCVPS. She has led schools and classrooms focused on museum-based teaching, multi-age teaching and other innovative educational approaches. Colbert celebrates the support that NCVPS recently has been able to offer North Carolina’s teachers as they adapt to virtual education. From March through August, more than 40,000 educators enrolled in NCVPS classes to learn—from the experts— how to make virtual learning accessible and engaging for their students.

Chandra Cox

Artist and Professor of Art and Design at North Carolina State University

For decades, Chandra Cox has made community contributions as a public artist and university professor. She has designed many public art works, including projects at major transit stations in Charlotte where thousands of people interact with her work daily. Presently, she is working with the City of Raleigh on a commemorative design for Historic Oberlin Village, one of North Carolina’s first freedman communities. Through her position as a North Carolina State University Department of Art and Design professor since the 1980s, Cox introduced Art2Wear, a student-led fibers and apparel runway extravaganza that has launched student careers in textile and fashion design. She also initiated NCSU’s design studies program, which teaches history, culture and theory of design alongside traditional studio work. Cox has influenced many students, watching them go on to make extraordinary strides in design-oriented professions.

Mary Donny

Senior Manager, Global Event Management Center

The Global Event Management Center is a Verizon division that provides threat monitoring, risk analysis and incident management when emergencies arise. As senior manager, Donny is in charge of coordinating seven global crisis management teams that facilitate response and recovery operations so first responders can communicate during emergencies. Her work also enables people caught in catastrophic events to communicate with emergency responders and family members. If service goes out during a community crisis, Donny’s department is responsible for restoring it. Donny has served as Verizon liaison to state emergency operations centers, providing communication assets to emergency departments during times of crisis. She became senior manager of the Global Event Management Center after years of coordinating regional emergency response programs for the Eastern North Carolina Region of Red Cross and the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.

Cary Heise

Founder and Executive Director of Designed For Joy

Cary Heise already had a history of small business entrepreneurship when she met a Rwandan woman helping sex-trafficking victims support themselves through skilled artisan labor. Heise modeled Designed For Joy, a brand of leather bags, jewelry and home décor items, on this very approach. Her business partners with direct-service organizations to provide vocational support to vulnerable women in Raleigh. Women who have trouble finding employment due to criminal history, substance abuse history, mental health concerns or other difficulties can find a living wage at Designed For Joy, while also building skills, resumes and confidence. In the three years her business has been open, it has hired 35 women and paid nearly $90,000 in wages. “We are launching equipped women into the marketplace,” Heise says.

Maty Ferrer Hoppmann

Director, Centro para Familias Hispanas

Maty Ferrer Hoppmann directs Centro para Familias Hispanas (The Hispanic Family Center), a Catholic Charities USA organization that helps Hispanic families in Wake County integrate into the local community. The center, which emphasizes children’s resources in particular, helps families access community systems and resources, and find affordable housing. As director, Hoppmann wears many hats. In addition to serving clients directly, she oversees the center’s programs and represents the center on many city committees. She coordinates with nonprofits and government agencies to bring the center into different parts of the community and establish service partnerships. “It has been very powerful—when you help people restore their lives and restore hope,” she says. “And that’s what we do every day.”

COVID-19 has brought severe challenges for those facing hunger across the globe. Rise Against Hunger has been working around the clock to reach families in extreme crisis.

to a close, we invite you to give a holiday gift that might mean more to a family, or community, than any gift ever has before.

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Donate a gift that will have a lasting impact in the lives of people in countries around the world.

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TIPS FOR CARVING OUT SOME ME-TIME

BY CINDY HUNTLEY

With what feels like the weight of the world on your shoulders these days, it’s sometimes hard to prioritize self-care—but carving out the time to take care of yourself is important. We asked some of Wake County’s top local spas for suggestions on ways you and these hardworking women can recharge and reinvigorate your minds and bodies on a tight schedule.

• Start your day off right with sun protection. Meredith Harris of New

Life Aesthetics encourages wearing physical sunscreen containing zinc and/or titanium dioxide EVERY day—rain or shine, inside or out. Try New Life Aesthetics’ proprietary Purely Physical SPF 47, a gentle and lightweight broad-spectrum sunscreen designed for daily use.

• Reverse the signs of aging and smooth away frown lines with a Botox treatment at Regenesis MD—then add on vitamin IV nutrition to support your immunity and keep your energy level high. With no downtime required for these treatments, you can head straight back to the office after you’re done.

• Detox your body at Skin Sense’s Himalayan salt cave with a 45-minute session perfectly timed for your lunch break. The breathable particles used in this anti-inflammatory therapy will penetrate your body on a cellular level, drawing out toxins and impurities, and allowing your lungs and skin to absorb the nutrients your body craves.

• For those of you who are looking for medical-grade body-firming,

R&R Spa offers non-invasive ultrasonic cavitation treatments that last just 30–45 minutes and require no downtime. Or for similar results with a more spa-like approach, try R&R Spa’s Circadia

Body Treatment, a wrap that smooths and tightens, improving the appearance of cellulite and skin texture.

• Working from home? Treat yourself to an at-home facial with the

Museum Spa and Laser Center’s ZO Skin Health products. Start with the Getting Skin Ready kit and ZO Complexion Clearing

Masque, then apply the ZO Enzymatic Peel for overnight treatment.

You’ll wake up with refreshed and glowing skin.

• Unwind after a busy day with an aromatherapy massage at The

Umstead Hotel & Spa in Cary. The long strokes of Swedish massage aid in muscle relaxation and promote circulation throughout the body, while calming scents reset the body and mind.

• And last but certainly not least, be sure to take care of your skin daily by using medical-grade skin care. Kile Law of Blue Water

Spa says the levels of active ingredients in products available through plastic surgery practices are much higher than those same products sold in department stores or online. Law recommends

Blue Water Spa’s Saturday Night Peel Pads, which she says are as close to a professional facial as you can get. Designed to be used just once a week for two minutes or less, they leave skin with a youthful glow and refined texture.

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