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began offering vaccines to anyone 75 or older – the first group in Phase 1b of the rollout – while continuing to provide doses to staff and residents at long-term care facilities and to health care workers.

Announcing the move to 1b, Brunswick HHS director David Stanley cited “the small number of vaccines available” in urging those who might not get an appointment to keep trying. Subsequent groups to be served include additional health care workers and frontline essential workers such as police officers, manufacturing and grocery store employees, teachers and child care staff.

MAXIMIZING TURNOUT

With the bar set high for achieving herd immunity, government and community leaders, individually or as partners, are devising campaigns to maximize the number of people who show up for shots.

Businesses are also considering the exact role they want to play.

On Dec. 16, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its guidance on COVID-19, clearing the way for company-mandated vaccinations.

Employers can now require employees to be vaccinated as a condition of remaining in the workplace. But management must consider reasonable accommodations for individuals with “sincerely held” religious beliefs or medical conditions that would make the vaccine contraindicated. Accommodations could include having affected employees work remotely or placing them in an on-site space less threatening to coworkers.

Dalton Green, a partner at the Wilmington law firm of Hedrick Gardner, said she’s received calls from area manufacturers about how management might handle the vaccination issue.

“This is uncharted territory, but everything we have right now even from the EEOC is saying it’s OK to mandate as long as you take the protected exceptions into account,” Green said. For employers, “I think it’s more of a concern about employees just not being on board, employee backlash and rocking the boat in that sense.”

A survey of 500 businesses conducted by Capital Associated Industries, a Raleigh-based human resources and management services firm, showed that only 5% supported a mandatory approach to vaccination.

“What we’re hearing is that most

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLINE SPENCER Line for life: Ronald Gregoire (left) assists Mike Rouse, 81, (in wheelchair) while waiting in line at the New Hanover County Health and Human Services Building to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

employers will strongly encourage it but will not mandate that in order to work at their location that they have to have the vaccine,” said Molly Hegeman, CAI’s chief strategy officer. Businesses will continue to focus on the “3Ws” – wear a mask, watch your distance, wash your hands – as they discuss safety with employees, she said.

At the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Chancellor Jose Sartarelli pledged to work with county health officials to “facilitate and strongly encourage” the vaccination of students, faculty and staff.

“Our campus has served as a vaccination site in the past, and our campus health experts are ready to provide that service again,” Sartarelli said in a statement. Inoculation of most students will occur during Phase 5. A record 17,915 students were enrolled at UNCW last fall.

Cape Fear Community College is also encouraging its students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated and will assist New Hanover and Pender counties in promoting their vaccination programs.

As vaccine supplies start becoming more predictable, leaders of community organizations will step up their efforts to ensure that individuals in historically underserved neighborhoods are not left behind.

EDUCATE AND PROTECT

In New Hanover County, the NAACP has spent months trying to “support people, protect people and educate people,” said Deborah Maxwell, the group’s district president, including distributing “thousands” of masks to both adults and children.

“We had McDonald’s coupons. If we saw a kid with a mask on, we gave him a coupon” while encouraging mask-free kids to don one, she said.

Now, Maxwell is working with the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County to identify locations in largely Black neighborhoods where sizeable numbers of people can be inoculated without worrying about transportation. She counts the MLK Center on Eighth Street in Wilmington, gymnasiums and houses of worship as potential sites.

With only four in 10 Black adults telling pollsters they will definitely or probably get vaccinated, Maxwell said it’s incumbent on civic leaders to persuade reluctant individuals to show up for a shot. Black people are 3.7 times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 and 2.8 times more likely to die from it than white non-Hispanic people, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thousands of Black and Latino people took part in Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Phase 3 clinical trials, Maxwell and health officials are telling the undecided.

Outreach to Latino residents will be done in part by using written and oral translations and through Facebook.

“It’s going to be a long time before we reach herd immunity status and for people that are vaccinated the better it will be to reach that moment, especially in congregate areas like public housing, apartment complexes, people who are essential workers coming in direct contact,” the NAACP leader said of the anti-virus campaign.

On Jan. 12, the Trump Administration announced a change in vaccination distribution, calling on states to immediately make eligible to receive shots those 65 and older and those under 65 whose underlying health conditions make them more vulnerable to succumbing to COVID-19.

Send information about company hires, promotions or awards to editor@wilmingtonbiz.com Topsail chamber hires executive director The Greater Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce has hired KAREN WILLIAMS BURTON as its new executive director, according

Burton to a news release. The Topsail chamber serves businesses from Scotts Hill to Sneads Ferry, including Topsail Beach, Surf City, Holly Ridge and Hampstead.

Burton, a longtime resident of Pender County, joins the chamber after a decades-long career in education. She served Pender County Schools for nearly 27 years until retiring from public education. She also worked with a private school.

Burton has served on the Burgaw Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors and is currently vicechair of the Pender County Tourism Development Authority board.

CAMS promotes Williams

Community Association Management Services has promoted NEALIE WILLIAMS to director of business development. Williams has spent seven years with Community Association Management Services (CAMS), a Wilm-

Williams ington-based community and condominium association management services company with locations throughout North and South Carolina.

She spent five years of her career at CAMS as a business development coordinator and has had a role in the company’s growth and expansion.

Williams spent several years working in real estate before transitioning into community management in 2014. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Angel Oak welcomes new mortgage adviser

Angel Oak Home Loans has added KELLY JENNINGS to its Wilmington office.

Jennings started his role with Angel Oak as a licensed mortgage adviser in December. The firm, established locally in 2017, has 14 licensed mortgage advisers at the Wilmington office.

Jennings, a native

Jennings of Wilmington, transitioned into mortgage lending after a 15-year career in law enforcement. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from East Carolina University.

Clancy & Theys promotes Douglas to manager post

Clancy & Theys has promoted COREY DOUGLAS to the role of project manager at the company’s Wilmington office. Douglas was previously an assistant project manager with the company.

Douglas He has eight years of construction management experience, including one year with Clancy & Theys.

In his new role, Douglas will provide contract administration, scope review, subcontracting, scheduling and schedule control, purchasing, subcontractor and vendor coordination, cost control and other related project functions.

Douglas earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western Carolina University. He also attended Virginia Tech University, where he took building construction courses.

Wide Open Tech adds account executive

Wide Open Tech has welcomed KRISTIN GLASS as a lead account executive. Glass has an extensive background in marketing and sales. She was previously an account executive at Sage Island. She

Glass also has 15 years of experience working in New York City and Los Angeles in a global capacity.

She has structured partnership deals for many top global brands including BMW, Rolls-Royce, American Express, Jimmy Choo and Bloomingdale’s. While at Sage, Glass oversaw various large accounts, including CloudWyze, CTS and Wells Insurance.