2022 Tar Heels of the Month became leaders in their field to make change in NC

What role do you play in changing your community?

Who has inspired you?

What does it mean to be a leader?

This year, as we highlighted and honored our region’s changemakers as Tar Heels of the Month, we wanted to know where they get the drive to do what they do every day. Who or what set them on a path to make everlasting changes in the Triangle, North Carolina and beyond?

The answers were revealing. For many, their parents were role models, providing examples of how stepping up and taking risks could have a positive impact on the greater good.

Others turned to mentors or contemporaries for guidance and inspiration. One dealt with a life-altering illness that forever changed their purpose in life.

While their journeys differ, they’re all leaders in their own way.

“It’s about showing up and doing the things that you’re trying to lead people to do,” Cheetie Kumar, the James Beard-nominated chef who owned Garland, said about leadership. “It’s about being vocal. It’s about communicating positively. It’s about knowing yourself, and therefore having empathy with others, for others. Leadership is about paying attention.”

Over the past year, The News & Observer has recognized the following people with North Carolina ties who exemplified leadership.

Here are the 2022 Tar Heels of the Month.

Pierce Freelon

Pierce Freelon grew up surrounded by creative Black people in Durham — people who used their voices to make change. Their influence has helped him become the artist he is today.

The musician, educator and former Durham City Council member could turn to his parents as examples to accomplish his mission. He’s the youngest son of Nnenna Freelon, a Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist, and Phil Freelon, the late acclaimed architect known for designing the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

When he was appointed in 2020 to fill the vacant Ward 3 Durham City Council seat, he was able to push for action on issues important to him, including finding solutions to gun violence. He did not run in 2021 to keep his seat.

His critically acclaimed children’s album, “Black to the Future,” earned a 2021 Grammy Award nomination in the Best Children’s Album category. He also contributed a song on the Grammy-nominated album, “All One Tribe.’’ He’s the founder of Blackspace, a digital maker space, and published in 2022 his debut children’s book, “Daddy Daughter Day.’

“I grew up in a creative family, but Durham was just full of creative potential and energy that consumed me,” he said. “I grew up going to church and being around incredible Black folks that had a lot of pride, history and legacy. ... I’ve always wanted to merge my art with activism.”

Carole Boston Weatherford

Carole Boston Weatherford has published over 60 books, mostly for children and often focused on major events or people in Black history. They’ve earned acclaim and prestigious awards from some of the top literary associations in the country and have raised awareness of some of the country’s untold moments.

But her 2021 illustrated children’s book, “Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre,” is making an especially big impression among readers and literary groups alike. The book, illustrated by Weatherford’s longtime collaborator, Floyd Cooper, has won a slew of awards, including being longlisted for the National Book Award and winning four American Library Association Youth Media Awards in January.

The awards are like the Oscars for children’s literature, and Weatherford won both a Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Book Award, which recognizes an African-American author of “outstanding books for children and young adults.”

Weatherford splits her time between Willow Spring and her hometown of Baltimore.

“We wanted to honor our ancestors, while at the same time frame the story in a way that young people could learn about the history,” she said. “Also empathize with the people who perished and also those who survived the massacre, as well as with their descendants.”

Debbie Antonelli

For over 34 years, Debbie Antonelli has broadcast college basketball games. She’s been on the call for ESPN, ACC Network, NBATV and many more.

The two-time Emmy Award winner was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2021. In June, Antonelli, a native of Cary, was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Antonelli now lives in South Carolina, but her ties to the state run deep. She was a three-year starter on the N.C. State basketball team, playing for a legendary coach, the late Kay Yow. Antonelli helped the Wolfpack sweep the ACC regular-season and conference tournament titles during the 1984-85 season.

Off the court, she has sought to raise awareness and money to help those with Down syndrome. Her middle son, Frankie, who has Down syndrome, inspired her to contribute to the Special Olympics through an annual fundraiser called 24 Hours Nothing But Net.

“Eunice Kennedy Shriver is such a role model for me because what I’m trying to with my fundraiser is the same thing she tried to do; try to raise money and opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to play sports,” Antonelli said.

Wes Moore

Being a coach has brought West Moore from a small school in Tennessee to one of the highest pinnacles of women’s college basketball, winning three straight ACC tournament titles at N.C. State.

At the end of 2022 regular season, Moore was named ACC Coach of The Year before leading his team to an ACC title and then the Elite 8 for the first time since 1998.

He took over at N.C. State in 2013 and has led the Pack to the NCAA tournament six times in nine seasons.

The wins and titles mean a lot to him. But what means more is the impact his players have on the community. Moore tells a story from the last NCAA tournament run that brings him to tears. Even though N.C. State hosted in Raleigh, Moore treated it like a road game. After the team went out for a team dinner at J. Alexander’s near Crabtree Valley Mall, diners gave the team a standing ovation.

“I get emotional,” Moore said. “It’s been awesome, man. I think it’s hard here because you have Carolina and Duke 30 minutes away. But, it makes it fun.”

Tim Stevens

Tim Stevens looks back at a 48-year career with thousands of stories written as a former high school sports reporter and editor for the Raleigh Times and later on, The N&O with which The Raleigh Times merged more than 30 years ago. He retired in 2015.

Stevens still tells stories beyond the newspaper — in documentaries about how North Carolinians contributed to the Vietnam War; in writing and directing church and history plays; and in bringing “The Wall That Heals” to Garner, a scaled-down but powerful Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Much of his artistic and community-driven work is through his Christian nonprofit, Show N Tell Ministries.

In 2020, Stevens was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, representing a crowning achievement for the lifelong Garner resident.

“I’m pretty sure the high school (sportswriter) is not going to win a Pulitzer,” he said. “So I thought the greatest thing that could possibly happen to me would be induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. So when that happened, it was just kind of amazing. But you sit there and say, ‘This award is not for me, it’s for all these guys that went out and covered games with me, for all these guys have worked with me, all these guys that have taught me. They’re the ones that earned it.’ I just received it for them.”

Cheetie Kumar

Cheetie Kumar, the James Beard-nominated chef, has inspired and delighted diners around the region and at her Downtown Raleigh restaurant, Garland. She and her husband, Paul Siler, opened Garland in 2013 after endless days on tour with their band, Birds of Avalon, to showcase Kumar’s self-taught culinary talent.

Kumar has been honored nationally for her dishes grounded in seasonal North Carolina ingredients and flavors of South, East and West Asia.

During the pandemic, with Garland shuttered, Kumar joined the national efforts of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, attempting to save the thousands of small American restaurants from ruin. It meant testifying before Congress, appearing on panels and making countless calls to state and federal lawmakers, making the case that it would take billions of dollars to save restaurants and their place in American culture.

This year, Kumar was one of four North Carolina chefs nominated for the James Beard Best Chef: Southeast Award. It was the fifth year she had been at least a James Beard semifinalist. She was previously a finalist in 2020.

The winning chefs and restaurants from North Carolina “cover the whole breadth of our food personality,” she said.

“It’s old, it’s rooted in local culture and local resources,” Kumar said. “But ultimately what makes us great is loving where we are and loving where we cook, and loving to feed people and welcome them into our homes and into our businesses. Sort of like Southern hospitality, I think that we kind of own it right now.”

Kumar and Siler made the difficult decision in August to close their restaurant.

Nora El-Khouri Spencer

After years in home renovation, Nora El-Khouri Spencer never met another woman in the field. All the general contractors she worked with, many making six-figure salaries, were men.

in June 2020, Spencer started Hope Renovations. The nonprofit Carrboro-based organization offers a free training program for women and nonbinary individuals to learn the construction and professional skills they need to land a well-paying job or apprenticeship in construction or to pursue further training.

“Our mission is to change the gender make-up of this industry and ensure that people that aren’t represented (can) have these great career opportunities,” said Spencer, a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill.

To further assist the community, Hope Renovations teaches the basics of construction and home repair so they can fix homes for the elderly and disabled.

This May, CNN named Spencer one of the network’s CNN Heroes, a regular feature that pays tribute to “everyday people doing extraordinary things to change the world.” She was named a finalist for CNN Hero of the Year in November, which came with a $10,000 prize and an opportunity to win $100,000.

She has aspirations of expanding Hope Renovations across North Carolina and then going national.

Jenny Levy

The list of achievements is long for UNC women’s lacrosse head coach Jenny Levy.

She has coached her team to three NCAA national championships, most recently with a 22-0 season.

She has the third most career wins in NCAA Division I history, and was named National Coach of the Year for the third time by the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association.

She coached Team USA to a gold medal in the 2022 World Championships. And she was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2021.

It wasn’t always easy to reach this pinnacle of success. She turned to other veteran coaches when she encountered struggles, including former UNC men’s basketball coach Roy Williams and longtime women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance.

Today, she finds enjoyment both in the team’s victories and in helping her players grow personally and connect with the community.

“(Leadership) means trying to help individuals and a team reach their full potential and maybe do something they never thought they could do,” Levy said. “I think it’s about empowering others to find the best versions of themselves, individually and collectively.”

Kate Bowler

When Kate Bowler was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in 2015, doctors told her she might not survive past a few years. She was just 35.

She defied the prognosis, and today, she shares stories of struggle and hope through social media, her “Everything Happens” podcast, best-selling books and as a professor at Duke Divinity School. She has attracted thousands of listeners and readers who follow her message of optimistic realism in the face of adversity.

She’s most proud of her honesty — her commitment to asking tough questions, knowing the answer will be hard to swallow. She’s proud of writing about it, then hitting “publish” for hundreds of thousands of people to read.

Her diagnosis taught her that the harder things got in life, the more she experienced joy.

“Since then, I think very differently about whether our lives add up, and how in a way you have to act as if things will be taken apart. Not might, but will be. And what good, lovely, true things remain.”

Pam Kohl

Pam Kohl has a reputation for uniting people for an array of causes, but some weren’t sure she could pull off her ambitious proposal: bring together UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University to accelerate the development of metastatic breast cancer treatments.

The idea of two of the country’s foremost cancer research centers — and athletic rivals — sharing information in the race to cure and treat breast cancer seemed impossible.

But Kohl, a cancer survivor herself, raised $1.5 million to establish the Komen MBC Collaborative Research Initiative. It’s an ongoing team effort that launched in 2020 between Susan G. Komen, the Duke Cancer Institute and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

As she continues her own battle with metastatic breast cancer, the most advanced stage of breast cancer, she is determined to help bring about the next cure, even if it comes too late for her.

“I know the treatment that I’m on now is going to fail,” she said. “They all fail, eventually. And I’m going to need the next treatment. And the next treatment, though, is personal for me.”

Christopher Chung

Christopher Chung has played an integral role in bringing companies of all sizes to North Carolina: Apple coming to Wake County. Toyota coming to Randolph County. VinFast and Wolfspeed to Chatham County.

Chung has also coordinated dozens of less-heralded job announcements that many predict will strengthen North Carolina communities from the mountains to the coast.

As CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC), he heads the public-private partnership that attracts new companies to the state and encourages existing companies to expand here. Business recruitment isn’t the organization’s only role, but it’s the one that gets the most attention since it started in 2015.

As North Carolina and the rest of the country emerge from the pandemic, the state has had a banner year for major industry announcements.

“I feel like after eight years, we still have plenty of room where we can always be better, but I feel like we’ve won the respect and credibility with a lot of the audiences, including groups that might have been doubtful about this concept eight years ago,” he said.

Penelope Blackwell, Kimberly Cataudella, Jonas Pope IV, Aaron Sánchez-Guerra, Drew Jackson, Kayla Guo, Kyle Williams, Colleen Hammond and Brian Gordon contributed to this story.