Meet our Board and Staff
WomenNC's board, staff, and interns are devoted gender equity advocates who are dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls in North Carolina.
Danie Watson-Goetz is a writer, editor, and social media manager that serves as the Executive Director of WomenNC. Danie’s work has always prioritized education and empowerment. Her previous work in higher education, justice reform, curriculum development and nonprofit operations especially drew her to this project because she believes that education is at the cornerstone of reform and equity. She holds an MA in Creative Writing, an MFA in Creative Writing Education, both from Wilkes University, an MBA from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, and a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke University.
Tamara Terry is a Research Survey Scientist and University Collaborations Relationship Manager at RTI International, with over 15 years of experience in survey research, project management, leadership development, and training design/implementation. Her wide range of experience includes managing and providing senior level support on numerous large-scale education, health, and social science research projects, in addition to the development support of research proposals and study design. Tamara serves on RTI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, the Executive Council for the American Association for Public Opinion Research, and the Board of Visitors for the School of Business at North Carolina Central University.
Beth Dehghan is a humanitarian and activist advocating for women’s human rights locally and globally, and she is also the fonder of WomenNC. Her unwavering commitment to gender equality has been showcased at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meetings since the Beijing Conference in 1995. Her vision and leadership has gained international recognition. Beth’s advocacy work extends beyond her local work. She has actively participated as an NGO representative at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. She attended the 54th session of the HRC in 2023, highlighting issues to advance the cause of women’s rights at the international level. Beth is also the founder of the NC Coalition for CEDAW and has served as a board member for several local and national organizations, including UNA-Wake, Wake County Commission for Women, Iranian American Community of NC, and the US Women Caucus at the United Nations. Beth’s educational background is in Biological Sciences. She and her husband are entrepreneurs. She has two daughters and one granddaughter.
Deidra has 24 years of experience in biopharma in sales, managed care, market access, patient access, operations, transformational change, health equity and has launched drugs and biologics across key disease states. She is currently the Associate Director of Reimbursement Marketing Operations at Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to joining Apellis, she worked at Novartis, Genentech, Amgen, Parke-Davis, and Prudential Healthcare.She has a passion for helping others especially women and has mentored colleagues in her industry and served on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion councils. Deidra also volunteers for the graduate chapter of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and serves on several boards including, Pearls in Partnership, Healthcare Business Women's Association, and WIL-LEN, Inc. Deidra studied Public Policy Analysis at UNC at Chapel Hill and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies from Meredith College. She currently, lives in Apex, NC with her husband Kevan and their doodles Maxwell and Romeo. She travels often with her husband to see her bonus children Samantha, Colin, Chase, Cameron, Carson, Cannon, and Mayson. Deidra looks forward to working with the WomenNC board "to continue to empower the next generation to advance gender equity in North Carolina".
Allyson Cobb is a Durham native who grew up in San Francisco, California. She is a proud daughter, sister, aunt, and friend who holds the values of justice, community, and family at the core of her being. Currently, she serves as the Director of Community Engagement at the United Way of the Greater Triangle. Leading with her core values, Allyson creatively cultivates strategic partnerships and initiatives that engage local nonprofits and corporations wanting to make a lasting impact in the Triangle community. From a young age, serving one's community is something that has always been her calling. Allyson is a Leadership Triangle Goodmon Fellow and was recently recognized by the Triangle Business Journals as a 2022 40 under 40 Leader to watch. She shared the following quote, to sum up, her belief in community and the work she does: "The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members." – Coretta Scott King
Gabriela Goodman is a research assistant at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Economic Security and Opportunity. She was a 2021 – 2022 WomenNC Scholar, during which she conducted a Durham-based study about the effects of child care access on parental employment and well-being. Gabriela graduated with a BS in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Luther Hodges Scholar and was awarded the 2023 Undergraduate Prize in Economics and the Kenan Institute’s 2022 James Johnson Policy Impact Award for efforts to alleviate socioeconomic disparities. While at UNC, her experiences included conducting research in the economics department, interning at the US House of Representatives, and serving as president of UNC Mental Health Ambassadors.
Crishon DJ Johnson is a litigation attorney with Brent Adams & Associates where she focuses on civil litigation matters. She has extensive experience in negotiations and enjoys finding creative ways to find client solutions. Crishon’s legal experience includes disability matters, injury claims, civil rights claims, contract disputes, and employment matters. Crishon attended the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in the University Honors Program at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, NC. She is licensed to practice law in North Carolina and is a member of NC Advocates for Justice, the NC Bar Association, and the Wake County Bar. In addition to joining the Board of WomenNC, she serves on the Board of Unity of Faith Family Worship Center.
Talia Chavis is an alumna of North Carolina Central University, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Health Education with Honors Distinction. She is a previous scholar, having participated in the program during the 2022-2023 year. Her research topic was Addressing Health Disparities: Would Black Women in Leadership Be Part of the Solution? She has a strong interest in health policy, research, and administration. She has interned with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of Health Equity and with Wake County Health and Human Services. Talia plans to pursue both a Master’s and Doctorate in Public Health. Her education and experiences during her collegiate career have shaped her into a champion for equity and change. Talia served multiple student leadership roles during her time at North Carolina Central University, including as an Honors Council member. In addition to the WomenNC Board, she volunteers actively on the Executive Leadership Team of The HBCUSTEMuLus. In her free time, Talia enjoys spending time with loved ones, reading, and following women’s basketball.
Lori Bunton is a retired pharmaceutical executive and longtime activist for women’s rights. She spent nearly 28 years working in established companies as large as Eli Lilly and instart-up biopharmaceutical organizations. Her career spanned sales, marketing and market research. Lori has previously served on the board of Planned Parenthood in TN. In N.C., she was Secretary and Membership Chair with the NationalOrganization for Women and President of the North Carolina Alliance for HealthyCommunities in Raleigh. She is past Co-President of the ERA-NC Alliance, where she has been a Board member for seven years, serving as Secretary and VPMembership for the Alliance and recently resumed a Board VP role helping with membership. Lori also serves on the board of ProChoice NC and as VP of Programming with AAUW ODC. She has served on the Advisory Board for WomenNC for over two years. Her other volunteer work has included career coaching with Dress for Success in Durham and moderating panel discussions for the social club, Gray Matters.
Lori has a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Tennessee. Lori has lived all over the U.S. and in Germany and now resides in the Raleigh-Durham area since 2007.
Wendee M. Wechsberg, PhD, is the Director of the Substance Use, Gender and Applied Research Program and Founding Director of the RTI Global Gender Center at RTI International. She is previous WNC Board President. She is also Adjunct Professor in Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University, and Adjunct Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Wechsberg is the developer of the woman-focused HIV prevention program, the Women’s (WC). She was awarded NIDA’s International Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2013, NIDA’s Pioneer Award in 2015, and RTI’s Margaret Knox Award in 2018.
Robin Downs Colbert is Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) ofAddiction Professionals of North Carolina (APNC), a membership organizationthat drives high standards in professional development, innovative addiction programs, and advocates for better health policy. APNC advocates for policies to ensure equitable access to prevention, treatment, recovery, and harm-reduction services and promote a greater understanding of addiction issues. Prior to joining APNC, Robin served as Associate Director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, where her duties included running programs to support incarcerated survivors. She is also the former Chair and Treasurer of the North Carolina Coalition Against Human Trafficking and is a consultant for the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center. In addition, Robin serves as the Victim Advocate North Carolina Judicial Branch appointee to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, a state agency that investigates and evaluates post-conviction claims of factual innocence.
Felicia A. Browne is a research public health analyst in RTI’s Substance Use, Gender and Applied Research Program. Trained as a social epidemiologist, Dr. Browne has more than a decade of experience working on HIV behavioral intervention studies for key populations at risk for HIV in the United States and South Africa. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Health Behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Browne currently serves as a Multiple Principal Investigator of a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded R01 study in health department clinics in North Carolina that is adapting and testing delivery methods of an HIV behavioral intervention for young African American women who use substances. Additionally, she serves as Principal Investigator of a UNC CFAR-funded implementation science project in collaboration with Mecklenburg County Public Health to reduce HIV disparities in the Carolinas.
Cynthia Ball is a native North Carolinian, born in Franklin County. She graduated with a BA in Psychology from UNC-Greensboro (Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude) and completed an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She continued extensive graduate work at NC State University in Human Resource and Organizational Development. Cynthia has worked in marketing and in university advancement and currently is a practicing certified mediator. Having lived in Wake County since 1983, she currently resides in Raleigh with her husband Dr. David Aspnes, Distinguished University Professor of Physics at NC State University. They are proud of their three children and six grandchildren. They have rescued many cats and dogs over the years, and several still give them much joy. In her third term on the City of Raleigh Civil Service Commission, she has volunteered for several non-profits over the years. She is serving in her third term at the NC General Assembly as State Representative for District 49 in Wake County.
She has long blazed a trail for women in both corporate and civic arenas across North Carolina. She is a senior corporate affairs and business executive who serves as an Executive Consultant with TVA. While she serves on multiple corporate boards, including Southwest Water Company and 8 Rivers Capital, she also lends her many talents to the nonprofit and academic sectors, with service on RTI International’s Board and as Chair of the Board of Trustees for NC A&T State University. She previously served 15 years on the Board of the N.C. Community College system and was its first woman and the first person of color to serve as its chair. Always an advocate for women, Hilda currently co-chairs Wake Invests in Women, a workforce development initiative aimed at closing gender wage and representation gaps in STEM occupations throughout the greater RTP area. Her commitment to girls’ education runs deep. She created the Hilda Pinnix-Ragland Girls Summer STEM Academy that operates in partnership with Wake County Schools, community centers and faith-based entities to provide underexposed rising 5th grade girls with unique opportunities to participate in a free week of summer academy learning.
Anne Hungate is an entrepreneur, technology executive, mother of two fierce young women, golf widow, and fitness enthusiast. As president of Daring Systems and Head of Strategic Delivery for VacoBuilt, Anne guides Information Technology clients through strategy and roadmap development. She coaches technology leaders on decision making, metrics, team optimization, and transparency. A champion for inclusion, Anne founded Launched2Lead, a platform and solution to help underrepresented populations transition from college to the workforce. The goal is to prevent further automation of bias and oppression by bringing diversity to the leadership table in technology fields – meeting emerging leaders at the most critical point of their careers, the beginning.
Sree is a customer-obsessed and results-driven cloud executive with two decades’ experience leading global technology organizations focused on enterprise adoption of emerging technology and cloud solution architectures. Sree works at Amazon Web Services as Director of Cloud Solution Architecture for the Southeast region.
As fierce community advocate, she also leads the local Business Alliance community network at Green Level high school.