Jean Fisher Brinkley is NCMB’s Communications Director, a role that involves developing and overseeing production of communications materials and strategies needed to enhance public and professional awareness and understanding of the Board and its mission. She joined NCMB in 2008, after an 11-year career in newspaper journalism, most of it dedicated to reporting on medicine, health policy and the business aspects of health care.

Brinkley earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Mills College in Oakland, CA, and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Raleigh with her husband and two daughters.

You can reach Jean at podcast@ncmedboard.org

Karen Wallace-Meigs previously served as executive director of Communities in Schools of Orange County (NC) and Girls on the Run of Western North Carolina, as well as transitional executive director of the Council on Aging of Buncombe County. At Communities in Schools, she worked to bring health and nutrition services onto campuses to immediately address critical social determinants of health for youth. A former Durham Public Schools Teacher of the Year, Wallace-Meigs has held advancement positions at UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Asheville, and Pisgah Legal Services, and was coordinator of public information, volunteers, and grants for the Orange County (NC) Schools. A lifelong resident of North Carolina, she moved to western North Carolina with her family in 2003. Wallace-Meigs is a graduate of UNC Charlotte and holds a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University, a DEI certificate from Cornell University, and was a Fellow of the nonpartisan North Carolina Institute for Political Leadership. This fall, she will begin a specialized healthcare leadership certificate program. Among myriad volunteer activities, Karen Wallace-Meigs formerly served on the N. C. Council for Women, representing that body on the N. C. Domestic Violence Commission.