Meet Our Board
Executive Leadership
Eric David
President
Eric David is a partner at Brooks Pierce LLP. His practice focuses on business litigation, constitutional litigation, and media and communications law. After nine years in education, Eric earned a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication and a law degree from UNC Chapel Hill. While in law school, he served as editor-in-chief of the First Amendment Law Review. He lives in downtown Raleigh with his two sons.
Cherie Speller
President-Elect
Cherie Speller is a journalism graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked more than 30 years as a professional print journalist in North Carolina, in Greensboro, Fayetteville and Greenville, before moving to higher education. She directs student media programs in Pirate Media 1 at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.
Pauletta Brown Bracy
Treasurer
Pauletta Brown Bracy serves as Director of the Office of University Accreditation at North Carolina Central University where she is also Professor of Library Science in the School of Library and Information Sciences. She is a past president of the North Carolina Library Association and a recipient of its Distinguished Service Award.
Annette Privette Keller
Secretary
Annette Privette Keller is the Director of Communications for the City of Kannapolis, North Carolina. Her career spans municipal government, public education, and journalism, including prior roles with the City of Concord, the Town of Matthews, and as a newspaper editor.She is currently serving as president of 3CMA, the national professional organization for government communicators.
Board Members
Taylor Batten
Board Member
Taylor Batten is the managing editor of the Charlotte Observer. Taylor came to the Observer in 1995 as a business reporter and has held a series of reporting, editing and management roles since, including a decade as the paper's editorial page editor. He and his wife, Lauren, have three children.
John Bussian
Board Member
John Bussian, principal of Bussian Law Firm, has litigated libel and open government issues, as well as subpoenas directed to newsrooms, courtroom and court records access disputes, and circulation, advertising, and intellectual property matters in state and federal courts across the country.
Jessica Gisclair
Board Member
Professor Jessica Gisclair is a 2020 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to China. She serves as the Faculty-in-Residence Advisor to the International Living Learning Community in the Global Neighborhood at Elon University. Jessica served as department chair of the largest academic department for nine years. Her current research explores the effects of China’s quick leap forward to become the world leader in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030.
Calvin Hall
Board Member
Calvin L. Hall is the chair of the Department of Mass Communication at North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C. Born in Asheville, N.C., Calvin is also a former high school and college student media adviser and is also a member of the board of directors for Carolina Public Press.
Monica Hill
Board Member
Monica Hill serves as director of the N.C. Scholastic Media Association. Under her tenure, the association launched the Carolina Sports Journalism Camp, sponsored the 2012 Hazelwood Symposium and was instrumental in the development of the Chuck Stone Program for Diversity in Education and Media.
Phil Lucey
Board Member
Phil Lucey is the executive director of the North Carolina Press Association. NCPA represents newspapers across the state and has been supporting the public’s right to know and the interests of newspapers since 1873. Lucey joined NCPA in 2016. Prior to NCPA Lucey was executive director of the New Mexico Press Association from 2010-2016 and before that the advertising director of the New England Newspaper Association from 2004-2010.
Amanda Martin
Board Member
Amanda Martin is the Supervising Attorney in Duke Law School's First Amendment Clinic. After 30 years of private practice--representing media on libel and privacy, internet, and intellectual property concerns--she now teaches and works with students who provide pro bono representation for clients with First Amendment needs.
Rick Mercier
Board Member
Rick Mercier has served in local government for 15 years leading the Town of Garner's communications and public information efforts. Prior to that, he was a print journalist for more than 15 years. His reporting took him everywhere from various overseas locations to his current home in Clayton, North Carolina.
Kym Meyer
Board Member
Kym Meyer is a Senior Attorney and Government Accountability Lead at the Southern Environmental Law Center. Kym works both inside and out of the courtroom to advocate on a number of matters including climate change, government access and accountability, and environmental justice.
Bervette Carree
Board Member
Bervette Carree is the Vice President of News at ABC11/WTVD, the ABC Owned Television station in Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, North Carolina. She oversees the daily broadcast, digital and streaming news operations in three newsrooms, serving more than one million households across 23 counties. Carree is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years’ experience. She has held multiple executive producer and producer positions in top markets, including Atlanta, GA, and Philadelphia, PA and CNN.