New NC Governor Names Cabinet Appointees

Just as his appointments to the WNC GROW Advisory Committee bring together people from throughout the WNC region, Governor Josh Stein has named people to head up each executive department who reflect his values and the needs of residents and businesses across the state.

The department heads also reflect the state’s diversity. His choices include the first Hispanic, first Native American, and first person of Indian heritage to serve in the cabinet, as well as three African Americans. Six are women, and seven are men.

NC Cabinet Officers

(in alphabetical order)

Eddie Buffaloe, Department of Public Safety. Buffaloe will oversee law enforcement, juvenile justice, emergency response and recovery, and homeland security efforts. He has served as head of DPS since 2021, when he was appointed to the post by outgoing Governor Roy Cooper. He previously worked in Elizabeth City government, a sheriff’s office, as a corrections officer and law enforcement instructor. He was a member of the NC National Guard for a decade.

Pam Cashwell, appointed head of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, has served as Secretary of the NC Department of Administration since 2021. She has previously served in the state’s Dept. of Public Safety, as Assistant Director at the state Ethics Commission, and as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division and the Office of Justice Programs at the US Department of Justice and the US Attorneys Office in the Eastern District of Virginia. Her heritage includes the Coharie and Lumbee tribes of North Carolina, making her the first woman of Native American background to head a cabinet department in North Carolina. Cashwell earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Leslie Cooley Dismukes will lead the Department of Adult Correction. Currently the Criminal Bureau Chief at the North Carolina Department of Justice, she previously was Chief of the Criminal Division at the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of NC and an Assistant DA at the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office in Charlotte. Leslie is a graduate of Duke University School of Law and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Gabe Esparza will oversee the Department of Administration, which oversees construction, contracting, property, and other business conducted by state government. He previously worked at the US Small Business Administration and has experience with American Express Corporation and with an innovative tech start-up company. He will be the state’s first Latino cabinet member.

Joey Hopkins, as Secretary of the NC Department of Transportation, will oversee all the state’s transportation infrastructure: bridges, roads, and highways, rail, aviation, and ferries. Appointed first by Governor Cooper in 2023, he is being retained as secretary by Gov. Stein. He previously held a series of roles within the department, including chief operating officer.

Lee Lilley will lead the NC Department of Commerce, the department responsible for the state’s economic, community and workforce development. He served under Gov. Cooper as director of economic and pandemic recovery, as well as director of legislative affairs, and previously worked for former US Rep. G.K. Butterfield and, in private industry, at an international public affairs firm.

Jocelyn Mitnaul Mallette, a 10-year veteran of the US Air Force and a third-generation member of the armed forces, will lead the NC Department of Military and Veteran Affairs. An attorney, she served as an intelligence officer and as a prosecutor in the USAF Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Following her military service, Mallette clerked for NC Supreme Court Justice Barbara A. Jackson and was a partner at an international law firm. A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and the UNC School of Law, Mallette currently serves on the state Real Estate Commission and as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Southeast Raleigh YMCA. She is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Junior League of Raleigh.

Staci Meyer, named as head of the Office of State Human Resources, will oversee the state government’s recruitment, hiring, and employee services, for state government. Under former Gov. Cooper she has served as chief deputy secretary at the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, and has also worked at the DOJ and the NC Industrial Commission.

Teena Piccione, Department of Information Technology, supervises and provides IT services to state government and oversees cybersecurity and broadband expansion. Her background includes working as a managing director of engineering at Google, Inc., as well as executive roles at RTI International, Fidelity Investments, and AT&T.

Devdutta Sangvai will lead the NC Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Sangvai is both a medical doctor and an attorney, as well as a professor of family medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry at the Duke University School of Medicine. In addition to roles as president at Duke Regional Hospital and vice president for Population Health Management at Duke University Health System, he has served as president of the NC Medical Society and is outgoing president of the NC Medical Board. Dr. Sangvai is a graduate of OSU and earned his MD at the Medical College of Ohio, his JD from North Carolina Central University, and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business. He will be North Carolina’s first Indian American cabinet member.

Kristin Walker is continuing in her role as director of the NC Office of State Budget and Management, which she has led since 2022. The OSBM oversees the state budget and provides financial and policy analysis for the governor and state agencies. She previously served as a fiscal analyst at the NC General Assembly and at the National Science Foundation.

Reid Wilson will lead the NC Department of Environmental Quality, moving from his previous role as Secretary of the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. He previously served as the Department’s Chief Deputy Secretary, as Executive Director of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, in leadership roles at the US Environmental Protection Agency, and as National Political Director of the Sierra Club. Wilson earned his undergraduate degree at Grinnell College in Iowa.

McKinley Wooten, Jr., has been named Secretary of the NC Department of Revenue, where he has most recently been Assistant Secretary for Tax Processing, Research & Equity. His 30+ years of public service include serving as a Civil Magistrate in Wake County, Inspector General at the NC Department of Justice, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Administration, and Director and Deputy Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts. A native of Kinston, NC. Wooten earned his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College and his law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law.