Community Activists Honored

Pictured from left to right: Mrs. Sharon West, Rev. Dr. Keith Ogden (holding grandson), and Mr. Gene Bell.

By Johnnie Grant

At its second annual Dr. Nilous M. Avery Community Achievement Awards Banquet, Hill Street Baptist Church honored two members of the Asheville community, Mrs. Sharon West and Mr. Gene Bell.

Mrs. West, Nursing Director of the Buncombe County Health Department, also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Asheville-Buncombe Community College and at the Duke University End of Life Institute and is Executive Director of the Asheville-Buncombe Institute of Parity Achievement (ABIPA). 

ABIPA promotes economic, social, and health parity
achievement for African Americans and other people of color in Buncombe
County through advocacy, education, research, health screenings, and
community partnerships.

In receiving the Achievement award, West stated, “All the things I do
are a passion, and even if it appears busy to others, if you have a
passion about something, it won’t seem busy – it’s what you’re called
to do. I want those people who nurture me to help with nurturing
others, and to know the disparity [in available health care] and health
information I know so as to be healed.”

Mr. Bell is Executive Director of the City of Asheville and Brevard
Housing Authorities. He holds a degree in Business Management from
Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio and has held various
upper-management positions in manufacturing, personnel, and marketing.
He has served on the Boards of Directors of private and public
organizations including the United Way, the YMI Cultural Center, the
Buncombe County Drug Commission, the Weed and Seed Program, and the
Advisory Committee for Economic Development. Reflecting his primary
interest in improving opportunities for youth and overall quality of
life for area citizens, Bell currently serves as chairman of the
Asheville Board of Education.

In his acceptance speech Bell stated, “If you want to be an advocate
for change, I challenge everyone in our Asheville communities to reach
out and help. It’s a burden of responsibility that demands we give back
to our community that which was given to us. By making this commitment
collectively, we can assure the positive changes we seek. In the words
of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Everyone can be great, because everyone
serve.”