Ms. Best has been the Senior Vice President of French/West/Vaughan since 2002. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from UNC-Chapel Hill, she worked with the Orlando Magic, the Charlotte Hornets and the National Basketball Association. She is a graduate of Leadership Raleigh and was the Leadership Award Winner of the Triangle Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” in 2007.

Ms. Aiken serves as Director of Regional Community Relations in the Regional Affiliations Department of WakeMed Health and Hospitals. Aiken holds bachelor's and masters degrees from Appalachian State University and a master of healthcare administration degree from Pfeiffer University. She was a 2010 Triangle Business Journal 40 Under 40 Winner and participated in Leadership North Carolina. Aiken sits on a number of boards of organizations across the state dealing with health and wellness issues.

Dr. Clarke-Pearson is a pediatrician at University Pediatrics at Chapel Hill North and at Sandhills Pediatrics in Southern Pines, NC. Clarke-Pearson received her medical degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill and did her residency in pediatrics at Duke University Hospital in Durham. She volunteers as the NC Pediatric Society Legislative Liaison and has won awards from the NC Pediatrics Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics for her work to educate parents and pediatricians on the importance of limiting TV-watching by children.

Dr. Earls, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician, is the medical director of Guilford Child Health (GCH), Inc., a large, non-profit, private pediatric practice in Greensboro, North Carolina that serves families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Dr. Earls holds a bachelor's degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, a master's degree in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, and a medical degree from the University of Massachusetts. She completed a pediatric residency and a fellowship in developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro. Dr. Earls sits on numerous boards and committees, including the North Carolina Pediatrics Society, the Governor's Early Childhood Advisory Council and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Sara Huddleston, Director of Human Resources at Johnson Lambert LLP in Raleigh, North Carolina, has joined the Board of Directors of Action for Children NC for the 2013-14 term. In her work role, she provides HR leadership and support for the firm's eight offices, oversees firm-wide recruitment and talent management, and researches industry trends for benchmarking and policy development. A graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, she received both her Master of Education degree with a Concentration in Human Resource Development and Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and German, and serves on the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors She is also a member of the Junior League of Raleigh.

Dr. Morris serves as Executive Director of Urban Ministries of Wake County. He is the past president of the N.C. Pediatric Society and is currently the president of the N.C. Pediatric Society Foundation. Dr. Morris received his bachelor’s degree cum laude from Georgetown University and an MPH and medical degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He also holds a master of divinity degree from Duke University. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of El Pueblo and has served as chair of the N.C. Farmworker Health Alliance.

Ms. Poss is the Senior Planning Analyst for Mission Hospital, in Asheville, N.C. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an MBA from Western Carolina University. She has served as the President of the Board of Directors of Children First/Communities In Schools of Buncombe County and on the School Health Advisory Council of Asheville City and Buncombe County. In 2007, she was the YWCA of Buncombe County’s Tribute to Women of Influence Honoree of the Year.

Dr. Stein is currently Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. From 2007-2009, Dr. Stein was a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University. She earned a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Child and Family in 2007. She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology, cum laude, from Columbia University, New York, an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill and completed an APA Accredited Clinical Internship in 2007 at the University of California at San Diego/VA Consortium.

Sara Weed is an attorney with the North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks, where she primarily supports the Non-Depositories Division, which regulates mortgage, consumer finance, and money service businesses. Prior to joining NCCOB, she was Operations Advisory In-House Counsel at Seterus, Inc. a mortgage servicing division of IBM where she provided compliance and general operations support. She was previously Policy Counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit, non-partisan research and policy organization where she specialized in foreclosure prevention and intervention strategies, providing technical support to state and federal advocates and policymakers. A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law, she has also worked in the legal departments at Grameen Foundation, the North Carolina Real Estate Commission, and Self-Help.