Louisburg College Welcomes Five New Members to Board of Trustees


LOUISBURG, N.C.—  Five new members have joined the Louisburg College Board of Trustees, effective September 2015. The new members include:LC Trustees

Sen. Chad Barefoot–Representing the 18th District, which includes Wake and Franklin Counties, Barefoot is one of the youngest members of the North Carolina Senate. In his second term, he serves as co-chairman of the Senate Education Appropriations Committee and the Workforce and Economic Development Committee. He is also a member of several other committees.

Prior to his service in the Senate, Barefoot served as a policy advisor to the North Carolina House Majority Leader.

He has been active in a variety of community and public service work, including an appointment by the Wake County Board of Commissioners to serve on the county’s Energy Advisory Commission. Each year, Barefoot volunteers for the Baptist Children’s Home of North Carolina by speaking to churches throughout the Triangle area about their annual Thanksgiving offering for children and families in need.

Barefoot earned a Master of Arts degree in Christian Ethics from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, and a Bachelor of Science degree with a concentration in public management from Appalachian State University.

He and his wife, Paige, have a son, Franklin, and a daughter, Louisa. The Barefoots are active members of Capital Community Church.

Sharon H. Bryson, M.Ed. –Bryson currently serves as chief operating officer of the North Carolina Association of CPAs, and will become the organization’s chief executive officer in May 2016.

Bryson is active in professional activities, serving as president of the Association Executives of North Carolina (AENC). She recently served on the American Institute of CPAs Future of Learning Task Force, a group which seeks new and innovative ways to teach future CPAs.

She has been an active volunteer, focusing her work on adoption. She is an Advisory Committee member to the Noah Z.M. Goetz Foundation, a nonprofit that provides grant funding and education about the adoption process.

Bryson received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her husband, Keith, have one son, Matthew, who is a current student at Louisburg College.

Commissioner Sidney Dunston–Dunston is serving his third term as chairman of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners, where he has served since 2004.

Dunston is pastor of God’s Vision Missionary Baptist Church and CEO of God’s Vision Ministries, Inc., a non-profit that operates a food pantry which feeds more than 12,000 people each year. The organization also runs an after-school program for boys between eight  and sixteen years of age.

Dunston retired from the North Carolina Department of Corrections in 2006 as a chaplain at Nash Correctional Institution. He also served on the Prison Chaplains Advisory Commission, appointed by Gov. Mike Easley. Previously, Dunston was administrator of a family chain of five rest homes in Franklin, Nash and Granville counties. His professional experience also includes fifteen years as territory sales manager for Helene Curtis, Inc., and division sales manager with the Frito-Lay Division of PepsiCo, Inc.

A U.S. Air Force veteran, Dunston earned a bachelor’s degree from Shaw University and a master of divinity degree from Shaw Divinity School. He is the father of four children and has six grandchildren.

Peggy Winstead –Winstead is a career educator who retired after 31 years of service in the Nash-Rocky Mount Schools as a ninth grade English teacher at Southern Nash High School and Southern Nash Junior High. She holds National Board Certification in middle grades education.

Winstead graduated from Atlantic Christian College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and earned a bachelor’s degree in Middle Grades Education and a master’s degree in education, both from East Carolina University.

She and her husband, Thomas, have two children. Brandy is a graduate of Louisburg College and Radford University, and works as an educator at Southern Nash High School. Their son, John Thomas, is a deputy with the Nash County Sheriff’s Department.

The Winsteads were major supporters of the softball training facility at Louisburg College which bears their name. They are members of Sandy Cross United Methodist Church.

Leonard Fairley–Fairley serves as Capital District superintendent of the North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church. He served several churches in North Carolina before becoming superintendent of the Rockingham District in 2005. He returned to the local church in 2012 as lead pastor at St. Francis UMC in Cary before being appointed to his current position in June 2015.

His church service extends to numerous boards and agencies of the Conference, and he has served as a General and Jurisdictional Conference delegate. Fairley’s mission work has included trips to Costa Rica, Jamaica, Montserrat, Zimbabwe, Haiti and the Appalachian Service Project.

The publisher of two books, Fairley earned degrees from Pfeiffer College and the Duke University School of Divinity. He and his late wife, Priscilla Ann Russell, have two children and two grandchildren.