A North Carolina native, Jordan has volunteered with HOBY since 2014, serving at over 18 local & HOBY Training Institute seminars, as a Facilitator, Director of Facilitators, Director of Programming, Vice President of the NC West Corp Board, and is in his third year as Leadership Seminar Chair of HOBY NC West. Outside of HOBY, Jordan currently serves on the Board of Directors of Authoring Action since 2017, an arts based leadership organization which has been a pioneering force in social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement for over 19 years, serving as Board Chair in 2019 and 2022. He served as the inaugural Chairman of Winston Salem Ambassadors in 2017, was named Riverrun International Film Festivals Volunteer of the Year in 2016, and is Junior Chamber International Senator #70375 and North Carolina JCI Senate Lifetime Member #207.

Jordan currently serves on the Winston Salem Regional Association Realtor Political Action Committee, and was named WSRAR Rising Star of the Year in 2017. He currently serves on both the Board of Directors of the Property Management Division, and Board of Directors of the Realtors Commercial Alliance, and is NC Association of Realtors State Political Coordinator for Rep. Larry Potts.

Jordan is a member of Leadership Winston Salem Flagship Class of 2021; his Leadership Action Team worked on behalf of SG Atkins Community Development Corporation, developing
a set of actionable items to facilitate home ownership in underserved communities in east Winston Salem.

Jordan graduated from High Point University in 2007 with a BFA in Performance Theatre, with additional film studies at UNC School of the Arts, and studied economic development at UNC Chapel Hill. He has appeared in over 75 commercials, stage plays, television shows, and films, and works at Baldwin Properties, specializing in property management, commercial and investment brokerage.

Connor Brady is a 2008 alumni of HOBY North Carolina and currently serves as a student affairs professional at NC State University. He oversees the operation of residential buildings, supervises a staff, and works to create a holistic experience for students who make their home on campus.

Connor earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Master of Science in Educational Leadership Studies at Oklahoma State University. His interest in student affairs is found in empowering students to find their niche within a university setting and empowering them to engage with all of its opportunities. This fall, Connor will begin the exciting pursuit of a Ph.D. in higher education!

In 2017, Connor’s peers elected him to represent their interests on the NC State Staff Senate, where he served two terms on the executive board. His service to the community and university led to his selection as one of four recipients of the University Award for Excellence for his division in 2019.

Outside of his professional role, Connor also serves as President of the North Carolina East affiliate of Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership, Vice President and Treasurer of the Raleigh Jaycees, and as a member of the Board of Directors We Matter Too, a nonprofit dedicated to providing resources and community for those experiencing mental health crises and their caregivers. In his scarce amount of spare time, Connor enjoys studying political history, traveling, spending time on North Carolina beaches, and watching Tar Heel basketball.

Karen Britton is the Landlord Engagement Specialist for the United Way of Forsyth County where she focuses on creating, fostering, and retaining relationships with landlords, property managers and investors.  In the three years Ms. Britton has been with the United Way her work has expanded to include renovations, assisting tenants with access to services and accessing assistance to ensure they stay housed, and the landlords stays successful.   Ms. Britton has been a realtor for 9 years, the past 6 here in Winston Salem which gives her a unique perspective on investor needs and tenant relations and is currently enrolled in Salem College studying Non-Profit Management.    She currently lives in Winston Salem with her two daughters who attend college at App State and Mary Baldwin University.  

Dr. Dustin Evatt-Young serves as the Director of the Highsmith Student Union at UNC Asheville. Dustin provides strategic leadership and oversight of student engagement and activities, leadership development programs, and student union operations. He has worked in higher education for over twelve years in the areas of student leadership development, campus activities, career development, equity and inclusion, and young alumni engagement. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Leadership Studies, First-Year Seminar, and Student Affairs Administration. As a scholar-practitioner, Dustin’s research focuses on the intersections between whiteness, privilege, and racial equity and inclusion in higher education. He has presented sessions on topics related to equity and inclusion and student engagement at a variety of regional and national conferences. Originally from South Carolina, Dustin received his Doctor of Education (EdD) degree from Appalachian State University, a Master of Education degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of Vermont, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communication from Winthrop University.

Zahra Wakilzada was born and raised in Afghanistan and took refuge in Pakistan in 2013 where her journey of activism began. She was only 14 years old when she began to question gender inequality in the society she lived and she started to write about her daily struggles for Afghan Women Writing Project, a project for Afghan women that is based in the USA, and her writings were published online.  After two years of living in Pakistan, in 2015, Zahra and her parents with her two younger sisters moved to the USA as refugees where she continues to write and advocate for gender equality. She started her journey of public speaking in 2016 by speaking at the University of Pennsylvania about Afghan women and girls and her journey of migration to the USA. She has spoken at many schools, universities, and events including George Washington University and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

In 2018, Zahra spoke in front of Goodwill Ambassadors, the Minister of Women’s Affairs of Afghanistan, the chairperson of the Independent Human Rights Commission in Afghanistan, the Executive Director of UN Women, and young leaders around the world at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York City. She discussed the dangers of child marriage and forced marriage in the USA and around the world. She was invited again in 2019 to speak about teaching consent and ending sexual assault at school and university and about her experiences as an Afghan refugee in Pakistan and the United States in terms of harassment. Zahra has been writing in Persian and English for years and some of her writings have been published in French. Her writings were selected in 2017 and 2018 among dozens of submissions and were performed at the United Nations on International Day of Girls.

She was HOBY-VA ambassador in 2017 and she was the societal speaker in 2018 and 2019 at HOBY-VA. She said that HOBY felt like home. She was loved, listened to, and encouraged. She described her HOBY experience as “life-changing”.

Zahra is currently a rising junior at Georgetown University, studying International Politics and Diplomacy Studies, where she holds several leadership positions including Restorative Justice Specialist at Georgetown University Student Association and The Editorial Board Member at The Hoya. Her life experience, love of writing, and passion for making a difference around the world have inspired her to pursue a career in politics. She hopes to contribute to changing the world for the better through public speaking, writing, and policymaking. 

Lisa, a Montana native, resided in Colorado for the past 30 years before relocating to Asheville as Executive Director. Prior to joining RiverLink, she was a nonprofit fundraising consultant and spent eleven years as the Director of Advancement for Colorado Rocky Mountain School. Lisa also co-founded Backbone Media — an outdoor industry specialty PR firm — and is a trained hydrologist with a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the University of Oklahoma.

Personally, Lisa is deeply committed to human rights and environmental issues. An international traveler passionate about most things outdoors, she is an avid trail runner, road biker, and climber. Lisa is the proud mom of daughters Sunni and Belle, both of whom were born in Cambodia, raised by Lisa and her husband Duane in the Colorado Rockies, and now are attending Smith College and Fort Lewis College, respectively. Lisa and Duane greatly look forward to immersing themselves in all that Asheville has to offer, and are eager to explore its natural amenities and outdoor pursuits. 

Lisa is honored to be joining the RiverLink team given the organization’s rich history and legacy promoting the environmental and economic vitality of the French Broad River and watershed and believes it is a tremendous responsibility, one that she looks forward to sharing with the talented and dedicated staff, Board, stakeholders, and community members.