Common Cause North Carolina Advisory Board
Dennis Burns, chair – Dennis is the current chair of Common Cause North Carolina. He is a partner at Technology Commercialization Group, LLC, an international life sciences business development firm in RTP. He has been a president/general manager of several North Carolina biotech or medical device companies before joining the TCG consulting practice. Previously Dennis had a 20-year career as a marketing and licensing executive at three Johnson & Johnson companies and at Richardson-Vicks.
Mary Morgan, vice chair – Mary was a longtime board member of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, which was co-founded by her father, former U.S. Senator Robert Morgan. She is an attorney with the N.C. Community Foundation.
Larry King, treasurer – Larry is a retired professor of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at NC State University. He has served on the Board of Common Cause NC since 1995, holding offices of chair, secretary, and now treasurer. His current interests include analyzing election results to evaluate gerrymandering’s threat to democracy. For 10 years he also has served on the board of the Women’s Center of Wake County.
Becky Harper – Becky has been a Realtor in the Triangle since 1994. She has been elected to six terms on the Board of Directors at the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors and also served on the NC Realtors Board of Directors. As a longtime member of Common Cause NC, Becky was the named plaintiff in our successful litigation in Harper v. Lewis to overturn gerrymandered legislative districts in 2019. She was also the named plaintiff in Harper v. Hall, another landmark case challenging gerrymandering, which forced revised congressional maps for the 2022 elections. She is the named respondent in Moore v. Harper, a case filed by the NC General Assembly that has attracted national attention. She has a BA in Political Science from Chapman University in Orange, California.
Gregory Jenkins – Gregory has a B.A. in Finance and an M.B.A. from the College of Business at Georgia Southern University. He currently works with the Town of Cary after previously working for the City of Greensboro and City of Statesboro. In addition to serving on the board of Common Cause NC, Gregory is a board member with Greensboro Municipal Federal Credit Union and the Women’s Center of Wake County.
David Meeker – David is a Raleigh entrepreneur, whose businesses include Carpenter Real Estate, Trophy Brewing and Runologie. He led the launch of the coalition NC Business Leaders for Accountability, which advocates for nonpartisan redistricting in North Carolina.
Mack Paul – Mack is a founding partner of Morningstar Law Group where he focuses his practice on zoning, land use, environmental permitting, public financing and public policy. He was a founding member of Triangle Growth Strategies and the Triangle Smart Growth Coalition, which brought environmentalists and home builders together on common growth principles. Mack earned his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, his M.S. in Education from the University of Southern California and his B.A. in History from Dartmouth College.
Deondra Rose – Deondra is an Associate Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and History at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. She is also the Director of Polis: Center for Politics and Co-director of the North Carolina Scholars Strategy Network (SSN). Her research and teaching interests include higher education policy, American Political Development (APD), political behavior, identity politics (e.g., gender, race, and socioeconomic status), and inequality.
Phyllis Russell – Phyllis serves as a Budget & Management Analyst for Forsyth County. Previously, she worked for the Michigan House of Representatives as Policy Analyst and Director of Constituent Relations for District 1. She graduated from Michigan State University (MPA, BA)
Bill Sederburg – Bill advocates for broadband infrastructure as chair of the WNC Broadband Project. Bill has had a long career in politics and education. He served as a GOP State Senator in Michigan, a member of the Midwest Higher Ed Commission, president of Ferris State University, president of Utah Valley State College, and most recently interim president at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Mim Williams – Mim is a Federal Strategy Consultant at Deloitte Consulting, helping clients across the public sector change the way they do business to better deliver on their missions. Prior to Deloitte, she worked on Capitol Hill for a NC member of Congress and for Pew Charitable Trusts in their Government Relations department. Mim received a Master of Public Policy degree from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.