The North Carolina Cabinet was created in 1972 when then Democratic North Carolina Governor Robert W. Scott established it. It is an advisory body consisting of the Council of State, appointed secretaries of the state’s executive body and other staffers that the Governor appoints. After the Governor appoints them, they are then approved by the state’s senate, as it is their job to give consent for these appointments. Every Governor is able to select people whom they believe will do a good job in these roles, Governor Stein selected these members as he believes they will be the best able to support his goals and perform well in each position.
Chief of Staff Seth Dearmin has been involved in North Carolina politics since 2009, when he worked on then Attorney General Roy Cooper’s reelection campaign staff. Dearmin was also the campaign manager for Stein’s 2016 Attorney General race, and was the Chief of Staff at the North Carolina Justice Department starting 2017. Dearmin also has led several initiatives for the corporate, political and non-profit clients of the public affairs consulting group Nexus Strategies.
Budget Director Kristin Walker heads the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM). In this role, Walker leads the office in providing both budget and policy counsel to the Governor, state agencies and the state legislature. The office is also responsible for preparing the Governor’s budget recommendations which are then presented to the state legislature. Walker earned a masters degree in public policy from Duke University, and she worked as a fiscal analyst for the state legislature, where she advised both parties’ leadership on the state budget while remaining non-partisan. Walker has also taught a masters-level Public Budgeting Course at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
Staci Meyer is the head of the Office of State Human Resources. In this role she oversees hiring and recruitment, as well as providing services for state employees. Meyer was the chief deputy secretary for the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. She also has worked at the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a Special Deputy Attorney General, and she was also both the Chair and a Commissioner on North Carolina’s Industrial Commission. Meyer earned her Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from North Carolina Central University in 1990.
Secretary Leslie Cooley Dismukes leads the Department of Adult Corrections, which oversees all state prisons. Secretary Dismukes attended Chapel Hill where she earned a bachelor of arts in political science and government, and she then earned her J.D. from Duke. She was the criminal chief for the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Secretary Dismukes was also the North Carolina DOJ’s Criminal Bureau Chief where she worked closely with Governor Stein.
Secretary Lee Lilley is the head of North Carolina’s Department of Commerce. This department is in charge of economy, community and workforce development. He worked under former Representative G.K. Butterfield, who represented North Carolina’s First Congressional District for 18 years. Butterfield was in the House Democratic leadership, the Energy and Commerce Committee and was a Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Secretary Lilley was the member’s senior legislative strategist and policy advisor. He also worked at McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, based in Washington, DC. There, Secretary Lilley represented a diverse clientele, from Fortune 500 companies to start ups, before Congress and the federal executive branch. Secretary Lilley worked with former Governor Cooper, first as the Director of Legislative Affairs, and then as the Director of Economic and Pandemic Recovery for the state of North Carolina. As the Director of Pandemic and Economic Recovery, he coordinated statewide pandemic recovery efforts and led economic development initiatives under the Cooper Administration.
Secretary Reid Wilson heads the Department of Environmental Quality, which is in charge of overseeing all environmental resources, including air and water quality. Secretary Wilson was the head of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources under former Governor Cooper. He was also the executive director of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, a statewide nonprofit that advocates for land conservation and connecting people to the outdoors. Secretary Wilson also was the national political director of the Sierra Club from 1989 to 1993, where he managed the nation’s largest environmental political action committee. He also worked in the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), serving under former President Bill Clinton and EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner.
Secretary Teena Piccione heads the Department of Information Technology, providing information technology to state governments and overseeing cybersecurity and broadband expansion. She was the managing director for Cloud and Customer Engineering over Telecommunications, Media, Entertainment and Gaming at Google. Secretary Piccione has also worked at RTI International as executive vice president and the chief technology officer. RTI International is a nonprofit research institute that is dedicated to improving the human condition. She has also worked at AT&T as vice president and leader of the Big Data Center of Excellence.
Attorney and Air Force veteran Jocelyn Mitnaul Mallette is now the secretary for the Department of Military and Veteran Affairs. As secretary, Mallette is responsible for administering services and programming for active duty military and veterans. She was previously a Prosecutor and Special Assistant US Attorney in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, and she holds a J.D. from UNC Chapel Hill’s school of law. Secretary Mallette served for 10 years in the military, where she was an Admissions Advisor with the United States Air Force Academy, an Intelligence Office and a Wing Executive Officer. North Carolina has the fourth largest active-duty military population, and in 2023 North Carolina also had about 615,440 veterans.
Secretary Eddie Buffaloe Jr. leads the Department of Public Safety. In this role, Buffaloe is responsible for overseeing law enforcement, juvenile justice, emergency response and recovery and homeland security efforts. He was appointed by former Governor Cooper and has served in this role since 2021. He has over 30 years of experience in working as a law enforcement officer. The department has more than 21,000 sworn law enforcement and civilian employees, along with more than 13,000 North Carolina National Guard soldiers and airmen.
Secretary McKinley Wooten Jr. leads the Department of Revenue; the department collects taxes and administers tax laws. Secretary Wooten has spent 26 years working for the state of North Carolina. In his time working for the state of North Carolina he has worked in a variety of roles including: in the North Carolina DOJ as an Inspector General, who is tasked with detecting and deterring waste, fraud and abuse within North Carolina. Secretary Wooten worked within the North Carolina Administrator Office of the Courts as Director. He was the first African American to be the Director. In that role he oversaw and managed the $560 million budget for the Judicial Branch of government, which has 6,400 employees.
Secretary Joey Hopkins leads the Department of Transportation (DOT), which is in charge of overseeing roads, bridges, rail, aviation, ferries, highways and other transportation infrastructure. He was appointed to this role in 2023 by former Governor Cooper. Secretary Hopkins has worked at the North Carolina DOT for over 30 years in a variety of roles, including deputy chief engineer, division engineer, deputy division engineer, division maintenance engineer and division operations engineer, all within Division 5 where Wake, Durham and Orange county reside.
Secretary Gabriel Esparza leads the Department of Administration which is in charge of overseeing construction, contracting, property and other business conducted by the state government. He is the first Latino member of the North Carolina Cabinet. Secretary Esparza joined the department with more than 25 years of experience. He previously served as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Associate Administrator for International Trade where he helped to create jobs, provide expanded access to capital and advocate for American small businesses around the world. Secretary Esparza holds a masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business school.
Secretary Devdutta Sangvai leads the Department of Health and Human Services, which is in charge of overseeing Medicaid, food stamps, low-income and children’s services and a range of other social programs. He is the first Indian member of the North Carolina Cabinet. Secretary Sangvai is a professor of family medicine, pediatrics and psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine. He served as President of Duke Regional Hospital and President of the North Carolina Medical Society.
Secretary Pamela Cashwell leads the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and is in charge of overseeing the state’s resources for the arts, history, libraries and nature. She hails from the Coharie and Lumbee tribes, she is the first American Indian woman to lead a cabinet department. She was the secretary of the Department of Administration under former Governor Cooper.
These cabinet secretaries and key staff serve under the Governor and throughout the Governor’s term. The Cabinet and key staff are in charge of departments and work closely with Governor Stein to ensure that his priorities and goals are met.
