Bill HolmesAssistant Secretary, Outreach and Rural Programming

Image of a man in a blue suit standing outside in front of two trees.

Bill Holmes is DNCR’s Assistant Secretary for Outreach and Rural Programming. In this role, he works across the department to connect its services and programs to rural communities and also to develop initiatives that improve quality of life in small towns.

He is a member of the executive team for Governor Cooper’s Hometown Strong initiative, an interagency effort to serve rural North Carolina, and also a member of the panel that selects the recipient of the North Carolina Rural Leadership Award.

He joined DNCR after working on the leadership teams at the North Carolina Department of Information Technology and the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor in both communications and legislative liaison roles. Bill began his career in state government as Director of Communications for North Carolina Speaker of the House Joe Hackney and was later the principal staff member for the Office of the Minority Leader in the House.

He spent 15 years as a journalist, working as an award-winning reporter and editor for his hometown paper in Mount Airy, The (Jacksonville, N.C.) Daily News, the Winston-Salem Journal and for the Raleigh Bureau of The Associated Press.

Bill earned a bachelor’s degree in English, a graduate certificate in Public Policy, and a master’s degree in Public Administration from North Carolina State University, where he is an adjunct professor in the MPA program. He received the department’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2018.

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