Chapel Hill Raised a Governor

ORANGE SLICES

By Laurie Paolicelli
Guest Columnist

Governor Josh Stein with Family.

If you want genuine insight into another person’s character, ask a former teacher.

Former Chapel Hill High School history teacher Freddie Kiger remembers the man who would be governor quite well. “While at Phillips Middle School in Chapel Hill, I taught a civics course in which students held a mock election. They had to go through the processes of a real campaign—declaring their candidacy, developing a platform, making campaign speeches, debating the issues and, finally, casting ballots,” Kiger recalls. “Josh won that mock election.”

Kiger also remembers Stein as “kind, confident and fun to be around,” with an early interest in public service and politics.

Years later, that Chapel Hill student is North Carolina Governor Josh Stein. His story is now part of North Carolina political history—but part of it began right here in a Chapel Hill classroom.

A Town That Teaches Public Service

Chapel Hill has a long tradition of preparing young people not simply for college and careers, but for lives of public engagement.

It is a community shaped by public schools, a major public university, civil rights activism, local government, journalism, the arts, and generations of residents who have believed that citizenship carries responsibilities as well as rights. Young people grow up around teachers, professors, attorneys, activists, scientists, elected officials and community volunteers, immersed in conversations about the issues of the day.

For Stein, those lessons began both at home and in Chapel Hill’s public schools.

When the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau recently asked Governor Stein to record a welcome for visitors, he readily agreed. In the video, he returns to those hometown roots.

“I grew up here, in Chapel Hill, a while back,” Stein says, recalling Seawell Elementary, Phillips Junior High and Chapel Hill High School. He remembers running around the Rainbow Soccer fields, playing on Chapel Hill High’s 1983 state championship soccer team, biking around town and cheering for the Tar Heels at Carmichael Auditorium.

“This town helped shape who I am today,” he says, giving him “a strong sense of community, education and purpose—and a bit of competitive spirit.”

Governor Stein Welcomes Visitors to Chapel Hill

Public Service Began at Home

The lessons Stein absorbed in Chapel Hill were reinforced by two powerful examples at home: his parents, Adam and Jane Stein.

Adam Stein was a pioneering civil rights attorney who practiced with Julius Chambers and James Ferguson in North Carolina’s first integrated law firm. It was consequential and sometimes dangerous work. The firm’s Charlotte office was firebombed in 1971, the same year the Stein family moved to Chapel Hill.

Jane Stein brought her own commitment to education, public health and community service. She pursued graduate studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, earning a doctorate in public health, and devoted much of her career to education, research, global health and expanding opportunities for women and underserved communities.

Together, Adam and Jane raised their children with the idea that ability comes with an obligation to serve others.

That lesson stuck.

Celebrating their birthdays together. Josh Stein and his father, Adam Stein

From Chapel Hill to Public Life

After college, Stein taught high school English and economics in Zimbabwe, and, after earning law and public policy degrees at Harvard, returned to North Carolina. Here he worked with Self-Help Credit Union developing affordable housing in Durham and, with the North Carolina Minority Support Center, raising capital for investment in small businesses.

Public service followed: senior deputy attorney general for consumer protection, state senator, Attorney General. As Attorney General, his work included clearing North Carolina’s backlog of untested sexual assault kits, pursuing opioid manufacturers and protecting consumers from fraud and price gouging.

Allen Buansi, a Chapel Hill native, attorney and North Carolina legislator representing House District 56 remembers those days well. A graduate of Dartmouth College and UNC School of Law, he served as Policy and Field Director for Josh Stein’s successful 2016 campaign for Attorney General and later worked at the North Carolina Department of Justice. Buansi also served on the Chapel Hill Town Council before his election to the General Assembly in 2022.

“From the first time I met Josh Stein, it was clear how deeply devoted he is to his family,” says Buansi. “He never missed an opportunity to speak proudly about his children. Even in the intensity of the 2016 campaign, he made it a priority to be there for their games and important events. Watching him balance the demands of public life with his commitment to his family was humbling and left a lasting impression on me.”

Representative Allen Buansi with Governor Josh Stein.

As governor, the same themes remain visible.

Stein has emphasized investment in public education, including higher teacher salaries and additional support for students and schools. In July 2026, he signed a state budget that included what his office described as the largest increase in starting teacher pay in nearly 50 years and the largest overall teacher pay raise in 15 years.

He has continued to promote clean energy and energy efficiency as both environmental and economic priorities and has advocated protections for LGBTQ+ North Carolinians and proclaimed June 2026 LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

Gov. Josh Stein’s sister, Gerda and mom, Jane.

The Chapel Hill Part of the Story

Today, Governor Josh Stein is happily serving the people of North Carolina, bringing the heart and values shaped in Chapel Hill to his work and striving to leave our state better than he found it.

Among those values is a belief in education not simply as preparation for a career, but as preparation to participate, lead and serve. For Josh Stein, that lesson began early—and, fittingly, part of it began right here in a Chapel Hill classroom.

Share your thoughts with me here, Laurie Paolicelli

Disclaimer: Published by Orange County’s Tourism Department through its Public Relations team, this story includes interviews and repurposed content from websites and partner press releases. For more, visit www.visitchapelhill.org or contact Laurie Paolicelli.

Laurie Paolicelli is executive director for the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau, a position she has held since 2005. Laurie has worked in tourism and marketing for twenty-five years, having served in leadership roles in Houston and California convention and visitor bureaus. She is a native of the Twin Ports of Duluth, MN/Superior Wisconsin. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Communications from the University Wisconsin-Superior and graduate certification in Technology In Marketing from the UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. This reporter can be reached at Information@TheLocalReporter.press