By Theresa Opeka
Carolina Journal
Governor-elect Josh Stein has announced his choices for Cabinet secretaries when he takes office next month.
He made the announcements on Monday and Tuesday.
There are a few holdovers from Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper’s current administration, including Kristin Walker, who has been chosen to continue in her role as the State Budget Director, where she leads the Office of State Budget and Management, a position she has held since 2022. She lives in Raleigh.
Stein has chosen Eddie Buffaloe, Jr. to continue to helm the Department of Public Safety’s (NCDPS) as secretary, a position he has held since 2021.
The department has been scrutinized recently for failing to design or implement procedures to ensure that Hurricane Florence Disaster Recovery Funds were spent in accordance with the same-named legislation or that they achieved the intended results, according to an audit by State Auditor Jessica Holmes’ office.
The report came days after a separate report surfaced that the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) had ordered contractors to stop building new homes for Hurricanes Florence and Matthew victims and had stopped paying contractors in the process of completing construction projects.
Joey Hopkins has been selected to continue as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. He took over the position in 2023 when longtime secretary Eric Boyette retired. He lives in Garner.
Gabriel Esparza, of Charlotte, has been chosen to lead the Department of Administration. He has over 25 years of experience leading public and private entities. He is a former entrepreneur and American Express executive who served in the Biden administration as associate administrator of the US Small Business Administration.
He ran and lost in the Democratic primary for state treasurer this past March to Wesley Harris, a three-term Democratic member of the North Carolina House. Harris would go on to lose to Republican Brad Briner in the Nov. 5 General Election.
Esparza would replace Pamela Cashwell, who has been the secretary of the Department of Administration since 2021. Cashwell has been tapped by Stein as the next secretary of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (NCDNCR).
Cashwell previously served as senior policy advisor and chief deputy secretary for Professional Standards, Policy, and Planning at the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS), as assistant director at the North Carolina State Ethics Commission, and as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division and the Office of Justice Programs at the US Department of Justice and the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia. She lives in Wake County.
Cashwell will take the spot of D. Reid Wilson, Raleigh, who is the current secretary of NCDNCR. Stein has selected him to serve in the Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ). He previously served as NCDNCR’s chief deputy secretary and also as executive director of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina. Wilson also had leadership roles at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and as national political director of the Sierra Club.
Criminal Bureau Chief at the North Carolina Department of Justice, Leslie Cooley Dismukes has been selected to lead the Department of Adult Correction. She previously served as chief of the Criminal Division at the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and as an assistant district attorney at the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office in Charlotte. She lives in Raleigh.
Devdutta Sangvai, MD, JD, MBA, professor of family medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry at the Duke University School of Medicine, was selected to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
He is currently the president of the North Carolina Medical Board and recently served as president at Duke Regional Hospital and vice president for Population Health Management at Duke University Health System. Dr. Sangvai has also served as president of the North Carolina Medical Society and has been a member of the North Carolina Medical Care Commission.
McKinley Wooten, Jr., the current assistant secretary for Tax Processing, Research, and Equity at the North Carolina Department of Revenue, has been nominated by Stein to become its next secretary. The Kinston native has 30 years of public service, including as a civil magistrate in Wake County, Inspector General at the North Carolina Department of Justice, deputy secretary of the Department of Administration, and director and deputy director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.
Attorney and Air Force veteran Jocelyn Mitnaul Mallette has been selected for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. A third-generation service member, she has served on active duty in the Air Force for ten years. She served as an intelligence officer and a prosecutor in the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Following her military service, Mallette clerked for the Honorable Barbara A. Jackson of the North Carolina Supreme Court and was a partner at an international law firm.
Mallette currently serves on the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.
Cooper’s director of Economic and Pandemic Recovery, Lee Lilley, has been chosen by Stein for the Department of Commerce. He also served as director of Legislative Affairs during Cooper’s term and was legislative director for former Democrat Rep. G.K. Butterfield and advised various corporate clients at an international public affairs firm. He lives in Raleigh.
Staci Meyer, the current chief deputy secretary at NCDNCR, has been selected for the Office of State Human Resources. She has also worked as a special deputy attorney general at the North Carolina Department of Justice and as a commissioner and chair of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. She lives in Wake County.
Teena Piccione, Wake County, has been tapped for the Department of Information Technology.
She has worked at Google as the managing director for Cloud and Customer Engineering over Telecommunications, Media, Entertainment, and Gaming, at RTI International as executive vice president and chief technology officer, at Fidelity Investments as senior vice president and chief operating officer, and AT&T as vice president and leader of the Big Data Center of Excellence.
All of Stein’s nominees must be confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate.
Theresa Opeka is the Executive Branch reporter for the Carolina Journal.
