The Miss North Carolina Organization is excited to announce the following appointments to its Board of Directors:
Bree Branker Koegel, Director of Diversity and InclusionBree is thrilled to serve as Miss North Carolina’s Chairperson of Diversity and Inclusion. Bree spent the last 15 years of her career in New York City as a dancer and fitness professional and has settled with her husband and son in her hometown, Raleigh. She is currently pursuing a degree in government and legal studies from Harvard University Division of Continuing Education. Bree passionately believes that diversity starts at the ground level and looks forward to loudly working towards a more inclusive future for us all.
John Norris, Director of Miss North Carolina’s Outstanding Teen Program
John previously held the position of Executive Director of the Miss Capital City, Miss Clayton, and Miss Cleveland Scholarship Organization, where he founded and served for ten years. His organization was known for creativity and fantastic showmanship, being named Best New Local Preliminary, Outstanding Local of the Year, and multiple Local Production of the Year awards. Over the past decade, his local titleholders earned many Finalist, Top 10, Top 5, and 1st Runner-up placements at Miss North Carolina, as well as two winners of the MNCOTeen crown. Miss America 2019, Nia Franklin, won her first local preliminary title within the “Triple C” family as Miss Capital City 2016. His Miss America Organization efforts started in 1984 with the Miss East Kentucky Scholarship Organization as a dancer. John graduated from Pikeville College with a Bachelor of Music Education, where he attended on a music scholarship. He taught students at the middle school and high school levels, leading bands to state and national championship awards. John currently works in the pharmaceutical industry, managing global clinical trials in oncology.
McNeil Chestnut, North Carolina Educational Scholarship Fund
McNeil is a 47-year veteran of the Miss North Carolina Program with service on three local pageant committees before being chosen a Field Director. As a Raleigh Jaycee, he joined the State Executive Committee in 1984 and was soon asked to fill the newly created Chief of Field Operations post. He was ultimately selected as Scholarship Chair and one of the four Associate Executive Directors with responsibilities for local pageant operations, legal and scholarship matters.
McNeil was the founder of the North Carolina Educational Scholarship Fund (NCESF) and successfully qualified this entity as a tax-exempt organization. It was the first in the Miss America Program and is now followed in more than twenty states. When he was asked to return to the post of Scholarship Chairman for Miss North Carolina in 2014, he was also elected Chairman of the NCESF Board of Directors. NCESF annually underwrites over $100,000 in academic scholarship for the Miss North Carolina Program, making it one of the largest state scholarship programs in the nation.
McNeil is an attorney, adjunct professor of fiduciary law and administration at Campbell University, and currently engages in a legislative and government relations practice.
About the Miss North Carolina Organization
As an official state preliminary associated with the Miss America Organization, the Miss North Carolina Scholarship Organization is a part of the largest scholarship-providing organization for women in the world. Promoting an emphasis on academics and communication skills, the Miss NC Organization is considered a launching pad for young women to further their academic and career goals. For more information about volunteering or competing, please visit www.missnc.org.
