Meet Our 48th LBMH Speakers

Senator Jim Burgin

Senator Jim Burgin is a longtime resident of Harnett County and the current President and Owner of C & D Insurance. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of New Horizon Insurance Group, President of B.C. Property, Inc., a real estate development company, and he is a partner in John Heister Automotive, which owns Chevrolet and Chrysler Dodge Jeep Dealerships. Senator Burgin and his wife, Ann, have been married for 44 years and have three children and four grandchildren. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and graduated from the University of Knoxville. Senator Burgin is currently serving his fourth term in the North Carolina Senate, where he serves as Chairman of Healthcare, Appropriations on Health and Human Services and the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services. He is also a member of 6 other committees. Before his time as a North Carolina State Senator, he served two terms as a County Commissioner. He is passionate about helping North Carolina make positive changes for those affected by mental health challenges. He has traveled across the state to hold 14 Mental Health Town Halls with former DHHS Secretary Kody Kinsley.

Sydney Batch is a mom, attorney, social worker, and leader who never backs down from fighting for North Carolina families. She’s spent her career standing up for people, first in the courtroom and now in the Senate. As Leader of the North Carolina Senate Democratic Caucus, Sydney is the first woman and the first Black woman to hold the role. She leads with purpose and doesn’t shy away from hard truths or tough fights. Sydney believes government should make life better for people, not harder. She’s focused on protecting public schools, keeping costs low, defending reproductive freedom, and keeping North Carolinians safe. Under her leadership, Senate Democrats are working to break the Republican supermajority, restore balance in Raleigh, and hold extremists accountable. Because when power goes unchecked, families pay the price—and Sydney refuses to let that happen. A proud “Triple Tar Heel,” Sydney earned her undergraduate, law, and social work degrees from UNC–Chapel Hill. She and her husband, Patrick, run a small family law firm in Wake County, where they live with their two sons.

Renée earned her Bachelor of Arts, from Tufts University, and Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University concentrating in city development planning, and environmental planning. She also studied at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in the Master of Arts program. Throughout her career Renée has focused on urban and rural community development, along with natural and cultural resource preservation and conservation. Her positions have included: inner-city neighborhood housing director, environmental impact assistant project manager, grant writer for a Black land loss pro-bono law firm, conservation council coordinator, forestry program director for underserved landowners, and government relations manager for a mentoring program. In 2011 Renée co-founded Spirit Freedom, a non-profit that seeks to tell the story of Orange County through the lens of people of color. The vision of this initiative is to build bridges of cross-cultural understanding through the arts. In 2012, Renée was elected to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, re-elected in 2016, and in 2020. She served as Vice-Chair of the BOCC from 2018 to 2020, and Chair from 2020 to 2022. During her tenure, she supported community members in closing a landfill, paving an access road, building affordable housing, improving school facilities, preserving farms and agriculture, expanding broadband, providing tax relief, addressing climate change and elevating creative industries. Renée also represented Orange County on various local, regional and national boards. In 2020, Renée received the M.H. Jack Brock Outstanding County Commissioner Award from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. She also was recognized with service awards from the North Carolina Association of Black County Officials and the National Organization of Black County Officials. Renée is now a Member of the House of Representatives in the North Carolina General Assembly, elected in 2022 to represent District 50, which includes Orange and Caswell Counties. She serves on five committees: Appropriations; Appropriations-Information Technology; Education-Community Colleges; Local Government-Land Use, Planning and Development; and Regulatory Reform. In addition, Renée serves as a Board Member of the North Carolina Black Alliance, and is active in the North Carolina Democratic Party House Caucus, the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus, the Orange County Democratic Party, and the Democratic Women of Orange County.

Robert Murphy, PhD, has served as the Executive Director of the Center for Child & Family Health since 2004, a three-university and community collaboration focused on best practices in prevention and treatment of maltreatment and child traumatic stress. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Public Health, and a faculty fellow at the Center for Child & Family Policy at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy. A clinical psychologist with a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, he completed training and joined the faculty of the Yale Child Study Center, directing evaluation for the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence. Dr. Murphy is one of the developers of Family Connects, a brief, universal, postnatal home-visiting program designed to promote child wellbeing and prevent maltreatment. Family Connects is disseminated in more than 20 states or communities nationally. Dr. Murphy has been an investigator for two longitudinal randomized controlled trials of Family Connects that have demonstrated sustained improvement in infant, family, maltreatment, and health service utilization outcomes. He leads other efforts related to workforce expertise and intervention for children in out-of-home care in the child welfare system, as well as research on the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions for child traumatic stress.

Dr. Kane serves as the Chief Medical Officer and Primary Care physician for the THRIVE Program and continues to work and support the Matthew Gfeller Center and the Center for Study of Retired Athletes. After graduating from Gettysburg College in 1991 with a B.S. in Biology he attended the Uniformed Services University of the Health Services (USUHS) and graduated in 1995 with his doctorate in medicine. He completed his Family Medicine residency at Womack Army Medical Center and his Primary Care Sports Medicine fellowship at USUHS/Ft Belvoir. Aside from his time in medical school and graduate medical education he served most of his career as a physician with multiple units in the US Army Special Operations Command (Airborne). In 2018, he retired from the Army and joined the faculty in the Department of Family Medicine at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Kelly brings over 30 years of experience in providing and managing public services and supports for people with mental health and substance use issues, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and brain injury. In her current role as the Director of the NCDHHS Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services (DMH/DD/SUS), Kelly oversees the public community-based system for mental health, intellectual and other developmental disabilities, substance use, and traumatic brain injury in North Carolina. For the past 13 years, Kelly has served in multiple leadership roles within NC DHHS, including Assistant Director of Behavioral Health at NC Medicaid, Chief Operating Officer of NC Medicaid, and the Chief Quality and Population Health Officer at NC Medicaid. Kelly is proud to be a licensed clinical social worker and person with lived experience.

Senator Graig Meyer has served in the General Assembly for over a decade. He first represented Caswell and parts of Orange counties in House District 50 beginning in 2013. In 2022, he was elected to represent Senate District 23, serving residents in all of Orange, Caswell and Person counties. Sen. Meyer’s current legislative committee assignments include Appropriations on General Government and Information Technology, Commerce and Insurance, Pensions and Retirement and Aging, Regulatory Reform, and State and Local Government. In addition, he has also been appointed to serve on the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Local Government and the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee during the interim. As a trained social worker, Sen. Meyer approaches his public service with a desire to help people connect to the resources they need and focuses his legislative priorities on protecting those who are marginalized, vulnerable and oppressed. He has been a leading voice for public education and ensuring the state works to combat the climate crisis. Sen. Meyer also believes that every North Carolinian deserves full rights to justice and representation and that state government should work for the people. He has been recognized for his legislative leadership by Equality NC, the League of Conservation Voters and by the Young Democrats of North Carolina. More recently, he has received awards from the NC Open Government Coalition and the North Carolina Press Association for his efforts to maintain government transparency and defending the First Amendment. Prior to becoming a legislator, Sen. Meyer spent sixteen years working in North Carolina’s public schools and he continues to work with schools and youth-serving non-profits as a Partner and Chief Operating Officer of the APC Leadership Collaborative.

Representative Allen Buansi grew up in Orange County. He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife and their three children. He is a proud graduate of Dartmouth College (B.A.) and the University of North Carolina School of Law (J.D.). From 2017 to 2021, he worked at the UNC Center for Civil Rights and was the deputy director there, working in the areas of public education, environmental justice and land use law. He is currently a land use attorney. After being elected to the Chapel Hill Town Council in 2017, Governor Roy Cooper appointed him to the statewide Local Government Employees Retirement Board of Trustees, and there, he served from 2018 until 2021. He was elected to the North Carolina State House in 2022, and he represents District 56 (Orange County) in the North Carolina General Assembly.

Secretary Sangvai is a family medicine physician and a professor at Duke University. He is also a member of the North Carolina Medical Board. Prior to his role with NCDHHS, he served as President of Duke Regional Hospital and President of the North Carolina Medical Society. His work has focused improving access, developing the healthcare workforce, and making care more efficient. Dr. Sangvai is the first Indian American cabinet member to serve under a North Carolina governor.

Ben Ingraham is a United States Navy veteran who served as a Hospital Corpsman attached to the United States Marine Corps with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines out of Camp Lejeune. His service involved sustained exposure to high-stress and traumatic environments common to operational military medicine, experiences that continue to inform his understanding of trauma and its long-term impact on service members. In his remarks, Ben speaks to his lived experience with post-traumatic stress, a service-connected traumatic brain injury, and periods of addiction rooted in survival-based coping following military service. He reflects on the realities many veterans face after returning home, including invisible injuries, stigma around seeking help, delayed access to care, and the need for long-term, relationship-based mental health and recovery support. Ben is a licensed clinical social worker and currently practices as a therapist working primarily with veterans, first responders, and individuals affected by trauma and addiction. His clinical approach emphasizes trauma-informed care, continuity of treatment, and recovery as an ongoing, day-by-day process rather than a single outcome. He is also a husband and father, and brings a dual perspective—as both a veteran and a clinician—on the importance of accessible, sustained mental health and substance use services that support veterans before they reach crisis. His work and advocacy focus on bridging lived experience and policy to improve outcomes for military and veteran populations.

Dakota West

Dakota West received a Bachelors of Social
Work from Saginaw Valley State University. During her studies, she focused on child welfare. After graduation, she relocated to North Carolina and began a fulfilling career in child protective services. She has worked in both rural and urban settings in various investigative units including: investigations, on call/after hours investigations, and serious injury & sexual abuse investigations. She also serves as a respite foster care placement to support at risk youth who are placed out of the home. She is passionate about child safety, strengthening families, and advocacy. Outside of her professional role she enjoys volunteering in the community and spending time with her family. including her Safe Families for Children placements, and her two dogs.