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Mebane Rash is the founding CEO and editor-in-chief of EducationNC, a nonprofit news outlet.
Since 2015, when EdNC launched, the audience has grown from zero to more than 1.2 unique readers and 2 million pageviews annually. EdNC has raised more than $20 million to fund its journalism to date, and it has also committed to raising money for others.
On the 10th anniversary of EdNC, Tim Griggs, Colin McMahon, and the Blue Engine Collaborative released this case study about the founding of EdNC, finding “they built a team whose talent was matched only by their commitment.”
She is the recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the Jay Robinson Education Leadership Award, the Friday Medal, and the Champion of Education Award. In 2021, Mebane was featured in Business North Carolina’s inaugural Power List of North Carolina’s most influential leaders.
Mebane is a public school kid, attending Irwin Elementary, First Ward Elementary, McClintock Middle, and East Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 1990 and the UNC School of Law in 1993. At the UNC School of Law, she was a member of the North Carolina Law Review. She has been a member of the North Carolina State Bar since 1993, and she is admitted to practice in both the state and federal court systems.
After law school, she worked for Carolina Legal Assistance, a mental disability law project, before joining the nonpartisan N.C. Center for Public Policy Research as the policy analyst from 1994-98, the director of law and policy from 2006-14, and the executive director from 2016-2021. She was an adjunct professor at the UNC School of Law from 1995-99, and she was an attorney for the ACLU-NC from 1998-99.
Mebane is the past president of the Board of Trustees of the national Governmental Research Association. In 2018, she was invited to attend the the Aspen Executive Seminar on Leadership, Values, and the Good Society. In 2013, she was one of 60 women from 25 countries invited to spend a week at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to study Women and Power: Leadership in the New World. She served on the inaugural Z. Smith Reynolds Leadership Council. In 1997, she was selected to be a William C. Friday Fellow for Human Relations, a fellowship for emerging leaders across North Carolina.
She has won national awards from the Governmental Research Association for most distinguished research, outstanding policy achievement, and most effective education of the public.
Mebane is a native of North Carolina, currently living in Deep Gap. She says, “We live in a purple state. For the first time in my life, there are more unaffiliated voters in North Carolina than Democrats or Republicans. I could see this happening as I grew up because on my block lived Harvey Gantt, and next door to him lived Mel Watt, and two doors down from them lived Sue Myrick with her son Dan Forest. Every day of my life has been spent playing and then working across party lines. Living a bipartisan life, I have learned the importance of finding common ground and that credible research and information can change minds.”
Mebane’s travel to all 100 counties, 47 states, and 35 countries informs everything she does.
Being on the road in schools and community colleges has been the greatest privilege of her life.
On Mebane
“A Lifelong Storyteller” is a profile about Mebane published in April 2021.
“Mebane has a passion for North Carolina few can match. She seeks out the stories of North Carolinians with a warmth and authenticity that is disarming and immediately sets folks to talking. She has never met a stranger, and if you are around her long enough, you will walk away with a renewed appreciation of this great state and the people who call it home.” — Todd Brantley, The Rural Center
“I always felt that Mebane heard what I said and what I didn’t say better than anyone. It was a safe place and a productive place to be when we could collaborate.” — Katie McMillan, School Leader
“She has this unique ability to make everyone she meets just feel really big. It’s her superpower.” — Donnell Cannon, School Leader
Publications
Author, “The N.C. Supreme Court Engages in Stealthy Judicial Legislation: Doe v. Holt,” 71 N.C. L. Rev. 1227 (1993), examining the doctrine of parent-child immunity.
Author, “Lobbyists Bearing High-Tech Gadgets, and Other Tales from the Latest Lobbyists Rankings,” North Carolina Insight, Vols. 15, No. 4/16, No. 1, pp. 88-97 (March 1995).
Author, Article II: A Guide to the 1995-96 N.C. Legislature (230 pages, March 1995).
Author, “The Evolution of Party Politics: The March of the GOP Continues in North Carolina,” North Carolina Insight, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 81-97 (September 1995).
Editor, North Carolina Focus: An Anthology on State Government, Politics, and Policy (817 pages, September 1996).
Editor, Pro and Con Arguments on the Constitutional Amendments Before the Voters on the November 5, 1996 Ballot: The Gubernatorial Veto Amendment, The Victims’ Rights Amendment, The Alternative Punishments Amendment (25 pages, September 1996).
Author, Article II: A Guide to the 1997-98 N.C. Legislature (222 pages, March 1997).
Author, “The Business Tax Burden: How Big a Touch on North Carolina Companies?,” North Carolina Insight, Vol. 17, Nos. 2-3, pp. 50-81 (December 1997).
Author, Shooting Blanks: Blank Bills in the Legislature Loaded with Issues Later, Working Papers by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research (July 2007).
Editor, “Special Report on Education in North Carolina,” North Carolina Insight, Vol. 22, Nos. 2-3 (181 pages, May 2007).
Editor, “The Future of Community Colleges in North Carolina,” North Carolina Insight, Vol. 22, No. 4/Vol. 23, No. 1 (228 pages, May 2008).
Editor, Reforming Mental Health Reform: The History of Mental Health Reform in North Carolina, Special Report of North Carolina Insight (135 pages, March 2009).
Editor, “The Art of Aging: Our Elders, Our State,” North Carolina Insight, Vol. 23, Nos. 2-3 (162 pages, March 2010).
Author, “North Carolina’s Behavioral Health Delivery System: A Historical Perspective,” North Carolina Medical Journal, Vol. 73, No. 3, p. 185 (May/June 2012).
Editor, “The State of Mental Health Reform in North Carolina,” North Carolina Insight, Vol. 23, No. 4/Vol. 24, No. 1 (135 pages, December 2012).
Author, Article II: A Guide to the 2013-14 N.C. Legislature (247 pages, March 2013).
Editor, “Evaluating Mental Health Reform,” North Carolina Insight, Vol. 24, No. 2 (July 2014).
Editor, Financial Aid and Tuition Policy in North Carolina: Access and Affordability to Higher Education (Fall 2014).
Editor and Contributor, North Carolina’s Choice: Why our public schools matter, EdNC, May 2024.
Co-Editor, Moving Forward: Issues that matter in cities, regions, and states, Governmental Research Association, October 2024.
All of Mebane’s publications for EdNC are available at this link: www.ednc.org/author/mrash/
Recommended reading
