WCU Stories      July 12, 2021

The North Carolina General Assembly recently appointed Joseph Crocker of Winston-Salem and  William Brawley of Matthews to the Western Carolina University Board of Trustees.

The board appointments are from July 1, 2021 hrough June 30, 2025. They are replacing outgoing board members Joyce Dugan and John Lupoli who completed their terms on June 30.

Crocker, who retired in December 2019, previously worked as the director of Local Impact in Forsyth County at the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. He is well known for his extensive civic career across the Carolinas. During his tenure with the Trust, Crocker implemented programs that improved the lives of Forsyth County’s financially disadvantaged residents.

Crocker’s prior positions included director of operations for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, assistant secretary for community development for the North Carolina Department of Commerce, and senior vice president at Wachovia Corporation.

Crocker is a WCU alumnus with a degree in business administration, and later pursued a career in banking services. He has additional finance training from the North Carolina School of Banking at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the National Commercial Lending School at the University of Oklahoma, and the American Institute of Banking, among others. Crocker lives in Winston-Salem with his wife, Carol.

Brawley served four terms as a state representative for District 103.  His most impactful bills include the Strategic Transportation Investments law, the Human Trafficking Restorative Justice Act, and several University Non-Appropriated Capital Projects bills. As a senior chairman of the House Finance Committee, he was involved in writing the budget and in tax reform. He served as co-chairman of the Virginia-North Carolina High Speed Rail Compact for six years. 

Brawley previously served two terms as a commissioner for the Town of Matthews and served 11 years as an appointed park commissioner for Mecklenburg County. He chaired the Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee, the Greenway and Trails Committee and the Strategic Planning Committee. Brawley served on the board of the Catawba Lands Conservancy, the Little Sugar Creek Greenway Steering Committee, and the 1992 Citizens Blue Ribbon Study Committee on County Governance. 

A North Carolina native, Brawley is a U.S. Army veteran and has a degree in accounting from UNC Charlotte. His career began in a Charlotte-based utility in 1978. His early use of computers in government filings and financial modeling led to a career in the application of technology.

Brawley changed careers to commercial real estate in 2004 and has been involved in infill assembly and property management. Brawley lives in Matthews with his wife, Lila.