Skip to content
Cohort 1

Jurisdiction: Fairmont

University: Appalachian State

Hometown: Charlotte, NC

Ryan Fenton served as fellow for the Town of Fairmont, where he worked closely with FEMA, the state’s Sheltering Temporary and Essential Power (STEP) program, and NC Rebuild to help the town and its citizens recover from Hurricanes Mathew and Florence. His work contributed to the receipt of over $1 million in FEMA assistance funds for the Town to repair and rebuild infrastructure. Fenton also assisted on multiple Community Development Block Grants and helped plan for the upcoming census. During his fellowship, Fenton served as assistant code enforcement officer and joined the Fairmont City Fire Department.

Fenton attended Central Piedmont Community College and Appalachian State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in international and comparative politics with minors in Africana studies and history. While at Appalachian State, Fenton was president of the International Relations Association and treasurer of the National Association for Business Economics.

June 18, 2025

In August 2024, Paloma Garcia-Serrano stepped into the Foothills Regional Commission for her first day of work as a Lead for North Carolina Fellow. Lead for NC is a leadership development program…

June 11, 2025

Written by: Skye Allan (Lead for North Carolina Cohort 3 Alum) In small towns held together by close ties and limited resources, projects and initiatives succeed or fail based on…

April 14, 2025

After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill and NC State University in 2024, Kristy Nguyen and Anu Mishra were selected to be part of a unique local government fellowship program based…

AmeriCorps