BIOGRAPHY

Bernadette Pelissier was born in Senegal, Africa of French parents. She came to the U.S. as an infant and spent most of her childhood in New Jersey. In her early teen years she lived in Damascus, Syria when her father worked for the United Nations. She came to Chapel Hill in 1975 to study at UNC and received her Ph.D. in Sociology in 1980.

Bernadette specialized in the evaluation of mental health programs in the community and in prison settings. She was the Director of Research and Evaluation for Durham County Community Mental Health Center from 1980 to 1985. She subsequently became Chief of Research at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner and retired in 2006. During this period she was project director responsible for a staff of 17 for multi-center national projects.

Bernadette is married to Vann Bennett, Professor of Cell Biology at the Duke Medical Center. She has two children, Lyndon and Kether, and three stepchildren, Patricia, Lisa and Davis. She recently became grandmother of twin boys, Ian and Grant.

Bernadette lives on 30 acres where she grows many of her own vegetables and her husband raises chickens. She and her husband have donated 20 acres of their property as a conservation easement to OWASA.

Community Service

Bernadette currently serves on the Orange County Planning Board and Commission for the Environment. She is also an appointed member to the Special Transit Advisory Committee. She has served in several leadership roles as chair of the Orange Chatham Sierra Club Group and as chair of the OWASA board during the 2001-2002 drought. Past contributions to our community include her service on the Shaping Orange County Future Task Force, the Carolina North Leadership Advisory Council, and the Community Leadership Collaboration.