Meade Van Pelt has been the executive director of The Harrelson Center since December 2016. Now, after nearly a decade at the helm, Van Pelt continues to gain momentum.

In March, she received The Cardinal Award from the state’s auditor, Dave Boliek. The honor recognizes exceptional North Carolinians who advance government transparency, improve efficiency and safeguard taxpayer dollars, state officials said. Van Pelt also received the Dogwood Award from the state attorney general after Hurricane Florence in 2018 and the Service Before Self award from the local district attorney in 2019.

After helping guide the final phases of transforming The Harrelson Center nonprofit campus from a former law enforcement center into a “thriving community” of human services work, Van Pelt said the center’s focus is now on the social determinants of health. 

According to Van Pelt, the most relevant of those determinants include housing, transportation and medical needs, all of which The Harrelson Center’s Help Hub is geared toward.

Established more than 10 years ago, the Help Hub provides financial assistance, housing navigation and healthcare assistance to community members in need.

“The Help Hub offers front door, side door, back door assistance with 40 partnerships to help those on Medicaid, the underinsured and the uninsured, which clearly has an effect on someone’s health,” Van Pelt said.

After adding the Housing Navigator program to the Help Hub in 2025, Van Pelt determined that the Cape Fear region needs a network with a consistent structure to help those in need of safe, permanent housing.

“The Help Hub is a place to walk into any day of the week (without an appointment), which is a really big deal, and that is the advantage of having a Harrelson Center and reflects how fortunate we are to have this in our area,” Van Pelt said.

She said that help is needed more than ever, unfortunately, as the organization has seen a drastic increase in the number of people seeking help.

In 2026, among all those who came to the Help Hub, 49% had never asked for financial assistance before, according to Van Pelt. In the first quarter of 2026, 900 people needed help. 

That’s why Van Pelt wants to work with partners in government, pre-K through higher education and corporations to advocate for change and create public-private partnerships to do so. 

If there are too many people dealing with health and housing issues, “then it is never going to work, and I don’t know how to achieve a healthy, happy community,” Van Pelt said. 

She said the center needs funders to support change.  

“We need financial support and volunteers, so we can support (our partners) and the clients they serve,” Van Pelt said. 

Another ongoing focus of Van Pelt’s work is volunteerism. She is working with the Volunteer Leadership Lab to create an online hub for volunteer opportunities. 

The online platform would allow all of The Harrelson Center’s partners to post their volunteer opportunities. By the end of the year, Van Pelt hopes to launch a website where volunteers looking to share their time and expertise can match with these opportunities.

Another way The Harrelson Center is supporting its partners is through its Nonprofits Mean Business program, which focuses on advocacy and education for leadership in the mission workplace.

Using donor engagement, the organization hopes to help nonprofits contract and hire professionals where they are needed most, “just as much as any other business would.” Van Pelt highlighted the importance of the “back office of every organization,” especially regarding the finance and accounting sectors of nonprofit agencies.

“We want to provide services that will elevate our partners to meet the needs of their clients and create a point of access for people of every socioeconomic position,” Van Pelt said.

She said the goal of the program is to create a culture of collaboration, resilience and connection.

“It is essential to bring value to organizations and the culture itself,” Van Pelt said.

By helping build capacity among the nonprofits themselves, Van Pelt is working to create stability and sustainability among partners, she said.

“Whether it is re-entry after incarceration, immigrants and refugees, foster children, domestic violence or justice advocacy, there is an amazing network of dedicated individuals, and we don’t need them pitted against each other,” Van Pelt said. “It is about building a community that is sustainable and breaking down barriers, both long-term barriers and new barriers that are being created.”

Meade Van Pelt was part of last year’s WilmingtonBiz 100 as a Connector. This year’s group will be highlighted in the December issue of WilmingtonBiz Magazine.