March 8, 2023

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announces that Bank of America Senior Vice President Rick Brown will work with their School of Government’s Carolina Across 100 program, a five-year campus-wide initiative whose goal is to aid community-driven recovery from COVID-19 and build sustainable efforts throughout all the counties in North Carolina. This program is part of the university’s “Our State, Our Work” initiative, which connects unemployed and underemployed young adults with better jobs.  

“With the addition of Rick’s leadership, we’re able to maximize our ability to upskill and employ young adults across North Carolina,” said Anita Brown-Graham, UNC School of Government faculty member and ncIMPACT Director. “Bank of America’s support will help us to make an even stronger impact by assisting more of these young people with economic opportunity and providing the workforce for local businesses to thrive within our state’s 100 counties.” 

“Our State, Our Work” is responding to disruptions in the U.S. labor market following the onset of COVID-19. Nationally, the overall unemployment rate for workers ages 16-24 jumped to 24.4 percent in Spring 2020 versus 11.3 percent for workers 25 and older. Those with the lowest levels of education—below a high school diploma—fared the worst. Opportunity youth, defined as those within this age range disconnected from school or work, had a higher percentage of people living in poverty than non-opportunity youth in 2019.  

Brown has worked for Bank of America for more than 30 years and serves as a senior vice president and private client manager with Bank of America Private Bank in Raleigh. Prior to his current role at the bank, Brown spent over a decade in the government and public sector banking group, where he managed relationships with state and local governments and public universities across North Carolina.  His current Leader on Loan position has been provided to the university at no charge.   Brown earned a Batchelor of Arts from Knox College and a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University. 

In his Leader on Loan role, Brown is supporting community collaboratives to assess, strengthen, and maintain sustainable employer connections. He will continue engaging and recruiting local employers to join the effort as participants.  Working with research teams to conduct employer focus groups across the state, Brown will report on the effort’s progress and assist community collaboratives in marketing to “opportunity youth,” 16-to-24-year-olds who are not in school, working or may be underemployed. Brown has already connected with employers in the healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing sectors to help the “Our State, Our Work” team members better understand employer perspectives on connecting opportunity youth with living wage employment opportunities. He will also work with team members to develop specific regional employer engagement plans.  

 “I’m excited to partner with the UNC School of Government and support our state on behalf of this important initiative,” Brown said. “I look forward to continuing to meet with the collaborative teams to assist smart, ambitious young people from all walks of life who are seeking good jobs. We’ll help support their efforts by and connecting them with the local employers who will equally benefit from their skills, experience, and perspective.” 

Carolina Across 100 is a five-year initiative whose goal is to aid community-driven recovery and build sustainable efforts in all 100 counties by providing human resources, data insights, coaching, facilitation, coordination efforts, and program design.