County leaders in disagreement over future direction of New Hanover Community Endowment

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Two New Hanover County leaders who were on opposite sides of the vote to sell New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health in 2020 are splitting again over the direction of the Endowment that the sale of the hospital created.

New Hanover County Commissioner Rob Zapple and Endowment Board member Woody White have posted several times on social media about how they think the Endowment should proceed with selecting its next CEO.

It’s been more than a week since Dan Winslow announced his resignation as CEO of the New Hanover Community Endowment.

In a post on X, former County Commissioner Woody White, one of the Endowment’s 13 board members, called for the Endowment not to conduct a nationwide search and instead focus on hiring someone with local experience.

Shannon Winslow is the Endowment Board Chair.

“At this time, the Board has not met to make decisions on that,” Winslow said. “At this time, we have a very capable and sophisticated interim CEO that is at the helm that we are fully confident in. And more of those conversations will be forthcoming.”

But the one County Commissioner who voted against selling the hospital, Rob Zapple, disputes White’s premise, saying in his own post on X that the Board needs to stop interfering with the Endowment’s CEO.

Former Wilmington Mayor and founder of Heal Our People’s Endowment Harper Peterson said the entire board should also be replaced.

“The county needs to ask the sitting board of directors on the Endowment to resign, voluntarily resign,” Peterson said. “And replace that board with an interim community board representing the activity, social economic reality of our community, and what our needs are.”

In another tweet posted Tuesday morning, Zapple also called for the Endowment’s governing structure to be changed.

WWAY reached out to both White and Zapple for comment for this story, but has not heard back.