The Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Cultural and Natural Resources shares what drives her career in government and advocacy
as told to Ayn-Monique Klahre | photography by Charles Harris

In January, Pamela Brewington Cashwell was named the new secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which oversees all of our state’s arts, culture, history and natural areas. This includes more than 100 locations — among them historic sites, museums, parks and trails — across the state. Cashwell, a longtime public servant who previously served as secretary at the North Carolina Department of Administration, is a member of the Coharie and Lumbee tribes, which makes her the first Native American woman to head a cabinet department in our state. 

Can you give us a little bit of your background? 

Well, I’m from North Carolina, and a double Tar Heel — I went to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for both my undergrad and law degrees — so I’m North Carolina through and through! After law school, I clerked with Judge James Wynn on the Court of Appeals, then moved to Washington, D.C., for 10 years. There, I worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the first Clinton administration, as well as for the White House Counsel’s Office, then went to the U.S. Department of Justice. I worked in a couple different divisions, but my dream was to work for the Civil Rights Division. It took me a little while to get there. I did a lot of Title IX work with the goal of being a criminal prosecutor in civil rights cases, then went to the Eastern District of Virginia to get some prosecutorial experience, which allowed me to move into criminal prosecution in the Civil Rights Division.

What work were you most proud of there?

Well, one thing was a major police pattern of practice cases [investigating repeated, similar violations] in Maryland, which was the first consent decree that the Department of Justice had ever entered into with a state for a police power practice case. I was the lead attorney on that and negotiated that consent decree, so I was very proud of that. Then when I moved to the criminal section, most of my work was in prisons, often working on sexual assault cases within prisons, prosecuting bad correctional officers. I did a number of human trafficking cases as well. That really became kind of my passion work, human trafficking cases. 

How did you switch from that to more administrative roles?

During that time, I got married, and my husband, David, and I had our first child. My parents were getting older, and my job had me traveling all over the country, all the time. Our plan had always been to move back to North Carolina. So we moved back here when our first son, Sam, was 8 months old and I took a step back from work for a few years. I knew that ultimately I’d want to work in state government — my mom worked for the state growing up, in the Commission for Indian Affairs, and I traveled around with her a lot when I was out of school, visiting tribal communities. When I got back into work, I started at a nonprofit, then went to a contract position at the State Ethics Commission, and we had our second son. I was very lucky that I was able to be part-time when the kids were very young so I could be very engaged with them and their schools. A lot of that time, of course, involved bringing them to all of our great museums downtown. 

How did you ramp back up?

The deputy director position came open at the State Ethics Commission while I was working there, so I moved into that role in 2014. Then in 2017, I sort of fell into the position at the Department of Public Safety as the chief deputy secretary. It was an amazing experience working there for four years. We had a great team. At the end of Gov. Cooper’s first term, he asked me to be secretary at the Department of Administration. 

What was that transition like? 

When I worked at the Department of Public Safety, it had nearly 20,000 employees — it was this massive agency where a lot of big things happened — so when I moved over to the Department of Administration, which has 500-ish employees, it felt like, oh, I’ve got this. That department is sort of the business manager for state agencies — motor fleet management, mail service center, state parking, procurement tracking, those operational type things. But there’s also an advocacy arm, like the Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses and the Commission of Indian Affairs — that’s where my mom had worked. So it was the department that I knew from the time I was growing up. So it was cool in many ways, sort of nostalgic to be in that agency. My mom passed away while I was there last year, so it felt like a full circle. I still care deeply about the employees there, we did some really great work. 

How does this job feel different from that previous one? 

It’s very different, in all great ways! This is a position I sort of coveted for years — I always called it the Department of Fun. I mean, if there is a cool government job, this is the one! But it’s also a very different mission. We are the most forward-facing, public facing department in state government. People who travel across the state or who come into North Carolina are meeting our staff because they’re visiting one of our many historic sites, or the aquariums when they’re visiting the beach, or one of the museum of art locations. And obviously they’re enjoying our beautiful state parks and all the trails! We manage over 100 sites. 

Did you come in with any particular goals or directives?

Our first priority is to get Western North Carolina back up. We had 18 sites that were impacted by Hurricane Helene. Three state parks continue to be closed, but will be opening or partially opening soon. So a big goal is to have all of our sites that were impacted be fully functional, ideally built back in a more resilient way. 

I always forget that the parks are part of the NCDNCR…

Well it’s interesting you say that, because one of my other goals is to marry those two things — natural and cultural resources — together. The museum of art here in Raleigh is a perfect example of how you mix nature with art, right? It’s a beautiful park that has wonderful art in it. Another example of merging cultural and historical sites is the recent exhibit, Whippersnappers, Maya Freelon installed at the Stagville Historic Site. 

I went with my family to see it, and having that limited-time exhibit was a good incentive to make the trip out there.

That’s what happens when we combine these things, it offers new perspectives and brings in new people. Another example was the exhibit last year at the NCMA, To Take Shape and Meaning, which featured Native artists. It was a phenomenal exhibit, and there’s no question it brought in people who’d never been there before, but now they’ll go back again. So we want to do more of that, think of different and interesting ways to bring new communities into spaces that have never visited them before.

Seems like you will be busy with all these sites!

Yes, I underestimated much we have going on! I started the first Monday in January and have worked almost every weekend — whether it’s an Astronomy Day, or the NC Indian Unity Conference or a reenactment at the Alamance Battleground State Historic Site or visiting the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum and Historic Site. Not to mention supporting performing arts like the NC Symphony or NC Opera, which aren’t technically part of our department, but are certainly part of our cultural landscape. It’s all a great reflection of the diversity and breadth of cultural resources in this state. 

What informs your work for the DNCR?

I say it all the time, but public service is my passion. My mom was a public servant, and I care a whole lot about state employees. The amazing thing about this department is that our employees are so mission-driven and passionate about what they do. Working with them has been a real blessing.

This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of WALTER magazine