Nancy Stroupe

Nancy Stroupe grew up in the North Carolina High Country. Her mother taught English and Latin and her father was Nationwide Insurance Company's first field underwriter. She graduated from Newland High School, where she was valedictorian of her class, head cheerleader, and editor-in-chief / business manager of her high school yearbook. She graduated from St. Andrews University with a degree in psychology and sociology, and did her graduate work at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She was a social worker with Scotland County DSS, a counselor in mental health in Robeson County, senior therapist at the Alcohol Rehabilitation Center in Butner, NC, and was director of therapeutic services and director of the long-term care unit at the Charlotte Detox. She also owned Goodman Entertainment & Events in Charlotte and booked musical entertainment on the east coast for many years. She moved back to the High Country in the 1990s to care for her ailing father. She became manager for the Avery Mountain Times and then publisher/editor for the Avery Journal-Times and All About Women magazine. When Nancy retired from publishing in 2010, she reinvented herself as an artist in a field she always loved.

Nancy has served on numerous area boards, including the Avery County Chamber of Commerce (past president), the Woolly Worm Festival Committee (past chair), Avery County Arts Council, MAY Coalition (president), Drug Abuse Resolution Team (founding and current president), YMCA, Newland High Alumni Association (founding and past president), Avery County Humane Society (current chair), Greater Newland Association (past president), High Country United Way, Avery County Hall of Legends, Crossnore Enhancement Committee, and many more. She headed a six-month campaign and established two K-9 units for the Avery County Sheriff's Office; she worked with the SBI, local law enforcement and the NC Attorney General's Office to rid Avery County of local governmental corruption; was instrumental in passing the "No Felons For Sheriff" statute in NC; spearheaded efforts that obtained drug treatment court for Avery and Watauga counties; was elected to the Hall of Legends in 2015, was voted Woman of the Year in 2013; received Outstanding Service Award from the Chamber of Commerce in 2010; received the Distinguished Service Award from Mayland Community College in 2008, and won numerous awards from the NC Press Association including Best Column, Investigative Reporting and Community Service.