Simon Palmore

Simon Palmore grew up in Washington, DC before attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar. At UNC, he studied History and Hispanic Literature & Cultures and wrote a short story collection as his senior honors thesis in the Creative Writing Program.

At UNC, Simon was the president of the Mixed Asian Students’ Heritage Club, a student organization devoted to creating community among multiracial and Asian students. He was also the Chair of the UNC Board of Elections, the group tasked with administering student government elections and promoting student civic engagement. Off campus, Simon served as the Chair of the Town of Chapel Hill’s Community Policing Advisory Committee, and in this role, he had the opportunity to provide recommendations to the Town and the Chapel Hill Police Department for making Chapel Hill a safer, more just, and more equitable place to live and work. He also worked for NEXT Chapel Hill-Carrboro—a local non-profit that promotes affordable housing, public transit, and racial equity in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community—and worked on local political campaigns.

Before joining MDC, Simon interned for the Attorney General of Rhode Island and the UNC Center for Civil Rights, where he worked under Professor Ted Shaw on the Planning Boards Inclusion Project, a long-term research project relating to the racial and gender demographics of county planning boards across North Carolina. Simon is thrilled to join the MDC team as the 2023-2024 Autry Fellow and learn more about place-based work and equity in the American South.