Staff & Board

Bishop Pro Tempore

Jack Fleer served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics at Wake Forest University for 40 years, retiring approximately ten years ago. Fleer has been active in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem, NC, in its various outreach ministries, including Social Action, Stop Hunger Now, Outreach Funding, and the World Mission Refugee Family committees. For two years he served as chair of the Outreach Development Council, which coordinates all outreach ministries at St. Paul’s. During his retirement, Fleer has been volunteering in numerous programs, including public schools mentoring and tutoring, Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, Samaritan Kitchen and Inn, and the YMCA English as a Second Language courses. He has traveled to Haiti, Mexico and Puerto Rico on various missions trips with St. Paul’s groups. Fleer received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is the author of three books and numerous articles and chapters on North Carolina and Southern politics. He and his wife, Martha, live in Winston-Salem and have three children and seven grandchildren.

Dick Taylor is the Chief Executive Officer of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, an association of plaintiff and criminal defense lawyers. Prior to his tenure at NCAJ, he was Executive Director of Legal Services of North Carolina, the program to provide legal services in civil matters to low-income people.

Dick grew up in Asheville as a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, attended UNC Chapel Hill for undergraduate and law school.

He is active at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, having served on the vestry three times and as Senior Warden twice. He has served as a delegate to the Diocesan Convention and member of the Diocese Council. He is also on the board of the Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System, and the Chief Justice Commission of Access to Justice, and previously served on the board of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.