About Us

The mission of the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center (PCMDC) is to strengthen harmony among the residents of our county and its communities. To achieve this we help re-establish the long-standing tradition of the community as a family. We foster intentional inclusiveness to create a holistic quality of life.

Meet the Team

Executive Director
Waynesville native Telinda “Lin” Forney has served as executive director of the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center since 2009. Lin first volunteered with the center in 2003 as a teacher for the inaugural summer youth program because she “just loves kids, period. “I wanted them to have something to say about their summer –something they were excited about — when they went back to school. I didn’t want them to say ‘I stayed at home and did nothing,’ but maybe ‘I went to Carowinds for the first time,’ or ‘I went to a farm and saw how vegetables grow.’ I want them to feel good about themselves.”

Program Director
Latausha “Tausha” Forney is also a Waynesville native. Having attended school up through community college all in Haywood County, she is in tune with the needs of today’s students and understands the community at large. Tausha has built a strong network in the community for the families she serves through PCMDC. She volunteered as the Program Director until 2020 when she became a member of the staff. She works with Lin to oversee the day to day functions of the organization. Tausha also develops and oversees student programs and special programs. She is a value to the community beyond student education. Tausha organizes food drives, continuing education opportunities, public health events because she is dedicated to providing a platform to help reduce intergenerational poverty among rural Appalachia.

Board of Directors

PCMDC is governed by a Board of Directors. The board is a volunteer group of individuals from different backgrounds and experiences. They help to govern the organization through decision making, help promote the organization through community outreach, and help support the organization through fundraising and programming.

Gregory Wheeler, Co-Chair

Gregory Wheeler grew up in the Pigeon Community and attended Pigeon Community School in the same building where PCMDC operates today. Wheeler worked in human resources in the medical and pharmaceutical industry. He has served on PCMDC’s board since 2020 and has been serving as co-chair since 2022.

Matthew Blackburn, Co-Chair

Matthew Blackburn is a lifelong resident of WNC. He is the Director of Youth Ministry at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. He also worked with Mountain Environmental and with Wilderness Trail. He and his wife Sarah Jane live in Haywood County and have five children.

Allison Lee, Secretary

Allison Lee is the co-owner of Blue Ridge Books in Hazelwood. Allison moved to Waynesville from the Triangle area of North Carolina in 1996. She has also worked and volunteered with non-profits in the area of domestic violence and child abuse.

Faith Woods, Treasurer

Faith Woods has served as a PCMDC board member since 2022 and serves as the PCMDC Board’s Finance Chair. She is a Haywood County native who resides in Canton with her husband Brian. They have 2 adult children, Gracie and Jonathan. Faith is the Financial Secretary for both First Baptist Church of Waynesville and Canton First Baptist Church.

Michael Pass

Mike Pass is a physician born and raised in New Orleans, LA. He started Waynesville Family Practice Center in 1984, the same year he helped found Haywood Hospice. Pass is an active member of First United Methodist Church and still actively works with Haywood Hospice, Habitat for Humanity and PCMDC.

Christi Hollifield

Christi Hollifield earned her MA in Divinity from Gardner-Webb University. She is the former pastor for Children, Students and Families at First Baptist Church in Waynesville. She currently works as a independent spiritual advisor.

Jessi Stone

Jessi Stone is the Regional Director for the Western North Carolina Economic Recovery Program at Pisgah Legal Services. She’s a social justice advocate, and has worked as a reporter and editor in the newspaper industry.

Evan Hatch

Evan Hatch in the Executive Director for Institutional Advancement at Southwestern Community College. He has worked in mission-driven nonprofits for over twenty years. He has worked as a public-sector folklorist, oral historian and entrepreneur. In 2020 he founded Narrate, an oral history consulting business.

Pigeon Street School Dedication 9-1-57 (L-R) Lawrence Leatherwood, Elsie Osborne, Hugh McCracken, Mrs. TH Powell

History of the Pigeon Community Multidisciplinary Development Center

The original Pigeon Community school which served black students in Haywood County was a Rosenwald School. That school was built in 1924 and used until the existing school was built in 1957. Learn more about Rosenwald Schools here and here.

The PCMDC is located on Pigeon Street in Waynesville, N.C. in the former Pigeon Street School. The school served as an African-American elementary school until desegregation in Haywood County in 1963. When it was no longer used as a school, the building served Haywood County Schools as an Instructional Materials Center.

The Pigeon Community Development Club began to use the building in early 2001 after the building was no longer needed by the school system. The organization became an official nonprofit under the umbrella of REACH and worked with the Center for Participatory Change in Asheville to transition into a standalone nonprofit organization.

In 2009, the center became the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center and hired its first executive director. This allowed the organization to help promote its longstanding goal of inclusiveness.

Historic Photo at Left: Pigeon Street School Dedication 9-1-57 (L-R) Lawrence Leatherwood, Elsie Osborne, Hugh McCracken, Mrs. TH Powell.