Parole Commissioners' biographies

Chairman
Tony Rand
of Fayetteville

Willis Fowler
Commissioner
Willis J. Fowler
of Raleigh

Derrick Wadsworth
Commissioner
Derrick E. Wadsworth
of Edenton

Commission Chairman Tony Rand served in the North Carolina Senate for 22 years representing Cumberland and Bladen Counties. He was appointed chairman of the Parole Commission in 2010 by Governor Beverly Perdue. He was the Majority Leader of the Senate in 1987-88 and from 2001 through 2009 when he left the Senate. As a practicing attorney, he was involved in the practice of criminal law and served as General Counsel of a Mobile Medical Equipment Company.

Commissioner Bill Fowler served as a Raleigh police officer and detective from 1964-1972, before joining the Department of Correction as a parole officer. After the state's parole and probation supervision systems were merged, he supervised both probationers and parolees for many years. In 1983, Fowler was promoted to a parole hearing officer. He was a chief parole hearing officer when Governor Mike Easley appointed him to the Parole Commission in July 2005.

Commissioner Derrick E. Wadsworth has helped troubled youth and inmates for over 30 years. He is a life coach for Edenton-Chowan schools were he provides services to potential dropout students and acts as a liaison between students and parents. He has worked with Life Incorporated as a community support paraprofessional providing therapeutic interventions to teach clients how to cope with difficult situations and life skills. He also worked at Hyde Correctional Center and now-closed Gates Correctional Center.