About
Vision/Mission
The vision of the Civitas Institute is of a North Carolina whose citizens enjoy liberty and prosperity derived from limited government, personal responsibility and civic engagement. The mission of the Civitas Institute is to facilitate the implementation of conservative policy solutions to improve the lives of all North Carolinians. Towards that end, Civitas provides research, information and training to:
• empower citizens to become better civic leaders and more informed voters;
• educate emerging public leaders, enabling them to be more effective in the democratic process; and
• inform elected officials about citizen-based, free-market solutions to problems facing North Carolinians.
To email any staff member, use the format [firstname].[lastname]@nccivitas.org without the brackets.
For instance, if the staff members name were John Doe, then the email address would be john.doe@nccivitas.org
Staff Bios
Bill Gilbert
Bob Luebke
Senior Policy Analyst
Brian Balfour
Policy Analyst
BRIAN BALFOUR is the Budget & Tax Policy Analyst at the Civitas Institute. His work has been published in several newspapers across the state, including the Raleigh News & Observer, the Greensboro News Record, the Fayetteville Observer and the Charlotte Business Journal. Brian has also been a guest on numerous radio stations across the state, and his work has been featured on the Drudge Report, Fox News and the Rush Limbaugh radio program. Brian earned a Master’s degree in economics from Wayne State University in Detroit; and received a Bachelor’s of business administration from the University of Cincinnati.
Cameron Harwick
Branding and Graphics
Chris Hayes
Senior Legislative Analyst
Chris Hayes comes to the Civitas Institute with a varied background in politics and public policy having worked in numerous political campaigns at the local, state and federal level over the past 10 years beginning with Robin Hayes’ campaign for Governor in 1996. Chris also served as the first ever IT Director at the NC Republican Party where he maintained the statewide voter file and developed software to empower grassroots activists with customized voter lists. He later served in the Washington DC office of Congressman John Linder (R-GA) as a legislative aide where he assisted in promoting Congressman Linder’s FairTax legislation that would replace the IRS with a national retail sales tax. He is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Political Science, and received a Master's degree in Business Administration from Campbell University.
Francis De Luca
President
Francis X. De Luca is the President of the Civitas Institute. Prior to joining the Civitas Institute he was the State Director of the North Carolina office of Americans for Prosperity.
He has a varied background that includes political consulting, owning a small business, working at all levels of government and serving on active and reserve duty for 28 years with the United States Marine Corps where he retired with the rank of Colonel.
He was recalled to active duty after 9/11 and served over 4 years on active duty including deploying as part of Task Force Tarawa for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is a Naval Aviator and was recalled to active duty and flew combat missions in the first Persian Gulf War.
Francis received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina – Wilmington, and his Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of West Florida. He is married to Cynthia, another North Carolina native, and has two daughters.
Jana Benscoter
Editor
Jessica Anderson
Policy Analyst and Outreach Coordinator
Johnathan Smith
Web & Video Coordinator
Katie Trout
Communications Director
Marianne Suarez
Policy Analyst
Pat Tarbell
Operations Coordinator
