Meet Renée
Elected in 2022, Renée A. Price is a member of the House of Representatives in the North Carolina General Assembly, representing District 50, which includes Orange and Caswell counties. Her first two-year term in office began on January 1, 2023. With no opposition in the 2024 election, she will continue in her role for another two-year term beginning January 1, 2025.
Renée is assigned to five House Standing Committees: Appropriations; Appropriations – Information Technology; Education – Community Colleges; Local Government – Land Use, Planning, and Development; and Regulatory Reform. She also has joined the following House-related special interest groups: North Carolina Democratic Party House Caucus; North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus; Arts, Education, and Culture Caucus; Economic Development and Foreign Trade Caucus; Taiwan Caucus; and Safety and Criminal Justice Caucus.
For the interim between the long and short sessions, the Speaker appointed Renée to the Select Committee on Substance Abuse and the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology. Always eager to learn, Renée enrolled in the 2024 cohort of the Legislative Health Policy Fellow program, administered by the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. Renée also continues to serve on the board of directors of the North Carolina Black Alliance.
Born in Rochester, New York, Renée was raised in a family and environment that valued education, the arts, equality, civil rights, and justice. Her mother was a talented beautician, and her father was the first African American police officer in the city. She and her sister attended both public and private schools. As her father said, “Knowledge is one thing they can’t take away from you.”
Renée earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Tufts University with a major in urban affairs and a Master's of Regional Planning degree from Cornell University with concentrations in city development planning as well as environmental planning and design. She also studied in the Master of Arts program at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School.
Throughout her career, whether in New York, North Carolina, or Alabama, Renée has focused on urban and rural life as well as resource preservation and conservation. Her positions have included housing director for an inner-city neighborhood, assistant project manager for an office of environmental impact, grant writer for a pro bono law firm on Black land loss, coordinator for a conservation council, director of a forestry program for historically underserved landowners, and manager of government relations for a mentoring program.
Renée was first elected to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) in 2012 and reelected in 2016 and 2020. As commissioner, she served on various local and regional boards. During her tenure she supported community members in closing a landfill, paving an access road, building affordable housing, improving school facilities, and preserving farms and agriculture. Renée also advocated for small businesses, artists, crafts-makers, and entrepreneurs, and for issues such as climate change mitigation and broadband expansion. She served as vice chair of the BOCC from 2018 to 2020 and as chair from 2020 to 2022.
Renée was active in the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) throughout her tenure as commissioner as well as the North Carolina Association of Black County Officials (NCABCO). In 2020 Renée received the M.H. Jack Brock Outstanding County Commissioner Award from her NCACC colleagues. At the national level, Renée was engaged in the National Association of Counties (NACo) and assumed leadership roles. She also was a member of the National Association of Black County Officials (NABCO) and served on the board of directors of the National Organization of Black County Officials (NOBCO).
In her leisure, Renée enjoys listening to music, especially jazz, as well as taking nature walks and gardening. She is an enthusiast of the arts, culture, and preservation and cofounded Spirit FREEDOM, which uses the arts to reveal and relate the history of Orange County through the lens of African Americans and people of color. Renée and Michael reside at the edge of Hillsborough along the banks of the Eno River.
