School board chair recognized for community impact

Burke County Board of Education Chair Tiana Beachler earned recognition late last week during University of Arizona Global Campus’ 2026 Culture of Care Summit, receiving a nomination for the Community Impact Award.

The 2026 Culture of Care Summit is a three-day virtual series of keynote speakers, learning sessions, and awards.

According to the UAGC Culture of Care Summit website, the Impact Award recognizes students, alumni, and employees “who exemplify the university’s core value of care by extending it beyond the classroom and into their communities” through service, leadership, and compassion.

Though she didn’t win, the nomination reflects her role in the community.

“University-wide, people tend to know all of what I do here in Burke,” Beachler said. “They didn’t tell us who nominated us (or) when they nominated (us). … That’s where it gets a little tricky.”

Beachler isn’t sure which role she was even nominated through — as an alum or as a staff member.

Beachler graduated from UAGC with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice, a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice with a specialization in Forensics. However, she also teaches as a professor at the online university.

Her courseload includes constitutional law, forensics, introduction to criminal justice, and touchpoint gen — a course dedicated to first-generation college students who have never taken online courses before.

BEACHLER IN THE COMMUNITY

Aside from her current seat on the Board of Education, Beachler said she spent about five years working on the City of Morganton’s Human Relations Commission before stepping down less than a year ago.

She has also served as the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh for the last three years, following an appointment by then-Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Tim Moore.

“I oversee that entire campus, which is a crazy amount of work, but super, super rewarding,” Beachler said. “All of those kids are either blind or have comorbidity. They’re from all over the state.”

Comorbidity refers to conditions, such as physical or mental health disorders, that coexist alongside blindness.

She’s served on that board since the school’s separation from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

“We went through untangling that web to securing our own funding, to having to create, from thin air, a policy manual,” she said.

Beachler said she also serves as the secretary for the Young Republicans of Burke and Catawba Counties.

WHY SHE STAYS INVOLVED

As for what keeps the Las Vegas native invested in Burke County’s local community, Beachler said, “I love it. I don’t love the politics. … What I love is the people. I get tired of hearing people feel that they don’t have a voice or that their government isn’t reflective of them.”

Her biggest goals in community service funnel back to the future of the county. She said she hates that Burke is classified as a “dying county,” and wants to see it become a place people want to visit and thrive in.

“I just want to be a little piece of making this place the best it can be,” she continued. “I would consider it a life well-lived, if 20, 30, 40 years from now, I can be sitting on a porch, sipping sweet tea, and look out and know that I gave my very best to this beautiful place we call Burke.”