Who should be the 2022 Tar Heel of the Year? Tell us who you’d pick.

It’s time to pick The News & Observer’s Tar Heel of the Year, and we want your help.

Tell us who has made a difference in the Triangle, the state and beyond.

We’re looking for the newsmakers who have left a long-lasting imprint on the region, whose impact we’ll remember years from now.

That’s what we’ve seen this past year among those named The News & Observer’s Tar Heel of the Month.

Every year since 1997, The News & Observer has recognized North Carolinians as The Tar Heel of the Year. Honorees have come from all over North Carolina and from different sectors, including the arts, business, philanthropy, education and science.

Past winners include the Rev. William Barber (2018), Nobel Prize-winning cancer researchers Aziz Sancar and Paul Modrich (2015), and Dr. Mandy Cohen, the former secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last year, we named Dr. Ralph Baric, the UNC researcher and professor who has spent over four decades researching coronaviruses. His Baric Lab at UNC-Chapel Hill helped test the effectiveness of vaccine candidates and treatments.

Tell us about the newsmakers and trailblazers you meet every day. Tell us who they are and how their impact has been felt across the state. You may also cast your vote for one of the people we’ve already written about this year as Tar Heel of the Month. Those names are below.

We will announce the honoree in December.

Here’s how to nominate a Tar Heel of the Year:

▪ Make your nomination here or at nando.com/tarheelnominate.

▪ Be specific about why you’re nominating this person.

▪ Nominees can come from any field and be any age.

▪ Nominations are open to the public. Final selections will be made by N&O staff members.

▪ Deadline for nominations is Sunday, Sept. 18, at 5 p.m.

Tar Heel of the Month 2022

▪ Pierce Freelon: The former Durham City Council member, musician and educator has built his life’s work on the intersection of arts and public service. His critically acclaimed children’s album, “Black to the Future,” earned a 2021 Grammy Award nomination in the Best Children’s Album category. He also contributed a song on the Grammy-nominated album, “All One Tribe.”

▪ Carole Boston Weatherford: The author has published over 60 books, mostly for children and often focused on major events or people in Black history. They’ve earned acclaim and prestigious awards from some of the top literary associations in the country and have raised awareness of some of the country’s untold moments. That includes her 2021 illustrated children’s book, “Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre,” which was illustrated by Weatherford’s longtime collaborator, Floyd Cooper. It was longlisted for the National Book Award and won four American Library Association Youth Media Awards in January.

▪ Debbie Antonelli: For the past 34 years, Antonelli has broadcasted college basketball games for ESPN, ACC Network, NBATV and many more. The two-time Emmy Award winner was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2021. In February, Antonelli, a native of Cary and a former starter on the N.C. State women’s basketball team, was named a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Off the court, she has sought to raise awareness and funds to help those with Down syndrome.

▪ Wes Moore: The women’s basketball coach at N.C. State has put N.C. State women’s basketball back on the map since he started leading the team in 2013. At the conclusion of last season, he was named the ACC Coach of The Year. After leading N.C. State to a third straight conference tournament crown, he took the women’s team to the Elite 8 for the first time since 1998.

▪ Tim Stevens: Stevens spent 48 years as a high school sports writer and editor for the Raleigh Times and later on, The N&O. He retired in 2015. In 2020, Stevens was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, representing a crowning achievement for the lifelong Garner resident. Today, Stevens still tells stories — in documentaries about how North Carolinians contributed to the Vietnam War; in writing and directing church and history plays; and in bringing “The Wall That Heals” to Garner, a scaled-down but still powerful Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

▪ Cheetie Kumar: The chef and owner of Garland restaurant in Raleigh has help create the modern North Carolina dining scene. She also has used her voice to advocate and lobby on behalf of the restaurant industry that’s still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. She has been nominated several times for the James Beard Best Chef: Southeast Award. This year, she was a finalist.

▪ Nora El-Khouri Spencer: Spencer started Hope Renovations in Orange County in June 2020 to offer a free training program for women and nonbinary individuals to learn the construction and professional skills they need to land a well-paying job or apprenticeship in construction or to pursue further training. In May, CNN named Spencer one of the network’s CNN Heroes, a regular feature that pays tribute to “everyday people doing extraordinary things to change the world.”

▪ Jenny Levy: UNC’s only women’s lacrosse head coach is coming off of her third NCAA National Championship — with an undefeated 22-0 season — and a gold medal for Team USA in the 2022 World Championships. She was named National Coach of the Year for the third time by the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association.