Stretching along North Carolina’s coast, the Outer Banks is a tourism hub where seasonal visitors spend billions of dollars each year on hotels, restaurants and local attractions. 

But the workforce behind these services faces limited housing, scarce childcare and fragmented career opportunities, leading to high turnover and staffing shortages that strain both employees and employers.

Addressing these challenges requires more than policy reports or academic studies; it requires community-driven solutions and long-term engagement. That’s where Whitney Knollenberg comes in. 

Knollenberg, an associate professor and Extension leader in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University, is deeply engaged in community development in the Outer Banks.

Supported by the Lighthouse Fund for Sustainable Tourism, Knollenberg conducts long-term, in-person community engagement, immersing herself in the Outer Banks to learn firsthand about workforce challenges.

“You can’t fully understand the challenges facing the Outer Banks from behind a desk.”

Knollenberg’s work has helped her to better understand how the region’s challenges are interconnected and how they affect workers’ ability to live and thrive in the Outer Banks, which is essential to developing effective, sustainable solutions that support both the workforce and the broader community.

“You can’t fully understand the challenges facing the Outer Banks from behind a desk,” Knollenberg said. “Being physically present and consistently showing up in the community allows me to listen, build relationships and help create spaces where people can share ideas and develop solutions that truly meet their needs.”

Life and Work on the Outer Banks

In the summer of 2021, Knollenberg spent two months living in the Outer Banks community of Corolla. During that time, she met with more than 40 residents, business owners, policymakers and other stakeholders to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges facing the region.

The resulting conversations revealed familiar challenges Knollenberg had already noted over the years, including a critical shortage of affordable housing for seasonal workers caused by rising home prices and the conversion of long-term rentals into short-term vacation properties.

According to 2026 data from the North Carolina Housing Coalition, both Dare and Currituck counties have experienced rising housing costs and wages, with many residents becoming “cost-burdened” (spending over 30% of their income on housing) as rental costs and home values significantly exceed local median incomes.

In Dare County alone, the estimated hourly income needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent of about $1,430 per month reached approximately $27.50 in 2026, up from $22.13 per hour at fair market rent of $1,151 per month in 2023.

Compounding the Outer Banks’ lack of affordable housing is the fact that many workers, especially those with young families, often struggle to find dependable childcare, which makes it hard to take on jobs in the region’s primary industry, hospitality, where schedules often extend beyond the traditional 9-5 workday.

Outer Banks workers also experience difficulty in building new skills, moving up in their current roles and navigating career changes in a job market dominated by entry level or seasonal positions, which can discourage them from staying in the area year-round.

Together, these factors make it difficult for the Outer Banks to maintain a stable, skilled workforce for its tourism-driven economy, leaving businesses understaffed, essential services strained and the community more vulnerable to economic instability.

Knollenberg, working alongside two undergraduate research assistants, published a series of case studies following her time in Corolla. These studies highlight practical workforce housing solutions from across the United States and around the world, offering strategies that Outer Banks stakeholders can adapt to better address the region’s ongoing workforce challenges.

One of the studies, for example, highlights the creation of deed-restricted housing developments like Arroyo Crossings in the community of Moab, Utah, which use income caps, local employment requirements and residency rules to ensure housing remains affordable and accessible to the local workforce.

“Looking at how other communities tackle similar challenges gives Outer Banks leaders a chance to adapt proven strategies and avoid repeating mistakes, making solutions more effective,” Knollenberg said.

Trust Built Through Presence

Outer Banks communities have become “increasingly aware that the community itself depends on supporting the people who live and work there,” Knollenberg said. But there’s often been no catalyst to bring stakeholders together and to translate that awareness into action.

Through a scholarly reassignment funded by the Lighthouse Fund for Sustainable Tourism, Knollenberg returned to Corolla in 2025 to be that catalyst, living in the community to further establish trust with locals and better understand how to connect stakeholders and their ideas.

Knollenberg spent the early months of her reassignment focused on building a presence and being engaged with the community, meeting with local residents, business owners and Extension agents and even attending events like Dare County’s “2025 State of the County” presentation to learn and network. 

“A lot of it was simply being present and meeting people where they were. In many communities, that’s incredibly important. You can get on a Zoom call with someone, but it’s not the same as being there in person and showing up,” Knollenberg said. 

Leveraging her knowledge of broader tourism issues and resources from outside of the Outer Banks, Knollenberg contributed to local conversations and events. By showing up consistently at different meetings and in various spaces, she demonstrated that her commitment to the community was genuine.

This approach was simple but effective: conversations, attending events and staying open to new connections. Each interaction often led to another, steadily expanding Knollenberg’s network and creating a web of understanding and support that had real impact.

As a result, Knollenberg built real trust with members of the Outer Banks community, which was essential to understanding their needs and challenges. “People could see that I wasn’t just parachuting in and leaving; I was there to support them, and that helped make it possible to have deeper, more meaningful conversations,” Knollenberg said.

Those conversations, she explained, were built on listening more than talking. “I didn’t see it as my place to insert myself into discussions. Instead, I focused on creating spaces where it made sense for my voice to be part of the conversation.” 

Paths Toward Practical Solutions

One thing became clear to Knollenberg during her time in the Outer Banks: the region is home to many organizations with the capacity and commitment to address workforce challenges, but a coordinated effort was needed to bring workforce stakeholders together and amplify their voices.

Knollenberg launched the Outer Banks Workforce Network in the spring of 2025 to help achieve exactly that. The network “empowers dedicated individuals who fuel our community and economy to communicate their needs to local leaders, raise awareness of their vital impact, increase professional connections and share essential resources.”

More specifically, the network hosts a series of informal, interactive events designed to connect workers, local leaders and service providers across the region. The meetings center on small-group conversations instead of formal presentations, giving participants the chance to discuss challenges, brainstorm ideas and explore solutions. 

Past gatherings have been held at the College of the Albemarle, Jennette’s Pier and Dowdy Park, each focusing on issues identified as critical to the local workforce. Attendees typically include a mix of young professionals, nonprofit staff, county employees and elected officials.

“The kind of individuals attending these events all have essential perspectives, but they are often hard to reach because they are juggling multiple personal and professional responsibilities,” Knollenberg said. “The network was designed to create a space for them. Rather than asking them to go to other tables, we created a table for them where they can come and engage directly.” 

In November 2025, Knollenberg’s efforts culminated in the Outer Banks Workforce Summit, which convened over 70 workforce members, business leaders, nonprofits and regional and state leaders, including North Carolina’s Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, at the Coastal Studies Institute in Dare County. 

The summit facilitated conversations among attendees on key challenges affecting living and working in the Outer Banks, including career planning, childcare and housing. It featured three panels focused on these issues, each including a member of the local workforce to provide firsthand perspective, along with regional and statewide experts to offer broader context.

During one of the panels, for example, Katie Dukes of EducationNC highlighted that childcare in North Carolina is facing growing challenges, including accessibility, affordability and limited classroom slots, particularly in rural areas like Hatteras Island where closures are increasing. 

Dukes’ co-panelist, Ethan Dodson, director of development for the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce, noted the importance of community support and described how the Chamber has supported local childcare centers, including funding tuition after Hurricane Helene, to help keep facilities open and ensure parents can remain in the workforce.

As for potential solutions to the affordable housing shortage, participants such as Paul Stavovy, executive director of the Cape Fear Community Land Trust, and Kimberly Sanchez of Community Home Trust, highlighted land trusts, which allow homeowners to build on land without purchasing it, reducing development costs and increasing access for the Outer Banks workforce.

Foundations for a Sustainable Future

Outcomes from the Outer Banks Workforce Network and its initiatives are still emerging, according to Knollenberg. Early signs suggest they are fostering collaboration and building a foundation for long-term solutions to the region’s workforce challenges.

Knollenberg plans to continue expanding the network and envisions it as a bridge between the workforce and decision-makers, hosting informal events and providing other structured opportunities for leaders to hear directly from those on the ground. 

Through conversations, surveys and other forms of engagement, Knollenberg hopes to make it easier for policymakers to understand the challenges and priorities of the Outer Banks workforce, ensuring that decisions are informed by local realities.

Knollenberg noted that although policymakers are not all equally engaged, many are interested in hearing from workforce members and community partners in the Outer Banks and want to use that input to make more informed decisions.

“The people in the Outer Banks are incredibly resilient and know how to support themselves.”

Whatever solutions come from these conversations, Knollenberg emphasized that they must come from within the community while being supported and informed by outside resources.

“The people in the Outer Banks are incredibly resilient and know how to support themselves. What can help them succeed is bringing in outside resources and perspectives. Communities naturally focus on their own situations, which is important, but it can also make it harder to see opportunities from elsewhere,” Knollenberg said.

Knollenberg hopes to eventually collaborate with Outer Banks communities on research that directly supports them while bringing in academic rigor to ensure the work is well-designed and useful. In the near term, she will be publishing extension-related materials, including a report summarizing the Outer Banks Workforce Summit, to provide actionable insights.