Lilly Knoepp
Senior Regional ReporterLilly Knoepp was a Senior Regional Reporter for Blue Ridge Public Radio. She served as BPR’s first fulltime reporter and covered Western North Carolina from 2018 to 2025. She is from Franklin, NC. She returns to WNC after serving as the assistant editor of Women@Forbes and digital producer of the Forbes podcast network. She holds a master’s degree in international journalism from the City University of New York and earned a double major from UNC Chapel Hill in religious studies and political science.
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BPR partnered with 'Come Hell or High Water' oral history project to share the community memories of Hurricane Helene as collected by The Buncombe County Special Collections Library. -
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Former Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran resigned in June after allegations of sexual assault and rape. He faces five charges including rape and sexual assault. -
The lack of cell phone service prompted the town to improve emergency communications for the future. -
Hurricane Helene upended the county's plans for the 2024 general election. -
After about 15 years of planning, Bryson City is finally breaking ground on the expansion of the Marianna Black Library. The move comes as Jackson County is considering leaving the three-county regional library system. -
Unofficial results show that five candidates not currently on Tribal Council will be entering the Council House in October - including four women. -
A drag pageant at Jackson County Public Library on Sunday was a flashpoint of the current debate about the Fontana Regional Library System. Over 125 people participated in a read-in to support the library, vastly outnumbering protestors. -
Swain County Board of Commission Chairman Kevin Seagle was absent at Tuesday night’s county commission meeting. His resignation is effective Aug. 31. -
After three years of legal action, Mission Health and HCA Healthcare announced it has settled a federal antitrust lawsuit filed by Buncombe and Madison Counties along with the Cities of Asheville and Brevard. The lawsuit alleged that the for-profit hospital system has a monopoly on health care in the region which created an “anti-competitive” market that harmed access to health care.
