10 Year Vision for Knoxville
In 10 years, I'd like Knoxville to be a city in which all of our neighborhoods and communities thrive. When all of our neighborhoods and communities thrive, all children will have beautiful parks in which to play and all of our streets and schools will be safe, nurturing and high quality. All people will be able to get to grocery stores with good food. I would like to see a Knoxville where people at different skill levels can have good paying jobs and reliable transportation to get there, and when families are struggling, no matter their income, they can find support to address their struggles. Moms and Dads will not have to work two and three minimum wage jobs to afford the basics. We will not need churches to house families in their basements because people can afford their homes and the other things they need to take care of their families and themselves. Knoxville has so many strengths and great people, but still more than 25% of Knoxvillians live in poverty (compared to 15-16% nationally). As a community, we need to come together and change that!
What is Knoxville's Best Kept Secret?
The Knoxville Botanical Garden in east Knoxville: beautiful place to walk; to relax on a blanket with a book; to let your children run around and explore nature!
What would you do to strengthen Knoxville?
I would connect people from all different walks of life and facilitate relationships so that people can know and understand each other's stories. We often judge others based on what they look like or how someone appears to live or what we think we know about them. I have found that every time I have gotten to know someone and their stories, I learn something, I change pre-conceived notions, I become more compassionate, and I realize that I have much more in common with others than I thought I did. Not knowing each other keeps us from being able to truly care for each other and from being able to work together to solve the problems in our community together.
What is your favorite Knoxville memory?
The word favorite is just a hard one for me-- I always have trouble answering that in relation to favorite songs, food, movies, books, etc. . . . because there are so many good ones. The same is true about Knoxville memories. I have too many good Knoxville memories to pick one! My best memories for sure are memories of enjoying time with my family-- sledding down our steep driveway when it ices over and snows; visiting the newborn baby gorilla at the Knoxville zoo several years ago; watching my children and many other children perform at the Knoxville Children's Theatre; eating family meals at home!
What is your favorite book or what book is currently on your nightstand?
The Impossible Will Take A While
What is the best advice you have received from a mentor, and who was that mentor?
My first and most important mentors were my grandmothers-- Emma Boyd (Memee) and Edith Thigpen (Grammie). Their best advice came from how they acted more than what they said. They lived the golden rule (treat others as you would want to be treated) and the great commandment (love God and love your neighbor as yourself.) Caring for others, not just in our family but also in the community, was a core part of who they were and who they taught me to be. Both grandmothers were nurses. Memee relayed the story of being told by the health department in Louisiana that she could no longer work as a nurse because she had gotten married, but she convinced them to let her keep working because she thought her role training Red Cross nurses during World War II was too important. When I spent time with Grammie growing up, we often had a meal or a church bulletin to deliver to a family that was struggling or to someone in the nursing home. Likewise, I accompanied Memee delivering mail and church news to sick church members in the hospital and rode along when she picked up a woman who did not have transportation to church. They also both took me along to civic and church meetings! They both loved their neighbors and their community by actively caring.
What advice would you give to your 16 year old self?
The grass is usually not greener in someone else's yard. Do not judge yourself or your own life by comparing yourself to what other people are doing or what you think someone else's life is like.
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