Senior Associate General Counsel, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Hometown: Eden, NC
Education: BA from North Carolina Central and JD from UNC Chapel Hill
Your most vivid memory of your BLI experience: My most vivid memory was the bus ride to the retreat with was in Hendersonville. We were playing all of these ice breaker games and it started to snow! We were riding through the mountain on an activity bus in the snow and it was a bit scary, but we were laughing the entire time. We boarded the bus as strangers and got off as friends.
What you value most about your BLI experience: What I value most about the experience was what [then-BLI Facilitator] Mike Whitehead taught me; the realization that I wasn’t tied to a career in law and that my path may lie elsewhere. It was this realization that gave me the courage to leave the practice for 10 years and teach. And it also gave me the courage to come back into the practice and I have been happy knowing that I can choose my profession. It doesn’t choose me.
Roles with the Bar & Foundation and one you especially value: Grievance Committee (2017-20), Membership Value Task Force (2018-19), McMillan Fellowship Committee & Chair (2012-14), MBF Board of Directors (2011-14), Lawyers As Volunteers Advisory Committee (2012), Bar Leadership Institute Committee & Chair (2008-10), MCB Board of Directors (2005-08), Communications Committee (2003-05), Professionalism Committee (2003-04), Law & Society Committee (2003-04), and Lawyers Teaching Justice (2002-03). One of my most valuable service roles with the MCB was serving as chair of the BLI Committee for two years. We went through a lot of changes and there were some members—who I really respected—who had very different visions about the program than I did. My leadership training allowed me to guide the program in a different direction than I might have if I didn’t have the confidence I developed.
Something on the horizon that you're excited about: I’m taking my daughter (Evee, age 9) to Europe in Spring 2022 for 10 days. The pandemic delayed our trip for over a year, but now that she is eligible for [the COVID] vaccination, we are moving ahead with our plans. It will be the first time for both of us.