Tomeka Hart Wigginton, USA TODAY Women of the Year honoree, melds public service, activism

Yahoo

27-02-2025

Tomeka Hart Wigginton is one of USA TODAY's Women of the Year, a recognition of women who have made a significant impact in their communities and across the country. The program launched in 2022 as a continuation of Women of the Century, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Meet this year's honorees at womenoftheyear.usatoday.com
Tomeka Hart Wigginton was chairman of the Memphis City Schools and CEO of the Memphis chapter of the Urban League when she had a breakfast meeting that proved to be a pivotal moment in her career.
In 2009 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had just donated $90 million to the Memphis City Schools as part of an ambitious plan to make MCS a national model of great teaching for all children. The next year Bill and Melinda Gates visited Memphis to celebrate the grant and see the work taking place.
Wigginton joined a small group that was meeting at a Memphis hotel with the Gateses and others from the foundation. She recalls telling Bill Gates that she would one day work for his foundation. She said Gates' response floored her: "I've heard. What's taking you so long?"
Indeed, Tomeka Hart Wigginton has been taking bold steps and rising in the ranks of non-profits for the last two decades. She has been a teacher, lawyer, education advocate, consultant and, yes, she joined the Gates Foundation in 2016. In November, she took on her most high-profile role: President and CEO of the United Way of the Mid-South.
Now Wigginton, 53, adds a new title: USA TODAY Women of the Year honoree.
In a career defined by public service and community activism, Wigginton says she has been grounded by her working-class upbringing in Memphis.
"I have a deep desire to impact the vulnerable communities of Memphis," Wigginton said. Indeed, she realizes that in her years growing up in the Goodwill Village development of North Memphis and, later, Frayser, her family would have been in the target audience for United Way services.
More: United Way of the Mid-South appoints Tomeka Hart Wigginton as new president and CEO
Wigginton, a graduate of Trezevant High School who received her bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and law degree from the University of Memphis, faced a recent challenge in 2023 when she returned to assist the Memphis Shelby County Schools board in a new role: the board enlisted her as a consultant/facilitator.
The board was stymied in its efforts to pick a new superintendent, having to suspend the search. It called on Wigginton, a former school board chair, to help them get back on track. Through board retreats and other meetings led by Wigginton, board members eventually got to a place where they picked a new superintendent.
She says career stops and consultant work have helped prepare her to become the chief of the local United Way, a job Wigginton said she became "obsessed" with the prospects of landing once longtime head Dr. Kenneth Robinson announced his retirement in June 2024.
"Everything I've ever done -- from teaching, law, CEO of a non-profit and philanthropy -- rolls right into United Way," Wigginton said. "So when I am talking to our clients, I can talk to them about my own upbringing. And how I know what it's like to be poor. That's not judgmental. When I am talking to agency CEOs, I've been a United Way agency CEO, and I know how we are making your life difficult and I want to make your life easier and when we are talking to philanthropists, I've been there, too."
She added: "Philanthropy is about the power to impact communities. For a community to grow you need strong community organizations, a strong public sector and aligned philanthropy."
What follows is a Q&A with Wigginton:
My mom and dad. I was the youngest of five children and, when I got to college, I realized the sacrifices they made for me to go to college, something they had never done. I realized as a kid that I never wanted to let my parents down.
When I was a teacher, I had the a-ha moment of realizing that I had to listen more to students. I started talking to them about their families and the environments where they lived. It helped me become a better teacher. I try to be for others what folks have been for me. I try to be intentional about supporting others. It is something I seek out in a genuine way. It is not about me.
Passing the bar for the first time. No one in my family had been a lawyer, and I worked really hard in (the University of Memphis) law school.
The other was going to work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2016. Gates had helped fund Memphis City Schools' Teacher Effectiveness Program (through a $90 million grant) and I was school board chairman and I met Bill and Melinda Gates.
When I first applied to law school in 1997 at Georgia State, I didn't get in. It was a low point and I was shocked. But what I learned from the experience was it was not the right time and place. In 1999 it hit me that I should go home (to Memphis). Every no is not a statement about me and something I did wrong. Coming home to the University of Memphis School of Law was the fight thing. I left at 18 for college (at University of Tennessee-Knoxville) and came back at 28 and it propelled me into what I am doing now.
As confident as I am about myself and what I can do, I still struggle with overcoming my thinking that I am not ready for whatever challenge is before me. It's a constant thing (and) I have to remind myself of what I am capable of. The hardest and most rewarding thing I ever did was running for and serving as a (Memphis City Schools) board member for nine years. I would do it all over again, but I am not!
My definition of courage is doing what you know needs to be done regardless of consequences. Here's an example from my time on the school board: We had to let go of 300 custodians because we were facing a $60 million budget deficit (at the Memphis City Schools). And we did a study on where we would cut. That was tough, and I was the board chair. But I had to be responsible for this enterprise -- and make a courageous decision.
The other decision was the merger of the (city and county) school systems in 2013. And it was the courage to do what was right even though I knew I was going to make a lot of people mad.
That you really are smart. You can do hard things and just know that you have no idea who you are going to be, but in 20 years you will be great.
Mark Russell is executive editor of The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at [e-mail]
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: United Way's Tomeka Hart Wigginton is USA TODAY Women of Year honoree