‘Move the community forward.’ Q&A with 5 powerful women leaders in Macon

Women lead five of the most influential foundations in Middle Georgia.

The Knight Foundation, the Otis Redding Foundation, the Peyton Anderson Foundation, the Griffith Family Foundation and the Community Foundation of Central Georgia all have female leaders in top positions.

Lynn Murphey, Karla Redding-Andrews, Karen Lambert, Tonja Khabir and Kathryn Dennis shared their thoughts with the Telegraph about why it’s so important to have women in leadership roles and how it can change the community.

Why did you decide to do this with my life?

• I’ve always been passionate about community development, and I’ve always been engaged in community and engaged in social issues. And so moving back to Macon, I’ve worked for a couple of different nonprofits and even led my own nonprofit. I think the stars are sort of aligned to allow me to be able to be active in this work. I feel like my personal mission as well as the mission of the founder of the (Griffith Family) foundation are very aligned, and so that makes it easy to feel like this is just kind of doing the work that you feel purposely driven to do. -Khabir, the executive director of the Griffith Family Foundation
• When I started really reflecting on my career and what was important to me, I realized that working with people and helping them achieve their goals was really important to me but also being out there to make our community stronger and better. When this position at the Community Foundation came open, it seemed to actually just be a gift from God because … it married all of my passions. -Dennis, the president of the Community Foundation

What is it like to lead one of the most influential organizations in Middle Georgia?

• It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to see the success stories that come out of the Otis Redding foundation. Being a leader of an institution such as this one builds not only my self-esteem for myself but also for my team who diligently work so hard for others. -Redding-Andrews, vice president and executive director of the Otis Redding Foundation
• It is the best job in Macon. I have to say I love this work, and it’s wonderful to be able to collaborate with others of like mind who want to make our community better. -Lambert, president of the Peyton Anderson Foundation

Why should women be in leadership?

• It’s always so important to have women in leadership positions because we are the thinkers. We are the brains. We are the doers. -Redding-Andrews
• Women typically are the glue that holds together the family, the home and the business place, frankly. They are the collaborators. They are the networkers. They are great at team building. They possess, in general terms, so many traits that make really effective leaders. -Lambert
• First of all, I would say I think it’s important to have good leaders in leadership positions. I think it’s good to have leaders in place who not only have a strong vision, but who are also very good at collaborating and bringing people to the table to share that vision and to help implement that vision. I think it’s important for leaders to have passion,... and so as I think through those skill sets I think are those skill sets that come very naturally to women. … I just think it’s very important to have strong leaders in leadership positions again people that are focusing on a greater good. -Murphey, program director of the Knight Foundation for Macon
• If you don’t have the right voices at the table, then you have something that doesn’t fully interest the needs of the larger society. And so you really have to be able to make sure that our voices are heard especially and in particular those minority voices like women to be able to say, ‘Hey, this is what my experience tells me makes sense.’ If you don’t listen to those voices you’ll have an incomplete story, and you won’t be able to address the issue the way that needs to be addressed. -Khabir

What are women in leadership doing for Macon-Bibb?

• I think the women who are in positions of leadership here have moved our community forward. … We all have our own areas that we’re working on, but there’s always an intersection that we can all come together and make things stronger. -Dennis
• If you think across through the leaders in our local foundations which are big players in this community, it is interesting to think that all are women. And so I do think that is probably unique to Macon. … I think it’s very important for young women who are growing up in Macon to see that leading organizations like these (is) possible. It’s within reach. -Murphey

What is Macon’s biggest challenge?

• I think our biggest challenge is cohesiveness. I think that we’ve got to really focus on inclusion. … We need to have one common goal to make things accessible for all people. Education is certainly a passion of mine, and I think that it’s so important that everyone be given the opportunity for their kid to excel in the way that they feel best to excel. -Redding-Andrews
• Poverty… Education is the key to everything. At the Community Foundation, we have over 40 scholarship funds because people believe, I mean truly, that that is the differentiator. -Dennis
• We have too many people in poverty, and we need to figure that out. And I think there are people that are constantly looking and trying to understand and looking at other cities and what they might have been doing to try to move us forward on that front. I’m very hopeful because I think we have really bright, smart people, and we’re working toward it. -Lambert

What is Macon doing right?

• I think the in Macon community, what we’re doing well right now is collaborations. All of us are working toward one common goal. -Redding-Andrews
• The collaborative spirit of Macon, I think we do that well. Everything can be better, but I’ve been to other cities where they don’t do it at all. -Khabir
• I am really proud of the reputation we are gaining for building a plan and executing on a plan. -Murphey
• I think that we’re getting better and better at bringing different people from different backgrounds and cultures and ethnicities together to work toward a common goal. -Lambert