Mayor Megan Barry spoke at the Nelson and Sue Andrews Institute on Civic Leadership’s “Now That You Ask” event on Tuesday evening.
Although the event was part of the conversation series hosted by Tom Ingram, leader-in-residence of the Institute on Civil Leadership, it was also open to the public.
The conversation was centered around Barry’s personal life, her passion to serve and her major goals in office. Among those goals are the issues in which she centered her campaign around.
“It’s pretty simple,” Barry said. “It’s housing, transportation, education, a strong economy, continuing to make sure we have jobs here, but also that quality of life that makes Nashville special.”
At a year into her term, Barry has been able to stick to a major aspect of her campaign: transportation reform. Although last week the Metro Transit Authority (MTA) board approved a $6 billion, 25-year regional transportation plan, Barry told the audience there are still many avenues to explore before the plan takes effect.
“I had a meeting today with the Mayors Caucus,” she noted. “When we get together, it is all the counties that surround Davidson and more. As the mayors in those counties, we all unanimously agreed today that the plans we have to be pushing at the state is the ability to have a local option for us to explore in funding mechanisms but also that the state needs to take some additional revenue.”
While the impacts of this plan will outlast her time in office, Barry has taken steps in ensuring that she is focused on the future beyond her term. As the first female mayor of Nashville, Barry had some advice for the female students who comprise 61% of the Lipscomb population that are about to go into the workforce after graduating.
“I hope that young women will think of politics as an option,” Barry said. “It may not be something you come right out of your program and do but at some point in your life, think about serving. Don’t ever think that you don’t have what it takes to serve the public, and I think there is an opportunity for making sure that women are engaged.”
Barry is known for being an active mayor, prioritizing spending time to get to know her constituency and making sure its diversity is reflected in her office. Over half of her staff is comprised of women with representation of African and Latin Americans and the LGBTQ+ community.
Before being elected mayor, Barry gained political experience as she served as a Council Member At Large on Nashville City Council. “Now That You Ask” host Tom Ingram brought his own experiences to the conversation throughout the night.
Ingram is commonly called the most influential person in Tennessee politics who does not hold an elected office. Ingram has worked as a reporter for the Nashville Tennessean and the Nashville Banner before serving as the chief-of-staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Maryville). Ingram oversaw the winning elections of U.S. Sens. Bob Corker (R-Chattanooga) and Alexander and Govs. Don Sundquist and Bill Haslam. Ingram is the founder of the Ingram Group, a Nashville consulting and government affairs firm.
As leader-in-residence of the Institute on Civic Leadership, Ingram said students have many possibilities for getting involved in the political process.
“Get involved interning, working in campaigns, getting to know elected officials — just looking for opportunities no matter how menial they seem,” Ingram said. “As Mayor Barry just said in the program tonight, if you have to start off in McDonald’s that’s fine, but have the goal of becoming the CEO of McDonald’s. You have get your foot in the door.”
According to Ingram, while getting involved is a step in the right direction, it’s especially important for students to insure their views are being represented during election cycles that are not “pretty.”
“Politics isn’t always pretty,” Ingram said. “Sometimes it’s downright ugly, but it is our political system, and when it’s ugly, it means we’re making an adjustment. When it’s pretty, it means we’re kind of in a nice period of time. It’s important to participate when it’s ugly. It’s important to participate when it’s pretty because ultimately it reflects us. It reflects us poorly if we don’t participate, and hopefully it reflects us in a better light if enough of us do participate.”
Barry also echoed a call to participate, not necessarily through gaining something, but instead by giving something up.
This call for participation reflects a similar point made by Barry in the discussion.
“Last year, Pope Francis challenged all of us to say, ‘Give up your indifference.’ Give up your indifference to people who are struggling, people who are poor, who are incarcerated, who are homeless, so I see that as my faith informing me of this idea of giving up this indifference and making sure that we are serving all of Nashville.”