Earlier this semester, Tennessee’s governor, Bill Haslam, jump-started the “now that you ask…” series with Tom Ingram. The governor’s wife, Crissy Haslam, will join Ingram in the next edition of the series, Tuesday, April 17.
Tennessee’s First Lady, Crissy Haslam, introduced a three-part initiative that focuses on the interplay between family engagement and literacy improvement in Tennessee. She has been traveling the state to stress the importance of parents as first teachers, parents as education partners, and also to raise awareness for the exponential value of reading at grade level by the third grade.
Born in Houston, Texas, Haslam moved with her family to Memphis, Tennessee, when she was 8-years-old. She graduated from Emory University in 1980 with a double major in finance and marketing in the College of Business. Crissy married Bill Haslam and moved to Knoxville in 1981. While working as the assistant director of admissions for UT-Knoxville, she received a Master of Science degree in Education in the program of College Student Personnel.
She has served on numerous civic and community boards, and currently serves as chair of the Tennessee Executive Residence Foundation and Commission.
The “now that you ask…” conversation series is hosted by Tom Ingram, the man called the “most influential person in Tennessee politics who does not hold elected office.” The series brings Ingram’s bipartisan, common sense approach to government and politics straight to the table with discussions and debates featuring guests from across the business and political worlds.
Ingram, founder of The FIRST Group in Washington, D.C. and The Ingram Group in Nashville, was appointed a leader-in-residence at the Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership in September. While serving in Washington, Ingram was regularly named by Roll Call as one of its “Fabulous Fifty” most influential people on the Hill.