Amanda Mooney was raised near Daytona Beach, FL after being born in Isfahan, Iran, where her family had moved due to her dad’s job 2 years prior to her birth. At only 10 days old, her family faced a mandatory evacuation due to the political situation. She spent her childhood in Florida, and went on to study English and Communications at Florida State University. Following graduation, she moved to Athens for an internship with Team Clermont and fell in love with the city. After moving away to California in 2009, Amanda returned to the Athens area to put down roots for good in early 2018.

 

Amanda was sworn into the Winterville City Council in January 2020, where she learned what it meant to hold public office during the peak of the pandemic. She jokes that while others around her were spending quarantine baking bread and learning new hobbies, she was busier than ever before between her HR role at UGA and her City Council role in Winterville. She lauds Winterville Mayor Dodd Ferrelle for his mentorship at that time.

 

In 2023, Amanda received her Master’s of Education in Learning, Leadership and Organization Development from UGA. She currently works as Assistant Director of Human Resources at the UGA College of Engineering. She is also an organizer for the Marigold Festival, a volunteer at AthFest, and feeds cats for Campus Cats UGA, a nonprofit which promotes the humane management of cats living around the University campuses. Her four-year term on the Winterville City Council ended in January 2024.

 

Amanda lives in Winterville with her two adopted cats, Sprout and Meerkat.

 

 

What do you love most about the work you do?

 

I’ll answer in two parts, because UGA is my work but also community building is my work. At UGA, I really enjoy supporting students and faculty with the behind-the-scenes stuff. I picture Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need and it’s like, “Do you have your paycheck? Do you have the things you need? Are you feeling supported?” I like problem solving, and, as nerdy as it sounds, putting policy into action and making sure our decisions are equitable and helping people solve problems.

For community building, being involved in my community has always been important to me. When I moved back to Athens in 2018, I was coming off of a divorce and the very unexpected loss of my dad. I feel like this community welcomed me back so big, and it means the world to me to have been welcomed back like that. I’ve since really wanted to not only put down roots here, but to get to know my neighbors and make my community what I want it to be. Helping to improve things, being a part of what we accomplished on City Council, it all feels really good.

 

What do you like to do in and around Athens when you’re not working?

 

I love going to live shows. When I was new here, in my early 20s, I would just grab a Flagpole and find a few shows and just go by myself. That’s kind of how I started falling in love with this town and meeting my people. I love going to the Botanical Garden, walking on the Firefly Trail, going for day trips in the summer to a little swimming hole, spending time with friends, and going thrifting. I also just made a Summer ‘24 Fun to-do list, since last summer I was wrapping up grad school with 3 classes, work was busy, and so I didn’t have a real summer or break. I see lots of outdoor time, live music, swimming, and some porch cocktails in my future. Also running, as I succumbed to peer pressure and signed up for my first AthHalf! Training has begun.

 

 

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

 

Up next on my travel plans is Costa Rica. Maybe I’ll get there in 2025. I envision that being a solo trip. After that, I really want to go to Spain and Portugal. I’d also love to get back to Italy and Thailand as well. When my dad passed away, he was living in Southern Thailand, so I’d been there twice– once to visit him, and the second time to give him a Thai Buddhist send off and bring him home for a family and military burial as well. So Thailand holds a special place in my heart, as well as Italy and Sicily. We just did Sicily as a family trip this past September, and we found my great-grandmother’s old house. That was really cool.

 

If you could see any band or musician, dead or alive, at any time, who would it be and where?

 

When my mom was 15 she saw The Beatles at Shea Stadium. I would love to have been able to do that with her as like, screaming teenage friends! My other choice would be one of my favorite bands who I’ve never seen live: I’d love to go back and see Pearl Jam in Seattle in ‘93. I’d also quit my job and follow Brandi Carlile around forever if I could.

 

Do you have a favorite movie?

 

I think my favorite movie is Almost Famous. I love it so much. My other favorite, which is a very different genre but that I’ve watched at least 100 times, is Goodfellas.

 

Do you have a favorite book, or one you often gift or reference?

 

I’ve gifted this a few times, and I feel like whenever I hand it to someone, I’m like, “It’s so good, but also I’m sorry, ‘cuz it’s gonna get emotional.” It’s called The Primate’s Memoir [by Robert Sapolsky]. It’s a non-fiction book about this Stanford professor who, for 20 years in a row, would spend his summers with the same troop of baboons in Kenya. Half the book is really about the baboons’ families and behavioral dynamics, and the other half is about his travels in Africa. It’s a beautiful book, but with a pretty emotional ending. I read it while traveling, and was near the end of the book when my friend was like, “Dinner’s ready!” and I was just crying and skipped dinner. I was having a moment.

 

What advice would you give to your younger self?

 

Make room for yourself and take up space. When we’re younger we think every adult just has it figured out. Knowing that everyone is just out here trying their best is kind of what I’d want my younger self to understand. Just get out there and try your best, and know that you belong and your voice matters.

 

If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and where?

 

We’ve had a lot of loss in our family. So, if I could, I’d say I want my dad and my grandparents. But also… Anthony Bourdain would join us. I loved how he explored the world and the respect and curiosity he had for all these cultures. He was actually going through a divorce at the same time I was, and when I heard that I was like, “I’m just gonna be on the back of his motorcycle in Southeast Asia, traveling around” like he was my soulmate and this was going to happen. But I’d love to sit down for a last meal with my dad and grandparents and Anthony Bourdain. I think it would have to be in Southeast Asia for my dad, and Sicily for my grandparents.

 

If you could put any message on a billboard, what would it be?

 

I think I would put “You are not inherently better than people in the South.” There was an article that came out, from Queer Appalachia, about how people in the South are so resilient, and there’s so much good work happening here on a daily basis. For me, I’ve lived in the South, and I’ve lived in probably one of the most progressive, liberal places in Northern California. It’s safe out there [in California] where you don’t have to work hard every day for your state to be what you want it to be. But I feel like living in the South, you don’t get that. It’s purple, we could go red or we could go blue. There’s so much work that happens here every day. That’s the idea I’d want to put on a billboard, just how resilient and driven people in the South are, and there are all these people in our town and in our state fighting for voting rights, social justice, women’s’ rights. It’s uphill every day. And it’s beautiful and heart-breaking to watch and be a part of. But it’s important work. And others have no reason to look down on that.

 

What three words or phrases when you think of the word home?

 

Rest, safe, and off– as in, not having to be on.