Tawana was born and raised in Athens, GA and graduated from Cedar Shoals High School. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Business and Information Science from Morris Brown College in Atlanta, then a master’s degree from Georgia State University in Human Resources Development. Tawana also earned an EdD in Higher Education Leadership from Nova Southeastern University. Currently, Tawana is the Director of Community Education and Empowerment at the Athens Land Trust, primarily working with local government and West Broad neighborhood residents to identify environmental needs and support work in the neighborhood on weatherization and energy retrofits to homes there. This work was recently awarded a Department of Energy grant to expand into the North Athens community. Tawana is currently finishing her term as a member of the Clarke County School Board, where she served as vice chair for two of her four years there. Tawana’s heart and soul is her work with her two sisters running Destined Inc, a nonprofit they formed in 1999 that focuses on youth literacy. Destined Inc. offers reading support for students, support for parents navigating the education system, and a summer camp that serves 40-50 children per summer and focuses on improving literacy. Tawana lives in West Athens.
What’s your favorite part of the work you do?
My favorite part is helping others to navigate systems to better their own outcomes. I love to see people understand that they’re worth it. I’ve had the opportunity to work with people from many backgrounds, and especially in education settings, parents might feel intimidated by the principals or the teachers or whoever they feel may be more educated than them. I tend to like to work with people and let them know, “Hey, you’re just as important. Let’s figure out what we need and make it happen.” In every job I’ve had, I’ve been in a place where I’ve been able to utilize my heart. My heart is with people, especially underserved people. So advocacy and commitment to education, those are the parts I love the most.
When you’re not working or volunteering, what do you like to do in and around Athens?
Well, a lot of the time I’m trying to find a balance, because I’m doing so much. So I spend a lot of time with my family– my parents and my two sisters. We like to go downtown, going to any type of festival that is going on, and going to movies. I enjoy simple things, practical things and honoring the time that I have with my family.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I would like to go to South Africa. It’s something I’ve been planning to do. I want to feel closer to my ancestry. I always wanted to go to Africa and be with native people and learn more on the ground, even if it’s in the form of a mission trip or something.
If you could see any band or musician dead or alive, who would it be and where?
My favorite artist is India Arie. I listen to a lot of her music because it has really solid messages that are practical to me. I almost saw her but it was right when COVID hit and she had to cancel. I’m not really big on concerts although I love to dance, but she’s one person I would love to see. I’d love to see her somewhere smaller and more intimate, dimly lit, so I can really just feel what she’s singing about. And hopefully I’ll have a boyfriend by then to listen with.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Slow down and smell the roses. Be intentional about what you’re doing. Just because I have such a genuine heart for people, and growing up with my parents we would do a lot for people through the church and going to houses and cleaning up, cooking for them, singing. We wanted to spread love and I’ve always had a heart for helping others although we didn’t have a lot ourselves. My parents instilled that in me. But I find that sometimes being intentional about finding balance is important. People ask me to join things, a board or committee or something, and I just say yes. But as I’m getting older, I want to slow down and focus on the will that God has for me. I’ve spent my life doing a whole lot, but I’m at a place now where I’m trying to be intentional and know that it’s okay to say “no.”
Do you have a favorite book?
My mother, Louise Anderson Smith wrote a book called Lil Boy Johnson. The book is fictional based on true events about many phases of her history growing up in the rural part of Athens, GA. I love it because people in the community have called out and noticed things in the book they recognize, like, Hey are you talking about the night with so-and-so at the cafe and the fight with the KKK broke out? Or whatever else they remember from the book. I never got to meet my maternal grandparents, and some of my mother’s siblings who passed before I was born. So I’m really big on heritage and on family, and I’ve read that book many times because it sets the stage for me to see what it was like for my mother growing up. It is a story highlighting my uncle’s time in Vietnam with parts of my daddy’s story incorporated regarding fighting and coming home to racism, and how they overcame it. My grandmother’s strength and resilience is also portrayed in the book. A lot of times people say I’m a lot like my grandmother– very strong willed and caring, but also not afraid to speak up, and with a heart for service. So reading that book makes me feel connected to my family.
Do you have a favorite movie? Or do you remember the first movie you saw in a theater?
From the time I was a little girl, my parents always took my sisters and me to the movie theater. As we grew older, our big cousin Angie shared that love of movies with us. We lost our sister Stacie to lung cancer in 2013 so I often think of that day when we were young girls and our cousin took us to the movies to see Purple Rain followed by an afternoon of jamming to the Prince Purple Rain soundtrack cassette tape. We had so much fun that day! We didn’t quite understand what the song Darling Nikki was talking about [laughs]. My dad got very upset with us and he warned us, You can keep the tape but I don’t wanna hear that song again.
If you could put any message on a billboard what would it be?
“We succeed together. And it works.” That’s our tagline for our nonprofit, Destined Inc. It would have a picture depicting the community holding hands with a lot of books all around. If we work together, we can improve the literacy rate in Athens, through better outreach and innovative ways of getting children to learn to love to read.
If you could have lunch with anyone dead or alive, who would it be and where?
One person that really impacted my life, and who I wish I’d had more time with, would be Hosea Williams. He was a civil rights leader, chemist, and a humanitarian who founded the Hosea Feeds the Hungry campaign. “Uncle Hosea” also graduated from Morris Brown College. I volunteered with him for a number of years, and was able to be front and center with him doing civil rights work when they were tearing down a lot of housing projects in Atlanta and a lot of gentrification was going on. I got the opportunity to see him lead people and work with minority students. My sister was at Morris Brown and was involved too, and every Tuesday night for three years we would meet with him at the Apex Museum and he would instill in us knowledge and really try to help us help our communities. His life really impacted me, the way that I’m more bold now, I think I got it from him. I want all people to be treated with dignity. During our last meeting “Uncle Hosea,” as we affectionately called him, promised to take us to Selma next. He wanted to do a documentary. He died soon after that meeting and I miss him. I would love to sit down with him and continue to be mentored by him. Many important people ate in a restaurant called Scholars located on Morris Brown College. As we are building a hotel and two restaurants soon, I would want to eat in that restaurant, run by students at the institution that made such a difference in both of our lives.
What are three words or phrases that come to mind when you think of the word “home”?
Peace, shared values and love.
