We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amy Harris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amy below.

Amy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

This question is very timely for me as I’ve been thinking a lot about my parents lately. My mom passed away recently after 15 or more years of Alzheimer’s. As my dad passed in 2009, my siblings and I moved my mom from her home in Savannah, GA to live in my neighborhood in a residential long term facility. This was perfect as she was close by my children and grandchildren. Perfect until Covid that is when we could no longer see her. That said, we bought the condo right next door and got 24/7 care for mom. While I continued to serve as Director with Achilles Nashville part-time, I left my full-time professional career in education to oversee her care. Was I was concerned that my mom would not thrive in my care or that I would not be enough? Absolutely! But what I knew from my upbringing from my parents was that faith and family always come first. When the roles reversed and my mom became dependent on me, and I became more of the parent to her, it was her guiding my every step.. And by that I mean, I knew how she loved and cared for me growing up and I wanted to provide her the same loving support and acceptance as I had. My siblings are very family oriented as well and made every effort to visit often and provide support from afar. We are all grateful that our father provided well for us and our mom so we were able to have good quality caregivers with her. After my mom passed away I found and read a box of letters my father had written (while he was traveling for work & / or in army) her for five years leading up to their marriage and a few years after. It was so evident the love they shared and the value they placed on their parents and their families and that was clearly passed on to and through their own children.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My career and background was in Early Childhood Special Education and Pediatric Rehabilitation. I served as Program Director in several early childhood programs (e.g., Susan Gray School, Easter Seals Pediatrics) and research projects with Vanderbilt. However, for the purpose here it is my role as Director of Achilles Nashville that I am focusing on. Achilles Nashville is a non-profit that serves athletes with disabilities for walking, running, and wheeling events and activities. I have been with Achilles since the Nashville Chapter began in 2012, first serving as a volunteer, then as Assistant Director for a couple of years, then taking over as the Executive Director. This is a perfect fit for me as it combines my educational/ experience background as well as my love for running. It further allows me to spend more time with my adult daughter, Sara “Lizzy”, who has cerebral palsy and who fills the Assistant Director role with Achilles. Lizzy uses a handcycle for practices, training, and races. Achilles has approximately 70 chapters around the world. While the chapters are connected with a headquarters in NY, they all function with their own uniqueness. I am most proud of the community surrounding our chapter. Our athletes and guides (ex: a sighted guide for. a visually impaired athlete) are all welcoming/ accepting, and supportive, and it is heartwarming to see the relationships that develop.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Probably the most significant shift, pivot in my career and life came in 2018. I had spent years working on a federally funded research grant at Vanderbilt that developed training resources for best practices for teachers working with students with disabilities. I landed here after having spent the best five years serving as Director of the Easter Seals McWhorter Family & Children’s Center. Though education focused, this position at Vanderbilt was a complete shift from the direct care and the work I loved with children and families. It involved a lot of reading, research, writing, and collaboration with national experts in early childhood. and desk sitting, much more than I was used to. When the funding was cut for the research grant after twelve years, it was almost a mixed blessing. The work was valuable in preparing future educators but never filled my soul with the same joy and laughter and love for working directly with teachers, children and families. In searching for where I would land next, my focus was on finding a position that would utilize my talents for supervising and running programs. I found that as an Assistant Director position, a big pay cut from previous positions but at this juncture of my long career being fulfilled with my job weighed more heavily. It was a great fit until I left to care for my mom in 2020.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I strongly believe that you lead by example. It’s the same old story….I try to follow this in my spiritual life and I try to lead by example in my professional life and with teams that I have supervised. I think the most successful leaders create an environment where everyone feels like they belong and that they are both valued and important to the work being done, an environment that has a community feel to it. In other words, allowing your team to express their ideas without judgement or feeling like they will be belittled. I believe that everyone has something to contribute. We all have our strengths and we all have needs or areas that we are not so strong in. Build on the strengths of the team members. When giving feedback do so in a positive way. Be honest, direct, and forgiving!

Contact Info:

• Website: achillesnashville.org
• Instagram: @Achillesnashville
• Facebook: Achillesinternationalnashville

Image Credits
Achilles Nashville