Pillars of Change
Education Pillar
Ruby spent a decade inside Memphis public education, staffing classrooms, placing teachers and helping open schools. She knows what it takes to do it well, and she knows what it costs when the state underfunds it. Ruby believes every child in Shelby County deserves a great teacher and a school with what it needs to succeed, and that starts with paying teachers like the professionals they are.
In Tennessee's lowest-rated schools, the share of teachers working on an emergency credential is nearly seven times higher than in the highest-rated schools.
Tennessee State Board of Education
Healthcare Pillar
Tennessee still has not expanded Medicaid, and hundreds of thousands of working Tennesseans pay the price, along with the hospitals that absorb the cost of care nobody can pay for. Our tax dollars already go to Washington. Ruby believes we should bring them home, close the coverage gap, and stop treating healthcare as something you get by being lucky.
Since 2010, Tennessee has lost more rural hospitals per capita than any other state.
Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, UNC
Resourcing Communities Pillar
Ruby's career has been about getting money to the places that need it most. Too many Memphis neighborhoods, small businesses and community organizations do extraordinary work on almost nothing, while the dollars flow elsewhere. Ruby wants public and private investment to reach the people closest to the problem, with fewer barriers and more trust in the communities doing the work.
For every dollar per person that foundations invest nationally, the South receives 56 cents.
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
