TaJuan Stout
Mitchell served
nine years on
the Memphis
City School
Board and eight
years on the
Memphis City
Council. On
both government
bodies,
Cou
both
men
elec
coll
elected by
colleagues as
the
Chair. She
has also been been employed employed by four City
City of Memphis
Mayors, in in two two executive positions a
and served in
the the administration administration of of four four City City of of Me
Memphis
Mayors. She uniquely understands City Government
from the perspective of a citizen, an electe
����������cial, and executive staff. She was the
Community Relations Director and Intergovernmental
Relations Administrator for the City of
Memphis.
Ms. Mitchell is a trained social worker, retired
from the American Cancer Society, where she
served as the Executive Director, and retired
from the City of Memphis. She received a B.A.
degree in Sociology and Education and an M.A.
in Education Administration. Ms. Mitchell
completed post graduate work in social work
administration. Hired as only the second African
American on a part-time grant she worked her
way to Executive Director for the Memphis
Region that included West Tennessee, MS -
and Arkansas. Before retiring, she helped
the six-state Mid-South Division to establish a
diversity and inclusion policy. She retired with
Division looking nothing like she entered.
Her civic activities include Board of Director
for the Women’s Foundation of Greater Memphis,
member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
Inc., and she is an active member of Christ
Missionary Baptist Church. Ms. Mitchell has
received countless awards: Friend of Education
MEA Association, Henry Logan Starks Community
Leadership Award from the Memphis
Theological Seminary, Memphis Living Legend
Award by Christ Missionary Baptist Church and
New Sardis MB Church, Appreciation Award by
Whitehaven Youth Empowerment, Inc., Kindle
Award, Minority Advocate of the Year, and is
the recipient of the Ruby Wharton Community
Service Award.
She led the development of the Whitehaven
Library, Whitehaven Visitor Information Center,
a 9-Hole Practice Range Whitehaven Links
39
equipped with a banquet hall, eight new
schools built in District 3, Main Library, and
voted to bring the Memphis Grizzlies to the
City of Memphis.
While on the School Board she led the effort
for School Choice, which allows families to
select the school within the district for their
children, a development of African American
History incorporated into the curriculum, and
the effort to secure a majority vote on Mayor
W.W. Herenton’s $100 million dollar Capital
Improvement Plan. She and Commissioner
Sara Lewis orchestrated a paradigm shift, by
sponsoring the resolution to support a disparity
study that established the Board’s Minority
and Women owned business program.
In 1995, she organized an effort to support
African America������lms and raise money for
��������������t programs that provide direct services
to help families in Memphis. Through the
years, friends joined forces to make the
elegant red carpet movie parties a sell out and
raised over $325,000 for those agencies. The
project for the last twenty years was the work
of TaJuan and her friend, Gale Jones Carson.
The became known as the Colored Girls
Production.
TaJuan loves The Lord Jesus Christ. At 16
years old, she united with Christ Missionary
Baptist Church where she was a Sanctuary
Choir Member and Sunday School Teacher.
She currently serves as the Church through
the Pastor as a Government Relations Advisor
and Souls to the Polls Church Strategist.
Her husband, Retired Fire Chief Ronald E.
Mitchell, Sr., have four children: Nakia,
Cathryn, Evelyn and Ronald, Jr., and seven
grandchildren, one great grandchild. She is
a devoted caretaker of her mother,
Mrs. Rosetta Scott Beasley.
Although retired, she has been a volunteer
contributing writer for Spirit Magazine and
a panelist for WREG TV3 Informed Sources
and is a political commentator monthly for
ABC’s Local This Week24. As a public policy
consultant, the Memphis City Council tapped
Ms. Mitchell as the Dean for the City of
Memphis Academy of Civic Engagement, a
seven-week course design to teach citizens
about the operations of local government.
Although at sixteen years old, she always
wanted to be the Executive Director of the
local NAACP in Memphis, God had another
idea for an elected and appointed life in
public service.