Join us for the 2024 Leadership Luncheon! Reserve your seat now!
OUR FLAGSHIP PROGRAM
CURRENT CLASS
OUR FLAGSHIP PROGRAM
CURRENT CLASS
LaKenya Middlebrook
City of Knoxville
Chief of Community Safety & Empowerment
Hometown: Knoxville, TN
What is your vision for Knoxville 10 years from now?
A city that is diverse, celebrates a wide range of art and culture, and prioritizes the economic and social needs of residents, in addition to tourists.
What is Knoxville's Best Kept Secret?
Its artistic community. Knoxville has a lot of extremely talented musicians, poets, writers, and visual artists.
What would you do to strengthen Knoxville?
Enhance exposure of young Knoxvillians to local and nonlocal experiences; advocate for intentional investment in quality of life needs that will make it more likely that we can retain and recruit diverse talent in Knoxville.
What is your favorite book or what book is currently on your nightstand?
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston; Where Do We Go From Here?: Chaos or Community by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What is the best advice you have received from a mentor, and who was that mentor?
You can please some of the people some of the time, you can please others of the people other times; but you can't please all the people all the time. (Harold Middlebrook, Sr.)
What advice would you give to your 16 year old self?
It's ok to ask for help. Build networks.
