Building Charlotte

AnIntimate
Conversation
Breaking Barriers and Taking Her
Leadership International
BY RASHANNA M. HENDERSON
She
is gracious, poised, and her community service
biography is extensive and admirable. A
Charlotte community leader and strong advocate for
community voluntarism, she is now slated to be the
2011 president-elect and 2012-14 president of the
Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. (AJLI).
She is Toni Freeman, the first African-American to serve
as president of the Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC)
during 2003-04.
In an intimate conversation, Freeman reflected on her
tenure as JLC president and discussed her plans to lead
AJLI. Freeman joined the JLC in 1993. She has seen the
organization evolve throughout the years and says, “We
have perhaps diversified the way that we raise money;
however, our core mission and founding legacy of commitment
to the community and to our members, those
elements have not changed. We do all that we do
honorably and courageously.”
When Freeman joined the League, she was already very
involved in the community. She was impressed by the
organization’s effectiveness in equipping volunteers.
“Training its volunteers is the League’s hallmark. I use my
League training all the time internally and externally to the
organization. JLC is able to do all the great work because
of all the great training that it provides,” says Freeman.
Freeman humbly embraces the historical meaning that her
presidency as the first African-American has on the Junior
League community and does not take it for granted. “I
think less of my tenure as the first African-American to
serve as president as ‘breaking a barrier,’ as much as I feel
as though I was a part of moving the JLC to a new part of
its history,” says Freeman. “The League has been growing
and changing all along and it continues to grow. My
presidency was a part of the JLC keeping in step with
many other changes in Charlotte over the years.”
When asked how her experience in the JLC has been
unique as an African-American woman, she replies, “I
think my experience in the League was more notably
different in the beginning as there were very few women
of color in the League and externally that was noticed. I
was one of two African-American women in my year-long
provisional class of 180 women. Today, the League is a lot
more diverse and women of color and women working out
of their home are well-represented. As a provisional, I
withToni Freeman
always felt welcomed,
nurtured and empowered,
and none of that has
changed from the beginning
until today. As a result I have
made life-long friends.”
To get a sense of her impact
during her term as JLC
president, Freeman
accomplished many
milestones which she proudly
shares. “It was the first time
we adopted policy governance and created a
Toni Freeman, JLC President
2003-04 and AJLI President-Elect
PHOTO PROVIDED BY TONI FREEMAN
Management Team that was separate from the Board of
Directors,” says Freeman. The Nordstrom grand opening
created a successful partnership that continued beyond the
event for two years. This was also the JLC’s first joint
venture with the Links, Inc., a volunteer organization of
which she is also a member. This was also the banner year
for revenue sales at the JLC WearHouse, generating higher
revenue than ever before in League history.
Freeman is currently the Director of Donor and Business
Relations at Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education
(MeckEd). She knows first-hand what is required to
manage and grow a successful organization. Of her
prospective AJLI position she says, “Right now our
Association is creating the Strategic Roadmap and getting
a lot of input from League members and leaders. I’d like us
to continue that level of engagement after crafting that
plan. I want to make sure that our Association supports
individual Leagues to give them the tools and resources
they need to be effective in their respective communities.”
When asked what motivates her, Freeman says, “I am
inspired by how creative and resourceful Junior League
members are in coming together collaboratively to find
solutions to help others in their communities.” She adds,
“I am inspired by acts of kindness, by our sense of
humanity, care and concern for others, and a sisterhood
that is so empowering that people do their best to put
together their best work.”
Freeman’s love of service is what allows her to achieve
balance in all of her commitments. Her love of and
dedication to the empowerment of humanity is what
makes her a true inspiration.
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