Jacquelyn Hallum

Jacquelyn Hallum, Board Member – Asheville City Schools

By staff reports

Jacquelyn grew up in Asheville and was a student in the Asheville city public school system. She graduated from NC A&T State University with a B.S. in business administration and did her graduate work at Pfeiffer University and received a dual master’s degree in business administration (MBA) and health administration (MHA).

She has worked in health care for twenty-five years and is currently employed at the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) as the Director of Health Careers and Diversity Management. Her passion is working with youth and helping them make positive life and education choices. She is a trainer and consultant in Diversity and Multicultural Education and a motivational speaker.



Jacquelyn
loves the Lord and is thankful for the opportunity to serve the
education community. She is a member of Hill Street Baptist Church. She
is known in the community as a mover & shaker and for her great
sense of humor. One of her favorite quotations is “It is better to be
prepared for an opportunity and it not come, than to have an
opportunity and not be prepared.”


A word from Jacquie…


It is an honor
to begin working on the Board with Precious Folston and to join the
existing Board members, Allison Jordan, Al Whitesides, and Gene Bell. I
am also excited to be working with the ACS faculty and staff. Together
I hope that we can continue to make a difference, particularly in the
overall academic, spiritual, and ethical success rate of minority
students. If all of our students are not achieving, then we cannot and
will not have a healthy community.


Unhealthy
communities suffer from high morbidity and mortality rates, un and
under employment, an environment of dysfunction, weakened social
networks, polarization, and under utilization of social and human
capital. I hope that as a community that we will come together and
rally behind our kids.


We do not need
to waste time by pointing fingers and looking for the worst in the
people who serve our students; rather we ought to extend a hand and
say, “we can help.” We must remember that if “it” is broken, then “it”
must be fixed because we must never accept of the status quo.


As a product of
this system, it excites me to give back and to have a leadership role
in implementing and developing policies that may change, uplift and
empower the lives of the future leaders in our community. The
foundations of our schools are supporting the most valuable commodity
that exists in the world today: our children. I want our students to
realize their own personal value and the value of education. Education
will prevent generational and situational poverty and poor health
status, and open the door to affordable housing, living wages, personal
satisfaction and confidence, access to care and services, and the
FREEDOM to make and have choices.


I want to see
more minorities graduating from high school and being productive
members of the workforce. I want to see more minorities pursuing higher
levels of education and less going to prison. I want to see more
minorities inducted into the National Honor Society. I want to see more
minorities in AP classes and not suspended. I want to see more
recruitment and retention of minorities hired as teachers, counselors
and school leadership roles. And I want to see every Board member and
upper administrative staffs serve as a substitute teacher at least
twice a year.


I don’t think
that we can make appropriate decisions without some level of direct
contact with our students and teachers. At the end of my term, I want
to walk away and be able to say, “Job well done.”