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Mattie Moran is Girls Inc. Role Model
Mattie Moran is Girls Inc. Role Model
Honored with Unbought and Unbossed Award
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Mattie Moran, director of workforce development and education for the Chamber, is among 10 local women honored this spring by Girls Inc. for their impact on the community.
The UnBought and UnBossed Award honorees are selected by teenaged girls who participate in the Girls Inc. Women’s History Project. |
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The girls identify women in the Chattanooga community whom they consider role models and who have made significant contributions to the advancement of women in the community.
Briana Williams, a 10th grader at Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, chose Moran for an Unbought and Unbossed Award. Briana said she was impressed by the honoree’s advice to “stay true to what you believe in and to follow your dreams, despite the challenges.”
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“It’s both humbling and a challenge to receive this high honor,” Moran said. “I hope to live up to the expectations implied by the award, and I am extremely happy to be in the company of the other distinguished recipients.”
Bea Luri, CEO and president of Girls Inc. said that it is important for girls to become aware of the accomplishments of successful women in Chattanooga. “We want to inspire them to be strong, smart and bold,” she said. “We hope these girls will be the Unbought and Unbossed women of tomorrow.”
The name of the awards is a tribute to Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman to run for president of the U.S. Chisholm declared herself to be a representative of all people and made a commitment to serve as a leader who would remain “unbought and unbossed.”
Begun in 2005, the Girls Inc. Women’s History Project engages teen girls in researching Chattanooga women from various walks of life to honor them for their accomplishments.
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The girls also select, research and present before their Women’s History Project peers information on a famous woman in history. The girls who participate in the project learn interviewing techniques and public presentation skills.
Girls Inc. inspires all girls to be Strong, Smart and BoldSM by providing a positive environment where girls can enjoy being girls; by providing programs that nurture their capacity for personal achievement, confident adulthood and economic independence; and by advocating for an equitable society.
For more information, visit
www.girlsincofchatt.org.
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Valued Veteran Chamber Staffer Has Done It All
By Carolyn Mitchell |
Since she joined the Chamber as the first African-American in a professional position, Mattie Moran has worked in virtually every department—from governmental affairs to membership services to the news bureau.
Despite a full schedule at the Chamber, Moran managed to complete her B.S. degree in organizational management from Covenant College and to volunteer at Chattanooga Big Brothers and Big Sisters, the American Cancer Society and the March of Dimes. |
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Today as director of workforce development and education, Moran oversees the Chamber’s career readiness programs that reach all 15,000 Hamilton County 8th through 12th graders every year. “Our primary goals are to encourage students to start thinking about their future careers and to see the connection between their education and their future income,” she said.
More than 1,000 volunteers help Moran and her assistant, Cathy Humble, carry the programs throughout the county each year. “We’ve estimated the value of the volunteers’ hours in the schools at almost $850,000,” Moran said. “That doesn’t count the time the volunteers spend in committee meetings and training programs.”
Moran’s duties include coordinating the Chamber’s workforce development committee—that supervises the career readiness programs, among other functions—and its subcommittee on WorkKeys.
The WorkKeys system helps connect job seekers with employers who have positions requiring the job applicants’ skills. “It determines the skills needed for jobs, evaluates the applicants and provides job skills training, if necessary, using KeyTrain,” Moran said.
WorkKeys also forms the basis for the Career Readiness Certificate which Moran helped pilot in
Hamilton County. Now a statewide program, the CRC is a portable credential attesting to the certificate holder’s work skills.
“The CRC guarantees better quality job applicants since employers can verify employees’ skills before they are hired,” she explained. “Using the information contained on the job applicant’s CRC, employers can also reduce hiring expenses and employee attrition by making better job fits.”
Moran also works with business prospects to determine their workforce needs and with community leaders to recruit and train people for the jobs. As a member of the Rapid Response Team, she assists workers who have lost jobs through lay-offs or closings by providing information and counseling. She also refers them to the online list of available jobs at Chattanoogahasjobs.com, a Chamber website she manages.
In 2005 Gov. Bredesen appointed Moran to the 36-member State Workforce Development Board as one of two appointees from Chattanooga. She serves on the advisory councils at Howard School and the School for the Creative Arts and is a member of Tucker Baptist Church where she was volunteer secretary over 25 years.
At the Chamber Moran is respected as a seasoned, wise and empathetic mentor—who isn’t shy about stepping up to the plate for a colleague. In announcing Moran’s Unbought and Unbossed Award at a staff meeting, Chamber President Tom Edd Wilson spoke for all her co-workers when he said, “It’s always nice when good things happen to good people.” |
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