Board Calendar

Althea   Greene
District 2

Bishop Althea E. Greene is the Vice Chair of the Shelby County Board of Education, and the Chair of the Evaluation Committee. She is the daughter of Mae Cohens and the late Mr. Henry Cohens Jr. of Memphis, Tennessee. She is the mother of Eumecca Long and LaKesa Greene and grandmother to X’Zavier and Jase.

Bishop Greene was educated in the Memphis City Schools System, received her Bachelor of Science at LeMoyne Owen College, and earned her Masters of Art Degree from Tusculum College. After graduating, she responded to God’s call and began to preach the Gospel in 1987 at Vollentine M.B. Church, where the late Rev. W.M. Fields Jr. licensed her. Bishop Greene continued her studies and graduated from Tennessee School of Religion with a Bachelors of Theology and a Masters of Theological Studies. In addition, she also received a Doctorate in Theology. She retired from Shelby County Schools after thirty- eight years of service. Presently, she is the operator of Greene’s Grill and Three Generations Catering. She has also served as an on-call Chaplain at The Regional Medical Center and William Bowl Hospitals.

Bishop Greene took a leap of faith in November 2002 and responded, once again, to God’s powerful call. She organized Real Life Ministries began services on January 5, 2003. Real Life Ministries just celebrated its 18th anniversary and has ten active ministries.

Bishop Greene has received numerous awards that include the Award of Excellence from WMCTV-5 and MATCU. She was named Christian Educator of the Millennium sponsored by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Beta Epsilon Omega Chapter. In addition, Bishop-Designate Greene received the Crystal Apple Teacher Award from WMC-TV.

Bishop Greene is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, and serves on the Spiritual Leadership Team for the Shelby County Chapter. Other memberships include: NAACP, SCLC, and Stand for Children.

Pastor Greene is the first Memphis born, African American female consecrated as a Bishop. She was consecrated by Bishop Andre T. Beatty, and the executive Council of Kingdom Culture Assembly of Churches and Ministries. She has a dual membership at the New Friendship MB Church and at Christ Missionary Baptist Church. She is under the dynamic leadership of Pastors Paul, Co-Pastor Debra Reed and Dr. Gina M. Stewart. Her passions include: teaching, preaching, reading, traveling, shopping, and grilling. Bishop loves the Lord, and gives God the Glory in her Pastoral work.

Bishop Greene was appointed to serve District 2 on the Shelby County School Board of Education in 2019, and was recently elected by her constituents in 2020.

Stephanie   P. Love
District 3

Stephanie Love has lived and been active in North Memphis, Millington and unincorporated areas of Shelby County all of her life. Stephanie Love attended Millington Central High, studied Psychology at The University of Memphis and later became a licensed cosmetologist.

Ms. Love's advocacy began as a parent volunteer in August 2011 at Delano Head Start where she noticed the unacceptable parking accommodations. This motivated her to begin directing traffic to ensure the safety of the children and parents and was able to effectively advocate for an improved parking lot. Because of her passion and willingness to help, Stephanie was elected to serve on the Shelby County Head-start Policy Council where she later became Vice-Chair.

Stephanie Love also served as Vice President of the Frayser Neighborhood Council- a community group that was born out of President Obama’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative in 2013. Stephanie was elected to the Frayser Neighborhood Council as a resident on May 4, 2013, and was later selected as Vice President by the group. The Frayser Neighborhood Council has had success in helping to improve the quality of life in Frayser. Some of those successes include effectively advocating Memphis City Council for improvements to Denver Park- a once gang-ridden park taken back by neighbors, getting approval from Memphis City Council for new sidewalks in front of Corning Elementary, stopping a new trailer park development, developed Frayser 2020- a plan to improve quality of life in Frayser and planning of the Frayser Town Center and just recently advocating with fellow Memphians to prevent a landfill from expanding next to an elementary school, and other urban neighborhoods in Shelby County.

Stephanie Love was elected to the Shelby County School Board in 2014 and later re-elected in August of 2016. Stephanie Love currently serves as the Vice-Chair for the Shelby County Board of Education, the Chair of Community Engagement Committee and Co-Chair of the Legislative Committee.

As a board member and parent of 3 school-aged children, she knows and understands the challenges parents and children face as it relates to the constant changes in education. Stephanie Love believes when parents, school employees, district officials and all elected governing bodies work together more can be accomplished.

Sheleah   Harris
District 5

With more than 10 years of experience, Sheleah Harris has a professional background in secondary education, local government affairs, community engagement, and marketing. Fueled by her strong desire to restructure broken images of youth in our society, she has consistently aligned herself with opportunities to implement strategies for academic, social, and economic success for others. Sheleah is driven to improve “Equity and Access for ALL students” in Shelby County. She is a servant leader who has been relentless in her pursuit to create environments that cultivate an attitude of excellence within communities and neighborhoods throughout Shelby County. She is the founder and executive director of Living Grace, Inc. a non-profit organization that advocates and serves youth identified as homeless in Memphis. In addition, Sheleah also works as a manager of State and Local Government Affairs for a Fortune 500 company. In her role, she listens, learns and leads in the charge for innovation by collaborating with community stakeholders and legislatures to drive equity and access throughout the city.

Formerly, Sheleah also served as a high school teacher for Shelby County Schools and Bartlett City Schools. Sheleah is a proud product of Shelby County’s District 5 and a current resident and graduate of Cordova High School. She earned her B.S. in Marketing Management from The University of Memphis, M.S. in Education from Freed-Hardeman University, and certification in K-12 Education for the state of Tennessee.

She enjoys being active with her church, Life Church of Memphis; spending time with her family and friends; and spoiling her Hound Dog, Andy.

Sheleah   Harris
District 5

With more than 10 years of experience, Sheleah Harris has a professional background in secondary education, local government affairs, community engagement, and marketing. Fueled by her strong desire to restructure broken images of youth in our society, she has consistently aligned herself with opportunities to implement strategies for academic, social, and economic success for others. Sheleah is driven to improve “Equity and Access for ALL students” in Shelby County. She is a servant leader who has been relentless in her pursuit to create environments that cultivate an attitude of excellence within communities and neighborhoods throughout Shelby County. She is the founder and executive director of Living Grace, Inc. a non-profit organization that advocates and serves youth identified as homeless in Memphis. In addition, Sheleah also works as a manager of State and Local Government Affairs for a Fortune 500 company. In her role, she listens, learns and leads in the charge for innovation by collaborating with community stakeholders and legislatures to drive equity and access throughout the city.

Formerly, Sheleah also served as a high school teacher for Shelby County Schools and Bartlett City Schools. Sheleah is a proud product of Shelby County’s District 5 and a current resident and graduate of Cordova High School. She earned her B.S. in Marketing Management from The University of Memphis, M.S. in Education from Freed-Hardeman University, and certification in K-12 Education for the state of Tennessee.

She enjoys being active with her church, Life Church of Memphis; spending time with her family and friends; and spoiling her Hound Dog, Andy.

Shante K.   Avant
District 6

Commanding over 20 years of non-profit experience, Shante K. Avant works towards the economic security of thousands of women and their families in the Greater Memphis Area every day. As Deputy Director of the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis (WFGM), she manages staff, operations, and fund development.

Since 2007, Avant has used her position at WFGM to make a difference in the lives of others. She is responsible for grant allocations, fostering strategic partnerships within the corporate community, stewarding relationships with local and national foundations and local community-based organizations, institutional giving, and large donor stewardship.

Avant’s national affiliations include the Partnership for Women’s Prosperity and Prosperity Together, coalitions of public women’s funds focused on improving the economic security of low income women and their families, the Women’s Funding Network International Leadership Cohort and Ford Foundation Fellowship.

Avant’s local community involvements include serving as Chair of the Shelby County School Board. She represents District 6 which includes the South Memphis, Riverside, Westwood, and Whitehaven communities. She is a board member for Clean Memphis and serves on the advisory boards for the University of Memphis College of Social Work and the New Memphis Institute.

Other accomplishments and achievements include The New Tri-State Defender’s Woman of Excellence award, Immaculate Conception High School Alumni of the Year Award, and the Council of Urban Education Excellence Award. Avant is a graduate of the New Memphis Institute Fellows Program, the Leadership Memphis Executive Program and a past Board Chair of MPACT Memphis. Other affiliations include the Early Success Coalition and Grantmakers Forum.

A native of Memphis, Avant earned her BA in Psychology and Masters of Science in Social Work from the University of Tennessee. She the proud mother of one daughter, Peyton who attends Middle College High School.

William   "Billy" Orgel
District 8

William E. Orgel (Billy) is a native of Memphis, Tennessee and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin in 1985. After graduation, he moved to Memphis to work at his family business, Majestic Communications, which he helped build into the areas’ largest retailer of Motorola two-way radios. When the two-way business was sold in 1995 Billy began to build on his existing portfolio of radio communications towers by performing build to suit services for the newly licensed wireless carriers. Tower Ventures, currently own over 425 towers and they have built and sold an additional 700 towers since the company began its operations.

Recently, he was re-elected to a second term to the Shelby County School Board and served as its Chairman of this body for two years. Billy is also a past Board Member of the New Memphis Arena Public Building Authority that oversaw the construction of the FedEx Forum, the home of the University of Memphis Tigers and the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. He also became one of the members of the Grizzlies ownership group in 2013. In addition, he is a member of the Executive Board of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, a member of the Methodist Hospital Board and member of the Memphis University School Board of Trustees. In 1999, Billy was selected by the Memphis Business Journal as one of their “Top 40 Under 40” of local community leaders and was recently selected as a member of the Memphis chapter of the Society of Entrepreneurs. In addition, Billy is an Organizer and Director of the First Capital Bank, a community bank with 250 million in assets.

Over the years, Billy became interested in preserving historic buildings in Downtown Memphis, and to date he and his partners have completed new construction as well as the preservation of seven buildings that include commercial space and 500 apartments. Billy is also involved in the restaurant business as a franchisee of Ruth’s Chris in Rogers, Arkansas. He and his wife, Robin Salky Orgel, are lifelong Memphians and have three children, Benjamin (24), Megan (22), and Hannah (18). Benjamin is a recent graduate of at The University of Texas at Austin and Megan is a junior at UT Austin. Hannah attends St. Mary’s Episcopal School as a junior.

Kevin D.   Woods
District 4

Kevin Woods is the Memphis market president for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, which serves more than 3.4 million members in the state and across the country.

In this role, Woods builds and supports key relationships with west Tennessee businesses. He also serves as a vital link between the Memphis business community and BlueCross sales and service teams.

Before joining BlueCross, he was executive director of Memphis’ Workforce Investment Network, which assists city and county organizations with recruiting new companies to Memphis and improving employment opportunities for area residents. Prior to that, he was director of career development and education services with New Horizons Computer Training Center in Memphis.

He earned a Master of Science in business administration and Bachelor of Science in computer engineering from the University of Memphis. He is a 2014 graduate of Leadership Memphis Executive Class, a New Memphis Fellow, as well as alum of the 2017-2018 class of Leadership Tennessee (Class V). He currently serves on the Leadership Tennessee Advisory Council.

Woods also serves on numerous boards.

• Shelby County School Board
• Memphis River Parks
• Shelby Farms Conservancy
• The Salvation Army
• United Way of the Mid-South
• Neighborhood Preservation, Inc. (NPI)
• TN Achieves Advisory Board