Before she was elected to the Shelby County Commission, Tami Sawyer was the director, diversity & cultural competence with Teach For America Memphis and a writer, speaker, and social justice and education advocate. Tami was named by The Tennessean and Commercial Appeal as one of 18 Tennesseans to watch in 2018 and was included in the Commercial Appeal’s 2017 Person of the Year recognition. She is an alumna of the University of Memphis and attended Howard University School of Law. A leader in Movement for Black Lives in Memphis, Tami is a TEDx speaker and has been featured on The New York Times, Al Jazeera, NPR, BBC Radio, Huffington Post, MLK50, and the covers of The New Tri-State Defender, Memphis Flyer, Commercial Appeal, and Memphis Daily News. Tami has been an introductory speaker for social justice leaders Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem, and Minister Louis Farrakhan. In 2016, she was a social justice oriented candidate for Tennessee State Representative. In 2017, Tami continued her work as a social justice advocate, which led her to organize #takeemdown901, the successful movement to remove Confederate Statues from Memphis' public parks. In October of the same year, Tami announced her candidacy for Shelby County Commissioner D. Tami's free-time is spent with family and friends, catching up on indie movies, and reading through her Kindle list.