Every year, the Memphis Flyer asks our readers to tell us all about the outstanding young people who are doing their best to make the Bluff City a better place. This time, we had a record number of nominees, and narrowing it down to just 20 was more difficult than ever. Speaking to an immensely talented 20 never fails to fill us with hope, and allows us to introduce Memphis to the leaders who will be shaping our future.
Here they are: Your 20<30 Class of 2023.
Brenda Lucero Amador
President, Voices United
“I was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. when I was 3 years old,” says Amador. “My parents came here to give [us] a better future, something that couldn’t be offered in Mexico.” Amador grew up in Atlanta and came to Christian Brothers University on an Opportunity Scholarship. Under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), she and thousands like her must reapply every two years to stay in the country. “I didn’t really get into advocacy until I got to college.”
Now, she fights for immigration reform with Voices United. “DACA has been around a long time and we haven’t seen any progression, but if we keep advocating, sharing our stories, and organizing, something can happen in the future.”
The education major is now a student teacher at Idlewild Elementary. “I want to be not only an activist, but also a leader, because education is the root of everything. If we can fix the system or make it better, then everything else will fall into place. Because that’s the future generation.”
Dr. Adam Chan
Chief Resident Physician, UTHSC Adult Psychiatry Residency Program
“Growing up, mental health was always a taboo topic in my community,” says Dr. Chan. But during his medical education, he saw a need to destigmatize the topic. “I felt the absence of treatment options in low-resource settings during rural Tennessee rotations and international medical mission trips.”
Now, he’s a leader in researching innovative techniques to treat disorders like depression. “Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive procedure that involves using electrical currents generated from magnetic fields to stimulate different structures and connections in the brain. If your brain was a ‘muscle,’ I like to think of it as helping it train!”
But improved treatment is no substitute for building a healthier society, he says. “Prevention is power! Health and mental health are intimately tied to their sociocontextual components.”
Spencer Chasteen
Manager of Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning,
FedEx Dataworks
“Dataworks is the first time since FedEx started that we started a brand-new operating company,” says Chasteen.
“The goal of Dataworks is to make supply chains smarter for everyone, and really optimize and make our networks more efficient, and offer our customers more products faster. For instance, Dataworks was behind the vaccine distribution. I really knew that Dataworks had that startup environment, and it was new territory for us. So being able to come over and start building something from scratch, and especially in the talent acquisition world, was a great opportunity.
“My passion is bringing people in. I always say, someone took a chance on me, and I was able to build my career.”
Kirsten Desiderio
Marketing Coordinator, Cushman & Wakefield
“I’m the oldest of four, and my mom raised us all by herself,” says Desiderio. “She’s a single mother, so a lot of my drive and determination, I always credit back to her.”
Desiderio works full-time as a marketing coordinator for a commercial real estate company, while also pursuing a master’s degree in integrated strategic media at University of Memphis. “It kind of encompasses journalism, public relations, marketing, advertising — all of the things that I like in one very long name.” She also serves as vice president of communications for the U of M Graduate Student Association.
She’s a mentor in the STREETS Ministries Pathways program. “It is in the Berclair/Nutbush area. That’s actually where I grew up with my mom and all my siblings. It resonated a lot. They talk about first-generation college students, and how these kids really don’t have a strong support system, and how having a mentor in their life can really help.”
Lily K. Donaldson
Miss United States 2022
“I’ve only been Miss United States for two months now and I’ve gotten to go to almost every region of the U.S. so far,” says Donaldson. “It’s been really fun to meet people from all walks of life and all the places across the U. S. and get even more new perspectives than I had before.”
For Donaldson, competing in pageants is a way to flex her communications skills. She holds a computer science degree from American University and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in agriculture, focusing on the development of urban vertical farming. With nonprofit Art Technically, she promotes STEM and arts education. “I took a computer science class my first semester and ended up loving it. It wasn’t something that I had ever really had an opportunity to pursue or interact with. … Art Technically is all about trying to present those opportunities to underserved students, so they can see for themselves if it’s something they would like to pursue.”
Shanice D’Shara Dowdy
New Ventures Strategist, ALSAC/St. Jude
“I come up with social media-heavy activations to make St. Jude and Memphis relevant all over the world,” says Dowdy. “We’ve been successful, and because social media is not going anywhere, I bring that sophistication to help us stay cool to young people. I bring innovative solutions to advance philanthropy. I study industries that we haven’t tapped into before.”
Dowdy remains active in Memphis’ Beta Epsilon Omega chapter of AKA sorority, recently organizing a benefit for struggling Black-owned food trucks. She’s the mother of two children and, on New Year’s Eve, married Darry Dowdy Jr. at her grandfather’s church in Greenwood, Mississippi.
“I’m a Baptist who went to a Catholic school, and have traveled around the world to do missionary work,” she says. “It’s being able to embrace differences that allows others to embrace your differences.”
Gunter Gaupp
Musician, Composer
Crosstown Arts’ 2022 Composer in Residence has a degree in jazz guitar performance from Rhodes College, but you’ve probably seen him playing bass around town with folks like Louise Page. “It’s such a cool place that it’s hard to leave,” says Gaupp. “Immediately, the music community was so much more inviting than it was for me during 18 years in Baton Rouge. … Every culture I can imagine has a music space here.”
Recently, Gaupp has made the leap to teaching music at the Memphis Rise Academy High School. “I’ve been teaching guitar lessons since I graduated high school, but full-time in the classroom is definitely a different beast. It’s as rewarding as it is challenging. … I think with any of the arts, we’re trying to teach people how to be people.”
Fred Griffin
Fashion Designer, Founder of Swish
Have you seen those pink U of M Tigers shorts? Those were Griffin’s idea. “I started making apparel in middle school,” he says. “Anything that I do, I always try to have meaning behind. My mother and my father are really both big into community work. We’ve always done things with breast cancer awareness.”
Griffin designed and made a limited edition of the now-iconic streetwear in 2020 through his brand Swish. “I shot a commercial and put it on Instagram, and I couldn’t turn my phone off because the reaction was crazy. And that was in the middle of a pandemic! I love the fact that the people of Memphis appreciated it enough to where they still talk about it. People still love them, people still wear them.”
Griffin has parlayed his success with Swish into jobs with Nike and the Memphis Grizzlies. “Fashion is really tough because there’s so many people doing it,” he says. “I still keep at it because I’ve been doing it for so long, and I have such a passion for it. The ideas that pop in my brain and the concepts I come up with are able to stand alone by themselves.”
Sarah Jemison
Director of Strategy and Services, Alco Management Inc.
Finding affordable housing is an increasingly difficult problem for low-income Memphians. “HUD [United States Department of Housing and Urban Development] has defined affordability as 30 percent of your income or less going to housing — but plenty of people are spending 50 to 60 percent,” says Jemison. “We have the added issue in Memphis of out-of-state and out-of-country investors who are buying up rental properties to make a profit on them. These are people’s homes, and they can’t live there because their rent goes up or the property’s not well-maintained.”
Alco Management is committed to providing quality, low-cost housing to those who need it the most, with rents based on percentage of income. “We have a Memphis that works really well for people like me who went to private school and are white and privileged,” says Jemison. “I think we need to deeply examine the ways in which that system makes the rest of the city not work for so many people.”
Dante Lizza
Lawyer, Bass, Berry & Sims
Originally from rural Pennsylvania, Lizza came to Memphis during his first year of law school in 2019. “I fell in love with the city instantly,” he says. “I think the thing I like the most is just the culture of the city, the spirit of perseverance, grit and grind. People are very proud of the city and want to make it a better place. I’m from a small town, and I went to law school in Washington, so I’ve had the big city experience, and I’ve have the small town experience. For me, Memphis is the perfect balance.”
He currently practices healthcare law, helping pharmacies and clinics comply with regulation, while also providing free legal services for elders in Orange Mound. “I really enjoy getting involved in the local community in Memphis and helping people have access to resources and advice that they otherwise may not be able to get. I know I’m in an incredibly privileged position, and I feel it as my duty to pay it forward.”
Meghan Meadows-Taylor
Pre-Award Coordinator, University of Memphis School of Public Health
It was coincidence that Meadows-Taylor earned her Ph.D. in epidemiology just as the coronavirus pandemic was exploding in March 2020. She quickly found herself in charge of a $13 million CDC grant to the Shelby County Health Department to serve under-resourced populations. “It’s been extremely rewarding, seeing the impact of what we do in the community,” she says. “There’s some challenging aspects for sure, dealing with the political aspect. There’s a lot of resistance to change, but I think Memphis is open to making sure we have a healthier community.”
An author of 20 published research papers, she’s only getting started. “Violence prevention is another aspect of public health. We’re trying to build a violence prevention center within the school. … I want to make sure that we can all come together. I think diversity is important, everyone has their place, but we all need to take care of each other.”
Moth Moth Moth
Drag Performer
Two weeks after graduating from Memphis College of Art, “I put on a wig and dress and started performing at nightclubs. I’ve had part-time to full-time work doing that ever since my very first gig. I’ve been very lucky.”
That first pro drag show was a benefit for victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting. “Drag for me is much less about being fierce or whatever. Plenty of people are really good at that. Drag for me is like being a nun or something. It has a huge community service component. The most important people I serve as an entertainer are the lonely people and the people who need connection.”
Moth Moth Moth has become the most recognizable drag figure in the Mid-South, doing events for the Focus Center Foundation and hosting a podcast, Musing with Mothie. But that visibility has come with an increase in harassment and threats from conservatives, and now the Tennessee Legislature is considering legislation that would ban drag performances in public. “Y’all should be focused on making sure that mamas and babies are not starving across the state. They’re mad at me for reading stories to children in a yarn wig? Please.”
Kayla Myers
Programmer & Black Creators’ Forum Manager,
Indie Memphis
Myers had always loved film, but it wasn’t until she was studying digital storytelling at the University of Missouri that she wanted to make a career out of it. Now, she’s preparing to program short films for her fourth Indie Memphis Film Festival. “I’ve learned so much in my time with Indie Memphis, not just as a person, but thinking a lot about what it means to be a programmer and to advocate for independent filmmakers and especially filmmakers from marginalized backgrounds,” she says. “I’m constantly thinking about ways to expand my own taste, or recognizing that this [film] may not be for me, but I think there’s someone in Memphis who may really enjoy this experience and get something out of it.”
Working on the Black Creators’ Forum has been an especially meaningful experience. “I think it’s really important for Black filmmakers to have a space where they don’t feel like they need to be representing all Black artists, all Black people. … We’re always trying to make sure the Black Creators’ Forum is a space for connection and gathering and warmth, but also honesty about the ways that this industry really works.”
Daniel Stuart Nelson
Actor, Director, Choreographer
Since he first auditioned for Playhouse on the Square seven years ago, the Kansas native has appeared on Midtown’s biggest stage 27 times. In the process, he discovered a talent for choreography, made his directorial debut with Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and earned three Ostrander awards. “I got to fill a dream role last season,” he says. “I got to be Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors!”
These days, he splits his time between Playhouse and his position as advertising manager for the Orpheum Theatre. “It’s interesting to have these calls with marketing reps who are from LA or New York or Chicago,” he says. “They want to know about the Memphis market and what’s the best way to spend ad money here. I tell them, try as much as you can to make a personal connection with Memphis. That’s the way to go. Never be fake here.”
Alex Robinson
Educator, The Collective Blueprint
“I teach young people about the art of getting jobs,” says Robinson.
A Memphis native, Robinson went to college in North Carolina and decided to enroll in Teach For America when she graduated. “Teach For America sent me back home, which ended up being one of the best things I think could have happened to me.”
After her TFA hitch was up, she moved to The Collective Blueprint. “We work with young adults without college degrees. We help them train for a job field where they’re able to make a living wage. That was really important to me after being an elementary school teacher. I saw just how big an impact poverty has on absolutely everything. You can’t learn if you’re hungry. You can’t learn if you’re stressed. It was really important for me to get into a space where I was able to help combat that economic inequity in this city.”
Kelsey Seiter
Project Engineer, Memphis Light, Gas & Water
The Mississippi State graduate is the president of the Memphis chapter of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. At MLGW, she’s a mistress of all trades. “Basically, I do process improvement projects,” she says. “If there’s something at the company that they don’t really know who could tackle it, they ask our group to do it. I’ve done a lot of different types of projects, from workload studies for staffing to cost analysis. Right now, I’m doing a company-wide truck inventory.”
She also finds time to volunteer for the United Way steering committee and MLGW’s Mobile Food Pantry. “When it comes down to it, our biggest mission is to serve the customer,” she says. “I don’t think everybody even realizes that we are not a private company; we’re a public [utility.] We try to do a lot of stuff in the community, like our bottled water drive when we had the boil water advisory, our mobile pantry, and the Share the Pennies program, where we ask people to round up on their bills, and we use that money to weatherize people’s homes.”
Amber Sherman
Political Strategist
While Sherman was a student of political science, legal studies at University of Tennessee, Martin, the UT system tried to outsource the jobs of the schools’ maintenance workers. “I organized the first protest there in like 20 years,” she says.
That was the beginning of a lifetime of scholarship and advocacy. “I took an unconventional path from my parents and my family in general,” Sherman says. “They work in government or have stable corporate jobs. I just knew that that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I was really passionate about making a difference in people’s lives, beyond being a teacher or something like that. I really wanted to like be in the action, and be the reason a policy was changed, or writing new laws, or advocating for people. I wanted to be right in the thick of it.”
Sherman has worked on campaigns all over the country, but her greatest visibility is her podcast, The Law According to Amber. “I created the podcast because I like to talk, and I’m passionate about policy and law. It’s a great way for me to explain stuff to people in layman’s terms they can understand, so they don’t feel like they’re being left out.”
Jazmyne Tribble
University Relations Coordinator, International Paper
When she was a struggling college freshman, a mentor from STS Enterprise helped Tribble stay in school. Now, she pays it forward as a mentor herself. “I love STS. They’re like a second family to me,” she says. “A lot of young adults in Memphis just don’t have that positive role model who could tell them the ins and outs of what life is like really like after high school, after college. I like being that voice of reason sometimes for students because I think, especially now, you see students who have big dreams and aspirations, but no real guidance, no road map to get there.”
In her role at International Paper, she’s always on the lookout for fresh student talent. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity, and I see Memphis growing all the time, especially in the work that I do. There’s so much potential here, and I want to pay it forward by staying here and doing what I can to help bring the city up.”
Ana Vazquez-Pagan
Ph.D. Candidate, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
A native of Puerto Rico, Vazquez-Pagan decided to dedicate herself to medicine after a pregnant family member died in the 2009 influenza epidemic. Now, she researches the effect of pregnancy on vulnerability to infectious disease in one of the most prestigious Ph.D. programs in the country. After defending her thesis this spring, she will be traveling to Ghana as a Fogarty Global Health Fellow to study malaria in pregnant women and infants.
“I’ve always just been innately curious about everything around me, from nature to the way things work. Science allows you to ask questions, the most basic questions we can think of. And research allows you to answer those questions. I love that I get to be creative and ask the questions I’m most interested in, that we think have potentially a very big impact globally as well.”
Oakley Weddle
Founder, Jubilant Communications
There aren’t many people Weddle’s age who have started their own PR firm, much less work full-time as marketing manager for an IT firm as large as ProTech Services Group, all while still in school. “I majored in public relations as an undergrad, and I’m getting my master’s right now in journalism and strategic media. So I’m all about communications. I think it’s incredibly important.”
Weddle was homeschooled, and now he runs a theater program for other homeschoolers. “I’m teaching these kids at a young age that it’s important to stand up for themselves, to use their voice,” he says.
The PEYitforward Foundation is a nonprofit he founded with his family after the 2016 death of his brother Peyton, and it recently established a scholarship at the University of Memphis Fogelman College of Business and Economics. “That’s where he went to school,” says Weddle. “He unfortunately was not able to finish college, so we have a scholarship there for people who want to pursue higher education but may not be able to afford it.”
