Chattanoogans Online: Kim Shumpert

Power Up with Kim Shumpert and the CWLI

It’s about a month now that I’ve been writing a weekly profile featuring awesome Chattanoogans you can meet online from the comfort of your own pillow fort. From chefs to impresarios, we have some brilliant people folks in this town, all going the extra mile to share their art, advice, and friendship.

Turns out I’m not the only one who’s inspired by the power and wisdom of our fellow River City citizens. Kim Shumpert, MPA, Executive Director of Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute (CWLI), posts regular installments of Forward Together, an online program where she interviews local women who provide guidance, information, and mutual support as we move “forward together” through COVID-19 and social distancing.

After starting out in the public sector, Kim worked in nonprofits for years, including a stent as director of development at Bethel Bible Village. When the role at Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute came open, she was thrilled.

“The nonprofit sector is about teaching people how to improve their lives and the lives of those around them,” she says. “At CWLI, our direct mission is to increase the leadership capacities of women. Our vision is to build female leaders who are ‘stateswomen’ to improve not only their own leadership but to push that [empowerment] back into their communities. We are shaping the narrative for ourselves instead of having the narrative shaped for us.”

In other words, Kim doesn’t only want to benefit individuals; her organization’s goal is to give women the tools to lift up their own communities, and especially other women. Kim’s mission is to help others, and her enthusiasm for the women around her comes through vibrantly in her Forward Together videos. When I ask her what she’s learned about herself during the pandemic, she opens her answer to include the women she interacts with every day.

“The thing I’ve seen the most … is our ability to adapt, to take a situation and mold it into something better,” she says. “This crisis has presented just that opportunity for women to shine. The Forward Together video series is about spotlighting what these dynamic women are capable of.”

Women often don’t give themselves credit as individuals, she says, “so it’s up to me to do that. I don’t understand what’s behind [that self-effacing tendency]. It’s one thing I’m really passionate about changing. Women have a hard time advocating for themselves, so I’m pushing forward the great things we do. It feels awesome to build a platform where we normalize [women’s accomplishments].”

Kim has been especially impressed by the witness of resiliency she’s seen. Time after time, she hears how, for women, failure is not option. Such determination leads to a dogged, plow-through mindset that’s keeping businesses, families, and individuals afloat.

This isn’t a stoic mentality, though. These determined women keep themselves and each other strong by maintaining regular networks of communication, sharing fears and laughter alike.

“I’m in touch with a group of women on a daily basis,” Kim says. “We reach out to each other for strength. We’re not afraid of the vulnerability this moment demands. That vulnerability is a power for leadership.”

Vulnerability as a superpower—it’s an interesting concept, one Kim says she’s experiencing now like never before. As an achiever, she loves to be productive and receive positive feedback on her work—who doesn’t? And with the pandemic, “the feedback loop that gives you confirmation was stripped away.”

Yet, as people turned to her for answers she didn’t have yet, she found it was rewarding to say, “I don’t know that.” An assertion of unknowing led to trust and new opportunities.

“When I started to say ‘I don’t know’ a magical thing happened,” Kim says. “Other people started reaching out. We were invited into spaces more. The sincerity, the genuineness of being the first to say, ‘I don’t know’ has given others permission to say it, too. Then we can pull back, do the research, and come back with different types of solutions to a problem.”

It’s a process of stripping away masks, Kim adds—an interesting metaphor for a time when many of us go masked in public spaces. Perhaps, too, the power she’s discovering in vulnerability is part of the impetus behind women’s historical “self-effacing” behavior; denied more overt methods of empowerment, women have built communities knit powerfully together through the vulnerability that engenders mutual trust.

At any rate, the women Kim interviews on Forward Together seem both approachable and brilliantly competent. This Monday (May 18), for instance, Kim checked in with Sophie Moore, Director of Community Outreach at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. Sophie, in turn, introduced listeners to the Food Bank’s mission and their work during the pandemic.

Their conversation presented the pain inflicted by both the disease and the economic system failures it has revealed. Sophie also shared information about how the Food Bank has adapted to keep families fed and workers and beneficiaries safe. Whether you’re interested in volunteering, in need of food, or simply curious about food supply locally, if you listen to this conversation you’ll learn a lot to help you understand how food is made available in the Chattanooga area.

In other Forward Together conversations, women advise listeners about navigating money, building resilience, and how to find a meal if you’re in need—all geared to the new constraints and new systems that come with the pandemic. This is all helpful content, presented through Kim’s highly engaging interview style.

To finish off, I asked Kim what she’d learned during these tough times. In addition to her realization about vulnerability, she shared some advice from a woman she spoke with recently.

“In all the craziness that’s going on, she anchored herself to one or two people,” Kim says. “She met one older gentleman and forged a relationship where she calls and checks in on him at the end of each day—it’s an inspiring note to end with. It gives her fuel for the next day. That’s been a common thread with all the women I’ve spoken with. Have some touchpoint that gives you fuel for the next day.”

That’s great advice, and I’m going to start reaching out to my touchpoints today!