|
Elected in November, 2009 to the Salisbury, NC City Council, Blackwell came in second among 13 contenders for the five council seats. Her peers on City Council elected her Mayor Pro Tem.
As an advocate for her Salisbury neighborhood, Blackwell conceived a park to attract young families to the area. City leaders responded by nominating her for a national humanitarian award. Here is text from the nomination:
“For more than two years, Mrs. Blackwell worked tirelessly to fulfill a vision for a new neighborhood park within her community. She was the driving force behind proposals made to the Salisbury City Council…She excelled in gaining community-wide support for a new park facility and was instrumental in coordinating efforts that raised more than $40,000 to bring the park from a vision to a reality…(she) went above and beyond to make her initial vision for a neighborhood park become a reality. Centennial Park is quickly becoming a pillar in the community and an attractive place for the citizens of Salisbury to enjoy. It was her dedication that made this project possible…Mrs. Blackwell is a shining example of what can happen when a single citizen contributes to their community in such an extraordinary way.”
Blackwell responded by recognizing the hard work of her neighbors and the generosity of donors, without whom the park could never have been developed, and the hard work of the Parks Department, without whom it could never have been built.
With a twenty year career in Information Systems for Fortune 500 companies, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, AIG, and Wachovia Bank, Blackwell has extensive experience in telecommunications, systems programming, and project management. She trained in customer service at Disney World and directed award-winning customer help desks at the national level. She led her field in implementing strategies such as voice response, videoconferencing, and fiber optics. She developed and was accountable for multi-million dollar operating and capital budgets.
Blackwell has worked as a free-lance writer for the past five years. She says, “Writing has given me the opportunity to meet all kinds of people. I got to empty garbage for a day when I wrote about our sanitation department. As the education reporter, I gained a special insight into our school system. I have been privileged to interview young and old people, rich and poor, happy and sad. For me, the thrill of writing is not in the words, but in the experience of having adventures, meeting people, and sharing stories.”
Blackwell’s heritage in Montgomery, Alabama, developed her value for diversity. Her father, Joe Azbell, was the reporter present on that seminal day when Rosa Parks declined to sit in the back of the bus. He was often fired from his newspaper for covering the Civil Rights Movement, but refused to go home. He covered the bus boycott and the bombing of Dr. King's home. Later, he testified for Martin Luther King in Birmingham. Azbell appears in the first episode of Juan Williams’ PBS miniseries Eyes on the Prize, and is quoted extensively in many books about that historical period.
Blackwell has lived in Salisbury for seventeen years. Service plays a large part of her life. After a three-year term on the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Blackwell served one term on the Salisbury Planning Board before being elected to City Council. She’s a 2008 graduate of Leadership Rowan, and supports Waterworks Visual Arts Center, Salisbury Symphony Orchestra, the Bread Riot, the Land Trust for Central Carolina, and Historic Salisbury Foundation. She is an active member of Salisbury Civitans and the the Rowan Chamber of Commerce.
Blackwell has mentored children at Overton and Isenberg Elementary Schools for the past 10 years. She is actively involved with her granddaughter's school, and is an active member and former deacon at First Presbyterian Church. She and her family volunteer regularly at Rowan Helping Ministries. Blackwell lives in the Fulton Heights neighborhood with her husband and granddaughter.
|
