A Night to Remember Participants
Deborah Mapp‐Embry, Ed.D
Deborah Mapp‐Embry, Ed.D., a.k.a. Dr. Mapp, is the Performance Consultant for Inspired Schooling Solutions. She has an Education Doctorate in Instruction and Administration with an emphasis in Educational Leadership and Social Justice. Dr. Mapp has taught in a child development program, in middle and high schools, and in higher education. In addition, she has worked as a teacher leader, district curriculum coordinator, school‐wide adolescent literacy coach, city‐wide career counselor and admi (more...)
Irucka Ajani Embry
Irucka Ajani Embry is a creative & multi‐faceted person. He is an Adjunct Professor (Tennessee State University College of Engineering), author, ecological activist (encompassing economic, environmental, and social justice), environmental engineer‐in‐training, freedom advocate, gardener and advocate of everyone eating, performing and visual artist (creative writing, Hip Hop musician, and photography), public speaker, questioner of Reality, and small business owner.
Irucka regards himself as a being, which he feels connects him more fully to all beings and not solely to oth (more...)
Ivy Barksdale
Ivy (Mapp) Barksdale is a mother of three and the youngest of eight siblings. Born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Ivy has always believed in the power of dreams. She grew up feeling that anything is possible if you only believe. Ivy attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville majoring in Electrical Engineering. She chose to pursue that career because she felt that if a peanut‐farming engineer can become President, she could certainly use that degree as a springboard for anything (more...)
James R. Mapp
James R. Mapp was born in 1927 in Mayfield, GA as the oldest of two children of the late James Albert Mapp and the late Mattie L. Hargrove Mapp Davis. He moved to Chattanooga at the age of 10 in 1937 and attended public schools, graduating from Howard High School in the Class of 1947 as Class President and Valedictorian. He attended Tennessee A & I State College [now Tennessee State University (TSU)] in Nashville, with a major in Business Administration, and was elected Vice President of the freshman class.
He was married to the l (more...)
Jim Embry
Jim Embry was the featured speaker at Chef Martha Stamps’ A Place at the Table event in December 2012 and is very excited about returning to Nashville with other family members. In 2012, Jim spoke about his trip to Italy for Slow Food’s Terra Madre. On June 17 Jim will present reflections on his 2014 Terra Madre/Salone de Gusto experience and how it connects to the Nashville local food movement while also sharing his writings, photography and sustainability activism. He is delighted to be part o (more...)
Obiora Embry
Obiora Embry is not only an author but also a poet, amateur photographer, born again artist, entrepreneur, engineer‐in‐training, and a developer with a love for what is real and natural. He finds beauty in Nature and knows that we must "wake up from our collective slumber" to solve the problems we humans have created. Obiora is a life‐long learner and on his journey he has been educating and healing himself, mentoring and educating others, volunteering, growing food and cooking flavorful (more...)