I grew up in the Hampton Roads City of Portsmouth. I came up in a time where I had several mother figures in my life. My mom, aunt and next door neighbor were all mom to my brother and me. My dad worked for the school system in Facilities Management as a plumber so skipping school wasn’t an option because any given day he could have a work order at my school. Growing up in Portsmouth was filled with sailors and shipyards. Every evening you knew when it was 9:00 because there was a loud artillery blast each night that took place in the shipyard. As a teenager, you had to be home before or return home some time shortly after the blast, failure to do so, would often lead to a grim ending to your evening; that never happened to me!
How long have you worked for Reynolds?
I’ll have 6 years working at Reynolds this coming June.
What is your typical day like as Facilities Manager?
There’re all types of request coming in every day but the beauty of my role is, no two days are ever alike, so there’s never a boring moment. Some days the flood gates for requests pour in while other days we make sure we address the every day needs of the facilities and our customers.
What is the most challenging part of your job?
I would say the most challenging part of my job is trying to meet the daily demands that are many and trying to accommodate each customer as quickly as we possibly can.
Someone told me you are a minister. Would you tell us something about your ministry?
I’m the pastor of a church in Petersburg where I was assigned to last July. I’m a people person and I genuinely care about the needs of those who don’t have. My ministerial focus is feeding people, not just spiritual food but physical food as well. At the church where I am, we are in the process of establishing a food pantry for the people in the community. I must admit, when Dr. Pando announced that Reynolds would be establishing a food pantry, I got excited about the school’s outreach efforts.
What is your favorite activity outside of your work at Reynolds?
Spending time with family, especially my grandchildren who live in Denver and are some of the funniest kids I know. I have three granddaughters and one grandson who’s my Mini-Me and his dad hates it.
What do like most about Richmond?
This is my second time living in the local area and I didn’t appreciate all that Richmond offered until I left. What I like about Richmond is, there’s lots to do here, it’s centrally located, and is basically a two hour drive of everything, the mountains to the west, the beach to the east and all of the cultural events that DC to the north has to offer (getting there within two hours might be a stretch, traffic dictates the time).
If you won $100 Million in the Mega Millions lottery what would you do with the money?
I would invest most, set up a business in real estate to provide affordable housing, travel, leave a financial legacy to my grands and then establish food networks for those who don’t have enough to eat.
