In this premier episode, we’re chatting with Charlane Oliver about turning your passion into purpose. Charlane turned her passion for social justice into a full time career and dare we say a movement! Hailed as a “Now Generation Activist” by The Tennessean and a 2019 Woman of Influence by the Nashville Business Journal, she is an award-winning community organizer, respected movement builder, and public relations strategist. She is the co-founder and co-executive director of The Equity Alliance, a nonprofit that works to build independent political power among the Black electorate and

As a trusted voice on voting rights issues, her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, National Journal, Pew Charitable Trusts, Huffington Post, the Associated Press, Think Progress, on NPR Weekend Edition, MSNBC, CNN, internationally and throughout Tennessee. She has graced the coveted stage at the inaugural TEDxNashvilleWomen and has been a featured guest on various local television broadcasts, radio stations and national podcasts.

Her organization led a statewide coalition that registered 91,000 Black and brown Tennesseans to vote for the 2018 midterms, increased Black voter turnout by 413 percent, scored two legal voting rights victories against the Tennessee Secretary of State, and is responsible for electing the most diverse and progressive Metro Council in the city’s history.

A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Charlane has a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She lives in Nashville with her husband and three children.