Andrea Blackman’s (she/her) portfolio includes oversight of the Office of Impact in the City of Nashville. Blackman is a historian trained in U.S. history with a focus on race, women, and gender and a professor with a specialization in civil rights and social and racial justice. She is one of the region’s leading experts in anti-racism and higher education, and her work has been profiled on C-SPAN and in the Associated Press.

Under her leadership, 2022 marked the inaugural year of Metro Nashville’s Budget Equity Tool (BET). This tool was integrated seamlessly into the budget process and was designed to determine whether budget allocations advance equitable outcomes for residents and Metro employees and measure the impact of budget decisions in terms of burdens or benefits specific communities might experience.

She has held the post of professor at both Lipscomb University and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. She is an adult leader with the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee; and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She’s served on the Board of Directors for The Maddox Fund, the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), the National Council on Public History (NCPH), The Ivy Center Foundation of Nashville, as well as on the Tennessee Historical Records Advisory Board (THRAB). Her ongoing research includes education disparity and self-representations in children’s literature.

She is a lover and scholar of hip hop, and a Zora Neale Hurston enthusiast. She enjoys deep conversations and pushing the envelope, all the features of her podcast @truthbtoldpod.