Macon Magazine

A DYNAMIC FACE ON MACON'S RCC TEAM DEFINES NEIGHBORHOOD RESILIENCE This issue of Macon Magazine highlights women in business, whose accomplishments as leaders are o en unsung. While women bring logic, reason, and compassion to the table, like any great leader, an analysis of almost 8,500 companies worldwide by S&P Global found female CEOs have more emphasis on empathy, adaptability, accountability, and diversity in their leadership styles. In our community, one female leader on Macon's RCC committee exemplifies this ethos. Tedra Huston has made an impact in the business, government, and nonprofit scene in Macon, showing a steadfast commitment to local life. Huston hails from small, historic Scotlandville in northern Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and traveled the country as a military brat. She originally came to Macon in 1999 to attend Mercer University. She fell in love with the city but le upon graduation to pursue her career. For several years, she worked in the bonding industry, giving her a firsthand look into a criminal justice system that didn't serve everyone, which drove her interest in studying law. Upon her acceptance to Mercer Law School, Huston returned to Macon in 2006. "The great thing about a Mercer education is it's very involved in the community," said Huston, who hadn't felt deeply connected to a place before Macon. Working with local legal defense work and with Mercer Law Professor Sarah Gerwig gave her that connection. A er Huston got her JD in 2009, she never le Macon-Bibb. Currently, she wears multiple hats: executive director of the Community Enhancement Authority (CEA), owner of a business that purchases and restores properties at tax sale auctions, dedicated Pleasant Hill neighbor, and mom to four boys. At the CEA, Huston is tasked with overseeing commercial development and community improvement, eliminating blight, and alleviating poverty, particularly in Pleasant Hill. The historically Black neighborhood was once thriving, where creative luminaries like fiction writer John Oliver Killens grew up and musician James Brown lived alongside lawyers, teachers, and doctors. But the practice of redlining, de facto in 20th century Macon, artificially devalued homes in the area, which led to GDOT forcibly acquiring and destroying over 500 properties to construct I-75. The neighborhood, once walkable to downtown, was torn in half by the interstate. It never recovered socioeconomically. CEA is a quasi-governmental agency funded through various sources and has had a number of achievements in the past couple of years to lend it credibility, taking charge on $10 million given by GDOT to mitigate the trauma of their actions in the previous generation. Due to interstate construction, the house Little Richard grew up in had been severely neglected. The CEA both moved and revitalized the house, putting it in a central location so that it could be properly contextualized and preserved, using GDOT funds. The CEA oversaw this project, and the house, now styled The Little Richard House, has been staffed and turned into a museum to not only illustrate the life of the famous artist, but to proclaim the importance of Pleasant Hill, the neighborhood of his origins. RCC STUDIO ATTENDEES ENJOY THE NEWLY DESIGNED COTTON AVENUE PLAZA 52 maconmagazine.com | APRIL/MAY 2023

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