When it comes to a good story, Brandee Thomas is all ears.
“Maybe it’s my Georgia roots, but I can lose a whole afternoon listening to someone who knows how to spin a story. And you haven’t heard a good story until you’ve experienced being wrapped in a cocoon of fantasy by a Southern story teller,” she says.
“I think it’s my love of oral stories that inspired my fondness for reading. You can’t close your eyes as you enjoy it, but it’s transformative all the same.”
When she ran out of stories to read, Brandee decided to pick up a pen and write a few of her own.
“I have copies of the Young Georgia Authors anthologies from my elementary years with some of my work in there, but it didn’t occur to me that I could write for a living until my sophomore year in college.
“I was taking an African American Women Writers course at Georgia Southern University and my professor made the simple declaration of, ‘Everyone has a story to tell” Brandee remembers.
“My breath caught in my throat a little and I could almost feel the proverbial light bulb go off in my head.’”
Something so simple changed the trajectory of Brandee’s college career and life thereafter. Immediately after that class, she marched across Georgia Southern University’s cobble stoned campus and changed her major from psychology to communications, with an emphasis on journalism.
“After graduation, I went to work at my hometown newspaper. Although I was the government and education reporter, I was always looking for the human-interest side of every story I wrote. Yes, I could just write about the test scores and rezoning requests, but there was always a deeper tale beneath the surface of every city commission meeting and board of education report,” Brandee says.
“I almost took it as a personal challenge to find each one!”
Eventually, Brandee’s love of stories lead her into the nonprofit world.
“I started out as a volunteer before I moved into operations. Nonprofits do amazing work in our community, but many of the smaller organizations miss the mark when it comes to telling their stories,” Brandee shares about her work as a communications manager, program director, committee leader and executive director.
“I wanted to do my part to make my community a better place. Helping organizations share their stories so they can garner the financial support and attention needed to move their mission forward is the best possible intersection of my passions and gifts.”
