Today we’d like to introduce you to Makayla McCree.
Hi Makayla, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Nashville in 2016 to attend Tennessee State University, where I studied Political Science. I didn’t necessarily know exactly where this path would take me, but I knew early on that I wanted my career to be rooted in public service and making a difference in people’s lives.
My first step into politics was as the Political Operations Director for a congressional race in 2020. After we secured the incumbent’s reelection, I moved into the district office to manage constituent services. That experience really shaped me. I had gone from helping someone win an election to sitting across from the very people who had trusted us with their vote—helping them navigate government, solve problems, and feel heard.
From there, my career took me through statewide campaigns, organizing, and local government. I’ve worked across all 95 counties in Tennessee, served in senior roles on campaigns from school board to the US Senate, and had the privilege of serving on Nashville’s Community Oversight Board. Every chapter has taught me something different about leadership, relationships, resilience, and, most importantly, people.
Today, I’m the Advocacy Director and Lobbyist for AARP Tennessee, where I bring those experiences together to advocate for older adults, caregivers, families, and communities across our state. In many ways, I’ve gone from helping one person navigate government to building relationships and advocating for policies that impact hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans.
When I look at my journey, the common thread is pretty simple: I’ve always wanted to be close to people, listen to what they need, and figure out how I do my part to make a tangible difference in their lives.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My journey definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I became a mother early in adulthood, and I’ve spent a lot of my career learning how to balance being a young mom with a career that I care deeply about and that often demands a lot of me. There have been seasons where I’ve had to figure things out in real time.
I’ve also had to navigate the lessons that came with a failed marriage while continuing to show up, lead, and build a life for myself and my daughter. That wasn’t always easy, and there were moments when I had to remind myself that just because something didn’t turn out the way I imagined didn’t mean my story was falling apart. Sometimes it was simply changing.
Professionally, I’ve often found myself as the youngest person, the only woman, or the only Black woman in the room. Being in those spaces has pushed me to develop confidence before I necessarily felt confident. I’ve had to learn how to trust my voice, advocate for myself, and understand that I don’t have to shrink myself to make other people comfortable.
There have definitely been moments of self-doubt, disappointment, and figuring things out as I went. But I think those experiences have made me a more empathetic leader. They’ve taught me that strength isn’t always about having everything figured out, it’s about continuing to show up, learning from what life gives you, and finding a way forward.
I’m proud of the career I’ve built, but I’m even more proud of the person I’ve become along the way.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’ve always been interested in the space where people, politics, and policy meet—especially how you take a problem real people are experiencing and turn it into something government can actually solve. That’s really the heart of my work.
In my current role, my work centers on public policy, legislative strategy, coalition building, and building the relationships that help move good ideas across the finish line.
I’m especially proud of the legislative wins I’ve helped lead in Tennessee. I helped drive advocacy for legislation banning cryptocurrency kiosks, which had become a tool for fraud and cost Tennesseans millions of dollars. Tennessee became the second state in the nation to enact this type of ban. I’m also incredibly proud of my work on caregiving—helping build and lead the coalition behind a pilot program providing up to $6,000 in grants to family caregivers caring for someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia, as well as legislation giving Tennessee state employees, for the first time in our state’s history, up to six weeks of paid leave to care for a seriously ill loved one outside of parental leave. Not only was this work professionally fulfilling, but it was deeply personal and healing. In many ways, it felt like an opportunity to honor the young girl who once cared for her grandmother through stage-four pancreatic cancer while I was in high school and to turn an experience that was once painful into a source of purpose and impact for others.
What sets me apart is the level of responsibility I’ve been trusted with at a relatively young age. I’m the sole in-house lobbyist for the largest nonprofit organization in Tennessee, representing more than 650,000 members across the state, and I advocate before both the Tennessee General Assembly and our federal delegation. That means I have to be strategic, adaptable, and able to build trust with people across the political spectrum.
But I think the biggest thing I bring to the work is that I genuinely like people. I can talk policy and political strategy, but I never want to lose sight of the person behind the policy. I’m ambitious about the work, but I’m also curious, collaborative, and I bring a little sparkle to spaces that can sometimes take themselves too seriously.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I don’t think I’m someone who takes risks just for the sake of taking them, but I am willing to take a calculated risk when I believe strongly enough in the opportunity.
One of the biggest risks I’ve taken was leaving a stable job as an Organizing Director at a nonprofit to become a full-time campaign consultant. I was giving up health insurance and a steady paycheck while raising a four-year-old, which made the decision incredibly scary. But I also knew I had skills that I trusted, and I saw a gap that I believed I could fill.
I chose to bet on myself—to work with candidates I believed in and build campaigns that genuinely reached people and moved communities closer to the kind of place I wanted to raise my daughter. It was one of the scariest decisions I’ve ever made, but it taught me that sometimes the biggest risk is not trusting yourself when you know you’re capable of more.
For me, risk is about being honest about what’s at stake, trusting your preparation, and having the courage to move anyway.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makaylamccree?stkn=MWZkMnluMG1nczFxeQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
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