Joi Mayo ’08 empowers African-American neighborhoods in Charlotte | Today at Elon

An Elon University alum is using her experience with classroom teaching and her passion for civic activism to build support for redeveloping underserved communities in southwest Charlotte.

Joi Mayo ’08 leads Transforming Nations Ford, a community development non profit with neighborhood groups working to establish more recreational and educational opportunities for the Nations Ford/Arrowood corridor near the state border with South Carolina. The area faces challenges that range from poverty to pollution to crime to heavy traffic.

“I see a lot of other communities, and they’re able to advocate and to really be thoughtful about how they want their community to be developed,” Mayo said. “I wasn’t seeing the same thought and intentionality from our city and county leaders where I live.”

Over the past year, Mayo and colleagues involved with Transforming Nations Ford have hosted community forums and advocated through Charlotte media for a regional recreation center and the establishment of an incubator space for local nonprofits.

“I’m so very proud of the work we’re doing with Transforming Nations Ford and am excited to make sure that everyone’s being heard,” Mayo said. “Empowering communities and collectively working together to deter the impacts of systemic racism on Black and brown communities is important work.”

Mayo majored in history and minored in Italian studies while at Elon. Because of that academic passion, Mayo spent time learning about people once enslaved and the vestiges of slavery.

She served as a middle school math and social studies teacher in Kentucky as part of Teach for America before teaching in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. In 2022, Mayo joined TreesCharlotte, a public/private nonprofit collaboration to grow, diversify and steward the city’s urban forest, as a community engagement manager.

“Outside of TreesCharlotte, Joi has an even greater impact on her neighbors, community, and the city as a whole,” said Mandy Ravin, who has worked with Mayo through TreesCharlotte. “She is very involved in her community, and she serves on a variety of groups and boards, actively participating in equity and social justice endeavors and dedicates her time and talent to amplifying the voices of her community.”

In both her professional work and civic involvement, Mayo said she adheres to a core belief: achievements of Black Americans should be celebrated year-round and not just in the month of February. She also hopes to return to her earlier academic interests by working with UNC Charlotte in collaboration with a local museum to help create an oral history project centered on the Nations Ford region. As longtime residents grow older, Mayo wants to ensure stories are told.

“I think it’s so important to capture the culture of that area,” Mayo said. “It’s a good time for non-African American people to really remember the great things and the benefits that African Americans have contributed to this country.”