SOUTHERN CITY QUARTER 1 2022 20 Mayor Karen Alexander: Through Leadership, a Legacy JACK CASSIDY NCLM Communications Associate THROUGH CALMNESS AND CONFIDENCE AND THE OVERCOMING OF CRISES, ALEXANDER EXITS HER YEARLONG LEAGUE PRESIDENCY HAVING MADE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT. This project becomes the visual for our commitment for growing and responsibly creating cities. This job will involve every aspect of what cities have to offer in terms of infrastructure and services. We're going to experience as an organization why we advocate for the needs of cities. It will be the culmination. Karen Alexander’s year as the NC League President is bursting with the notion of legacy. For the Salisbury Mayor and architect by trade, it is something she’s used to. Alexander builds monuments. What she leaves behind stands for generations. In this case, the testaments pursued, managed, and developed over the past 12 months are both physical and symbolic. She is overseeing a significant step forward for the League in constructing its new downtown building, after its former home was destroyed in the Raleigh fire of 2017. Less concrete, but equally if not more important, are her advances on the critical issues, which she calls the trifecta: COVID, racial equity, and the economic recovery of North Carolina communities. On top of all that is the forward momentum of the League, growing in both size and scope and navigating a new, pandemic-created landscape. Alexander views it all through the perspective of opportunity. “Out of the worst possible disasters and challenges, if you’re looking at it from a positive lens, you start to see not just the devastation,” she said. It’s an approach that has yielded significant successes. Alexander has led the League through a period of significant refortifying—growing both in size and stature, reaching more members than ever, providing more services, and on the advocacy front, coming off its most successful legislative session in a decade. As to her own legacy, it’s not something Alexander believes can be personally defined. Rather, that is for others to decide—others, who, with even just a quick glance, will see a series of significant issues successfully managed by a devoted public servant, creating long-lasting impacts that will in no small part define the NC League of Municipalities for years to come. Mayor Alexander knew she was entering her year of League leadership at a trying time for North Carolina cities and towns, and she was intimately familiar with those challenges through her work back home in Salisbury, where she has served on the city council since 2013. Addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, Alexander was instrumental in coordinating regional partnerships, establishing health measures such as testing and vaccination clinics, and distributing support through different community programs and grant opportunities. Upon taking over as League president in 2021, Alexander leaned fully into those talents to continue that pattern of partnership, and led the organization into a fruitful period of virtual connectivity. “I don’t think we understood how powerful it could be,” Alexander said of the League’s online approach employed throughout the past two years. Educational events and webinars have enjoyed record-high attendance, and in the face of rapidly changing situations, the ability to quickly meet with colleagues across the state to share ideas and experiences proved invaluable. “The availability
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