Marilyn Clark, Fayette County Schools
Kentucky School Advocate
May 2024
Q. As the daughter of parents who were not able to finish high school, why is public education and serving on a school board important to you?
A. A public school education is a great equalizer that opens doors to opportunity and transforms lives. Without it, think about how many kids would not reach their goals. My parents instilled the importance of education in all six of us kids, and everyone managed to get a degree; some got two. My parents weren’t the PTA parents of the year and attended meetings when they could, but they let us know they had high expectations.
Q. You were appointed to the board and then ran to fill the unexpired term. Now you will be on the ballot again this fall for a full term. Are there any benefits to having to campaign so frequently?
A. One thing I have learned is that contact with my constituency is really important. I knocked on a lot of doors and walked a lot of neighborhoods I’d never been to before, and I was pleasantly surprised by that experience. Even the challenging questions were good questions. It gave me a different perspective about what people are thinking about the school district. I don’t wake up thinking, ‘Yay! I get to go campaign!’ but talking to people and going to neighborhoods and neighborhood meetings is a good use of my time.
Q. You are the first black woman on the Fayette County board since integration. What does that designation mean to you?
A. I thought, ‘That can’t possibly be true in 2022,’ but it is. But to be the first means you will not be the last, and I’ve opened the door for someone else to come through. I take the work of being a representative seriously because I have people who are looking at me and look like me. I looked for that in my career.
Q. Your first career was in television broadcasting, which took you to Dallas, Philadelphia, Birmingham and Lexington. Why did you decide to make Lexington your home?
A. I grew up in Odessa, Texas, oil country. My siblings were the first to integrate the local elementary school. In school, my first love was writing. I won a Zero bar for writing the best story in my class and got to read my story in front of the class. I went into the management side of television and worked on opening television stations in all those markets. I came to Lexington as the first African American station manager and was promoted to vice president at WLEX. I had planned to stay five years and move on, but the station was sold. At the advice of an outplacement specialist, I started my own business, a management consultancy. My two kids were happy here, and I realized I could pivot.
Q. You are in your fourth year as economic inclusion manager in procurement at UK. Can you explain what your role entails?
A. My role is to make sure that as we buy everything on campus – from pencils and desks to equipment for our new cancer center – we do so through an equitable lens, with inclusion of minority, LGBTQ and women-owned businesses and local and Kentucky-based companies. I had similar roles with Fayette County Schools and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. I’m the first in this role at UK and have created the program from the ground up.
Getting to know
Hometown: Odessa, Texas
Family: Daughter, Ranthony Clark, doing her post-doctorate work in mathematics at Duke University, and son, Vincent Clark, UK graduate in economics now working in the insurance industry
Favorite subject in school: English. Majored in broadcast journalism and communications
Hobbies: Reading. (I’m in a book club.) Gardening (I’m frustrated by a backyard chipmunk) Movies and television (When I worked in television, I planned programming.)
Book recommendation: “The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours” by Marian Wright Edelman. She gives 25 lessons for life. The first one, I love, “There is no free lunch. Don’t feel entitled to anything you don’t sweat and struggle for.” Also, “Assign yourself.” If you see something that needs to be done, do it. Don’t wait to be told.
Interesting fact: I like to go whitewater rafting. My first trip was on the New River with a former coworker from Dallas. My daughter and I did the Cumberland River. I’ve also done the Ocoee.