Mary Kay can recall many first visits with patients who “are in tears because they are so miserable.” Board certified in emergency medicine, Mary Kay has been making waves (and making people feel much better!) through her work in age management medicine and bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. She's one of our skirt! girls with an odd job this month. 

Jade and Matthew McCully met in college at an art gallery—but fate intervened, and they kept running into each other. This year, they’ll celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, which is especially remarkable considering that they not only live together, but they work together, too. Matthew, an architect by trade, started out helping Jade, a photographer, get her business (Jade McCully Photography) off the ground, working as her second shooter for weddings and events. They worked together so well that Jade decided to make it official: now Matthew is her husband and full-time employee.

Jade: “He’s honest, and would do anything for anyone at any time. A big factor is that he cooks, so I love that about him. I can always count on him and he is always there to, like, I guess, lift me up or make me feel special.”

Matthew: “I’m a very serious person and Jade has a very light and airy personality. She makes me laugh; gives joy to my life.”

“I don’t regret choosing to attend an all African-American school in the ’60s,” says Lynn.

In 1965, 10-year-old Lynn made an innocent (and controversial) decision to attend the elementary school down the street from her new home on Lady’s Island instead of the mainland elementary school in Beaufort. Her decision was made during an initial plan of integration in public schools; Lynn, who is Caucasian, chose to enroll in a school of all African American enrollment—and it changed her life.

“I really didn’t know anything about racism,” Lynn says. “I didn’t know anything about segregation.” She wrote a book about her experience, "I’m Black and I’m Proud,” Wished the White Girl, and has taught for 28 years in the very same elementary school she attended.

“This immersion in and learning of a totally different culture was a richness that I will always cherish, and has given me a great compassion, appreciation, respect for people of diverse cultures throughout the world, which is something I know is a prerequisite to achieve peace in our world today,” she says.

-Aleigh Acerni

“I don’t regret moving back to Savannah,” says Vaughnette. She grew up in Savannah, graduated from St. Vincent’s, and left the city at 17, spending many years as a journalist and poet in New York and Atlanta before coming back for good.

Now, Vaughnette works as the director of cultural diversity for the Telfair Museum, spending her days telling the stories of a place (like the Owens-Thomas House) or piece of art instead of the stories of a person.

“It’s such a good place, you know, to be here in Savannah. I really enjoy it,” says Vaughnette, and she truly has come full circle—she even built a house on her ancestral land. “My grandfather had come to that place in 1928, and my mother was born out there. So that’s been a part of it for me, coming back to my family’s home.”

-Aleigh Acerni

Magen hopes to instill a love for art of all kinds in her students at Shuman Middle School—they study everything from painting and drawing to creating works of art from found objects, one of Magen’s specialties. “I’m inspired by them, and I think they’re inspired by me, too,” she says. “It’s nice having a career doing something I love.”

Magen says she didn’t realize how much she missed the classroom until she got back into one as a teacher—and although now she spends more of her time coming up with creative art projects for her students than creating work of her own, seeing things from her students’ perspectives has had an impact on her work, too. “You need to be inspired by lots of things,” she says. “I can see their visions getting stronger. I just want them to be well-rounded little artists.”
 

Although Julia’s (now-grown) daughter no longer takes riding lessons, Julia’s love for the animals has stuck—she’s the area coordinator for the Georgia Equine Rescue League (GERL), which works with the local branch of the Department of Agriculture to rescue, rehabilitate, and find homes for abandoned or mistreated horses. “Horses are domesticated,” she says. “They can’t just survive on their own.”

Julia dreams of one day owning a piece of land large enough for a “horse retirement home,” but until then, she gets immense satisfaction from helping the gentle creatures heal and find happy forever homes.

“Whenever I’m asked to help in an abuse/neglect situation, Sassy comes to mind. She was a throwaway mare who inspired my passion for equine rescue; an aged Arabian who was sold for $25 and was weak as a breeze at low tide. As she recovered, her determination to live despite the odds passed into my heart, where it lives to this day.”
 

At her day job as an attorney, Shonah often works with museums and other nonprofit organizations on a pro-bono basis, but it was volunteering as a docent for the Telfair museum that cemented her love affair with all things art.

Through her volunteering efforts, Shonah became involved in creating an auxiliary organization that would focus on African American Art—the group, Friends of African American Arts, became a reality in 2006. Since then, the organization has grown to include more than 50 members.

“It’s definitely, definitely increased my enjoyment of the arts,” she says. “I know how difficult it is to make a living as an artist; I really admire them for following their passion.”

“Savannah is the smallest city I’ve ever lived in, but it’s the city that’s afforded me the greatest accessibility to museums. In larger cities, it’s much more difficult to get involved. The great thing is, I’ve established relationships with artists here. They’ve become my motivators.”

Nkenge moved her practice to Savannah to regain her roots; her ancestors helped build the Willow Hill School in Bulloch County, founded in 1874 by a group of former slaves, and is now being transformed into the Willow Hill Heritage & Renaissance Center, to be preserved for future generations.

Nkenge’s passion for history is rivaled only by her compassion for others, especially women, which fuels her everyday work as an OB/GYN—every day she reminds women to take charge of their health. “Women are caregivers, and as a result, they put themselves last,” she says. “The most common female cancer is breast cancer; one in eight will be diagnosed.”

“To do a home breast exam, take two fingers and, in a circular motion, roll the skin in between your fingers until the entire breast has been examined. You’re looking for any lumps or hard areas. Most importantly, just do it every month.”

Back in 1979, this high-scoring point guard was recruited by Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) to play on the school’s first women’s basketball team. “But this was before Title IX…being girls, we still had to beg for our scholarship money,” she says.

The connection between education and athletics became even more apparent when she returned to her native Swainsboro after graduation. “I noticed many of the young girls were lacking in the fundamentals—and not just in sports,” she says, so she organized funding for a camp that combined reading skills and basketball.

The camp turned into a year-round coaching position, and several undefeated seasons later led to recruitment three years ago. Now the Director of Basketball Operations at Savannah State University, Coach Johnson motivates and is motivated by the Lady Tigers.

“I’m amazed at their level of athleticism. These girls who dunk?! We never even tried that back in my day!”

Interview & copy by former editor Jessica Lebos

She’s played hoops from Israel to Iceland, but the soft-spoken, six-foot shooter says she’s found the steepest competition at home. “It’s a harder workout playing exclusively with Americans. With due respect to the rest of the world, I have to say we pretty much dominate basketball internationally,” she says.

Drafted out of college in 2003 by the WNBA to play for the Washington Mystics, Tamara has bounced between professional and semipro leagues, finishing up a strong summer season with our own Savannah Lady Warriors. Her plans are to stick with the franchise next year, though she’s open to returning to the global leagues if the opportunity should arise. “I just like to play, so however that works out is fine by me.”

In the meantime, she’s pursuing her master’s degree in Financial Management and raising her 22-month-old daughter, Lorien. “I’m actually kind of hoping she’ll play tennis—they get to wear skirts!”

Interview & copy by former editor Jessica Lebo

Juggling motherhood and two businesses isn’t easy, but the owner of Smack Dab Studios (and the recently launched ResEngine.com) says it’s cake compared to the circus of her past.

The former concert flutist suffered debilitating hand injuries, divorce, fire and other devastating drama before finding peace in Savannah in 2004.

 “This town has changed my life.”

My Life List:

1. See the Northern Lights.

2. Circumnavigate the globe on my yacht. No, I don't have one…yet.

3. Write a book about how "having it all" requires a ridiculous amount of work.

4. Have my own reality TV show about being married to a "crazy Irishman”!

5. Completely escape technology for one entire year. Really.
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This ebullient redhead opened Maggie’s Morning School in 1982 with a creative approach to early childhood education.

Though no longer teaching in the classroom, you can still occasionally catch her fingerpainting with her charges.

“For children to love learning, it has to engage the senses. It has to be a little messy.”

My Life List:

1. Ride a bicycle through fields of sunflowers in Tuscany.

2. Spend six weeks as an exchange teacher studying the Reggio Emilia educational method.

3. Travel to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on horseback.

4. Share a couple of bottles of wine with a few friends–­plus Will Ferrell and David Sedaris.

5. Write a children’s book that my grandkids would love.

*this month, skirt! asked men to tell us why they're feminists!

“I’m a feminist because every person deserves equal opportunities, period.

Because I was raised without a dad by women of great strength who worked harder than anyone I’ve ever known.

I’m a feminist because a real man does his share at home and honors the choices of the women around him.”

The founder of All Walks of Life, Inc. provides arts and technical education to Savannah’s youth and occasionally sneaks in lessons to his male and female charges about how to relate to each other with respect and integrity. Most mornings, he gets his two sons ready for school while his wife and AWOL co-director, Davena, sleeps in.

Paulette is my Shero because she creates a supportive, even loving, atmosphere for patients at the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, many of whom lack health insurance. After sending a nurse to "hold my hand" during my IUD placement, she distracted my boyfriend (who’d paled two shades in the waiting room) with a guided tour.  
~Nominated by Joia Wood, Charlottesville , Va.
 
Spurred by the growing need for women’s health services, Paulette launched a $4.6 million campaign for VLPP’s new facility, opened last month at 201 N. Hamilton. “Access to affordable family planning often means, quite literally, the difference between a woman finishing college or not,” Paulette, VLPP’s President and CEO, notes.  On weekends she hits the Goochland countryside with her horse, Splash.