Alumni Spotlights: Government Edition

By Leanne Kleinmann

Andre Dean
Government Relations and Business Consultant

Though he grew up in Nashville, Andre Dean had developed an affinity for Memphis long before the Memphis State recruiter showed up at McGavock High School.

“The University was known for having a good accounting and business program, and it also had one of the largest populations of minority students for a predominantly white school — diversity was important to me,” Dean said. “It just clicked. I was from inner city Nashville and had some scholarships, and I was an athlete. Most people wanted me to play sports, but I was for the books.”

It was a perfect fit and a great experience.

“My first year I got involved in the Black Student Association and pledged a fraternity, and I met people from everywhere,” Dean said. “I was always involved in politics and activism.”

Those relationships and that activism positioned Dean for everything that came later, he said, including opening his own public affairs and community development consulting firm, Dean and Associates, eight years ago.

“We do more than lobbying, depending on what the requirements are,” Dean said. “I am always interacting with community and government and business leaders — there’s one degree of separation there. We’ve been involved in a bunch of different issues.”

Dean mentions his involvement in the development of the old Memphis Fairgrounds into Liberty Park as an example of his interconnected business life.

“We help business speak government and help government speak business,” Dean said. “We’ve been successful at being a niche firm that helps get things done for people.”

Before he opened his consulting firm, Dean worked for the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce as a Vice President, first of Public Policy and Community Affairs, then of Community Development. Before then, he worked in the transportation industry, particularly with Laidlaw Education Services, the school bus vendor for Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Everywhere, he is able to rely on his ties to the University of Memphis.

“It’s crazy … I’m working with people I’ve known for years,” Dean said. “In Memphis, you’re going to do business with people from the University of Memphis.”

He’s long been in politics, too.

“It’s just second nature,” Dean said. “I was in school with Jim Strickland and David Kustoff; I was an early supporter of Steve Cohen. I was part of the original group of young guys who pushed Dr. Herenton to run for mayor. I met Paul Young’s parents before I met him, but he was an outstanding young man. I commend people who serve — it’s major work.”

He's still connected to the University through his friends and Tiger sports, though he’s also proud of the Memphis pipeline he’s developed in his own family.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is that I was the first in my family to go to college,” Dean said. “After me, my twin sister’s oldest son came to Memphis for his undergrad and masters, followed by his brother, another nephew, a great-niece and her siblings.”

Dean can’t imagine being anywhere else. “This is a rich place to be. I’m excited to have graduated from Memphis.”

Sheleah Harris
Corporate Affairs Manager

Though Sheleah Harris works in government and community affairs now — she’s the Corporate Affairs Manager for the 93-store Kroger Delta Division — when she was an undergraduate at the University of Memphis, she admits she didn’t know that lobbying, advocacy or community engagement was actually a profession.

“I’ve always been an advocate,” Harris said, “especially for those who felt they didn’t have a voice. But I didn’t know there was a space where I could do just that.”

The University of Memphis and the connections she made there started her advocacy journey.

“I was able to get an Emerging Leaders scholarship, which is how I met Dean [Justin] Lawhead, and he and I are still connected,” Harris said of the current UofM Dean of Students. She started out studying architecture but wound up with majors in marketing and fashion merchandising. “I enjoyed connecting with people and being able to promote something always gave me a lot of excitement.”

She grew up between Cordova and Bartlett in a family of educators, though she never wanted a career in education. Still, she taught a high school marketing class and ended up “in love with education, being around my students with their different backgrounds. I fell in love with advocacy as I was advocating for my students. That’s when the world of lobbying opened up to me.”

When she saw the impact she could have as a lobbyist, she began to feel as though she’d found her calling.

“When I first became a lobbyist, I didn’t know what it was,” Harris said. “I was advocating for kids who were unhoused, then for education — with charter schools, homeless youth and at the state and local level for children in general. I registered as a lobbyist for the first time.”

She transitioned from education to telecom, working for Verizon on digital access and equity. Her current job at Kroger encompasses all of her previous experience, with an emphasis on community engagement, communications and managing relationships with local and state officials across the Kroger Delta Region.

“What I like most is the opportunity to engage with people with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints, and build new relationships,” Harris said. “I learned how to do that at the UofM. It was really just survival — I stayed at Richardson Towers and dorm life teaches you how to be around diverse people and navigate life as a young adult.”

She is also grateful for the connections she made with UofM faculty and staff, “who really do care about students in the longer term, not just for the few years they’re on campus. Dr. Lawhead is the biggest champion I’ve ever had in academics, period, and is a great support and thought partner.”

Harris said she bleeds Kroger and Tiger blue, and is happy to be involved in giving back to the school in various ways. She points especially to Kroger’s support of the on-campus food pantry for students.

“I had no idea that 40% of college students are food insecure,” she said. “Being in a position to do something about that, at my home school, was a full-circle moment.

“I have a lot of pride in being an alumna of the University of Memphis.”

Kyler Gilkey
Legislative Assistant

When Kyler Gilkey graduated from the Soulsville Charter School in South Memphis, he knew the music he had learned there would always be a passion, but it was politics that called him to a career. He found the beginning of that career path at the University of Memphis. His family has deep ties to both worlds.

“My dad is a musician, the Bar-Kays are uncles and Kirk Whalum was a mentor – I grew up in that sphere,” Gilkey said. “But my family has also always been politically involved and active. I met Congressman Steve Cohen when he was a state senator and I was a small boy. That’s why working for him later on as a full-time staffer was a full-circle moment for me.”

Gilkey has now worked as a staffer for two members of Congress after only three years in Washington. He started as an intern in Memphis for Congressman Cohen, then moved to Washington to take a job in Cohen’s office as a staff assistant. He now works for California Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove as her legislative assistant.

Gilkey knew he was interested in political science from the beginning at the UofM.

“I spent a lot of time in the Soulsville area and lived near Southwind,” Gilkey said. “I saw how the communities I was living in were left out of opportunities and I wanted to be in a position to say who gets what and when, where and how.”

He learned that definition of politics from one of his first UofM political science professors.

Even though he’s a third-generation Tiger, “I went to the University of Memphis mostly for economic reasons; it was the best option for me then,” he said. “And I had some amazing professors — Professor (David) Madlock, Professor (Ebony) Dawkins and so many other people.

“It really made a difference having African-American professors who were lawyers and political science professionals. They made me feel like that was something I could do as well. Representation meant a lot to me.

“Too often, Black and brown people don’t have a seat at the table. I knew that I wanted to do something about that, I wanted to work my way up to have a seat at the table. I want to be part of the decision-making. That’s why I’m in this.”

Gilkey also majored in criminal justice, which helped him “see the politics of things, but also how the system works. Professor (Bill) Gibbons was one of my professors, and I learned a lot from him.”

Though one of Gilkey’s younger brothers graduated from UofM last year, he hasn’t been back to campus officially since he graduated. Still, he feels “100% invested in Memphis,” both the city and the University.

“I’m a Tiger through and through.”