WALKING HER TALK

Assistant Director of ECD Sheila Pounder puts heart, soul and wisdom into her job

Assistant Director of Economic and Community Development Sheila Pounder makes it a priority to walk her talk, and that walk stems from a place of deep faith.

“My focus, my walk in life is to follow Jesus Christ,” she says. “And I don’t do that by just talking. I try to do it by my actions, and I hope that my actions shine to show people who I really am.”

At her job, those actions range from managing development projects, to overseeing the code compliance and planning divisions, to answering questions from residents, to leading a staff of nine and so much more.

“My whole day varies. I’m more in charge of operation procedures. I respond to questions from both internal and external customers, especially about development projects,” Pounder says. “But then I may be reviewing documents to prepare for a public hearing. And then within five to 10 minutes, I may turn around and look at ADA plans for a facility’s upgrades to determine whether it can be funded through the Shelby County Urban County Consortium, on which I represent the City of Germantown.”

One current important task is Glasgow Planned Unit Development, a planned residential development on the former Germantown Country Club site, for which Pounder is the case manager.

“The case manager would be the person that is assigned to the case from the day it walks in the door and takes it through all of the boards, reviews it, writes all of the reports, sets up all of the meetings and discussions and resolves any issues about the project,” Pounder says.

A Passion For Government

Pounder is well-equipped to handle land development cases, zoning cases and anything else her job requires. A graduate of University of Tennessee at Martin with a Bachelor of Science in business administration and management, she spent 25 years with Shelby County Government, working her way up from associate planner to a principal planner in the zoning division.

She credits mentor Judson TePaske, a deputy director in the Land Use Control division at the time, for giving her the confidence to obtain the knowledge to further her career.

“He was very patient with me and answered all my questions, gave me things to read and guided me,” Pounder says. “I appreciate that he put enough faith in me to hand me my first case and say, ‘Go for it.’ ”

After retiring from Shelby County Government, Pounder went on to receive her Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Phoenix.

She then spent a brief stint as a project manager for a Memphis-based civil engineering consulting firm. There, her supervisor actually pointed her in the direction of an open position as a planner with the City of Germantown.

“She knew that my passion was government,” Pounder says. “And I’ve always had an affinity for Germantown. I’ve admired a lot of the policies, zoning ordinances and rules that were in place here even during my time with Shelby County

Government. I admired the fact that I could drive down Poplar and as soon as I hit Germantown, I knew exactly where I was.”

Smart Growth

During Pounder’s past eight years with the city, her roles evolved from planner to planning division manager. She also obtained her Tennessee Certified Public Manager certification. Now, from a manager’s perspective, she approaches both people and projects from a value-based place.

“My philosophy in management is that I will not ask my employees to do anything that I’m not willing to do myself. And while I expect them to fulfill their responsibilities, I also encourage them to step outside of that and reach for more. I want to see everyone not just excel, but bloom and grow.”

Pounder wants the same thing for Germantown.

“I think Germantown is growing in the right way,” she says, citing the city’s thoughtful concentration of commercial development and the organic growth of the Wolf River Medical Corridor as examples. “One of our big goals that I’m very excited about is that we’ve gotten funding to prepare a comprehensive plan for the city, which focuses on the physical build of the city, what we want our city to look like in 20, 30, 40 years. It will look not just at transportation, but also land use and the appropriate mix of that land use.”

An avid reader and the mother of a son, daughterin-law and “two grand-dogs,” Pounder sums up her years of both work and personal experience with some advice for young professionals.

“I would say that 80 percent of the job you do is learning who to ask the right questions to,” she says. “The other 20 percent is actually the doing. And connections and networking will get you a long way.” ■

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