A career change brought Lisa Ramsey to MNPS as a bus driver. Twenty-one years later, she continues to help students and schools from a different vantage point, and seeing children’s smiles continues to drive her.
Ramsey, executive assistant in the Division of Academics and Schools, left the world of banking after 14 years because her job was being moved to Birmingham, Ala. Born and raised in Madison, where she graduated from Madison High School, she had no interest in leaving for another city and state.
So she signed on with MNPS in September 2000 as a bus driver, which gave her a chance to get to know students both coming and going from school.
“You start the kids’ days off,” she said, “and then at the end of the day you hear about their day.”
Over time, Ramsey felt she was missing too many of her own daughters’ athletic events in the afternoons, so she got off the bus and took a support staff job that was split between Rosebank Elementary School and Goodlettsville Middle School. She later moved to John Overton High School, where she worked as a secretary and volunteered as a coach for students who competed in the Special Olympics, before joining the Support Hub in 2008.
“I probably enjoyed that more than they did,” she said of the Special Olympics work. “It just makes your heart happy.”
Ramsey now spends her days helping the Support Hub’s academic leaders with scheduling, meeting preparation, and other needs as they work to support schools from one end of the city to another.
“We support them so they can get out in the schools and take care of the front lines,” she said.
And occasionally she gets to join them in the field.
“When you go to a school and see students’ faces,” Ramsey said, “it’s like, you know, this is why I do what I do every day.”
When she isn’t working, Ramsey enjoys spending time with friends and family, including her three grandchildren, ages 11, 6, and 3. She loves watching sports and going to the beach, especially Pensacola, Destin, and Fort Walton in Florida.