One week after winning the election and roughly two weeks until taking office, Shelby County Mayor-elect Mickell Lowery convened dozens of business, education, government, healthcare and nonprofit leaders to prepare his incoming administration.
“People sometimes don’t know that you get elected on the 6th, take the job on the 31st,” Lowery told the group Thursday. “Not a long time.”
Lowery’s inauguration is slated to take place Aug. 31, 2026. His four-year term officially begins Sept. 1.
Between now and Aug. 31, his team will be convening working groups, reviewing county departments and beginning to draft the policy recommendations that will shape the opening months of his administration.
But the assignment for Lowery and his transition team extends beyond developing a policy agenda. He must not only determine what his administration needs to do, but also who he needs around him to do it. Consequently, his team is asking the group of leaders to help find talent to fill roughly 200 appointed county government positions.
“Help us identify the best talent,” said Lowery during the meeting. “Help us identify the best ideas.”
Lowery’s need for urgency is driving a transition process built around nine working groups developing policy recommendations, a series of stakeholder roundtables, internal reviews of operations inside several county departments, and a public resume bank.
Seeking the best and brightest
Paul Morris, co-chair of the transition executive committee for mayoral appointments, urged transition members to use their own networks to help identify qualified candidates for the incoming administration.
“There’s already a lot of great people within county government, and he certainly expects to retain all the good people he can,” Morris said. “But there are open positions, and he wants to be able to vet the best candidates.”
Meg Crosby, another co-chair on the executive committee, reiterated the point.
“Think about your networks and the talent that you can help us find for this administration,” Crosby said. “Because, at the end of the day, it’s all about the people and the work that they can get done.”
A resume bank on Lowery’s transition website, https://transition.loweryfor901.com, allows applicants to search positions by county division and submit their information for consideration. Transition team members were encouraged to circulate the site widely and steer potential candidates to it.
Diverse work groups brainstorming
Lowery has also formed nine working groups focused on workforce development, K-12 public education, economic growth, fiscal stability, housing and neighborhoods, sustainability and environment, public health, the justice system and early childhood education.
The groups bring together leaders from business, government, education, healthcare, organized labor and community organizations. They include BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Memphis-Shelby County Schools and suburban school districts, Regional One Health, Protect Our Aquifer, Just City, Memphis Allies, Greater Memphis Chamber, Memphis Central Labor Council, and several nonprofit and neighborhood groups.
Darrell Cobbins, chairman of the transition executive committee, said the goal is to recruit people capable of bringing different experiences and perspectives to the same table, rather than simply creating a list of recognizable names.
Each group will receive a one-page primer providing background and context on its policy area. Members will then meet between full transition team sessions and work toward consensus on two or three recommendations they believe should rise to the top for Lowery’s consideration.
Cobbins acknowledged that gathering strong leaders with strong ideas could create tension. But collaboration would be essential, he said.
“Our best idea has to be considered alongside another set of best ideas,” he said, “and ultimately you all arrive at some degree of consensus on what you can agree on … ”
The transition team is scheduled to reconvene approximately every two weeks through September, with working groups reporting on their progress along the way. About six weeks after Lowery takes office, the team expects to release a final public report laying out what Cobbins described as the new administration’s “game plan.”
Transition moving on several fronts
Another part of the transition process also underway focuses on the county’s internal functions.
A separate group will conduct assessments of six or seven county departments, Cobbins said, providing Lowery with a clearer picture of what he is inheriting as he takes office and helping inform both his priorities and the agenda presented to the public.
Still, Lowery cautioned the group against expecting the transition process itself to resolve longstanding problems.
“Even when we put our final report out, there’s still work to be done,” he said.
He also stressed the transition should build on current progress.
“This isn’t just a problem-solving group,” he said. “This is also making sure, how do we make sure we’re properly communicating all the great things that are going on in Shelby County as well.”
And the transition includes smaller stakeholder roundtables intended to capture perspectives that do not necessarily fall neatly into the existing nine working groups.
Cobbins said the discussion groups will be relatively small, generally 10 to 12 people, and will bring Lowery together with municipal mayors and representatives from higher education, faith communities, arts and culture, small business, healthcare, philanthropy, corporate leadership, community services and youth development.
The roundtables are intended to give Lowery a chance to hear directly from those sectors while building relationships that continue beyond the formal transition.
“That’s an opportunity for him to hear from them and them to hear from him,” Cobbins said. “And ultimately, that’d be an ongoing thing that the mayor does as he goes forward in his administration.”
The countywide emphasis for Lowery’s administration is reflected in the transition’s “One Shelby” branding. Working groups include officials and representatives from both Memphis and suburban Shelby County, including Germantown and Lakeland.
Cobbins told transition members that the slogan comes with an expectation.
“You’re now officially ambassadors of #OneShelby,” he said.
‘Control the narrative’
Lowery said part of the transition’s work also should be identifying and communicating what Shelby County is doing well.
“We gotta control the narrative as much as we can,” he said. “That’s on both sides of it.”
For now, though, the main challenge for Lowery’s transition operation is time.
“It’s a sprint for the next six weeks,” Cobbins told the room, “but we’re all in it together.”
Lowery acknowledged that neither the transition nor the administration that follows will solve Shelby County’s challenges in six weeks.
“The issues that we have, we didn’t get here overnight,” Lowery said. “And obviously we won’t change them overnight, but we’ve got to set ourselves on the right trajectory.”
