NCLM.ORG 21 of bite-size educational opportunities that would help our local leaders learn best practices and develop professionalism and leadership skills, without having to leave their home… It’s amazing. And it happened by necessity.” Alexander has been a mainstay in the development of many key League advancements. On top of the aforementioned educational courses, she has overseen the launch of the League’s racial equity program DIRECT, which stands for Diversity, Inclusion, and Racial Equity in Cities and Towns, and she also led the organization’s advocacy efforts during the 2021 legislative session (page 9). From a broader perspective, she has served in leadership roles at the League during what she believes to be a transformative period. Remembering the strategic sessions, the creation of the organization’s key values (“service, self-determination, inclusiveness, collaboration, and responsiveness”) and slogan (Working as One. Advancing All.), and the steady bolstering of services from advocacy to information sharing, Alexander sees an organization miles ahead of where it stood only a few years prior. Serving on the NCLM board since 2016, she has seen it firsthand, and she credits it to the people—to the local leaders from the mountains to the coast and every big and little town in between. Seen through the eyes of an architect, the result is a resilient structure. “When you put up a building, whether the building blocks are made of stone or granite, if you don't have that cement between the building blocks, you don't have a strong structure that can withstand the challenges that come along,” Alexander said. “It’s the same when you're building organizations. It's all of these wonderful pieces and parts that are coming from all these diverse minds and intelligence and personal experiences. That is the connective cement that holds it all together in a very strong way.” Perhaps above all else, Alexander’s legacy will be tied to a literal building: the forthcoming League home, still in the early stages of its planning process. Alexander has been a part of the League’s building committee since, as she recalls, the start—that start being the end of NCLM’s longtime downtown Raleigh offices, consumed in a five-alarm fire considered to be the city’s largest in nearly a century. The goal quickly became to recover and to rebuild. “It is an opportunity. It is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Alexander said. “And with that opportunity, we also have a huge responsibility. It is a legacy decision.” At present, the damaged structure has been demolished, and the property is serving as a parking lot. Future hopes are far more upward-looking. Though those plans still require a great deal of development, Alexander is clear about the tremendous prospect the property offers not just the League, but the cities and towns of North Carolina as a whole. Even more than that, she’s clear about the experience it promises, too. Mayor Karen Alexander: Through Leadership, a Legacy “This project becomes the visual for our commitment for growing and responsibly creating cities,” Alexander said. “This job will involve every aspect of what cities have to offer in terms of infrastructure and services. We're going to experience as an organization why we advocate for the needs of cities. It will be the culmination.” This level of thoughtfulness pervades Alexander’s entire approach to public service, as does the calmness with which she wields it. “Within that calmness, though, I'm very pragmatic,” Alexander said. “I like to listen. I like to hear every single voice. I don't need attention or press or anything. “I just like doing the work. That is my reward, to see it come together.”
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