Megan Barry

Early life and education

Barry was born on September 22, 1963 in Santa Ana, California and grew up in Overland Park, Kansas. She earned a bachelor's degree from Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega. She also earned an MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University in 1993.

Business career

Barry worked in business ethics and corporate responsibility for the multinational telecommunications firm Nortel Networks. From 2003 to 2012, Barry was vice president of ethics and compliance at Premier, Inc., a health-care group purchasing organization. She also worked as Principal of Barry & Associates, an independent consulting organization to multinational corporations on issues dealing with business ethics and corporate social responsibility.

Metropolitan Councilwoman At Large

Barry was first elected to one of the five at-large seats on the 40-member Metro Council in September 2007, and won re-election to a second four-year term in August 2011. In winning re-election she was the top vote getter among the five incumbents who successfully sought a second term.

During her first term on the council, Barry chaired the council's Budget and Finance Committee and the Education Committee. In 2009 she led an effort in the council to pass a bill banning discrimination against city employees based on sexual orientation and gender identity. During the 2013-14 council year she chaired the Rules Committee and served as a member of the Budget and Finance Committee and the Personnel Committee.

Barry performed the first same-sex wedding in Nashville on June 26, 2015.

2015 Mayoral Campaign

Barry started her mayoral campaign in April 2013, filing paperwork with the Davidson County Election Commission naming Nashville attorney Leigh Walton as her campaign's treasurer. She received the largest total of votes for mayor in this election, but did not achieve an absolute majority of votes cast in the race, setting up her runoff race against hedge fund manager David Fox, the second-place finisher. Although major media in Nashville touted apartment landlord Bill Freeman as odds on favorite to win the mayoral election The Nashvillian newspaper predicted the race would be a runoff between Megan Barry and David Fox, then showed Barry taking the early lead in the runoff over Fox. The runoff was noted by many as a particularly dirty campaign, with both candidates launching various personal attacks against the other.

Barry raised US$1.1 million in political contributions during her campaign. She received US$1,500 from Wayne T. Smith, who serves as the CEO of Community Health Systems, and an additional US$1,500 from R. Milton Johnson, who serves as the CEO of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). She received an additional US$5,000 from HCA. Additionally, Barry received US$1,500 from Damon T. Hininger, the CEO of Corrections Corporation of America, and another US$1,500 from its Chairman, John D. Ferguson. Another notable donor was Mike Curb, the founder of Curb Records. She also received US$7,600 from the Nashville Business Coalition, a business organization.

Barry won a decisive victory over David Fox in a September 10 runoff election.

Mayor of Nashville

Barry took office on September 25, 2015, becoming the first woman to hold the post and the second woman to serve as mayor of one of the "Big Four" cities in Tennessee. Her inauguration was held in the Music City Center in Nashville. The theme was "We Make Nashville".

At the beginning of her administration, Barry assembled the most diverse team in the history of Nashville. She appointed Nashville's first Chief Diversity Officer to review and oversee policies as it relates to diversity in hiring and promotions within Metro Government. Barry also focused on engaging the community in governing with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods and Community Engagement, which includes the Office of New Americans focused on outreach to immigrant and refugee communities.

Barry started her tenure working aggressively -- through a Three-Year Action Agenda -- to tackle Nashville's growing traffic problem by upgrading and synchronizing traffic signals in a way that reduced congestion on the city's major pikes and corridors – reducing average travel delays by 24% and cutting gas consumption by an estimated 830,000 gallons in the first year alone.

Barry soon embraced the concept of Vision Zero to reduce traffic-related fatalities in Davidson County by investing in paving, sidewalks, and bike paths. She also worked to improve dangerous intersections in high-traffic areas and sought out quick-build projects to promote better safety.

In early 2017, she worked with Governor Haslam and the Tennessee General Assembly to promote and pass the IMPROVE Act, which will increase funding for roadway projects across Tennessee and give voters the chance to create sustainable funding mechanisms for mass transit. Barry announced she would seek to place a referendum on the ballot in 2018 that would create a comprehensive mass transit system throughout all corners of Davidson County.

Barry also spent much of her first two years working to better the state of affordable housing in Nashville. She committed to putting $10 million in her recommended operating budget every year for the Barnes Trust Fund for Affordable Housing – a fund she helped create as a Metro Council member. She also created the Housing Incentive Pilot Program in April 2017 to encourage mixed-income residential development, established private-public partnerships for affordable and workforce housing on Metro-owned property, and announced her intention to utilize $25 million in general obligation bonds to preserve existing affordable housing or construct new Metro-owned developments.

One of Barry's keystone accomplishments of her first term was the creation and expansion of the Opportunity NOW program, which aimed to reduce the rising rates of youth violence and unemployment by creating 10,000 paid job and internship opportunities for Nashville's teenagers and young adults throughout the private, public and non-profit sectors.

In May 2017, Barry was criticized by Black Lives Matter for her handling of the shooting of Jocques Clemmons; protesters marched through the Hillsboro neighborhood where she lives and left a coffin outside her house.

In May 2017, Barry also announced the opening of an Ikea store in Nashville, scheduled for 2020.

On August 29, 2017, Barry dismissed the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood's anti-LGBT Nashville Statement as "poorly named" and unrepresentative of the inclusivity of Nashville and its citizens; in response, she promoted the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee's Nashville Unites Resolution.

Personal life

Megan Barry is married to Bruce Barry, a professor at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management and a contributor to the Nashville Scene. The couple had one son, Max. On Sunday, July 30, 2017 the Mayor's office announced that Barry's only child, Max, had died of an apparent drug overdose in Denver, Colorado at 22 years old.

Barry also ran in the August 2007 Nashville Council At-Large Election, but those returns are not available from the Davidson County Election Commission. In 2007, Barry won her first term to the Council as an At-Large Councilwoman.