Former Putnam Commission Candidate Encouraging More Diversity in Leadership

A former Putnam County Commission candidate is encouraging minority residents to pursue leadership opportunities in the community.

Dee Prince is a political ambassador for Impact Cookeville. He said getting involved early on through smaller events will help people of diverse backgrounds build support and name recognition.

“When you start thinking about these things, those are ways to get involved and to make the contact and connections,” Prince said. “But there’s Impact Leadership – it’s a program that spawned off of Impact Cookeville. That’s a program that we use to teach you how to be a leader in the community, sit on boards and do wonderful things at the next level of service.”

Prince said having more diversity in the community and political leadership will allow those leaders to learn from each other’s various backgrounds.

“I think that you can learn a lot more from people who do not look like you. I’ve always stood by that,” Prince said. “We have different under-represented cultures here in Cookeville that see one or two, maybe ten like-faces, and then that’s it in a city of many. I think the important thing is, with diversity and inclusion, let’s pull from each other so that we can learn more, grow more, play together, work together, and have a better quality of life.

Prince, who ran for 7th District Putnam County Commissioner in the 2018 election, said he enjoyed the time he spent campaigning despite not winning a seat on the commission.

“Running for county commissioner was a lot of fun. I got to meet new people, people I didn’t know that lived in my area,” Prince said. “It was exhausting because it was a lot of work. You do have to give a lot of yourself. You definitely have to research the potential issues of your district, your area, or your city. You have to talk to folks in your district, your county, or your city [because] those are the people you have to serve.”

Prince noted that his wife passed away from breast cancer last April during his campaign and four months before the election. He said her final wishes inspired him to continue pursuing the commissioner seat and become a community leader.

“She made me promise that I would see it all the way through, that I would not quit in the middle of the campaign no matter what happened, how sick she got, or whatever it was,” Prince said. “It was tough, it really was a tough thing to do. But I stuck with it and kept on in doing exactly what she wanted me to do.”

Prince encourages minorities who may be considering public leadership roles in Cookeville, Putnam County, or the rest of the region to pursue those goals no matter the obstacles in place.

Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter and Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton announced Saturday they would help in creating a multicultural advisory council for the community. The council would include six members appointed by Shelton and Porter, with one being a current or former Impact leader.