JACKSON (April 9) — Dr. Julie Hill and Stacie Freeman, MSSW, were honored by the Jackson Area Business and Professional Women as winners of Sterling Awards 2024: 20 Most Influential Women in West Tennessee.
Hill of Union City and Freeman of Dresden, the co-founders of Global Citizen Adventure Corps, a nonprofit travel, service, and education organization, were honored for their many years of service to their students and their contributions to the community.
Global Citizen Adventure Corps partners with Bethel University to provide transferable college credit for its programs to locales such as Guatemala, Mexico, Italy, and Brazil. High school and college students as well as community members make up the volunteer teams.
Both Hill and Freeman are educators and business owners. Freeman is the founder and current director of Global Studies at Bethel University and the former founder of Community Engagement there. She is a professor of Sociology and teaches dual enrollment courses at area high schools. Hill is the former department director of music at UT Martin. She is an internationally recognized percussionist playing with the Paducah and Jackson symphony orchestras and leading workshops across the U.S.
The two joined forces in 2022 after many successful years of leading student groups to global destinations. Freeman has led 42 groups, including more than 600 high school and college students, on global service-learning programs. She has personally visited forty-nine countries and performed service work in 35 of those. She considers herself a global educator and escape artist.
As a music educator and travel leader, Hill has performed in Peru, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, France, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Taiwan, and throughout the United States.
The Sterling Awards were created by Jackson Area Business and Professional Women to honor women in the West Tennessee area who have achieved a significant level of success. The criteria include the nominee living/working in West Tennessee outside Shelby County, serving as a leader and role model in business or her profession, displaying creativity and innovation to the growth of her profession and contributing time and energy to community betterment.
In his nomination letter of Freeman and Hill, McKenzie Banner editor Joel Washburn underscored the two women’s dedication to providing travel service-learning opportunities to students who are from Title 1 high schools and often first-generation university students. He noted the establishment of the nonprofit makes possible the fundraising needed to supplement the participants’ travel costs. Washburn also serves as the GCAC Vice Chair.
GCAC’s Board Chair Martha Edinger, a native of Rives, retired attorney, and current resident of Florida, said the recognition of the GCAC co-founders is yet another means of highlighting the organization’s mission.
“We want to cultivate global citizens,” she noted. “Being recognized as women who contribute in their home counties and then represent service values as they go abroad says a lot to everyone but especially to young girls and women who are in the process of shaping their futures. I’m grateful that the Jackson Area Business and Professional Women are devoted to lifting up such talented leadership each year.”
Winners this year are Crockett County: Meredith Marbury; Dyer County: Vanedda Webb; Fayette County: Dr. Versie Hamlett; Haywood County: Sheronda Green, Dr. Stephanie Barnes; Henderson County: Amy Allison; McNairy County: Jessica Huff; Obion County: Dr. Julie Hill; Weakley County: Stacie Freeman; Madison County: Olivia Abernathy, Tausha Alexander, Renee Jones, Lauren Kirk, Wendy Mercer, Monique Merriweather, Dr. Mechelle Moragne, Leigh O’Neill, Rachel Ryan, Melinda Reid, and Brenda Triplett.
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