As a mother, wife, businessperson, community leader, and former elected official, and now candidate for Congress, Megan Barry has spent her effort and energy into making life better for the people around her.

 

The daughter of a proud Marine and a stay-at-home-mom, Barry grew up with her three sisters in Kansas. She graduated from Notre Dame de Sion, a Catholic girls’ high school in Kansas City, and received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Baker University.

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She moved to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt University, where she graduated with her MBA.  She worked for several years creating and implementing corporate ethics and compliance programs.

After serving two terms on Nashville’s Metro Council, Barry became the first woman elected Mayor of Nashville/Davidson County.  While in office, she worked across party-lines to promote and pass funding for transportation and road projects across Tennessee. She created Opportunity Now, a program designed to reduce the rising rates of youth violence and unemployment by creating thousands of paid job and internship opportunities for Nashville's teenagers and young adults throughout the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

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Bringing together business and community interests, Barry played a leadership role in attracting  professional soccer to Nashville, and forged a public-private partnership that enabled construction of a permanent home for Nashville SC.

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While mayor, her only son, Max, died of a drug overdose. Since leaving office, Barry has worked to combat the shame and stigma that surround families and individuals that struggle with substance use disorder by sharing Max’s story and by speaking up and speaking out. 

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Megan Barry is married to Bruce Barry, a professor at Vanderbilt University, and they share their home with two rescue pups, Natasha and Winslow Arizona.