Odessa Kelly is greeted like a celebrity at the Napier Community Center. The kids playing basketball in the gym call out to “Miss Odessa” and run over to give her fist bumps. Adult supervisors offer hugs.
It’s been more than a year since the 39-year-old left her job at this Metro facility to serve as the full-time executive director of Stand Up Nashville, a community engagement and social justice nonprofit organization she co-founded. But “Miss Odessa” is still a familiar face at the community center, and she says the kids who use that nickname are the ones who inspired her to take her next step: running for Congress against longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Nashville).
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