Emily Lyons

Emily Lyons had never served on any type of board or in any elected office prior to her April election to the Waverly CUSD #6 school board, but with three children, she has long had a more than casual interest in the district goings-on. “And then, last year when they were talking about the potential consolidation with Auburn, there were a lot of people in the community that were frustrated,” she recalls. Like many who find themselves in that situation – frustrated with events in their community that seem to be unfolding in a way that they have no control over – Emily said to herself, “I’ll run for school board and see what’s really what here.” Unlike a lot of those people, though, Emily actually went through with it. “And, lo and behold, I’m on the school board now,” she says with a chuckle.

Emily relates that being on the school board is much different than one would expect from an outside perspective. “I think that the common thought is that the board has their hands in everything, and should be able to just say, ‘We’re going to change this,’ and then it’s changed.” She says that the reality is that there is a great deal of process and procedure that goes on behind the scenes that the public may not know about.

“Coming in and thinking it’s just going to be this great time, where you can come in and make all these changes that you think need to be made, and then kind of realizing, ‘Oh, well maybe this wasn’t so bad, because there was a reason behind it,“ was an eyeopener, she says. “You just don’t always understand the full picture, until you’re in a position where you get to see the larger picture.”

Despite having no previous school board experience, Emily’s qualifications are impeccable. She just began a new job as the Social Services Director at Arcadia Care, a long-term nursing facility in Auburn, after spending the previous four years as a stay-at-home mom. So, as a working mom, and a former stay-at-home parent, she represents a large cross-section of the district’s families. She is originally from Morton, but as the child of a pastor, Emily moved around a lot as a child, wherever her parent’s missionary work took them. She has an affinity for small, rural communities, and feels like she fits in fine in Waverly. “It’s a nice community. I love it,” she states. “It is our slogan – ‘Waverly, a good place to call home.’ And I would say it is, it’s a good place to call home.”

Emily credits living in small towns while growing up for helping her develop into the person she is today. “I think I learned, at a young age, a good work ethic,” she shares. In fact, when she was in high school, she worked three different jobs, simultaneously. “I learned to put the work in, and that kind of goes back to being on the board,” she says. “I didn’t want to sit and gripe and complain about how I thought this and that was wrong, without putting in any effort toward trying to make changes.”

Not surprisingly, she cites her parents’ example as the genesis of her work ethic. “They definitely taught me about how to be a hard worker and how to do a good job, and not only to meet my employer’s expectations, but to have my own personal expectations to do my best,” she explains. She also fondly remembers the lessons she learned from her first employers, Dan and Jana Dennison, for whom she started working at age fifteen. “Jana was kind of a tough cookie, but she was the sweetest lady, and having her as my first boss was amazing,” Emily recalls. “She treated me like her own child, and she was not afraid to call me out if I wasn’t doing a good job, or if I wasn’t doing what she expected me to be doing.” Emily relates how the Dennisons unlocked a desire in her to succeed at whatever she was doing, no matter how insignificant it may seem. “Kind of teaching me that there’s no job that’s beneath me,” she adds.

Coming into her service on the board, Emily felt that the biggest challenge they faced was finding and hiring the right Superintendent. “I felt like, as a board, we were very concerned with making sure that we got, not just the right fit for the community, but also somebody that was qualified to do the things that we felt were important,” she says.” Bringing Brandi Bruley in as Superintendent was definitely a big shift in the district, and for the better.”

And now, with that box checked, Brandi can bring her work ethic and desire to succeed to bear on the next set of challenges that no doubt lie ahead. She’s not just putting in time to pad her resume or generate content for her social media – she’s investing in the community that she loves through her board service, and the dividends benefit everyone.