Meridith Miller Rucker

Meridith Miller Rucker is a writer and programming expert specializing in leadership development and emotional intelligence training for youth, young adults, and emerging leaders. With over a decade of experience in education and media, she generates creative content and innovative programming that makes meaningful connections, inspires personal growth, and promotes achievement, self-discovery, and success.

Meridith is the Director of Program Development for BRIDGES, a Memphis-based non-profit, where she designs and implements leadership curricula and experiential programming that annually services 6,000 youth. At the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, she successfully redesigned all 7-12th grade summer leadership conferences to a virtual platform to keep programming accessible and impactful during social distancing. Prior to BRIDGES, she was Director of First- and Second-Year Programs at LeMoyne-Owen College where she led the expansion of Freshman Seminar to First Year Experience and increased the College’s retention by 15 percent. As director and lead instructor, she also created holistic development curricula for minority and underrepresented students, designed the program’s first digital course and increased its focus on mental health. Meridith also worked as coordinator for two of the College’s million-dollar STEM grants from the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Education. In these roles, she focused on creating programing and facilitating intrusive advisement to increase the academic performance of STEM students with the goal of guiding more STEM students of color into STEM graduate education and STEM careers. Meridith’s additional education work includes 6 years in Human Resources as the Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Advisor for Southwest Tennessee Community College where she wrote policy, facilitated staff training, and reviewed and investigated charges of discrimination and harassment. She also worked for Memphis City Schools as a Spanish instructor and a media editor for the office of PreK-12 Innovations and Reform.

Meridith received her bachelor’s in radio and television communications from Tennessee State University and her master’s in magazine journalism from New York University. She has served as an editor for CosmoGIRL! where she penned the magazine’s first monthly environmental column and Soap Opera Weekly where she led interviews and content development for the second longest-running soap opera in U.S. television history. While working as a writer in New York, she also led the launch of teen magazine Pixie, which became its Source Interlink Media’s highest seller at newsstand. Her work has also appeared in Glamour, the New York Post, Hallmark, and Southern Women. She’s also developed media content for, the Houston Astros in Houston, Texas and DENOR Brands & Public Relations in Nashville. She is as an Amazon best-selling, contributing author to The HBCU Experience, The Tennessee State University Edition, released April 28, 2020, and her most recent published work is with Memphis Transformed’s “901 Heroes”, an ongoing series profiling Memphians working for a more clean, green and sustainable city.

Meridith is a member of the Junior League of Memphis and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She is a current board member of JUICE Orange Mound and an alum of New Memphis Institute Leadership Fellows and the Grizzlies Foundation TeamUp Mentoring program. Meridith is 2018 Fresh Touch Publicity HERoine Legacy awardee where she was named the “Transparent Challenger” and she is a 2021 Memphis Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 honoree. Meridith participated in planning HBCU student participation in MLK50 celebrations and helped the Family Safety Center with promotional materials for the launch of Camp Hope, a camp geared toward serving youth who have been affected by trauma. She has raised money for St. Jude Heroes and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, and she is a President's Society donor for Tennessee State's FY21 foundation capital campaign ($1000+) to support student scholarships. Meridith is also a media consultant for Beauty for Change, a social movement focused on helping beauty brands authentically connect and engage customers and audiences of color. She is a RYT200 yoga instructor registered with Yoga Alliance and beyond yoga, her favorite hobbies are houseplants, gardening, music, and traveling. Meridith lives in her hometown of Memphis with her husband Shawn and two sons, Logan (11) and Lenox (7).