Joyace Cook: I Am Barnes & Thornburg

I AM...

• A big sister, mom, bonus mom, and grandma, and newly wed to my best friend of 27 years. My husband and I are the new “Brady Bunch” with six kids and seven grandkids between us, with one on the way. 
• A quintessential nerd who chain reads! I have just finished “Live Your Joy” by Bonnie St. John and am starting “Long Time Coming: Reckoning With Race in America” by Michael Eric Dyson
• A follower of Christ. I was not raised in the church, but as I grew up, I longed for connection and a closer walk with God. 
• African American with a mix of Cherokee Indian and Irish on one side and Cherokee Indian and French on the other. Our family is proud of the history my grandfather made when he became the first African American police officer in West Helena, Arkansas, in the early 1970s. 
• A social butterfly 
• A Democrat, but I do not particularly like politics
• A forward thinker 
• A proud graduate of an HBCU, Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. It was there that I experienced so much understanding of my history as an African American. 
• An overthinker and an analyzer - one of my biggest shortcomings is trying to look inside and outside the box at all times
• A Disney buff! I love to travel to Orlando, but my favorite place to visit is Puerto Rico.

This profile appeared in the February 2022 edition of I Am Barnes & Thornburg.

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