Judy Vokes has been with Metro Nashville Public Schools a little over 10 years now and currently serves as the executive assistant to Chief Financial Officer Chris Henson.
Prior to coming to MNPS, Vokes was fortunate enough to work in her dream career as a flight attendant for 14 years. “I always knew that I didn’t want a traditional job, and I loved to travel, so this just seemed right,” she said.
Vokes prides herself on being born an Alabama girl, but she is certainly a product of MNPS as well. She attended elementary school at Granbery and middle school at McMurray, and she graduated from Overton High School before heading to Middle Tennessee State University to obtain her bachelor’s degree in business administration.
After 14 years of flying around the world, Vokes settled down to start a family and entered the school district as a bookkeeper at Cameron Middle School. She served there for a little over a year before transitioning into a position at the newly reopened Academy at Opry Mills in 2013. She soon became an administrative assistant at the Support Hub in the Leadership and Learning Department, where she served until she moved into her current administrative role.
Some of her responsibilities have included acting as a support for the operations department as well as the finance team. Included within those departments are transportation, school safety and security, information technology, nutrition services, purchasing, and budget and finance, to name a few.
Vokes assists with gathering information from the purchasing and construction departments for the consent agendas for school board meetings, prints and gathers information for budget meetings, processes payroll, sets meetings, monitors calendars, and much more. While this role differs from the day-to-day contact with students, Vokes feels as if she is supporting students from a different angle.
“I no longer support individual schools, but I’m supporting the system that supports the schools,” she said.
Although Vokes does not travel as much as she used to, she believes she was destined to serve in this role.
“Both of my parents were in business administration and worked as public servants, and my stepdad’s family worked in education. Either way, I probably would have landed where I am today.”
She appreciates the opportunity to serve in the district, and her supervisor is grateful to have her.
“Judy is always ready to help and assist,” Henson said. “Her experience at both the school level and at the Support Hub is very valuable, and she is definitely an asset to our district.”
When Vokes is not supporting MNPS, she enjoys watching Alabama football, traveling to the beach, cooking new recipes, and watching her son Will play whatever sport is in season.