Berneice Cox

December-January 2022 Cover Woman 

For many who grow up in and around poverty, there’s a before and an after. It’s a moment when they realize that their world isn’t like the one others are living in, and then nothing is ever the same again. There is a type of insulated innocence about the time before they knew that not every family struggles to keep the lights on, put food on the table, or that they are one crisis away from losing everything.

This is a moment Berneice Cox, President and CEO of the United Way of the Big Bend (UWBB), has experienced personally. Because of it, she feels uniquely called to lead the community-wide effort in the Big Bend to assist those in poverty and at the edge of poverty – the ALICE population. Compassionate. Purposeful. Driven. Berneice is an inspirational powerhouse of background, skillsets, and vision that started in a small town on a small farm in Greeneville, Tennessee.

Growing up the youngest of seven children, Berneice doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t helping her family by working on their farm and even the farms of others as a sharecropper. “We grew organic produce before organic was cool. It wasn’t until later in life that I appreciate how we canned our vegetables, made fresh bread and our own clothes – we did not have a lot of store-bought items. I didn’t know we grew up in poverty. We just lived it.”

Compared to her sisters, Berneice preferred being outside driving the tractor or working alongside her father and brothers in the crop fields, the family’s main source of income. “I learned a lot about turning fields, tending the cows, and taking the crops to the market for winter. I helped my mother with three gardens, but I did not have a green thumb like my sisters!”

It was long hours of hard work, and there wasn’t a lot to go around, but there was always room for others at their table. “It was a warm and welcoming environment. We were the home that neighbors liked to visit. My mother was unconditional love all the way. One of her mottos was, ‘If you look for the good in someone you will always find it.’ It’s all about how you care for people – treat people how you want to be treated, despite their station in life.”

Another facet of poverty s access to higher education and a family’s perception of it. “My father felt that after you graduated high school, he had completed his support of your education. I watched four brothers go into the military – Army, Navy, Marines, and the Air Force. My sisters took different avenues as well. I’m extremely proud of all of them.”

However, Berneice had different aspirations. She loved to read, excelled in school, and was a student-athlete on the track team. “In my family, you had to be out of house by the time you were done with high school. At 17 years-old I was on my own, working two jobs and became the first one in my family to go to college.” Statistics show that first-generation college graduates change the dynamics of an entire family. Berneice experienced his first-hand with her nieces and nephews…

To learn more about Berneice and her inspiring journey down the road to success and breaking the cycle, you can access the full article by clicking on the magazine above.

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