Leaders Of Transformation

When Deke Copenhaver took over as mayor of his hometown of Augusta, Georgia, the city’s politics were broken and riven along racial lines. Half of the city commissioners were white and half were African American. Neither group trusted the other, so nothing got done. Who was it that paid the price for all of the political posturings? The citizens of Augusta. As Deke saw it, something fundamental about leadership needed to change. So, when the opportunity arrived in 2005, Deke knew he had to run for office. Against all reasonable odds, Deke and a band of enthusiastic twenty and thirty-somethings who knew little about running a political campaign won the election. He had his first commissioners meeting as mayor on December 20th, 2005, and began the work of being a Changemaker. From 2005 through 2014 Deke was a catalyst in helping to transform Augusta, attracting businesses to spur economic development, implementing social programs that impacted the lives of Augustans on a daily basis, and developing communities