Her organization led a statewide coalition that registered 91,000 Black and brown Tennesseans to vote for the 2018 midterms, increased Black voter turnout by 413 percent, scored two legal voting rights victories against the Tennessee Secretary of State, and is responsible for electing the most diverse, progressive, majority-female Metro Council in the city’s history. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck Nashville, Charlane made sure Black and Brown communities got our fair share of federal C.A.R.E.S. Act resources to combat the pandemic. She led the Our Fair Share Community Needs Assessment where more than 8,500 Nashvillians were surveyed within 65 days, resulting in Metro Council approving a combined $22 million in relief for Black and Latino residents, people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity, and minority small businesses.

As a trusted voice on voting rights issues, her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, National Journal, Pew Charitable Trusts, Huffington Post, the Associated Press, Think Progress, on NPR Weekend Edition, MSNBC, CNN, Roland Martin Unfiltered, internationally and throughout Tennessee. She has graced the coveted stage at the inaugural TEDxNashvilleWomen and has been a featured guest on various local television broadcasts, radio stations and national podcasts. 

Charlane brings an unmatched level of work, community, policy and lived experience with a proven track record of results and impact. She is thoroughly experienced in government, nonprofit management, grassroots advocacy, communications, and community engagement. Throughout her professional career, she has served and amplified the voices of low-income earners, welfare recipients, pregnant mothers, children of incarcerated parents, foster children, Hurricane Katrina evacuees, and people impacted by tornadoes and predatory real estate developers.  

As founder and board president of the Power of 10 PAC, she helped to elect Black and Latino candidates for school board, municipal, judicial, and state legislature positions. As owner of OEM Consulting Group, LLC, she has provided community engagement, government affairs, and public relations strategies and solutions for political candidates, nonprofits, universities, and small businesses. 

Charlane honed her policy expertise while serving as a congressional aide and communications strategist for U.S. Congressman Jim Cooper, where she advised the congressman on voting rights and criminal justice reform issues. She was tapped to lead Project Register, a bipartisan initiative by Rep. Cooper and former State Sen. Steve Dickerson in which she recruited more than 200 companies to encourage their employees to register to vote online. It proved to be one of the most successful voter registration initiatives in Congress. Charlane was later selected to travel with a U.S. congressional delegation to China to learn about foreign diplomacy and international trade policy.

Charlane is a graduate of Leadership Nashville and Young Leaders Council. She holds current membership with Leadership Tennessee, Nashville’s Agenda, Nashville CABLE, NAACP Nashville, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and served on the 2020 Metro C.A.R.E.S. Act Allocation Committee and the Mayor John Cooper C.A.R.E.S. Act Advisory Committee.

Among her board affiliations, she currently serves as board member for Stand Up Nashville and Nurture the Next. Previous board affiliations include Metro Nashville Emergency 911 Communications District Board, YWCA of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, and Purpose Preparatory Academy. She is a longtime member of Mount Zion Baptist Church and volunteers for her daughter’s Girl Scout Troop.

Now a resident of Bordeaux, Charlane is proud to be married to her partner of 18 years, Leshuan, with whom they have three children together and a “jorkie” dog named Prince.