Kristen Meehan has served the Vicksburg community as director of marketing and community relations at the United Way of West Central Mississippi for almost three years. 

“This is a way to work with the community, to go out there and make a difference and I really feel this hasn’t been a job, it’s been a mission,” Meehan said.

Meehan’s job is to promote and educate the community about the United Way and its 22 partner agencies.

Soon she will leave Vicksburg for Charlottesville, Va., where she will pursue her MBA.

Meehan, a Pass Christian native, came to Vicksburg after Katrina. She was living in Biloxi at the time of the storm, often traveling to Jackson for work. She happened upon a place for rent in Vicksburg and chose to make it her home instead of Jackson.

“Some people just move to a city and they’re here, they work, they go to church and they come home, but when she moved here she definitely made a vested interest to become a part of the community in all different types of facets,” United Way Executive Director Michelle Connelly said.

It all started when Meehan, new to the area, wanted to visit a local farmer’s market and discovered one didn’t exist. She collaborated with others to make it a reality and her involvement kept evolving from there.

By joining multiple committees and serving on various boards, Meehan has made connections with people across town. Just a few of the committees she has become involved with include the Public Relations Association of Mississippi, the CRA board at BancorpSouth, Vicksburg Young Professionals and the Vicksburg Main Street Program. “The more involved I got, the more I felt like I was making a difference in the community,” Meehan said.

Appling on a whim, Meehan’s belief in fate and faith led her to her job at United Way. Connelly thinks Meehan’s belief in the goodness of all has led her to excel at her job. Meehan chalks her success up to the right moment presenting itself at the right time.

“I really do feel blessed because I feel like every time an opportunity presents itself I’m able to realize it in that moment and connect the dots,” Meehan said. “I feel like God leads me through those doors to make those connections and to make those efforts in the community.”

Meehan has developed a social media presence for the United Way in addition to creating their website. Networking is a major part of her job responsibilities because she has to be able to connect people in need with people who can help. She also connects people who want to help with each other.

“It’s all about connecting the right people to the appropriate resources,” Meehan said.

Connelly said that Meehan, known as a workaholic, is the type to take someone’s idea and have the execution plan organized by the end of the day.

“By the end of the day she’s researched it, she knows how to do it, what to do to meet those goals, how to get people involved, who to get involved, how to market it,” Connelly said. “She comes with a skill-set that is very rare in one person who is willing to accept a job and call it their mission.”

One of the most integral programs Meehan has been involved in is workforce assistance. Last year, she worked with a few young ladies who sought assistance in the job market. Meehan helped them develop their resumes, participate in mock interviews and learn other job skills with a great success rate.

“It wasn’t just a one day workshop,” Connelly said. “She invested an enormous amount of time and effort to ensure that these ladies were successful.”

It has become somewhat of a passion of hers to help educate the public by bridging gaps in communication and she wants to continue to do that type of work.

“I really appreciate what the community has afforded me to be able to do,” Meehan said. “I’ve come up with some pretty crazy, hair-brained ideas and no one’s ever told me no, and in that way I think Vicksburg’s very moldable. You can make it your own, there’s no reason not to make it your own.”