Service to her community. That’s what Donna Hurd-Moreland says inspired her to throw her hat into the ring to run for Common Council to represent the Southwest Side’s 7th District.
“I had been thinking about running for a while now. I’m drawn to service,” Hurd-Moreland tells Madison365. “Living in Madison since 2002, I’ve volunteered at just about every place possible. If there’s something I can do to impact somebody’s life or impact a community, I want to do it.”
Running for Common Council, she says, gives her another opportunity to see service … just from a different perspective.
“I’ve seen one end of the spectrum from the volunteer and people in need, I really want to see it from the other end of the spectrum from the vision where you might really be able to affect change in people’s lives,” Hurd-Moreland tells Madison365.
Since coming to Madison in 2002, Moreland has served the community in innumerable ways. She’s been a Madison School District AVID/TOPs mentor and a School Friend at Wright Middle School for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County School. She has been board chair for the Foundation for Madison Public Schools and Literacy Network and she’s been a board of directors member for Wisconsin Council on Children and Families and The Rainbow Project. She has volunteered for the United Ways in a number of different capacities.
Oh, and she was also the first-ever African-American woman to be elected as Madison’s Rotary Club president. Rotary is the oldest service club in the world and, worldwide, there are over 34,000 clubs.
“The Downtown Madison Rotary Club is in the top-10 largest in the world. Because I really embrace the mission of Rotary, I was honored. I was really honored to become president,” she says. “The distinction of being the first African-American female president is great, but I really enjoyed the fact that some people saw something in me that I may not have seen in myself.”
The Rotary Club up until about 1986 was an all-male club. Traditionally, it’s been very white, too, although in the last decade it has become much more diverse.
“I didn’t join the Rotary Club for networking opportunities; that’s why a lot of people join because a lot of the Madison movers and shakers are members of that club,” Hurd-Moreland says. “I joined it for the service aspect. Over the 10 years that I’ve been a member, there have been more and more opportunities for hands-on volunteer opportunities. And I really liked that.
“Somebody saw something in me and I was nominated to the [Rotary] board. The board nominates two people to be club president and I was picked,” she says.
“It was a big boost to my confidence and I’ve met a lot of people that I probably would have not otherwise have met but for being the president and having to run meetings and sitting with our guest speakers who are some very impressive people in our community and beyond,” she adds.
By day, Hurd-Moreland serves as the director of administration for Perkins Cole LLP in downtown Madison where she manages the Madison office, supervises all non-attorney staff, maintains positive contact with internal and external clients and is responsible for the fiscal management of the office.
Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Hurd-Moreland was the executive director for Boardman, Suhr, Curry & Field LLP until it became Boardman & Clark. She stayed on as the executive director at Boardman & Clark until August of 2013. In both roles, she managed the planning and business functions, and overall operations of the firm. She was also responsible for financial planning and management, as well as working with the executive committee on strategic planning and marketing for the changing needs of the organization.
Hurd-Moreland is competing against Badri Lankella, a computer engineer, for the seat that is currently held by retiring Ald. Steven King, who has endorsed her, in District 7, which is comprised of four wards, five neighborhood associations, and approximately 13,000 residents on Madison’s southwest side.
“I really love the community. I’ve been a part of this community for 17 years,” Moreland says. “I love the area I live in. I’ve been in this particular area for almost 14 years.
“When I’m going around to talk to some of my neighbors, a big concern is the crimes of opportunity where you might leave the car unlocked and people are taking change or if you leave your garage unlocked,” she adds.
Right now, a major concern in that section of the city is the development of land by Chavez Elementary School.
“I attended a public hearing with the current alder [King] this past Tuesday and there were a lot of people there who were very unhappy about it,” Hurd-Moreland says. “Not so much the development, but the implication of putting these new properties there. They are going to be cutting through streets that are currently cul de sacs and people don’t want that. They want to stay in the cul de sac. People were asking if there were other alternatives.
“There were other people concerned that [the new development] would be right up next to the elementary school,” she adds. “It’s a one-way in, one-way out … kind of a bottleneck.”
Hurd-Moreland also says that talking to people in the district she learned how much the massive Madison flooding had on people in the southwest part of the city.
“The news coverage didn’t really highlight our area at all,” she says. “Some people are fearful that this new development will make this a little more difficult or more frequent. We are told that the engineers are looking at it and are aware of it.”
Hurd-Moreland says that she is looking forward to not only tackling the concerns of her District 7, but of all of the city of Madison. Hurd-Moreland is an advocate for an equitable and inclusive community and she says that it’s important to have diverse representation on the Common Council.
“I have no aspirations to be a career politician at all but I do feel like this is the right time for me and the right time for my community,” she says. “I think I’m going to learn a lot. And it will be another thing that my grandchildren can look to as inspiration and hopefully, they, too, will be drawn to service.”
Because, in the end, it’s all about service.
“I am drawn to service. And I think my resume of service is probably more impressive than my resume of my professional career,” she says. “If there is a need and there is something I can do to help, I’m going to do it. I’m just going to jump in and do it.
“From my work in non-profits and from volunteering, this is just another aspect of service. Running for Common Council is the next natural step for me in trying to make a difference in my community.”
