Ivin Lee
Maya Angelou has a saying that Ivin Lee holds dear: "We are but pathfinders." Ivin's life is not about being first; it's about her obligation to those who surround her. She is a believer in human progress, public service and social equality. She believes all things can be done: you have to want it bad enough, be willing to work hard enough and you will achieve.
"If you can look back and see those after you and you have opened the door to help someone else through, then you are a pathfinder," says Ivin, who has visited nearly every school in the surrounding counties to share her insight and support. "It's not about me; it's about all the people who come after me."
She is now the executive director of the West Virginia Human Rights Commission, following a 20 plus year stint with the Charleston Police Department and, later, Dunbar's police chief. As a 35-year-old, she was the first female to take the police officer test-and the first woman to flunk it, so they said. When she took it again and passed it, they told her she was too old (even though the required age by law was 18-35). There was a lawsuit filed, and she won, becoming the first African American woman on the force.
"I've always felt there was a place for women in police work," she explains. "When I first took the test, it certainly was not a popular path for females. If you can actually say there's any success in police work, then its being 'fair but firm'-that's the success. My training officer said: 'always remember the laws are not yours. The criminal has done nothing against you. You are only acting as an instrument; it's not a personal thing.' A police officer is so many different things: they're ministers, they're parents, they're teachers and they're counselors. So, once you take the oath, you become all of those things."
Every Sunday she cooks for her family at her Hurricane home. Her beloved five children are the most precious part of her being. "They are my life. The time I had to give to the public, I had to take away from my children.
