Busy people are sometimes said to have a lot on their plate. To apply this expression to Allison Cardwell, one would need to include a second plate – one for each of her hands.
An advancement officer at Sewanee: The University of the South and a Chattanooga resident, Cardwell has that much going on. But everything she does is driven by a single purpose: to make a difference, whether at home, in someone’s life, or on a larger scale.
Cardwell’s desire to have a positive impact on others was evident in her first career: nursing. A Nashville, Tenn., native, she earned her undergraduate degree at Auburn University and then became a registered nurse. The work struck a chord in her. “I was affecting change on a daily basis. I was helping patients to recover and get in the best possible position,” she says. “That’s part of what makes me tick.”
Soon after becoming a nurse, Cardwell set her sights on the law – not with the intention of abandoning her work in medicine but in the hopes of using her knowledge and experience to make an impact on the broader medical field. “The thing that interested me about the law is the fact that you have the ability to make positive changes for people, because the law gives you the tools to protect their interests, both personally and professionally,” she says.
Cardwell earned her law degree at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and in 1993 moved to Chattanooga to work for Stophel & Stophel, now called Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel. A litigator, she did medical malpractice and products liability defense. As with nursing, she found the work gratifying.
“As a nurse, I saw how the law affected the delivery of healthcare to patients and the requirements health care providers must follow to provide care. As an attorney, the law allowed me to represent my clients and protect their interests so they had positive outcomes in their life and work environment,” she says.
Cardwell worked as an attorney for five years before two major life events made her rethink how she was spending her time. One was she and her husband, Carter, started a family, which sparked in her a desire to have more time available to spend with her children. The other was cancer. “I had breast cancer at an early age, and any time you face a diagnosis of cancer, you think about how you’re spending your life,” she says. “So I refocused my priorities. It wasn’t that my practice wasn’t important to me, because I loved practicing law, but I needed to spend my time in a different way.”
Cardwell is proud to say she’s now a breast cancer survivor.
During this time, an opportunity in development work opened up at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The position allowed Cardwell to use her legal background to raise money for UTC through planned giving. While the job didn’t place the same demands on her time as being an attorney had, she was still able to make a difference through her work. “I was affecting change in the big way by helping those to who love UTC to make a gift to the school that would have a long-lasting impact,” she says.
After stints at Baylor School and Boyd Buchanan, Cardwell became the advancement officer at Sewanee. In layman’s terms, she oversees fundraising for specific projects. “I wanted to get back to raising money for a university,” she says. “Sewanee is a great school. I enjoy meeting with its alumni because they’re very dedicated to the school.”
While Cardwell’s work at Sewanee takes up a sizable portion of one plate, both plates are piled high with other things, including teaching a Legal Environment of Business class at UTC, which she’s done for well over a decade. In this case, she says the students have an impact on her. “I like interacting with them because they give me a different perspective on the law,” she says.
Cardwell also remains a practicing attorney. She handles a small estate planning practice “on the side” and works with start-ups, thought she defines the latter as “a little bit of work.”
Cardwell is also active in her community. Although her past volunteer work is extensive, she’s focusing her current efforts on three causes: She’s on the board of Bethany Christian Services, an international adoption agency with a local office (“I’m committed to the work they do,” she says); she’s on the governor’s board of Parkridge Health System (“I don’t want to get too far away from my medical background,” she says); and she’s a member of the Scenic Chattanooga Optimist Club, which does projects for local youth. Cardwell also volunteers in the nursery at her church, East Brainerd Church of Christ.
While Cardwell has a strong desire to give back, she won’t do so at the expense of her family, which includes Carter, a teacher and football coach at Boyd Buchanan, and their three sons: Jim, a freshman and football player at Middle Tennessee State University; Jack, a seventh grader at Boyd Buchanan; and John, a first grader at Boyd Buchanan.
In the tiny space that remains on one of the plates she’s holding, Cardwell has reserved a place for things she enjoys personally, including a small portion of walking in her East Brainerd neighborhood and a tiny serving of sporting events. “I’m a big Auburn fan. I enjoyed watching them win the SEC conference championship last year,” she says, smiling big. “And I’m looking forward to watching some Blue Raider (MTSU) football.”
Although Cardwell has made two major career changes since becoming a nurse, her core focus has remained the same: she wants to make a difference in everything she does. She feels she’s doing just that, and in return is reaping the personal reward of home, family, and happiness. “I have no regrets about the decisions I’ve made,” she says. “I look at my life today, and I’m happy with where things are, and thankful for the blessings I have.”