Jo Helen Iwani Beard Village, Jackson, Tennessee Editorial Image

Jo Helen Beard is well-known in Jackson`s African-American community for her work with health-related grassroots organizations. She is director of the health advocacy group Families in Action, serves on the Rural West Tennessee Minority Health Coalition and works on special projects with the M.V. Lynk Society, a group of black doctors in West Tennessee. Neither a doctor nor a health professional, she said she has never been asked to be a part of the Madison County health council.