Featured photo: Jamilla Pinder, Greensboro’s new at-large city councilmember (Photo courtesy of the city of Greensboro)

In a 7-1 vote on Friday afternoon, Jamilla Pinder was selected as Greensboro’s new at-large city councilmember. 

Pinder, who grew up in Greensboro, is the director of community engagement and impact for the Cone Health Foundation and will fill the seat formerly held by Yvonne Johnson who passed away in December.

Pinder has served on a number of local boards including the Arts Council of Greater Greensboro and the Greensboro Transit Advisory Council, and has been involved in United Way of Greensboro, Greensboro Community Food Task Force and New Hope Community Development Group.

Marikay Abuzuaiter, the city’s new mayor pro tempore, cast the sole vote in opposition. After the vote, Abuzuaiter thanked Mayor Nancy Vaughan for “pulling all of this together” and added that she wanted to let Pinder know that she will “work with her in anything that she” needs her to. 

In a conversation with reporters after the meeting, Abuzuaiter said she felt like there were some other candidates who should “have been in the top.”

Pinder, 46, will become the youngest person on council.

Friday’s meeting lasted only 14 minutes, with brief comments by councilmembers after they first heard from 19 total candidates on Tuesday.

That’s when Pinder and 18 other candidates were called to the podium to make their case as to why they should have a seat up there with them. Among the other candidates included Yvonne Johnson’s son, Vernon Johnson.

During her comments, Pinder said that she’s passionate about making the city a great place, and that her superpower is “building relationships deeply” and that she’s a data geek.

Pinder reiterated those sentiments on Friday to reporters, particularly in reference to whether she would seek to run for office this fall. All city council members will be up for re-election in November.

She wasn’t ready to say because she is a “data-informed decision maker,” and needs some time in the role before she makes that decision.

Pinder added that she’s still “trying to process everything.”

But she’s a “curious” and “inquisitive” person, she noted.

“I’m going to try to figure out and understand how things go,” she said.

Pinder is registered as unaffiliated according to NC voting records.

All CityBeat reporting content is made possible by a grant from the NC Local News Lab Fund, available to republish for free by any news outlet who cares to use it. Learn More ↗

Republish this story 🞬

Republishing Content

All content created for the CityBeat— photos, illustrations and text — is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 license (CCA-ND).

These republishing rules DO NOT apply to all of our content. The CityBeat is a nonprofit-funded position that specifically reports on city council business in Winston-Salem and Greensboro.

You are free to republish all content from the CityBeat under the following conditions:

  • Please copy and paste an html tracking code into articles you post online, allowing us to access analytics on our work.
    It can be dropped onto the page right beneath the copyable content, available below.

    If your site is using Google Analytics already:

    <script>
    gtag('config', 'UA-49884744-1');
    gtag('event', 'page_view', {
        page_title: 'Jamilla Pinder chosen to fill GSO at-large city council seat, looks forward to ‘building relationships deeply’',
        page_location: 'https://triad-city-beat.com/jamilla-pinder-chosen-to-fill-gso-at-large-city-council-seat-looks-forward-to-building-relationships-deeply/',
        send_to: 'UA-49884744-1'
    });
</script>

    If your site is not using Google Analytics: 

    <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-49884744-1"></script>
<script>
    window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
    function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
    gtag('js', new Date());
    gtag('config', 'UA-49884744-1');
    gtag('event', 'page_view', {
        page_title: 'Jamilla Pinder chosen to fill GSO at-large city council seat, looks forward to ‘building relationships deeply’',
        page_location: 'https://triad-city-beat.com/jamilla-pinder-chosen-to-fill-gso-at-large-city-council-seat-looks-forward-to-building-relationships-deeply/',
        send_to: 'UA-49884744-1'
    });
</script>

  • Please use our bylines with attribution to Triad City Beat with a live link to our website: "by Gale Melcher/Triad City Beat"
  • At the bottom of the article (print or web) please include this text (links may be hyperlinked online):

    "Triad City Beat is an independent, for-profit news source serving the cities of the NC Piedmont Triad in Guilford and Forsyth counties, online at triad-city-beat.com.
    CityBeat content is funded by a grant from the NC Local News Lab Fund, online at nclocalnews.org."

  • If you have any questions, please contact Brian Clarey at [email protected]

Join the First Amendment Society, a membership that goes directly to funding TCB‘s newsroom.

We believe that reporting can save the world.

The TCB First Amendment Society recognizes the vital role of a free, unfettered press with a bundling of local experiences designed to build community, and unique engagements with our newsroom that will help you understand, and shape, local journalism’s critical role in uplifting the people in our cities.

All revenue goes directly into the newsroom as reporters’ salaries and freelance commissions.

⚡ Join The Society ⚡