Seven community leaders will join United Way of Greenville County’s Board of Directors this month, beginning a three-year term of service on the governing body of the largest poverty fighting organization in the Upstate.

The newly elected members of the 38-member board are Yukichi Hagins, Realty ONE Group; Annmarie Higgins, community volunteer; Tami Hudson, EY; Mike Kelly, Master PT; Minor Shaw, community volunteer; Susan Shi, community volunteer; and Wendy Walden, Greenville Technical College.

“In addition to their incredible commitment to our community, these volunteers bring knowledge, experience and diverse perspectives that will be a great benefit to our organization,” said United Way of Greenville County President and CEO Meghan Barp. “We’re excited to have them join the board and look forward to the great things we will accomplish together for Greenville County.”

In December, the board unanimously approved a new slate of directors to serve on its Executive Committee, led by long-time United Way volunteer Jason Richards as chair. Richards, who has served as Chief Operating Officer of NAI Earle Furman since 2011, will be joined on the executive committee by Truist’s Calvin Calhoun (Vice Chair), Fox Rothschild’s Tami McKnew (Treasurer), Bon Secours St. Francis Health System’s Deb Long (Secretary) and Long Branch Baptist Church’s Sean Dogan (Past Chair).

Director Bios

Yukichi Hagins

Hagins is a top-selling real estate agent in the Upstate housing market, having built, developed, and sold over $3 billion in a career spanning more than 15 years. She is a graduate of the Furman University Women Leadership Institute, a Riley Diversity Leadership Institute Fellow, and studied Business Management at Greenville Technical College. She is also a certified member of the National Association of Credit Services Organization and a graduate of the Credit Literacy University program in Houston, Texas.

Annmarie Higgins

Annmarie Higgins is a Human Resources executive, most recently serving as VP, Human Resources, Southeast Energy Group, Dominion Energy, and prior to the 2019 merger, as VP HR for SCANA. Previous roles include VP Corporate Human Resources, Americas for BMW, and VP HR for BMW Manufacturing. Annmarie has served as a leading community advocate and has held a number of board positions, including Prisma Health Upstate, SC Business Coalition on Health, United Way of the Piedmont, United Way Young Philanthropist Society – Greenville County. She is a Fellow of the ninth class of the Liberty Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Tami Hudson

Hudson serves with EY as a Client Executive and Information Security lead for clients in the Media & Entertainment, Manufacturing, Consumer Goods and Financial Services industries. She is passionate about building proactive and business aligned security functions within business, and building strategic and generous contributors in the community. Hudson completed her undergraduate studies at Georgia Institute of Technology and her MBA at Duke University. Additionally, she is an avid runner and Forbes contributing writer.

Michael Kelly

Kelly serves as the Director, Marketing & Business Development for Master Power Transmission at the company’s Greenville headquarters location. He worked as a Business Development Manager for the company based out of their Indiana operations prior to transferring to Greenville in 2016. He previously served with the United Way on the Campaign Cabinet and as a Loaned Executive. He is a current member of Leadership Greenville class of 46.

Minor Shaw

Shaw is president of Micco LLC, a private investment company. Her extensive community involvement includes chairing the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission and serving as a board member of Piedmont Natural Gas, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, the Columbia Mutual Funds, the Duke Energy Advisory Board and United Way of Greenville County. She has been chairman of the Community Foundation of Greenville, Hollingsworth Funds, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, the Junior League of Greenville, the Urban League of the Upstate, the YMCA of Greenville, and the South Carolina ETV Endowment. Currently, she serves as chair of The Daniel-Mickel Foundation.

Susan Shi

An active civic and community volunteer, especially in the area of education, Shi chaired the boards of Greenville’s Public Education Partners, the Community Foundation, United Way and Success by 6 – an early childhood initiative. She led the United Way’s development of its Community Impact Agenda in 2003 and Greenville County School’s Strategic Plan in 1999. She is the founding board chair of the Institute for Child Success and now serves as Chair Emerita. Shi began a term as a member of the Furman University Board of Trustees in 2014.

Wendy Walden

Walden is the Associate Vice President for executive affairs at Greenville Technical College. In this role, she is a member of the President’s Cabinet, serves as the chief diversity officer, and oversees executive communications. She has been with Greenville Tech for 13 years and has over 19 years of work experience in various leadership roles in the corporate sector.