2025 Alumnae Spirit of Service Award Recipient: Catherine Mayes Knowles ’88

Take a moment to think, Catherine Mayes Knowles ‘88 challenged students as she stood behind the podium of the Frances Bond Davis Theatre. When you envision homelessness, what does it look like?

“When most people think about homelessness,” she said, “families and children are not what comes to our mind. ...But there are more than 4,500 children and youth experiencing homelessness in Nashville.”

That may include children who live in a shelter or transitional housing program, whose families “double up” with friends or relatives because they do not have housing of their own, who live in motels or at a campground, or who live in a car, abandoned building, or other location not normally designed for sleeping.

These children, Ms. Knowles said, deserve every opportunity to be successful in school and have a positive educational experience. And that is where Ms. Knowles can help. 

As the Homeless Education Resource Office (H.E.R.O.) Program Coordinator of Metro Nashville Public Schools, Ms. Knowles has worked with thousands of families experiencing homelessness over her 22 years with the program. Through H.E.R.O., students who lack a “fixed, regular and adequate night-time residence” are provided assistance in enrolling in schools, referrals for health services, school supplies and backpacks, Second Harvest food boxes, school uniforms and shoes, transportation, and more. 

For her dedication to the families and children in the Nashville community, Ms. Knowles has been named Harpeth Hall’s 2025 Alumna Spirit of Service honoree.

“Even at my age,” Ms. Knowles said, “the idea of this — the idea of homelessness — is overwhelming. …The students and families who live with housing instability are the strongest, most resourceful, most resilient people that I’ve ever known,

“... They are [strong] because they have to be,” Ms. Knowles said. “There are simply too many barriers, too many challenges, and too many ineffective systems working against them. So they develop the skills they need to navigate tremendous uncertainty, and they draw their power and their strength and their determination from somewhere deep inside themselves.”

During her tenure as the program coordinator, Ms. Knowles has grown the program from serving 200 students a year to more than 4,500 during the last school year. She has recruited more than 25 community partners who support the program and she currently serves on three state-wide councils under appointments from the governor as a service provider representing the concerns of families who are experiencing homelessness. She is a member of the Metropolitan Nashville Homelessness Planning Council, the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project Steering Committee, and Vice President of UniCycle — a local non-profit that provides gently used school clothing to students throughout her district of 86,000 students.

In March, as this year’s Spirit of Service honoree, Ms. Knowles returned to campus to speak with students about the importance of her work. The National Advisory Council (NAC) established the Spirit of Service Award to recognize and celebrate outstanding service by a Harpeth Hall/Ward-Belmont alumna. The recipient of the award is a woman who has gone above and beyond the call to serve and make meaningful contributions to her community, a description which fits Ms. Knowles exactly. 

An inspirational experience during her senior Winterim internship with Exchange Club Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse, led Ms. Knowles down a career path to the position she holds today with the H.E.R.O. program. She encouraged students to look beyond the circle they create at home, school, church, and work to see the needs of the community and find their own calling of support for their Nashville neighbors. 

For Ms. Knowles, that calling has been supporting students and helping them thrive. 

“There is no one single cause of homelessness, so there is no one simple solution,” Ms. Knowles said. “There are countless nonprofit organizations, faith communities, individuals, and amazing advocates who are working to address the issue of homelessness, and I feel so blessed to be a small part of that work.”