WEST VIRGINIA WONDER WOMEN
JAMIE NULL Hometown Advocate
Jamie Null is a storyteller. She is a native of southern West Virginia and began her career crafting stories about the people and places of Mercer County. Those stories opened doors and, in 2014, she became the executive director for the Mercer County Convention and Visitors Bureau. She’s led the organization through a successful rebrand, shined a light on the ATV tourism industry in southern West Virginia, and brought economic tourism to the table in the region. Her tourism campaigns featuring the county as an outdoor adventure destination, have done wonders for the region, and have won multiple advertising awards from West Virginia Tourism. In recent years, the county has seen increased visitor spending, more traffic at Mercer County’s state parks, and a high increase in ATV visitation from all areas of the country. A former award-winning West Virginia newspaper journalist, Null made a commitment to tourism and the people of West Virginia. She is the creative driving force for the CVB, while also reminding others that tourism is an economic driver not only for Mercer County, but the entire Mountain State. She also currently serves as secretary of the West Virginia Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus and on various other boards in Mercer County. MM
JOANNA BAILEY Stop That Truck
After completing medical school and residency at West Virginia University, Joanna Bailey knew she was headed back home to Pineville. She chose family medicine and settled in as one of a handful of practicing physicians in Wyoming County, spending her days at the Tug River Health Association. Bailey says it was frustrating, as a young doctor, to treat so many consequences of obesity— diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease—with no specific tools in her toolbox to actually treat the root cause. “I know from personal experiences that when a doctor quickly tells someone to lose weight, it can be very offensive and actually builds barriers. Out of that frustration, I decided to look for meaningful interventions for my patients.” Bailey reached out to the Benedum Foundation and WVU for funding to complete a specialty training through the Obesity Medicine Association. She now has tools to help her patients and has become an advocate at the state level, working with the West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians to lobby for a soda tax to combat obesity on a larger scale. She says lasting change will only come by reducing the power of food companies. If she ever goes to jail, it’s because the Mountain Dew truck infuriates her, she says. Her arrest will mean she finally went after that truck. HLT
KIM TIEMAN Building Others Up Is Key
Kim Tieman, the Benedum Foundation program director of health and human services, embodies the West Virginia spirit. “When times get tough, we buckle down and help one another,” she says. She spends every day of her life seeking ways to help others. A love for work has fueled her career path. Her passion for life and for the people of West Virginia is what continues to drive her. “People in our state want to be encouraged. It’s up to us to do that,” she says. From AmeriCorps to the West Virginia Voluntary Organization in Active Disaster Relief, teaching, adjudicating for our youth, and much more, she remains dedicated to making her community stronger. She says she has seen significant transformation in people, and they weren’t all young. Solving problems with resourcefulness is a passion of hers, along with connecting people all over the nation to bring in help. “You can’t walk away from that doing anything except believing in the human spirit.” And it makes Tieman keep pushing for great change. A West Virginian her whole life, she grew up in Jackson County on a 300-acre farm that her daddy still owns. She never stops building people up. She got that, and her caring spirit, from her daddy, too. BM
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