2024 Most Influential Women: Ashanti Tate

Ashanti Tate’s career in social service has had trying moments, but her unwavering belief in her vocation keeps her going.

“When you are called to do something, you do it, whether it’s good, bad or ugly,” she says.

Tate earned her Master of Social Work and Master of Education in instructional leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Since that time, Tate has honed a career in community-centric leadership, including roles at Burrell Behavioral Health, Associated Youth Services and Heartland Center for Behavioral Change. 

In September, Tate became the executive director of Agape of the Ozarks LLC, an organization that helps individuals with physical disabilities obtain assistance with personal care and daily activities to foster independence.

The uniting thread through these roles has been Tate’s empathetic leadership style.

“It’s so important to always remember that the person we are serving is someone’s loved one, and it’s so important that we provide the same level of care as we would to one of our own loved ones,” she says.

Tate carries this perspective into her personal and community work as well.

During the pandemic, she and her husband founded the Meals on Wheels for Real program that delivered hot soul food to elderly congregation members each week.

In 2020, Tate also founded a semiannual women’s empowerment brunch, uniting 100 women from various backgrounds, professions and ages over topics ranging from how to write a book to learning to let loose.

Her compassion for others started at 13, when Tate joined Big Brothers Big Sisters. She has been involved with the organization in various cities ever since. In Springfield she launched a curriculum focused on self-worth and mental health. Through it all, Tate has been a Big to her same Little for over 15 years.

Although Tate has made a significant impact civically and professionally – leading state-recognized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, implementing Narcan vending machines that contributed to a 23% drop in overdoses, and serving as an agency liaison for a zero-suicide committee – her proudest role has been that of foster parent.

In eight years, Tate says she has fostered children ranging from infants experiencing drug withdrawal to teenagers struggling with gang affiliations. To Tate, the challenges are part of her calling, especially when her foster children can be reunited with their parents after overcoming challenges like addiction.

“Moments like that remind me that the work I do is not only necessary, but life-changing,” she says. And that’s especially true for one child in particular – the foster daughter she adopted in 2022.

“I am confident that this is exactly what I was created to do,” she says.