Christina Isbell

Jokingly, I would say I'm stubborn. But I really do have a loving personality. I just want to leave this world a better place, so anything that I leave my mark on, I just want it to be better. I think that drive to make things better, combined with my caring nature, is what has helped me succeed in both serving families during their most vulnerable times and in leading my community as mayor.

The best career advice I've ever received is that as long as you're always doing what's right, it always works out. It's really simple, but it's something I've carried with me throughout my career. Whether I'm serving families in their most vulnerable moments or leading my community as mayor, I've found that if you stick to doing the right thing, things have a way of working themselves out.

I feel like it's always do the right thing, because sometimes things don't work out, and I'm a big believer in if it didn't work out, it wasn't meant to be. So I just keep doing the right thing. I keep going in my path, I keep going where I'm led, and what's meant for me will be for me. You don't give up. You just keep going - you know, maybe that wasn't the path you were supposed to be on, and so you just keep trudging along to the next thing. A no isn't really a no, right? It's just not right now. When a door's slammed in your face, that just means just not right now. You have to have some thick skin for those doors not to bug you.

I would say it's on my mayor's side. In Texas, things are pretty chaotic with the data center boom, and we're actually one of the first towns - we're only a town of 3,000 - we're one of the first cities to have a data center come into the county, and it was really before anybody knew what it was. It's about maintaining that trust with the citizens and fighting for our community to make sure that our needs are met. We didn't really know it was coming - it was approved through the county, but as a city, none of us knew about it. It's just happening so fast, so you have to juggle like, okay, we have this major project that's impacting us. I can sit here and yell and scream and holler, or I can come up with solutions. And the only way we're going to come out on top is coming up with a solution.

Definitely integrity. When you're dealing with families that are in their most vulnerable time, it's important that you have that integrity where you can serve people, because they're trusting you in the most vulnerable times of their life. And then, as mayor, that's also important because they should have people leading them that care, that they know is always going to do the right thing, that they know is not going to lie or deceive and always be transparent. I think that moves on, really, in every job you ever have.