For the past two years, Mindy Wilson has walked alongside families across the state of Tennessee as the founder of AdvoKids Alliance and a non-attorney special education advocate — building a practice on a simple but deeply held belief: every child deserves to succeed at their home-zoned school. Not a school across town, not a placement that pulls them away from their neighborhood — the school where they do life, where they live and play, where their friends are. That's the school team Mindy collaborates with, side by side, for every family she serves.
A big part of what Mindy does isn't sitting across the table at an IEP meeting — it's everything that happens before and after. She educates parents every step of the way, walking them through the process and helping them make sense of the alphabet soup of acronyms — IEP, FBA, BIP, LRE, and more — that can make special education feel like its own language. And just as often, she's simply present — the person a parent can call before a hard meeting or text after a hard day. Mindy sees herself as her families' emotional support person as much as their advocate, because she knows firsthand that this work is exhausting, isolating, and emotional. Her mission is to bridge that gap so parents can show up fully as mom and dad — because every family deserves the chance to just be a family.
What sets Mindy apart from other advocates is the vantage point she brings: she has sat on the other side of that table. With 14 years as a licensed special education teacher — spanning inclusion classrooms, a comprehensive developmental setting, general education instruction, and district administration — Mindy understands the system from the inside, and she uses that understanding to push for change that outlasts any single meeting.
Because for Mindy, this work has never been about one child or one meeting. She carries what she calls her “change the world” list — a running, ever-evolving list of the systemic gaps she's determined to close for families across Tennessee. She is driven by a deep, rooted passion for bringing awareness and lasting change to how families experience public education — not just helping the family in front of her, but working toward a system that serves every child walking through it.
Mindy Wilson is a busy mother of three, an educator for life, an adjunct professor at Roane State Community College, and a full-time advocate. Rooted in East Tennessee, she has grown AdvoKids Alliance to serve families across the entire state — proof that one person, deeply committed, can widen the circle of who gets to be helped.
