Ivory Flemister-Reid Working New Job As Bus OperatorMeet Ivory Flemister-Reid

Sometimes past mistakes are enough to completely derail a career. For Ivory Flemister-Reid, a single mother with a criminal background, history repeatedly kept her from jobs she knew she was qualified to perform. Support from her family helped Flemister-Reid with many of the obstacles she faced, but she knew she would have to fight for a career on her own.

In February 2014 she found Goodwill of North Georgia’s Highway Construction program and enrolled. “Driving heavy equipment was a dream job,” she says. The program was a perfect fit. Flemister-Reid obtained her CDL Class B Drivers License with a passenger endorsement while in training, along with safety training, job readiness training and a local apprenticeship with one of Goodwill’s community training partners.

Shortly after she was admitted into the apprenticeship she got a call from MARTA to interview for a part-time job opening for mobility drivers. She ended up landing a full-time position as a bus operator and was even featured in an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution when MARTA expanded its routes in Clayton County.

Happily employed and a now face for her company, Flemister-Reid is proud of her accomplishment. “You’ve got to look for bus 1605,” she beams. “That’s my bus.”