Ms. Austin is the President/CEO of the Works, Inc, thirty year old community development corporation. The Works, Inc (TWI) is the developer of single-family and multifamily properties in distressed neighborhoods. TWI is a operates a farmers’ market, a green grocer, a mobile grocery; provides nutrition education; operates a mortgage loan fund; and does work around the comprehensive needs of children and families. The Works, Inc merged with Neighborhood Preservation, Inc in January 2022 expanding its services to include policy advocacy, the Strategic Code Enforcement Management Academy, the Blight Elimination Steering Team, promoting collaborative efforts to develop practical and sustainable resolutions to blighted properties and to the systems that lead to widespread neglect, vacancy and abandonment of real estate.

Current development projects of TWI include the adaptive, mixed-use redevelopment of a 270,000 sq ft former high school as a community hub that includes 42 units of affordable housing; the development of a thirty-unit open plan subdivision for ownership; 79-units of senior affordable housing; new construction and rehabilitated units in the Klondike neighborhood and across South Memphis.

Austin earned her M.A. in Urban Anthropology at the University of Memphis and her undergraduate degree at Middlebury College. She’s the mother of one daughter, Lailah who is pursuing a career in the real estate and the arts.

Ms. Austin is the Treasurer of the Memphis Fourth Estate (The Daily Memphian). She is also Treasurer of Urban Renaissance Partners. She has long served in advisory capacity to the Memphis Black Arts Alliance. Recently Ms. Austin joined the Board of Directors of the Mid-South Food Bank. Ms. Austin completed a TedTalk, “A Great Awakening for Building Community in early 2023.