SYNERGY - Cynthia Chestnut

Story By: Dr. Anthony Robinson

To some, public service is a calling, a privilege. To others, it is a duty. To Dr. Cynthia Chestnut, public service is a way of life.

Dr. Chestnut is originally from Tallahassee, Florida, though she now resides in Gainesville. Her life is a success story of breaking the glass ceiling and of paving new avenues for political action in previously underrepresented communities.

Dr. Chestnut says she has led a “dual track life” of public service in elected office and a simultaneous professional career. This work ethic and value for education comes from her mother, a wise, faithful woman whose principles guided Dr. Chestnut to her successes.

“My mother laid the foundation and expectation for success, period.”

Dr. Chestnut was raised a Christian and she says that her family values were based on faith and Christian principles.

“My mother had some sayings that had a lasting impact on me. One was ‘A woman should always have her own dime for Coca-Cola’. This taught me that as a woman, I needed to have my own money and independence.”

Dr. Chestnut’s mother had other peculiar but powerful standards: “I couldn’t get married until I had a master’s degree in my hand”

And so, she did. Chestnut attended Florida A&M University and received her bachelor’s degree in speech pathology in 1970. She received her master’s in speech pathology from Florida State University the next year. She later attended Nova Southeastern University and graduated with a doctorate in public administration in 1981.

Just like her mother, Dr. Chestnut has her own sayings that she lives by. She specifically mentioned this quote by Marianne Wright Edelman as being central to her life: “Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time.”

Dr. Chestnut has been heavily involved in the Gainesville Democratic Party and in various levels of Florida legislature. “I grew up in Tallahassee around government. I always had a yearning for elevated office. My dream was to become Mayor ― I achieved that in Gainesville”

Dr. Chestnut has more than ‘paid her rent’, so to speak. After her run as Mayor of Gainesville in 1989, she served on the city commission, on the county commission, and in state legislature. She has also served on the school board for Alachua County.

Healthcare is the other half of Dr. Chestnut’s “dual life”. She studied health education classes at churches and community centers in African American neighborhoods. Her formal education is primarily in healthcare and she has focused her career on educating the African American community about healthcare and providing services to those in need.

During her 14-year career at Shand’s Hospital in Gainesville, her focus was performing outreach and education to the African American community. Her goal during this time was to “stem the tide of African Americans using the Emergency Room as their primary healthcare provider.”

“Doing healthcare education hopefully helps people be proactive with their healthcare, to go for checkups, listen to doctors’ regiments, keep up with their medications, and exercise.”

Dr. Chestnut counts this as the most fulfilling feature of her professional career. She seeks to empower people with information, specifically about their own healthcare.

Another memorable quote that she keeps from her mother is “Whatever you set out to do, learn the rules of the game. Then master them.”

Dr. Chestnut wants to be remembered as a person who provided public service and who provided that service through her professional and political career as a “servant of the people”.

“I’ve always felt a responsibility to fill [my] positions well because I’m standing on the shoulders of those who fought to give me the opportunity [to do so].”

In her retirement, she has been learning piano and preparing for a recital. She says she always wanted to learn Fur Elise by Beethoven, but she never found the time because she was so occupied with her political and professional careers.

“I always wanted to play the piano. I started and stopped but I finally picked it up again. I wanted to learn Fur Elise and I can finally play it! You can learn anything if you put your mind to it.”