After stepping away from politics after her first term, Katherlyn Geter is back to run again for a seat on the Hamilton County Commission.
Geter, 51, is running as a Democrat for the District 5 spot, which represents parts of Brainerd, Woodmore and Washington Hills and is held by Commissioner Greg Beck, D-North Brainerd.
Geter is not a political newcomer, unlike some of the Democratic cohort challenging incumbents for other seats. She served a single term on the commission before opting not to seek reelection in 2022.
She ousted Beck from that seat — which no longer exists after redistricting ahead of the 2022 election — during the 2018 Democratic primary by 15 votes. Before that, Beck had been the representative for that district for over a decade, appointed to the seat the year before he won his first election in 2006.
COVID hit Chattanooga halfway through her term, while she was just getting her footing, Geter said in an interview, and she views her advocacy for her district during the pandemic as her primary accomplishment during her four years in office.
Geter, who is Black, thinks she was able to maintain a direct connection to minority communities in her district during that time, she said, while she tried to ensure access to vaccines and health education.
“In Black and brown communities, health care is still a very sensitive area,” Geter said. “There’s a lot of stigma, there’s a lot of distrust. One of the things we were very successful with was working with the former mayor and bringing in different churches, Black and brown churches, and saying, ‘What do we need to do?'”
She is proud of her outreach efforts during that time, Geter said.
But the pandemic also touched her own home. Her life partner, Reginald Moss, caught COVID twice and eventually died in 2023 after health complications.
Because of his declining health, Geter opted not to run for a second term in 2022, she said.
“So why now?” Geter said. “I’m ready again. My life looks a lot different. My kids are grown, and even after I made the decision not to run, what never stopped was my commitment to serving and working in communities.”
She still has unfinished business on the Hamilton County Commission, she said, and she wants to bring the right leadership back to her district. She thinks she has a better connection with the community than Beck, she said.
With a career background in helping people navigate the health care system, she’d like to ensure the county’s Health Department is fully funded and staffed while also extending support to non-traditional health services, like free clinics at churches.
She’s also aware of the importance of strong neighborhoods, because people heal within their own homes after going to the doctor or the hospital, she said.
(READ MORE: Community and technology converge at Chattanooga’s groundbreaking Enterprise Center)
“I’m healing in this community, and I don’t have safe sidewalks. I don’t have an affordable, nutritious grocery store. I have challenges with transportation,” Geter said. “Housing is not affordable to the point where I’m choosing, ‘Do I buy perspectives or do I buy food?'”
She’d like to flex the county’s connections with nonprofits and reach compromises to ensure those problems are addressed within her district’s neediest neighborhoods, she said.
Schools are also a priority, Geter said. She’d like to expand technical programs within existing schools, she said. She’d also like to bring some problem-solving skills to the table to try and ensure teacher pay is acceptable in the county. She raised two sons as a single mother in the county’s school system, and she knows how important a role teachers play in children’s lives, she said.
Geter lives off the intersection of Wilcox Boulevard and Shallowford Road, near Woodmore, and she’s been raised in Chattanooga since middle school, she said. She leads a program for the Enterprise Center that focuses on building spaces that promote health and wellness in neighborhoods. Before that, she ran Purpose Point Community Resource Center, which is a faith-based free health clinic.
Geter will face Beck during the May 5 Democratic primary. As of now, there are no Republican or independent challengers for the seat, so the primary could effectively decide the election.
Contact city and county reporter Siena Duncan at sduncan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.
