Meet Jamie Handley

I was born in Decatur in 1967, and lived here until after I finished college in 1995. All of the time I lived in Decatur, it was in the Austinville section, where I attended Austinville Elementary School for Kindergarten to Grade 5, Brookhaven Middle School for Grades 6-8, and Austin High School on Danville Road for Grades 9-12 where I graduated with honors in 1985. I attended the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) where I earned both my Bachelor's (BSE, 1990) and Master's (MSE, 1995) degrees in Mechanical Engineering.

I have worked in the Huntsville aerospace and industrial community since 1987 and I lived in first Madison County and then Limestone County from 1995 to 2019. I witnessed first-hand the growth of Huntsville, Madison, and Athens, and even though Decatur did not seem to be growing at the same rate, I was always proud to call Decatur my home.

I am currently a NASA contractor at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), serving as Lead Ground Systems Engineer at the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) on Lunar Gateway (LGW), one of the primary elements of the Artemis program which will facilitate our return to the Moon and future missions to Mars.

I manage small, medium, and large projects on a daily basis, keeping them on schedule and within budget, and provide wide ranging disciplines and partners (both domestic and international) the avenues to communicate and work together towards a common goal, even when those partners are many times in competition and conflict with one another. This is a daunting challenge that has provided me with many unique opportunities to facilitate communication between people and organizations with varied points of view as we work together to achieve our overall common program objectives.

So why did I choose to run for Decatur City Council for District 4?

I want to bring the same management skills that I use every day on my job and that are 100% unique to me to bear on the issues that Decatur is currently facing, as well as those we will face in the future. I want to help heal the civil and social wounds that many have felt and are continuing to feel today. Decatur needs a new path and a new direction to heal from the past 5+ years of major division and unrest. The only way that this will happen is to open up avenues of communication between all individuals in our community in order to achieve the common good. I know that with my experience and skills, I can facilitate the necessary communication.

Those running against me cannot facilitate this communication because they are MORE focused on the special interests that are supporting their campaigns.