M’Lissa McAnelly Chumbley was born in San Antonio in 1958, the daughter of LtCol George McAnelly and May Adele McAnelly. Her father was a WWII Air Force bomber pilot, and her mother was a naval nurse. Because of his duty, the family was stationed in the Azores, Germany, and California until her mother became ill. They returned to San Antonio for her to receive treatment. She died when M’Lissa was six years old.
Her father continued his service as a pilot during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Her aunt Virginia, uncle Mark, and maternal grandparents stepped up to help raise M’Lissa and her older brother George during this time and had a huge impact on her life.
M’lissa attended Glenoaks Elementary School, Pat Neff Middle School, and Marshall High School.
Her father remarried when she was 10 years old, and she cites some of her teachers as helping her through some tough teenage years.
Although she was living in the Holmes High School attendance zone at the time, she applied for and was accepted into the Marshall High School Agriculture program. At the time, the chair of the agriculture program, Charles Vickery, wanted to have a stock show and sale for students. (In those days, the only place you could sell your animals was at the major stock shows.)
Walter Gerlach donated the land, the Galm family donated old chicken coops, and the students and Booster Club parents worked nights and weekends to build the barns. It went from being the Marshall Livestock Show to the Walter Gerlach Livestock Show and is still going strong after 51 years. She and her family have been involved in the Gerlach Show for decades.
M’Lissa said at one point during high school she was headed down a path that was not a good one. Her Ag teachers took her aside and told her that she was running with the wrong kids and she needed to make better decisions if she wanted to continue in the Ag program.
“So, I changed my path because a teacher cared enough to say something to me.” As a result, she served as one the first female FFA presidents for the school and in the state of Texas.
Besides her Ag teachers, M’Lissa cites several teachers who had a lasting impact on her life. After a difficult situation at home, her English teacher, Jane Ivers, talked to her about grit, perseverance, and challenges you sometimes have in life. “I remember her words and her empathetic tone still to this day,” she said.
After graduating from Marshall, M’Lissa headed to Texas A&M University – a place that she calls “home!” It is a family legacy of sorts. Her father, three uncles, several cousins, and her three children are all Aggie graduates.
Although she initially was introduced to Steve Chumbley when she was in high school by one of her Ag teachers during the SA Stock Show, she would later reconnect with him during a party at Texas A&M (he was not a student there), and they would later marry in 1981.
The Chumley’s were told they could not bear children, but they ended up with four boys: Boot, Ty, Chance, and Colton. Because of this unexpected blessing, M’Lissa vowed to play an active role in their lives and part of that was to make sure they received a good education.
Maybe in part because her own mother died when she was so young and was not able to play an active role in her educational journey, M’Lissa plunged fully into being a school volunteer. Eventually, she became the President of the PTA Council (something she later found her mother was as well) and served on many other campus and district committees. This activism propelled her to run for the school board, wanting to ensure that the voices of parents were heard and considered.
She ran for the NISD School Board in 1995 her first campaign ever, and won. This was the year that all the board members had to stand for election as the district was transitioning to single-member districts.
While serving for 28 years, M’Lissa served with five Superintendents and was involved with eight bond elections totaling almost $5 billion in facility improvements, new campuses, and technology enhancements. She saw 61 brand-new campuses being built and a district enrollment growth of 45,000 students.
She has many proud moments during her tenure but a few include the establishment of the Construction Careers Academy program, closing gaps within ethnic groups, working through COVID, and getting through the 2011 financial crisis with no reduction of force.
She is also proud that she and her fellow trustees were elected in a single-member district, but they all knew that they represented all Northside students.
“As a Trustee, I always wanted teachers to understand how impactful they are on students’ lives – just like my teachers were,” she said. “I want them to know how important it is that you be the teacher that kids remember because they know you care.”
M’Lissa hopes to instill the same empathy, care, and understanding that she received at Marshall High School at the school that now bears her name.