I was born on April 23, 1962, at home. I was #2 in a set of identical twins. Our names were Tanya Yvonne and Tanya Yvette Edwards to Doris and Sherman W. Edwards. I spent my first three months in an incubator. I am one of eight living children. We lived in Jackson, MS. I graduated from Callaway High School in 1980 with honors. I participated in track, Mathematics Society and the Honor Society. I become part of the National Junior Honor Society as a seventh grader following the footsteps of my brothers.

After leaving high school, I attended and graduated the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. I served on and with many different groups while in college – Board of Appeals, Bolton Hall VP, African American Culture Society VP, election commission and member of the Board of Directors for the Wesley Foundation. I met and married my husband, Tony Lamar Evans while a student at USM.

Tony and I were blessed with four children (two girls and two boys). Tony died after complications from a car accident at the age of 34. My story is filled with ups and downs. I faithfully served at my home church, Anderson United Methodist Church in Jackson, MS in many areas of ministries prior to becoming a minister. I am a former educator of seventeen years where I have taught math, history, alternative students, and court order GED.  I graduated from Memphis Theological Seminary in 2007 and was ordained in 2011 by Bishop Hope Morgan Ward.

I began my twentieth year in ministry at Wesley UMC. I am reminded of the nurturing and the support I got from CCYM and Mrs. Emma Moore, the UMYF, the UMW and UMM and my home church who saw me as a minister when I was a teenager. The UMW gave me words of encouragement when I was being bullied and harassed by people in the church.

It is my hope that I use my gifts to reach the lost in the pews and outside the building, to enrich the understanding of being Methodist, and love as Christ commands. My motto is “With your faith and God’s favor, go flavour someone’s life with love.”