Ethel Stephanie Stuckey (born December 25, 1965) is an American businesswoman and former politician from Georgia. She is currently the CEO of

Stuckey's Stuckey's is a convenience store in the Southeast, Southwest, and Midwestern United States. known for its pecan log rolls and kitschy souvenirs. Additionally, Stuckey's sells candy, apparel, and souvenirs, and other products online. Stuckey's ...

Corporation. Stuckey served in the

Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. T ...

from 1999 to 2013.

Early life and education

The daughter of former Georgia

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

Williamson Sylvester Stuckey, Jr., spent her early life in Washington, D.C. Stuckey attended the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

and earned a B.A. in French in 1989. In 1992 Stuckey earned a J.D. from the

University of Georgia School of Law The University of Georgia School of Law (Georgia Law) is the law school of the University of Georgia, a Public university, public research university in Athens, Georgia. It was founded in 1859, making it among the oldest American university law sc ...

Career

Stuckey worked as legislative aide and attorney to Georgia Senator Mary Margaret Oliver while building her own practice. In 1998, Stuckey ran her first successful political campaign representing

Dekalb County DeKalb County may refer to one of several counties in the United States, all of which were named for Baron Johan DeKalb: * DeKalb County, Alabama * DeKalb County, Georgia * DeKalb County, Illinois * DeKalb County, Indiana * DeKalb County, Missouri ...

in Georgia's House of Representatives until 2013. After 14 years in the Georgia House of Representatives, Stuckey announced in 2012 that she would not seek re-election, instead taking a position as Executive Director of GreenLaw, an environmentally focused law resource center in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. In 2015, Stuckey was appointed by Atlanta mayor

Kasim Reed Mohammed Kasim Reed (born June 10, 1969) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 59th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia's state capital and largest city, from 2010 to 2018. A Democrat, Reed was a member of the Georgia House of Represen ...

to be Director of Sustainability for the

City of Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

and then to the position of Chief Resilience Officer. In late 2019, Stuckey purchased Stuckey's Corporation - the iconic roadside stop famous for its pecan candies and kitschy

souvenir A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

s that her grandfather founded in

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...

- for $500,000 and became the third-generation

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the

family business A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willingn ...

. She stated that the motivating factors for purchasing the company were an emotional attachment to the family brand along with the desire to make Stuckey's both profitable and a

household name Household name may refer to: * ''Household Name'' (album), a studio album by Momma * a popular brand, see brand awareness * a popular person, see celebrity * a term misused to exaggerate a product, see promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketi ...

again. At the time she purchased Stuckey's, the company was operating at a deficit and had only 13 original free-standing stores in 10 states that still sported the signature sloped original teal roofs in addition to around 65 licensed Stuckey's Express

store-within-a-store A store-within-a-store, also referred to as shop-in-shop, is an agreement in which a retailer rents a part of the retail space to be used by a different company to run another, independent shop. Origins In the early days of cellular telephone gr ...

locations. Within six months, Stuckey restored Stuckey's to profitability, thanks in part to a shift in focus from licensed Stuckey's store locations to the company's classic line of candies. She also expanded the brand back into candy manufacturing with the purchase of a pecan shelling and candy plant in

Wrens, Georgia Wrens is a city in Jefferson County, Georgia, United States. The population was 2,187 at the 2010 census. It is located on U.S. Route 1, thirty miles south of Augusta. History Wrens was laid out in 1884 when the railroad was extended to that poi ...

in January 2021. Candy and nut sales have increased to almost 50% of the company’s revenue stream as the brand expands to more national retail locations. In addition to a modest store growth and candy manufacturing and sales, Stuckey shared how promoting

pecan The pecan (''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed in the southern United States, primarily in Georgia, ...

s and supporting the vision of the "great American

road trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance journey on the road. Typically, road trips are long distances travelled by automobile. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by t ...

" are also a vital part of Stuckey's Corporation growth. As a result, Stuckey hopes to eventually own a handful of Stuckey’s

interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

stores to revive the original premise behind the company as a “roadside oasis” while continuing to build up the pecan side of the business to secure its future for another 85 years.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Stuckey, Stephanie Living people University of Georgia alumni American women chief executives Democratic Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives 1965 births 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesswomen Women state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state)