Lydia Meredith

{{short description|Author and community advocate}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}}

{{Infobox officeholder|name=Lydia Mitcham Meredith

| image = Lydia_Meredith.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date|1952|5|3}}

| occupation = American author and CEO}}

Lydia Mitcham Meredith (born May 3, 1952) is an American author and the former CEO of the Renaissance Learning Center (RLC) in Atlanta, Georgia, from Macon, Georgia. Meredith is a community organizer, entrepreneur and civil rights activist{{cite web|url=https://michronicleonline.com/2017/05/01/the-gay-preachers-wife/|title=Lydia Meredith, From first lady to a voice for LGBTQ and human rights|author=|date=May 1, 2017|website=michronicleonline.com|accessdate=January 5, 2018}} formerly operated an early childhood development center in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. She was featured in an episode of Stephen Colbert Comedy Central Difference Makers for ridding her facility of vagrants with technology{{cite web|url=https://www.cc.com/video/e3l9yt/the-colbert-report-difference-makers-bumbot |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612110056/https://www.cc.com/video/e3l9yt/the-colbert-report-difference-makers-bumbot |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 12, 2021 |title=Difference Makers Bumbot|first= Rusty |last=Dornin|date= April 24, 2008|website= |accessdate=June 23, 2024}}

Meredith led the daily operations of the Renaissance Learning Center (RLC) operating in the 4th Ward community of Atlanta, Georgia. Ninety-five percent of the students assisted by the Renaissance Learning Center were from impoverished homes. Teen Talk, a program within their curriculum, educated over 2,000 teenagers on life skills. The RLC graduated over 3,000 students into kindergarten. The RLC successfully assisted 2,500 school-age children get promoted to the next grade with 100% of them going on to high school. Five hundred children and adults are impacted daily by the RLC. Fifteen thousand families were elevated out of poverty because of services rendered to them by the Renaissance Learning Center.{{cite web|url=http://www.beaconofhopeatl.org/home.php|title=Hamm, M. (2015, January 30). Beacon of Hope. Retrieved April 25, 2017|author=|date=|website=beaconofhopeatl.org|accessdate=January 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910040239/http://www.beaconofhopeatl.org/home.php|archive-date=September 10, 2017|url-status=dead}}

She was acknowledged for her work in the community by former governor of Georgia Roy Barnes. The RLC was presented with the Childhood Hero Award for the service rendered to the youth of the community.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}