Mayor Teresa Myers Ervin believes we all can choose our destiny and create our own opportunities through hard work and perseverance. She has worked hard throughout her life and is proud she has been of service to others, resulting in helping to create a better quality of life for so many in the Florence community.

A native of Florence, S. C., she is the proud daughter of the late Charlie and Isabella Myers. At an early age they gave her the courage to follow her dreams and taught discipline is needed to achieve them. Educated in Florence School District One schools, she attended Carver Elementary School, Moore Middle School, and graduated from West Florence High School.

After high school, she pursued her dream of becoming a nurse by earning an Associate Degree in Nursing from Florence-Darlington Technical College. She continued her education at Francis Marion University graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.  Currently employed at McLeod as a registered nurse, she has over 40 years of experience and holds specialty certifications Registered Nurse, Certified and Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP), for which she is also an instructor.

Dedicated to having a multi-faced career, in 2005, she became a licensed realtor and have helped hundreds of families and individuals realize their dreams of home ownership. She also became an ordained minister with the goal of bringing people together by helping people resolve conflict through spiritual counseling and settle their differences as a trained mediator.  She too serves as a South Carolina notary.

In 2010, she won election to become a member of the Florence City Council representing District 1.  As a councilwoman, she was involved in projects big and small to benefit the community. In 2011, one of the then councilwoman’s first sponsored initiative was to propose and secure the funding to get the Pearl Moore Basketball Center built. To date, it is the only government building in Florence named after a woman.

Additionally, Mrs. Myers Ervin then served on various committees to include the ad hoc Evaluation Committee that was charged with choosing the bank the City of Florence, S.C. would do business and currently the community development ad hoc committee for which she chaired for 7 years. As chair of the committee, she was able to secure $3.5 million to begin community development projects in the city of Florence, S.C., which has never been done in the city’s history. Under her chairwomanship and working with the council, it placed the city of Florence, S.C. in the position to receive the Municipal Association of South Carolina (MASC) Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Award for Economic Development for the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, which began in 2014, with the city's first development completed in March 2018.

As an original member of the 2010 Florence City Council Leadership Team, she played a vital role in supporting and assisting then mayor, Stephen Wukela, in downtown redevelopment. To ensure small downtown redevelopment was economically inclusive, Mrs. Myers Ervin introduced the provision to look out for small businesses by granting a maximum of $30,000 to assist small businesses in getting up and running through the Business Redevelopment and Historic Building Grant. She was the only leadership team member to represent the city in Washington, DC to lobby for City of Florence, S.C. to establish the new HopeHealth facility located at its present Irby Street location. After taking a leadership trip to Spartanburg, she brought back the commercial kitchen space concept at the City Center Farmers Market. She saw a need with the growth of small businesses in the retail and culinary space and the area being labeled a food desert. Having the foresight to add to the bottom line is most valuable to her.

Further as councilwoman, Mrs. Myers Ervin worked with a local youth group to redevelop the skatepark at McLeod Park. She led the initiative to create an athletic complex designed to manage baseball leagues for youth and adults in the city of Florence, S.C. bringing them together, unifying the fun!  Currently, this is the expansion of the Florence Tennis Center to allow offerings such as track and field in addition to tennis and baseball, which will meet the recreational needs of the growing community.

Understanding Florence will need to work toward an economic recovery from the pandemic, Mrs. Myers Ervin sponsored resolution COVID-19 CARES Act budget of $161,263 which passed unanimously. This resolution will allow community block grant funds to be used to assist low to moderate income citizens whose jobs or income have been affected by COVID- 19. The City of Florence, S.C. has committed to matching funding up to $150K.

On November 3, 2020, Mrs. Myers Ervin won the mayoral race, making history becoming the first female and African American mayor of the City of Florence, S.C.  Since that time, she has been diligently working to move Florence, S.C. forward with such initiatives as: establishing the Mayor’s Citizens Roundtable, a forum to hear the ideas and concerns of citizens; commissioning the Cultural Arts Committee that is charged with developing inclusive public artwork that is representative of Florence, S.C. citizens;  Mayor’s Youth Initiative, a services program that is rooted in community partnerships to give youth and their families current and future educational support and job skills training for summer employment, and innovative economic recovery, where she is currently evaluating partnerships which will offer more assistance to entrepreneurs, while fostering employment opportunities to enhance the quality of life for our citizens and businesses of all sizes, in addition to performing other mayoral duties. All which come under the Mayor’s Coalition for Humanity, a four-pronged drive that would display compassion for the state of being human in the struggle and willingness to help.

A longtime community advocate, even well before serving as a member of Florence City Council, Mayor Myers Ervin works to bring the Florence community together through serving on various boards, as well as active memberships with organization. They are as follows:  HopeHealth Board of Directors and a voting member of the Florence Area Transportation Study Policy Committee.

Mayor Myers Ervin has had the privilege of participating in The Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce Building Bridges Program and is an alumna of the Fellows in Education Program, a joint venture between Florence School District One, The School Foundation and The Greater Florence Chamber Commerce and the Municipal Association of South Carolina Elected Officials Institute of Government. A recipient of the Palmetto Gold Award in Nursing, her alma mater, Francis Marion University, bestowed her the highest distinction of an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities degree for her dedication and service to the Florence community along with the 2023 Outstanding Alumni award.  In addition to her many awards and recognition, Mayor Myers Ervin was selected to participate in the prestigious Riley Institute Diversity Leaders Initiative Spring 2024 and was nominated to be a fellow of The Riley Mayors’ Design Fellowship as a member of the 2023 cohort.  The mayor was one of six mayors in the state of South Carolina to complete the cycle and the second mayor from Florence, S.C. to receive the honor of being a fellow, with the first being the late former Mayor Frank Willis.

Mayor Myers Ervin is married to her husband of 40 years, Lavon Ervin, and together, they have three children, Carlos Ervin, Dr. Charlie Ervin II, and Cacie Ervin McElveen. She and her husband reside in Florence, SC, where they have lived all their lives.

Click here to view Mayor Myers Ervin's vision, accomplishments, and platform.