BY MICHAEL HIRSCH

Special to The Press

Tori Morgan presided over the South Whitehall commissioners’ meeting on Dec. 15, 2021.

This would be her final meeting after serving as a commissioner from 2008-21; board president for the last nine years, and planning commission member for four years.

The Press recently interviewed Morgan.

Her favorite story

Well, not any specific story, but what I can tell you is every single day being on that board was a new adventure. I mean, there were experiences and challenges, and highs and lows, which all made it so worthwhile.

So as board president, I can say probably my favorite story would be our tree lighting event.

It’s probably is, without a doubt, the biggest event we have every year and I’ve seen it evolve since I started as a commissioner.

We used to have very small intimate tree lighting experiences, and we would have them at the township building.

We decided, OK, let’s move our Christmas tree lighting event to Covered Bridge Park and, from there, it just blossomed and turned into this most amazing community event.

And, I can tell you, when you’re up there, and you’re looking out at all those people, some who live in South Whitehall, some who don’t, but it doesn’t matter because they’re all there for the same reason

I have no words to describe it. It’s just so uplifting. And you realize why you do community service. Because it brings all those people together, and in a good way.”

Where were you born, raised? Where have you lived?

I was born in Scottsdale, Ariz. I didn’t stay there long. I came back to Pennsylvania with my mom and lived in Williamsport. That’s where I grew up. I left Williamsport when I went to college at Muhlenberg and really that’s where I fell in love with the Lehigh Valley.

I met my husband at Muhlenberg. He is an Allentown native, so he’s always lived here. I came back to Allentown after I graduated in 1990 and we bought our first home in western downtown, where we lived for five years,

In 1998, we bought our house in South Whitehall and we’ve been there ever since. So I love it. Although I do love going back to the country.

I love going back to Williamsport. It’s pretty; it has mountains; it’s very rural.

Do you have children?

My husband, Jeff, and I have a set of twins, Jillian and Sam, 22 years old. Jillian is in her senior year of nursing school at Villanova. So she’ll be finishing up her senior year this May.

She has already taken a job at Lehigh Valley Hospital, so we’re very excited to see her come back and be successful. And. at a time when nurses are so very much needed.

Sam, went to Muhlenberg College and graduated a year early. He is now in law school at Widener University, Delaware. He will be graduating in 2023 and hopefully sitting for his bar.

What did you want to be as an adult?

I always loved the sciences. And it’s interesting because when I originally went to college, I started out in the medical side of it, and quickly found it probably wasn’t the direction I wanted to go in. So what was so wonderful about Muhlenberg is they allowed me to self-design my major.

I did an internship at the Lehigh Valley Zoo, the Trexler Game Preserve, and a combination of biology and psychology, almost like animal husbandry, environmental.

My first job, I did an research and development job at a spice company out of college. But then, at my first long-term job I got into the water and wastewater industry and that’s where I’ve been ever since. The whole environmental side of it was what I really loved.

About what causes are you passionate?

People. Because everything I do is about the people I live with or around in my community. It’s interesting when I got involved in the township, it was shortly after my kids were born and got to an age where I could actually start to rediscover myself as a person.

Favorite hobby?

I love, love, love to be outside. So I love to work in my yard. I love gardening. I think gardening is probably one of my favorite hobbies.

Favorite travel spot?

Arizona because I love to hike and we like to hike in Arizona and the mountains.

Her wish for South Whitehall’s future?

My wish for something today and always since the day I came on the board is to see it move forward and evolve. I hope never to see us as a community become stagnant because we’re afraid to evolve. And sometimes evolving is a little scary to people. But it doesn’t have to be.

Change is inevitable. It’s going to happen around you whether you like it or not. So it’s a matter of how do we change and evolve without changing our identity. And it’s a delicate balance because you can’t stay the same forever. It just doesn’t work.

But how do you evolve and change but not lose who you are as a community? I believe when I became a commissioner almost 14 years ago, we were a bit stagnant. We were very difficult to work with as a community as far as working with businesses and developers.

We were not probably the best communicators. We didn’t have programs that we had the ability to have, you know all these community outreach programs.

I have seen South Whitehall evolve so tremendously over the past 14 years.

From a community service standpoint, from a policing standpoint, from a public, everything we have, we have gone the extra mile to provide top notch services to our residents, but we got there by thinking outside the box.

One of the big topics has been for a long time and certainly is across the whole Valley is preservation, such as land preservation.

What I believe has happened over the 14 years that I’ve been here is we have looked at South Whitehall in a different way.

Preservation isn’t just as preservation. It’s open space; it’s parks. It’s a combination of all of it.

Look at how far we’ve come with that. We won the Governor’s Award during my time on that board with the Jordan Greenway.

We have seven miles of that trail, the biggest piece of it. That is going to be huge. It’s going to be a destination. We have Kohler Ridge, we acquired that land.

We have the new property on Springhouse Road that was just donated to us. We have all the different open spaces we’ve acquired as part of development responsibilities.

So we’ve taken those and we use those things to help continue to build what identifies South Whitehall as South Whitehall.

Her nickname?

My real name is Christina Victoria. My mom has always called me Tori, that’s the nickname I’ve grown up with.

What’s interesting is when I ran in an election my first election, you have to run with your proper name. So that’s why I ran under Christina ‘Tori’ Morgan, because people identify me that way.

Her future?

Morgan said this is not the end of her public service, but rather the beginning of a new chapter.

She will remain a relentless advocate for South Whitehall Township, which she believes is the most amazing community in the Lehigh Valley and beyond.

She continues to serve on the Western Lehigh Chamber of Commerce Board, Lehigh Valley Planning Commission Board, Parkland School District Business Advisory Council, Parkland Education Foundation Board, a member of the Allentown West Rotary and the Travis Manion Foundation and will continue to volunteer with Meal on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley.