business briefs
• Blount County Chamber of Commerce, DENSO, Newell Rubbermaid and Staffing Solutions will hold a Blount County Job Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday, April 29, in Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee building at 137 Harvest Lane, Maryville. The event is free and open to the public. Anyone looking for a job or wanting career development opportunities is encouraged to attend. For more information, go online to blountcountychamber.com.
• The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and UT Extension Office is holding a Southeast Tennessee Beef Summit for farmers. The summit is scheduled to take place from 8:40 a.m. to 11:55 p.m., Friday, April 29, at McMinn County Expo Center in Athens Regional Park in Athens. Speakers from UTIA, DV Auc-tion and True Test will conduct morning sessions. There will be a catered lunch, and Corbitt Wall of DV Auction will give the keynote address after lunch. The event will cover beef production, heard management, marketing and cattle research. For more information on the summit, go online to extension.tennessee.edu/mcminn.
• Rich Fulford, assistant principal at West Valley Middle School, Knoxville, has been hired as the new middle school principal at Christian Academy of Knoxville. He served as assistant principal at West Valley Middle School since 2013. Fulford will finish the school year at West Valley then transition to CAK.
• Edward Jones ranks No. 32 in 16th consecutive appearance on Training magazine’s “Training Top 125” for training its associates. The Farragut Edward Jones financial advisors are Wendy Schopp, Jim Dickerson, John Gardner, Laura Mollenhour and Betsy Herzog.
• Dr. Kostas Triantafillou has begun practicing as an orthopedic trauma surgeon at UT Medical Center. He also will care for geriatric patients to help them maintain their independence.
• Dr. Nicole Kissane-Lee has joined UT Medical Center as a bariatrics and general surgeon and an educator, teaching surgical education and medical si-mulation.
• Barry Sims has been named the new associate director of UT AgResearch. He will assume the role May 1. Sims has spent the last 18 years as center director of Highland Rim AgResearch and Education Center in Springfield. He will provide leadership to UT of AgResearch and Ed-ucation Centers.
• Katherine Clark, PA-C, has joined Rheumatology Associates of East Tennessee, a Summit Medical Group practice, as a physician assistant. She previously worked with Summit Concord Medical Center. Clark is the daughter of Dr. Charles and Jane Clark of Farragut. Her father is a physician with Summit Concord Medical Center.
• Dr. Jerry Epps has been named senior vice president and chief medical officer at The University of Tennessee Medical Center. Epps has more than three decades of experience as an anesthesiologist and in physician leadership. He most recently served as chairman of the UT Medical Center’s Department of Anesthesiology and UT Graduate School of Medicine.
• Pinnacle Financial Partners has won the 2015 Greenwich Excellence Award in five categories for client satisfaction from Greenwich Associates, a financial services research firm. It won regional awards for overall satisfaction in small business banking and middle market banking. The firm also won regional awards for likelihood to recommend in both categories and overall satisfaction of cash management in the middle market segment.
• Tennova Healthcare is the first health system in East Tennessee and only the second in the state to offer a new treatment to provide relief to patients suffering from peripheral artery disease, a condition caused by a build up of plaque that blocks blood flow from the arteries of the legs or feet. Dr. Malcolm T. Foster III, an interventional cardiologist with Tennova Healthcare, performed the first procedure in March at Turkey Creek Medical Center.
• Danielle Hemsley has joined Johnson Architecture Inc. as director of business development. She brings her professional experience in architecture, interior design and construction to the firm to identify new opportunities and bolster client relationships.
• A 20-kilowatt wireless charging system demonstrated at U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has achieved 90 percent efficiency and at three times the rate of the plug-in systems commonly used for electric vehicles today. This capability can help accelerate the adoption and convenience of electric cars. Industry partners from Toyota, Cisco Systems, Evatran and Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research contributed to the technology development.
• Dawn Doucette, CPA, of Coulter & Justus, P.C., has earned the Certified Fraud Examiner designation. Doucette, a senior manager in the Audit Department, joined Coulter & Justus in 2005 and has more than 13 years experience in public accounting.
• John Hunter has joined the firm, Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon Inc., as a client service leader. His responsibilities include client services and business relationship development that promote the firm across all disciplines in the greater Knoxville market and supporting the firm’s transportation services.
• Pellissippi State Community College’s Marketing and Communications office has earned national recognition for poster design in National Council for Marketing and Public Relations Paragon Awards. Pellissippi State won a Silver Award for the design of a poster for “She Kills Monsters,” a play by Qui Nguyen that premiered last fall at the college.
Dr. Wendy Long has been named the director of TennCare and deputy commissioner of Health Care Finance and Administration. She will replace Darin Gordon, who is leaving at the end of June after 10 years as TennCare director. Long served as deputy director and chief of staff of Health Care Finance and Administration division of Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration since 2013 and served as chief medical officer for TennCare from 2004 to 2012.
• Mary Burney has returned to Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberland’s’ Oak Ridge office as receptionist/intake worker. She previously worked for Legal Aid Society in the same capacity from 2008 to 2014. She was office manger/legal assistant for Rural Legal Services of Tennessee, predecessor to Legal Aid Society, from 1979 through 2003. Prior to returning to Legal Aid Society, she was a bailiff for Roane County Sheriff’s Office.
• Barbara Penland-LaFevers has been hired as a secretary/intake worker at Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands’ Murfreesboro office. Penland-LaFevers has done pro bono attorney work for the Murfreesboro office and previously worked as a law clerk for Judge Donna Scott Davenport and retired Chancellor Robert E. Corlew III, both of the 16th Judicial District. Penland-LaFevers also was general counsel for D.T. McCall & Sons and associate attorney at Spicer Rudstrom, PLLC.
• Pellissippi State Community College was one of four finalists for the 2016 Student Success Award of Excellence, which is given by American Association of Community Colleges. The award recognizes a community college that has demonstrated a sustained commitment to and proactive advancement of student success. Nominees are evaluated based upon increases in degree completion, transfer rates and innovative programs encouraging retention, graduation and student success.
