business briefs
• 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 the chief medical oficer at The University of Tennessee Medical Center. Epps has more than three decades of experience as an anesthesiologist and in phy-sician leadership. He 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 Ex-cellence 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 re-lief to patients suffering from peripheral artery disease, 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 in-terventional cardiologist with Ten-nova Healthcare, performed the first procedure in March at Turkey Creek Medical Center.
• Danielle Hemsley has joined Johnson Arch-itecture Inc. as director of bus-iness development. Hemsley brings her professional experience in ar-chitecture, in-terior design and construction to the firm to id-entify new op-portunities 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.
