businessbriefs
• NAI Koella/RM Moore recently appointed veteran real estate executive Mary Ellen Kilburn as senior advisor. Kilburn is focusing on retail, hospitality and entertainment projects in the Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg markets.
• Pete Pearson, chief operating officer of OrthoTennessee, has been selected to be a member of a senior executive peer advisory board in Knoxville by Vistage Worldwide Inc. He joins more than 250 senior executives, business owners and CEOs across the state of Tennessee as Vistage members. With 17 years of fiscal expertise and eight years of service in the U.S. Army, Pearson earned his bachelor’s degree from Mercer University and holds a Master’s of Business Administration degree from the University of Tennessee.
• The Mortgage Bankers Association recently recognized FirstBank Forward, an initiative of FirstBank, as a 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Residential Leadership Award recipient. The annual awards recognize MBA members for their leadership efforts in diversity and inclusion in two categories: Inclusion and Market Outreach Strategies and Organizational Diversity. FirstBank Forward received the Market Outreach Strategies Award for its initiative focused on product development and partnerships.
• Melissa “Missy” Wilson, family nurse practitioner, recently joined Summit Medical Group’s Emery Family Practice at 201 E. Emory Road, Knoxville. She specializes in family medicine and is certified by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Before joining Summit, Wilson was an FNP with Perry & West Family Practice in Whitley City, Kentucky.
• Spectrum recently awarded the Boys & Girls Club in Tennessee a $25,000 Spectrum Digital Education Grant for the Digital Connect Program as part of Spectrum’s multi-year, $6 million cash and in-kind national commitment to digital education in its nationwide communities. Spectrum doubled its original 2020 commitment, awarding $1 million to 47 organizations to provide broadband education, technology and training.
• Legacy Parks Foundation held a ribbon cutting for Sharp’s Ridge Playspace Thursday, Nov. 19, at the Playspace, located off Tiberius Road, Knoxville. The Playspace and adaptive trails are part of a project of Legacy Parks Foundation, funded by a grant from Trinity Health Foundation. The Playspace offers a new playground, bike skills area and 2 miles of multi-use trails, including the region’s first adaptive trail to accommodate users with disabilities. Legacy Parks will donate the property on which the trails are located to the City of Knoxville to expand the city park to the north side of the ridge.
• Independent analysts at Great Place to Work recently certified Barge Design Solutions Inc. as a “great workplace” for the fourth time. Over each of five years participating in this process, Barge has seen an increase in the percentage of employees who agree the firm is a great place to work. According to this year’s anonymous survey, 94 percent of employees affirm this to be the case.
• The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture researchers recently were awarded a $250,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to evaluate regional biomass supply chains with regard to their potential for supplying feedstock for domestic fuel production, as well as rural economic development, a potential game changer for farming communities. “This one-year grant project will accelerate the adoption of sustainable aviation fuels by generating strategic information and educating stakeholders on production pathways that can increase economic efficiency, enhance sustainability awareness, leverage economics of scope and scale and reduce renewable fuel costs,” UTIA professor and lead researcher Burton C. English stated in a press release.
• The Tennessee Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta, the International Honor Society of Agriculture, recently honored Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture Charlie Hatcher, DVM, with its 2020 Alumni Award. Hatcher is a 1984 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. The award was conveyed in person at a physically distanced gathering on Thursday, Nov.19, by Rob Holland, director of the UT Center for Profitable Agriculture and interim assistant dean of UT Extension. A virtual celebration for all 2020 award winners and student initiates was conducted online on November 20.Hatcher was appointed by Gov. Bill Lee to serve as the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and sworn in as the 38th Commissioner on Jan, 19, 2019. He is a tenth-generation farmer and the fifth generation of his family to farm in Tennessee.
• The University of Tennessee Medical Center recently earned numerous awards from the American Hearth Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With the Guidelines program for the quality of care UT Medical Center provides.
• The Association of Neurovascular Clinicians recently awarded the 2020 International Year of the Nurse and Midwife Award to Jennifer Henry, director of the University of Tennessee Medical Center stroke program and certified comprehensive stroke center. This year’s award recognizes the nurse and midwife for their contribution to stroke treatment in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale.
• The University of Tennessee officials recently announced the Primary Care Collaborative is the seventh Center of Excellence at the comprehensive academic medical center. The creation of the collaborative was intended to strengthen the overall care for patients by forging stronger bonds, communication and data sharing between primary care physicians and specialists affiliated with the medical center.
