business briefs
• LuAnn Hileman Crass recently was named a new partner with Melrose Title Company. Crass, who had previously served as in-house attorney and vice president of operations with Melrose, assumed her new role June 1. She began her legal practice in 2013, preparing documents for real estate closings and handling civil litigation matters for clients in the financial sector. She joined Melrose Title Company nearly two years ago.
• Jim Caughorn Jr., president and owner at Graphic Creations Inc., recently was selected as a member of a chief executive peer advisory board in Knoxville by Vistage Worldwide Inc. He joins more than 300 senior executives, business owners and CEOs across Tennessee who are Vistage members. With 30 years of business-to-business experience, which includes a decade with a Fortune 500 company, Caughorn returned to family business in 2009. In 2018, he became sole owner of Graphic Creations and has watched it grow fourfold over the last 12 years.
• Cherel Henderson recently received the 2021 East Tennessee Preservation Service Award for her service as executive director of East Tennessee Historical Society from 2003 to 2020. She joined the ETHS staff in 1987 and was promoted to associate director in 1995, then to executive director in 2003.
• Dr. Katherine Cameron, Dr. Sean DeLair and Dr. Adam Shrewsberry recently joined Tennova Urology, which offers offers diagnostic and treatment services at Turkey Creek Medical Center, as well as Jefferson Memorial Hospital, LaFollette Medical Center, Newport Medical Center and North Knoxville Medical Center.
• Pellissippi State Community College professor Antija Allen is among 21 faculty and staff from colleges and universities across Tennessee who have been selected to participate in Maxine Smith Fellows, a year-long leadership program.
It provides professional development, training and advancement opportunities for participants from traditionally underrepresented groups at the community and technical colleges governed by Tennessee Board of Regents, as well as those working at Tennessee’s locally governed public universities.
• Matthew Mench recently was named dean of University of Tennessee’s Tickle College of Engineering. Mench, the Condra Chair of Excellence and a professor of mechanical engineering in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, has served as interim dean since March.
