PEOPLE IN BUSINESS
Here’s a look at promotions, hirings, movers and newsmakers in the Memphis area:
• Rhodes College researchers have been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) grant of $267,970 to study brain activity involved in body movement using 3D motion capture technology. This NSF Major Research Instrumentation Award will allow Rhodes to acquire a state-of-theart motion capture system that will be used collaboratively across programs and departments such as psychology, neuroscience, computer science and others. Dr. Dan Blustein, assistant professor of psychology, is principal investigator, and Dr. Betsy Sanders, associate professor of computer science, and Dr. Katherine White, professor of psychology, are co-principal investigators for the project, which is titled “MRI: Acquisition of a Movement Tracking System to Explore Embodiment and Cognition.” Blustein studies how people learn, plan and control movements, Sanders will use the equipment to explore perceptual processes and locomotory strategies in virtual environments, and White will explore how the gestures people make during speech convey meaning and affect listener comprehension.
• David Shibata, a professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has been selected to serve as an expert panelist for the Early-onset Colorectal Cancer Think Tank, which is part of the National Institutes of Health and supported by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Shibata is the Harwell Wilson Alumni Endowed Chair in Surgery, professor and chair of the Department of Surgery, and executive director/chief medical officer of the UTHSC Cancer Program.
• WATN-TV Local 24, the ABC affiliate in Memphis, announced that Christopher Franklin has been named the station’s marketing director. Franklin is joining WATN from Hope Church in Memphis where he was director of media production. An accomplished marketing and brand development leader, Franklin has won 10 Promax and five Mid-south Emmy Awards during his career.
• The accounting and consulting firm Reynolds, Bone & Griesbeck announced that Amber Richmond was selected as a recipient of the 2020 George Willie Ethnically Diverse Student Scholarship and Internship Program. Students selected to participate in the George Willie program receive a scholarship of up to $20,000 from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and secure an internship with one of the AICPA’S Private Company Practice Section member firms for the following busy season. Richmond will join the the firm next month. She is a student at the University of Memphis and expects to graduate in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.
• Memphis University School has several announcements regarding school personnel: Assistant Director of College Counseling Curtis Johnson was appointed chair of the school’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in art at University of the South in Sewanee. Faculty appointments include Kyle Summers who joined MUS as an instructor in science. He has experience teaching at both the university and high school level, and most recently was the upper and lower school STEM teacher at Margolin Hebrew Academy. Nick Blackwell is on the faculty as a science instructor. He has been at Lausanne Collegiate School from 2015-20, most recently as a fifth-grade science teacher.
Chris Piecuch has joined as full-time instrumental music instructor. Since 1994 he has been involved with the Memphis Youth Symphony. Nat Akin has joined the English Department. He taught English at the school from 200312, returning in 2018-19 to oversee the writing lab. Phil Chamberlain was named head tennis coach. Chamberlain has been head coach at Hutchison and an MUS varsity coach for 12 years.
h Adams Keegan announced the hiring of Tye Reedy as director of Business Development in their Nashville office. He has experience working in business operations and government relations roles for publicly traded and family owned businesses. He holds a master’s degree in Social-organizational Psychology from Columbia University.
h Century Wealth Management’s president and founder Jay Healy was selected as a Five Star Wealth Manager by Five Star Professional for the ninth year in a row. Individuals chosen for this award demonstrate a commitment to clients and maintain strong industry credentials, along with meeting 10 objective criteria. Five Star Professional conducts research to help consumers with the important decision of selecting a service professional, and the Five Star award is presented to wealth managers,
real estate agents, mortgage professionals, home/auto insurance professionals and dentists in more than 45 markets in the U.S. and Canada. More than 500 Memphis-area wealth managers were evaluated for the award and 42 were named 2020 Five Star Wealth Managers.
h Local CPA firm Patrick Accounting promoted Debbie Warren recently to Accounting and Tax Manager. She joined the firm as a staff accountant in 2012 and was promoted to senior accountant in 2018. She’s responsible for client interaction, supervising and reviewing monthly accounting processes as well as preparing and reviewing tax filings.
h In October, former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu’s E Pluribus Unum announced its inaugural class of
UNUM Fellows, including Willie F. Brooks Jr., District 6 Commissioner on the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. The cohort of 14 accomplished and diverse Southern elected leaders will embark on a year-long journey to address inequitable and discriminatory policies and practices within their communities. The program comes with a commitment of up to $75,000 to support the implementation of an equityfocused project led by the fellow. The nonprofit’s mission is to build a more just, equitable and inclusive South, uprooting the barriers that have long divided the region by race and class.
h Averitt Express recently honored associate Benjamin Presley of Bartlett for 20 years of safe driving. Averitt has developed a culture of safety by measuring both vehicle and driver performance through a series of indicators. It also strives to have the safest trucks on the road, aiming for continual improvement through training programs and awareness campaigns.
NOTEWORTHY
h Crye-leike Memphis recently was recognized for being Youth Village’s top corporate team champion in its 5K and 10-miler races for the 38th consecutive year. Paula Dismuke, a member of the Youth Villages Committee and CryeLeike employee, organized the participation and donations of the Crye-leike branch offices. Youth Villages serves children and families across West Tennessee.
h Natasha Parks, a business and accounting professional with extensive experience in nonprofit organizational structures, this summer was named chief executive officer for Deafconnect, a Memphis nonprofit that serves the D/ deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The timing of Parks’ promotion is also significant given that 2020 is the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. With her autistic ninthgrade daughter whom she is helping to read, she devised a system to help her better understand what she was reading. The system Parks developed landed her a yearlong fellowship and a grant with 4.0 Schools to create a reading program using visual images and representations of stories for children with different abilities. She has begun learning American Sign Language, teaching ASL to her family and developing an understanding of D/deaf culture. Under Parks’ leadership, Deafconnect contacted local leaders, including Mayor Jim Strickland and Alisa Haushalter, director of the Shelby County Health Department. Haushalter responded almost immediately, and within days local leaders were also including ASL interpreters in their coronavirus updates.
— Compiled by Daniel Ginsburg Email information and photos in JPEG format, at least 1 MB in size, for People in Business to cabiznews@commercialappeal.com.