Erlanger has tapped Rita Bunch to serve as the vice president and chief executive officer of Erlanger East and Erlanger North hospitals.
Bunch previously served as president of Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia. During her tenure, she opened new locations and spearheaded a major restructuring of the hospital’s emergency department.
Bunch will be based at Erlanger East and will work to enhance services and advance patient care at both Erlanger East and North.
Girls Inc. welcomes new board members
Girls Inc. of Chattanooga has appointed two leaders to its board of directors: Dr. Sarah Lane, principal at Bess T. Shepherd Elementary School, and Ashton Lewey, community relations manager at Tennessee Valley Authority.
Lane is the 2024 recipient of Girls Inc.’s UnBought and UnBossed Sole Award in Education. Her “deep understanding of the educational landscape and her passion for empowering youth will bring invaluable perspectives to the board and expand Girls Inc.’s impact in the classroom and beyond,” states the organization in a news release.
TVA has been a longtime supporter of Girls Inc. of Chattanooga, including serving as a sponsor for the 2024 UnBought and UnBossed Sneaker Gala & Silent Auction and signing as a 2025 sponsor of the same event. Lewey’s leadership in community relations will “further strengthen these kinds of partnerships and help broaden Girls Inc.’s outreach and engagement initiatives,” the release notes.
White House honors UTC’s McKnight
When the Biden-Harris Administration issued the “White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose” earlier this year, Megan McKnight, director of the Center for Wellbeing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, was quick to act.
The challenge – a nationwide call to expand training and access to lifesaving opioid overdose reversal medications – motivated McKnight to register the university on to be a part of the program.
“In doing that,” she recalls, “I had to account for the work we were already doing on campus and pledge that we were planning to do more.”
Her efforts did not go unnoticed.
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, McKnight attended a Washington, D.C., summit hosted by the White House Domestic Policy Council and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The event honored McKnight and nearly 250 other stakeholders for expanding access to lifesaving opioid overdose reversal medication and reducing preventable drug overdose deaths.
The invitees received letters of commendation from President Biden and were treated to video messages from actors Robert DeNiro and Samuel L. Jackson thanking them for their dedication to the work.
According to data from the Center for Wellbeing, during the 2023-2024 academic year and the start of the fall semester, McKnight and her team trained 1,189 campus stakeholders in the use of opioid overdose reversal medications, such as naloxone, distributed 595 units of opioid overdose reversal medications, and established 17 emergency stations across the UTC campus where these medications are stored.
Mayor Kelly names permanent deputy COO
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly has named Steve Willson the city of Chattanooga’s new deputy chief operating officer.
Wilson first joined the city in July 2022 as the director of innovation, which tasked him with overseeing the development of solutions to address residential concerns through data.
Wilson’s experience in operations management and process improvement spans over 25 years. Before his role at the city, Wilson was the director of operational effectiveness at the Lean Center of Excellence at UNUM.