Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly’s senior leadership team draws together a diverse group of experienced leaders from the private, public and nonprofit sectors who will execute Kelly’s vision for the city, his office says.
Kelly has begun working with his transition team to assemble “an experienced, capable and diverse city staff that reflects the community it serves.”
Kelly’s leadership team, of which more than 40% are people of color, will be led by Brent Goldberg as chief of staff and Joda Thongnopnua as chief policy officer.
Goldberg formerly worked as the chief business officer for Hamilton County Schools and previously served as chief operating officer for the city of Chattanooga.
In the private sector, Goldberg has worked in various leadership roles within the transportation industry. He is a certified public accountant.
Thongnopnua has served in several executive and senior roles within the nonprofit sector, including as director of strategic initiatives and communications at the Community Foundation, and was executive director of the Metro Ideas Project, an urban policy research organization.
In the private sector, Thongnopnua served in several creative, strategic and communication roles in the startup community.
Kelly also announced the hiring of Dr. Mary Lambert as his director of community health. Lambert is a Chattanooga native who has served in multiple assignments across the nation, including with the assistant secretary of health, the White House, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
She was also deployed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and in response to the national capitol anthrax exposure event.
Lambert is retired from the U.S. Army and U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She is an associate professor at Vanderbilt University in the school of nursing and has advised Chattanooga’s COVID-19 response and approach.
She is on the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Health Council.
The mayor also announced the hiring of several other key positions, including Julia Bursch, deputy chief of staff; Ronald Elliott, director of community engagement; Maura Sullivan, senior transition coordinator and director of recovery and resilience; Ellis Smith, director of special projects; Brooke Satterfield, director of policy planning and implementation and Chris Anderson, director of innovation delivery and performance.
Source: Office of the Mayor