The Urban League of Greater Chattanooga has expanded its team with three new staff members and three promotions.
Greg Funderburg, a former morning and noon anchor for WTVC NewsChannel 9, will serve as director of marketing and stakeholder relations.
Funderburg is an Urban League volunteer and a recipient of the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award, a Boy Scouts of America honor that recognizes service in the development and implementation of scouting opportunities for youth from low-income urban backgrounds.
Funderburg earned a degree in mass communications from the University of Montevallo.
Chattanooga native Lya Kimbrough is the Urban League’s new senior director of operations and client engagement for the Center for Economic and Black Business Success, which supports minority-owned businesses.
Kimbrough will lead the organization’s entrepreneurship programs, including its Next Level Business and BIPOC Restaurant accelerators. She will also implement new initiatives.
Previously, Kimbrough worked for The Company Lab and The Enterprise Center, where she assisted local small businesses. She earned a degree in business administration from MTSU and is working toward an MBA.
Anthony Wiley, Jr. is the new senior manager of workforce and family empowerment for the Center for Education and Family Empowerment.
Wiley previously worked for Dynamo Studios, which provides education in music production and the arts. A U.S. Navy veteran, Wiley participated in two deployments overseas and received two Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medals and a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.
The Urban League has also promoted two-year employee Sarah Concepcion to senior director of policy and administration.
Concepcion earned a degree in cognitive and behavioral science from Washington and Lee University and has been instrumental in the acceleration of the Urban League’s program and policy work in the Center for Equity and Inclusive Leadership.
Terisha Grant, a former part-time Urban League LEAP after school teacher and 2022 graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, will serve in a full-time role as youth and education program coordinator.
Grant has been instrumental in implementing the new social and emotional learning program throughout the Urban League’s after school sites and will lead the Project Ready and National Achievers Society high school program.
Estephanie Acheson, former executive assistant to Johnson, will serve as the Urban League’s interim regional VITA coordinator.
Acheson has been with the organization for three years. She earned a degree in English from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Voyles to serve interim president of Covenant College
The Covenant College board of trustees has tapped Brad Voyles, Ed.D., to serve as interim president beginning July 1. Voyles will serve as interim president until the board has selected a successor for President Derek Halvorson, which it expects to do on or before July 1, 2024.
Voyles has served for 18 years at Covenant as vice president for student development and dean of students. He holds a degree in biological sciences from DePauw University.
After earning a Masters of Education in higher education administration from Southern Illinois University, Voyles completed his Master of Divinity degree from Reformed Theological Seminary while working as dean of students at Belhaven University.
In 2014, Voyles earned his doctorate in education leadership and policy from Vanderbilt University.
While serving as vice president of student development, Voyles had a hand in strategic planning and Covenant’s crisis response efforts – including its COVID-19 response. He also supervised key areas during times of transition and built teams in his areas of oversight.
Voyles has also served on the cabinet of two of the college’s presidents.