Hamilton Herald Masthead

Editorial


Front Page - Friday, June 5, 2020

Newsmakers: SmartBank hires LeQuire as business deposit officer




Zack LeQuire has joined SmartBank as business deposit officer. He will be based in Chattanooga.

LeQuire will be responsible for developing new business from prospective clients through the acquisition of deposits as well as additional treasury management services.

Previously, LeQuire served as vice president – treasury management sales officer for First Horizon Bank and senior treasury analyst for U.S. Xpress in Chattanooga.

LeQuire earned a degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2011 and his MBA in 2017. He became a Certified Treasury Professional in 2016.

TLA recognizes Chatt State’s Dwight Hunter

Chattanooga State’s Dwight Hunter is the 2019-20 recipient of the Tennessee Library Association’s Making a Difference Award.

Hunter is an assistant librarian in the Kolwyck Library and Information Commons at Chattanooga State. He holds a Master of Science in information systems from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and is KLIC’s policy writer.

Hunter also heads the library’s social media team and sits on the Tennessee Board of Regents’ Library Accessibility Task Force.

As a volunteer for the Tennessee Parent Teacher Association, Hunter created 300 hours of literacy programming for more than 35,000 members across the state. The program encouraged members to host meetings about the importance of reading and information literacy, hold family reading nights and start book clubs.

Hunter is president-elect of Tennessee PTA. He will begin his two-year presidency in July 2021.

At Chattanooga State, Hunter serves on the Campus Policy Review Board and the Paralegal Advisory Council. He will wrap up his term as president of the 2019-20 Professional Staff Association in June.

Hunter serves as co-chair of the TLA’s Bylaws and Procedures Committee, chair of the Membership Committee and lead of the New Members Roundtable.

He was awarded the Corporation for National and Community Service President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2006.

Chattanooga Theatre Center hires new executive director

Rodney Van Valkenburg joins the Chattanooga Theatre Center as executive director after a 19-year tenure at ArtsBuild.

The CTC hired Van Valkenburg after a nationwide search for a new executive director.

Van Valkenburg is currently vice president of ArtsBuild. He will assume his new role Aug. 1.

Van Valkenburg previously served 13 years as the CTC’s first full-time youth and education director and then as part of a two-person executive team. At ArtsBuild, he has served as interim president, director of grants and initiatives, and director of communications and arts education.

Van Valkenburg has been an advisory committee member of the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education Program and a grant panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission.

He previously served as an executive committee member of the Southeastern Theatre Conference and is past president of the Tennessee Theatre Association.

He earned his Masters of Fine Arts in child drama from the University of North Carolina and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater from Indiana University.

Borkgren joins CHI Memorial Family Practice

Brenda Borkgren has joined the staff of CHI Memorial Family Practice Associates - Northgate. Borkgren earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from University of Illinois in Chicago. She is board certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. She is also board certified in advanced diabetes management and is a clinical diabetes educator. Borkgren has previously worked in hospital and primary care settings.

CHI Memorial Family Practice Associates - Northgate is located 1017 Executive Drive in Hixson. Call 423 870-1999 or visit CHIMemorialMedicalGroup.or for more information.

Blake joins CHI Memorial, CHI Memorial Integrative Medicine Associates

Melanie Blake, M.D., has joined CHI Memorial as a physician adviser and CHI Memorial Integrative Medicine Associates as a primary care internal medicine physician.

Blake earned her medical degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham and completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. She also earned an MBA from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Blake is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

CHI Memorial Integrative Medicine Associates has two locations: 320 East Main St. in Chattanooga and 1238 Taft Highway in Signal Mountain. New patients are welcome. Call 423 643-2246 to schedule an appointment at the Chattanooga clinic and 423 886-2004 to schedule an appointment at the Signal Mountain clinic.