Chattanooga Pro Soccer has hired Tim Hankinson as head coach of its USL Division III professional team.
Hankinson brings decades of professional coaching experience to the position, including time with Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids and Tampa Bay Mutiny along with the USL’s Indy Eleven and the Charleston Battery. Hankinson is a proven winner, having led multiple clubs to consistent playoff appearances.
“We carefully vetted and interviewed several very qualified candidates in consideration for the head coaching position for the Chattanooga pro soccer team,” says Bob Martino, team owner.
“Tim’s experience and approach to building a championship team coupled with his energy and leadership skills made us very comfortable with our decision. He is the right fit.”
Hankinson has coached at every level of the game from collegiate to professional and international. He was the first American to coach in Iceland and later led Guatemala’s U17 National Team. At the professional level, Hankinson helped found the Charleston Battery in 1992, leading the club to several playoff appearances in its early existence.
Later, Major League Soccer selected Hankinson to head Tampa Bay Mutiny, where he led the team to consecutive playoff appearances in 1999 and 2000 before heading to Colorado as the head coach of the Rapids, a club he took to the playoffs in three consecutive seasons and twice to the quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
“For our soccer team and Chattanooga, we are excited to secure a head coach with top level experience in the professional arena,” says Sean McDaniel, general manager and president. “We welcome Tim to Chattanooga to help build the professional team and create an exciting experience for our community.”
In recent years, Hankinson was the head coach of Indy Eleven, which he led to a 2016 Spring Championship and a berth in the 2016 Championship Final. Hankinson was named Coach of the Year for his 2016 season at the helm of the Eleven. Most recently he coached Montego Bay United.
“First and foremost, I am grateful and honored to be named head coach of the new Chattanooga pro soccer team,” Hankinson says. “I look forward to playing my part in building a championship team that Chattanooga and the region will be proud to support.”
Hankinson grew up practicing soccer in New York City’s Central Park during his childhood and played on teams throughout high school. He competed at the collegiate level, graduating from the University of South Carolina.
Reilly is market chief exec at CHI
The board of directors of CHI Memorial and Catholic Health Initiatives have appointed Janelle Reilly as market chief executive officer for CHI Memorial.
Larry Schumacher, who formerly served at CHI Memorial’s market CEO, will now focus exclusively on his role as senior vice president, CHI divisional operations, southeast division. Reilly will report jointly to the board and to Schumacher.
This appointment will become effective upon appointment of a new chief operating officer. A nationwide search has commenced for that position.
Reilly joined CHI Memorial as president and chief operating officer in 2016, and she has held responsibility for the daily operation of the acute care hospitals, while providing executive guidance for cardiac, oncology, orthopedics, surgery, and hospital medicine.
“During her tenure, Janelle has led efforts to optimize quality, safety, and the patient experience in partnership with our physicians, and maximize clinical operations to deliver value to the community,” Schumacher says.
“Her leadership and focus has led to CHI Memorial being ranked among the top 0.6% of hospitals in the country by U.S. News and World Report, receiving the nation’s top customer loyalty rating from the National Research Corporation, and a four-star CMS Hospital Quality ranking.”
Reilly’s led the integration of CHI Memorial’s newly acquired hospital, CHI Memorial Hospital Georgia, shepherding investment in tele-tracking as a tool to improve throughput and patient flow progression, leading the electronic medical record vendor selection process and serving as executive sponsor, and guiding the formation of four key service line strategic plans that have resulted in significant service line growth.
Reilly’s accomplishments at CHI Memorial are supported by her long standing, successful career in Catholic health ministry, with nearly 30 years of healthcare leadership experience with complex health systems in Michigan, Idaho, and Illinois.
She has a strong background in all aspects of acute care and long-term acute care hospitals, as well as senior leadership experience in strategy, growth, and merger and acquisition activity.
Previously, Reilly served as the chief operating officer and chief strategy officer for Presence Health, Chicago, the largest Catholic health system in Illinois with 11 acute care and long-term acute care hospitals, 27 long-term care and senior living facilities, dozens of physician offices and health centers, home care, hospice, palliative care, behavioral health services and a clinical integration organization with 4,000 providers serving 250,000 members.
Reilly earned a master’s degree in health administration at the University of Missouri, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and mathematics from William Jewell College.
Theater adds staff members
Contemporary Performing Arts of Chattanooga announces Barking Legs Theater has added two new staff members.
They are award-winning local artist and writer Marcus Ellsworth, who is the artistic managing director, and arts activist and educator Ayana Clemmons who was named director of education.
Previously, Ellsworth worked as a writer for MTV News Politics. He has served in leadership roles for various non-profit organizations around the nation. He is also a Chattanooga-based poet, spoken word artist and the host and organizer of The Floor is Yours at Barking Legs Theater.
The New Orleans native has two self-published books of poetry, “Harlequin Fires,’’ and “When the World was Round,’’ and is often involved with organizing eclectic collaborative work with other performing artists in the Chattanooga area. He attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Clemmons is a cultural organizer, educator and trained dancer. She continues to work collaboratively with various grassroots and arts organizations in Nashville and Chattanooga.
She most recently served as the program director for Full Circle Teaching Artists program, a Barking Legs educational outreach project that has been instrumental in arts education in the Hamilton County public school system.
Clemmons works to promote Barking Legs programs, events and services in the community.
Ann Law, CoPAC/Barking Legs Theater founder and executive director, says: “After running a non-profit arts organization in this community for twenty-five years, Bruce Kaplan and I have been looking for a collaborative partnership in which to share our history, passion, and dreams.’’
Kaplan is the CoPAC/Barking Legs Theater co-founder and music director.
“What has emerged this year is a strong dynamic partnership with Marcus and Ayana to create community, educational outreach, and a progressive arts movement within this quartet, I find an incredible aesthetic and creative diversity that promotes growth in all directions,’’ Law adds.
Ellsworth was recently awarded a $7,500 grant by the Footprint Foundation for his varied and collective contributions to the arts in Chattanooga.
“Barking Legs Theater has established a solid reputation throughout the Southeast for supporting contemporary performing artists and providing a venue that showcases eclectic and ear-and-mind stretching music at its finest,” Ellsworth says. “We have a unique platform to seek ongoing collaborative partners and community support, so we can increase our overall impact in Chattanooga.”
Arts education has always been Clemmons’s passion. She envisions an infusion of cultural and artistic expression through her work with Full Circle Teaching Artists Program, which is designed to help underprivileged school-age children with personal discovery and development.
“In order to educate our students, we must understand their lived experiences. The recommended best practice would be to have teachers from among the communities in which they are teaching. Our education system cannot be improved simply by hiring more teachers and increasing funding alone,” she says.
“We need to transform the education system by including the voices from our community,’’ she adds. “To come full circle as an underprivileged artist now working for an arts organization that celebrates the power of the arts as an engine for social transformation, that to me is putting the community forward.”
Bruce Kaplan says that the new staff was a strategic hire to support the non-profit’s growth and sustainability.
“After decades of Ann and I being the dominant voices behind the activities and aesthetics of CoPAC and Barking Legs Theater, it is an extraordinary delight being part of a four-person staff, Kaplan points out.
“With the additions of Ayanna and Marcus, the synergies that have evolved and the momentum that has been created have been remarkable.”