Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce
1 West 1st Street, Cookeville, TN 38501
January 17, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Zach Buckner | zbuckner@cookevillechamber.com | 931-267-5002
Chamber Annual Meeting Date and Keynote Speaker Set
PUTNAM COUNTY — The Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce’s 14th Annual Membership Meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 13. The evening will begin with a private reception with the keynote speaker and premiere sponsors at Tennessee Tech University’s Bell Hall. A general reception will begin at 5pm at Leslie Town Centre. The official meeting will then commence at 6pm with the theme “Portraits of Success”.
Premier sponsors for the annual meeting are Chick-fil-a, Cookeville Regional Medical Center, First Tennessee Bank and Twin Lakes. The reception sponsor is Stonecom Radio.
Jill Horner, immediate past chair of the Chamber, is especially excited to announce that the keynote speaker for this year’s annual meeting is Kathleen Clem, MD. Clem is Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer for Adventist Health System (AHS). “Dr. Clem is quite literally a ‘Portrait of Success’ for us to admire. Her career and life have included a line of ‘firsts’ that deserves notice”.
Clem, who previously served as vice president and chief medical officer for Florida Hospital East Orlando, serves on the AHS Cabinet and sets the vision for safe and exceptional clinical care across the organization’s continuum of health care services. Clem’s career includes serving as the first female department chair at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine. She was also the first female division chief in the Department of Surgery at Duke University and the first division chief for emergency medicine at Duke University. Clem oversaw the expansion of the Duke Emergency Department, and the Duke Emergency Medicine Residency and Research Center was established under her leadership. She also established the first International Emergency Medicine Fellowship in the U.S., and has organized medical teams to establish clinics or provide medical support and teaching in Tanzania, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Honduras, Nepal, Vietnam, the Solomon Islands, Palestine and China.
Clem earned a doctorate degree from the Loma Linda University School of Medicine, where she also completed her residency in emergency medicine. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Tennessee Technological University, and an associate degree in nursing from the Loma Linda University School of Nursing. Clem was actually the very first graduate of TTU’s School of Nursing, yet another notable ‘first’ in her life and professional career. She and her husband, Terry, have two daughters. In her spare time, she enjoys the outdoors, hiking, cooking, canoeing, skiing and traveling.
Attendees at the annual meeting will also witness the gavel passing from immediate past Chairman Jill Horner, owner of Hooper, Huddleston, and Horner Funeral Homes to incoming Chamber Board Chairman Marty Maynord of American Bank and Trust. Marty Maynord will serve a one-year term as board chairman, and he looks forward to the opportunity to build on a great year under Jill Horner’s leadership. “Jill led the Chamber to yet another landmark year, and we look forward to reflecting on these “Portraits of Success” in this year’s annual meeting. Jill’s guidance helped the Chamber achieve a major milestone of four-star accreditation in 2017. The opportunities for our Chamber are exciting, and the year ahead will be one of continued growth and momentum”, Maynord said.
The Chamber looks very forward to a great year in 2018 as they seek to capitalize on the successes generated from a strong 2017 year. Their membership is at an all-time high and the Economic Development, Workforce Development & Education, and Visitor’s Bureau divisions are functioning at a high level that is sure to yield even greater results in 2018.
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