October 28, 2019 – Sumner County is ranked #2 in the state for positive economic well-being, education, health and family, and community for child development, according to the latest Kids Count statistics.
The differing challenges faced by Tennessee’s urban and rural counties, as well as those that are shared, are explored in KIDS COUNT: The State of the Child in Tennessee, released on October 23rd. This report, produced by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, the Annie E. Casey Foundation Tennessee KIDS COUNT® partner, is released in conjunction with county profiles for all 95 Tennessee counties. The profiles include substantial county-level data and county ranks in important areas affecting child development: economic well-being, education, health and family, and community. The profiles also list county measures on 38 indicators. All are now available on the State of TN website.
October 25, 2019 – Volunteer State Community College recently completed a $6 million expansion and renovation project transforming one of the oldest buildings on campus into a state-of-the-art facility for the school’s math and science programs.
A grand re-opening for the Warf Math and Science Building was held Friday, Oct. 18.
While the newly renovated building is aesthetically a “great improvement” according to Vol State President Jerry Faulkner, “I want us to always remember that it’s about the students,” Faulkner said. “It’s about having a place where students can receive instruction, a place where students can have hands-on learning in laboratory situations and a place where students can meet with faculty and receive counseling and career coaching and all of the things our great faculty do.”
October 6, 2019 – Gallatin, Tennessee
WELCH COLLEGE NAMED 16TH BEST REGIONAL COLLEGE IN THE SOUTH IN U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT’S BEST COLLEGES RANKINGS
Welch College received notification that the institution ranks 16th among “Regional Colleges South” in U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 edition of America’s Best Colleges rankings, according to Welch president Matt Pinson.
The “Best Regional Colleges” category where Welch is ranked includes 273 institutions that focus on undergraduate education and offer a range of degree programs in the traditional liberal arts as well as in professional fields such as business, nursing, and education. Colleges in this category are ranked within four geographic regions: North, South, Midwest, and West.
U.S. News rankings offer opportunities to judge the relative quality of institutions based on widely accepted indicators of excellence: peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving, and more.
“We are delighted about this high ranking in U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges,” Pinson said. “It shows our quality to prospective students and their parents, as well as to alumni and supporters. It shows that academic excellence can coexist with a strong commitment to Christian faith and life as the center of the Welch College experience.”
“The first time we were ranked in this publication, back in 2010, we ranked 54th,” Pinson mentioned. “And even that was in the top half of all the Southern schools ranked in the Best Regional Colleges category. So in 10 years we’ve gone from 54th to our ranking of 16th for 2020. To put this in perspective, the next ten colleges in the list that Welch outranked had an average enrollment more than five times our enrollment and an average endowment almost nine times our endowment.”
Welch received especially high marks in five strategic areas. Compared to the other 123 institutions in the Regional Colleges South category, Welch ranked:
#1 in faculty-student ratio
#3 in the percentage of classes under 20 students
#4 in students who were in the top 25% of their high school graduating class
#5 in first-year student retention rate
#10 in alumni giving rate
Welch Provost Matthew McAffee said, “We are grateful to have this evaluative benchmark for our institution. It provides us with an external measurement that helps us to evaluate our quality as an institution of higher learning. Our faculty and staff are to be commended for their effort in helping us attain this level of excellence.”
More information is available about the rankings and methodology in the annual America’s Best Colleges guidebook at: www.usnews.com/collegemeth. For more information about Welch, email gotowelch@welch.edu or visit www.welch.edu.
October 3, 2019 – STR (previously Smith Travel Research), a hotel performance benchmarking firm, has agreed to sell to CoStar Group, a Washington D.C. based real estate data and analytics company.
STR currently aggregates data from 65,000+ hotels from 180 countries and distributes over 1.2 million reports each month. CoStar will integrate STR’s current offerings with their own, and plans to develop new products to expand the company’s global footprint.
Amanda Hite, STR President & CEO said, “We are very excited to become part of CoStar. CoStar brings leading technologies, analytics and sales capabilities that we believe will enable STR to accelerate growth and increase the value and insights we provide to our hospitality clients. This combination also represents an outstanding career opportunity for all of our employees around the world.”
“STR brings an unrivaled reputation within the global hospitality industry for their data integrity, reliability and strict confidentiality, and we look forward to continuing to build on these core values in the next chapter of STR’s growth” said Andrew Florance, CoStar’s founder and CEO.
The sell is expected to close by the end of 2019.
October 2, 2019 – Sumner Regional Medical Center (SRMC)has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.
The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
Sumner Regional earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients.
“We are dedicated to improving the quality of care for our stroke patients by implementing the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke initiative,” said Carrie Austin, SRMC stroke program director. “The tools and resources provided help us track and measure our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines developed to improve patient outcomes.”
SRMC additionally received the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA; the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
Submitted
July 26, 2019 – Lebanon, Tennessee – The Tennessee Central Economic Authority has recognized Jimmy Johnston as the 2019 Professional of the Year. The award was presented at the TCEA Annual Meeting held at The Mill in Lebanon, Tennessee on Friday, July 26th.
Pictured are State of Tennessee ECD Commissioner Bob Rolfe, Kelsy Dansby (TCEA), Jimmy Johnston, Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto, and Charly Lyons (TCEA).
April 15, 2019 – Gallatin, Tennessee – Congressman John Rose visited with the members, stakeholders and guests of the Forward Sumner Economic Partnership on Monday, April 15th at the new American Job Center in Gallatin.
Congressman Rose heard from community and business leaders from across Sumner County and discussed the many opportunities that our county and Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District are facing.
April 22, 2019 – NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe and Clayton officials announced today that the home builder will establish a Clayton Supply® facility in Westmoreland, Tennessee in Sumner County.
January 30, 2019 – At today’s Forward Sumner Economic Partnership Annual Meeting & Board of Directors Meeting, the following were appointed to the 2019 Board of Directors and Executive Committee:
Chairman – Daisy Casey, First Tennessee Bank
Incoming Chairman – Jim Harrison, Civil Site Design
President & CEO – Jimmy Johnston
Immediate Past Chairman – Tim Ellis, City of Goodlettsville
Secretary – Rick Turner, Rogers Group, Inc.
Treasurer – Susan Peach, Sumner Regional Medical Center
Regina Bartlett, Hendersonville Medical Center
Jimmy Batten, Batten l Shaw Construction
Hillary Bonham, Goodall Homes & Communities
Paul Dixon, Southeast Construction & Restoration
J.R. Ernst, Ernst-Western Corporation
Johnny Garrett, Bone McAllester Norton, PLLC
Amanda Hite, STR
Mack Hodges, Hodges Group
Anthony Holt, Sumner County Executive
Meredith Hunter, Hendersonville IDB
Bryan Ledford, Rogers Group
Scott Perry, Memorial Foundation
John Puryear, Puryear Farms & Landscaping
Joe Rewa, Hendersonville Utility District
Taylor Walker, Wilson Bank & Trust
November 26, 2018 – Westmoreland is about to get its largest employer, paying well above minimum wage, thanks to an expansion of Alabama-based Wilson Lumber Company. Read more at Tennessean.com.
