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WestStar sponsors fourth annual African-American conference April 4


WestStar is sponsoring the “Fourth Annual Leadership and the African-American Challenges and Opportunities Conference” Friday, April 4, in Assembly Room A at the University of Tennessee Agricultural Research Center, 605 Airways Boulevard in Jackson.

\This conference is designed to appeal to African-Americans in leadership positions and in diverse work environments throughout west Tennessee. Conference participants will learn to acknowledge the challenge of leadership the new millennium will bring, and explore ways to turn those challenges into opportunities for the new millennium.

With this vision in mind, the African-American alumni of WestStar have organized the African-American Leadership Conference to bring leaders throughout west Tennessee together with recognized leaders whose accomplishments are well chronicled and have made an impact.

Registration is currently under way and advance registration is required. Registration deadline is Tuesday, March 25. The conference fee is $30 per person or $50 for two, and includes breakfast, lunch and the seminar.

If you need more information or would like to request a brochure, call Virginia Grimes at (731) 587-7298 or e-mail at vgrimes@utm.edu.

The conference will open with registration and continental breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Mr. Evelyn Robertson Jr., executive director for Southwest Tennessee Development District and former WestStar Board of Trustees member, will serve as master of ceremonies.

Dr. Nathan Essex, president of Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis, will deliver the conference’s first presentation at 9:15 a.m. Essex, a professional consultant on education, will speak on “Education/Reclaiming the Next Generation.”

Guest speakers for the conference also include: Sheriff Delphus Hicks of Hardeman County, previously recognized as Outstanding Sheriff of the Year; Sheriff David Woolfork of Madison County, president of the Tennessee Sheriff’s Association; Sheriff Melvin Bond of Haywood County, a certified D.A.R.E. instructor who has earned achievement in 20 specialized courses in law enforcement; Tonia Reed, state contact for Tennessee with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, in Atlanta; John Birdsong, of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development in Nashville; Maurice Smith, manager of the Tennessee Valley Authority minority loan fund program in Nashville and former regional TVA manager in Tupelo, Miss.; Concetta Harris, of the City of Memphis Division of Fire Services, the only female in her fire recruit class of 54 students; and Dr. Jesse Cannon, a physician with Covington Internal Physicians, P.C., and member of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine National Alumni Council.

Presentation topics will include Challenges and Opportunities as Law Enforcement Officers, Strategies for Asset Building and Entrepreneurship, Scaling the Ladder of Non Traditional Careers, and The Importance of Preventative Healthcare.

This conference is made possible by the WestStar Leadership Program in partnership with BellSouth, City of Brownsville, Jackson Energy Authority, Rural west Tennessee African- American Affairs Council, Randstad North America, Tennessee Valley Authority, USDA Rural Development, Trinity Funeral Home of Paris, Rawls Funeral Home/Golden Circle Insurance and west Tennessee Healthcare Inc.

WestStar was created in 1989 to serve 21 counties of west Tennessee by providing leadership development and training for selected participants.