By Ashley Benkarski NASHVILLE, TN — Aladraine Sands, MD, is Nashville General Hospital’s new medical director of the new Medical Director of the new Nashville Healthcare Center at Bordeaux, the organization announced. Dr. Sands specializes in Primary Care and Internal Medicine and provides a range of preventative and prescriptive services such as well-woman exams, COPD treatment, and more. She is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and was a research assistant at The Johns Hopkins Medical School and National Institute of Health Gerontology Research Center; she completed her educational career at Michigan State College of Human Medicine. For Dr.…
Author: Ashley Benkarski
By Ashley Benkarski MEMPHIS, TN — Reggie Jamerson’s hard work has earned him his own franchise and the respect of his community. He’s recently reached the milestone of his one-year anniversary as the owner of the Firehouse Subs franchise in Germantown, just outside of greater Memphis. He started in 2007, and at first Jamerson just saw it as a job to help pay the bills and get by. He’d never even heard of the establishment until he was employed there, By 2009 he began his managerial career as a “Fire Marshal” for the company, opening new restaurants and delivering reports.…
By Ashley Benkarski NASHVILLE, TN — She’s an influential powerhouse these days, but Candace Holyfield-Parker, widely known as the “Six-Figure Spa Chick,” had the same beginnings so many do—She started out in the service industry as a waitress, a job she’d held since age 17. Throughout college and while running her own cleaning business, waitressing gave her a guaranteed nightly income she desperately needed to continue providing for herself and her kids. She tried the traditional route of getting a college education to enter the workforce, but found it just wasn’t a fit, though she did get her associate’s degree.…
By Ashley Benkarski NASHVILLE, TN — The Nashville community has been hurting for some time. Despite a booming tourism economy and a growing population, the most disadvantaged communities in Music City have experienced decades of economic decay, devastating weather events and, finally, the COVID-19 pandemic, all of which caused severe trauma on its residents. Healing Minds and Souls, a non-profit begun by Historic First Community Church’s Reverend Ella Clay, is offering a holistic approach to addressing, acknowledging and alleviating the many forms of trauma Nashvillians have been suffering. “We recognized after the 2020 tornado hit, our community was again thrust…
By Ashley Benkarski NASHVILLE, TN — Earlier this year, Music City Baseball announced that Major League Baseball All-Star Dave “Smoke” Stewart would lead its Diverse Equity Ownership Initiative for a potential franchise, the Nashville Stars. The initiative is a model for ownership in MLB going forward. “I’ve been in baseball in one way or another for 45, 46 years,” he said. He was a player for 16 of those years, going on to coach, then on to the role of minor league director, then to assistant general manager and, finally, general manager. In that process, Stewart said he had the…
By Ashley Benkarski NASHVILLE, TN — Residents of Tennessee are feeling the increasing pressures of falling behind on their mortgages due to hardships created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the halting of forbearance programs meant to dampen the blow. To help, 501(c)3 nonprofit Affordable Housing Resources has recently announced two new mortgage assistance programs through the Tennessee Housing Development Agency and United Way of Greater Nashville. Eligibility for the programs is based on federal guidelines; homeowners affected by illness, job loss or other economic challenges due to COVID-19 can apply for help with their mortgage payments. TDHA’s program, the Housing…
By Ashley Benkarski NASHVILLE, TN — Dr. Troy White’s one-year anniversary as Executive Director of MDHA is coming with an overhaul of strategic directives aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. The sixth executive director but the first African American in the role, Dr. White said his experience with eight other housing authorities in the development and governmental realms gives him a well-rounded, balanced approach to leadership at MDHA. “It’s a great opportunity, first and foremost,” Dr. White said of his position. “I think the board of commissioners deserves the credit for having a vision for looking…
By Ashley Benkarski NASHVILLE, TN — Truist Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Truist Financial Corporation, provided a $1.25 million grant to Nashville Business Incubation Center (NBIC), a business development and accountability partner for small business owners in Middle Tennessee “with a focus on women, minorities, and veterans, through 360-degree business support, knowledgeable mentors, and a results-driven curriculum,” said NBIC’s CEO Angela Crane-Jones. The grant will also allow NBIC to expand operations to rural areas in Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky, and Huntsville and Birmingham, Alabama, she said. Lynette Bell, Truist Foundation president, said, “We’re thrilled to support NBIC in the great work…
By Ashley Benkarski NASHVILLE, TN — St. Pius X is kicking off the 2022-2023 school year with some big changes. While the school boasts new windows and fencing, most of the talk has centered around the recent opening up of Education Savings Accounts (ESA). “The ESA program allows eligible students who are zoned to attend a Shelby County district school, a Metro Nashville public school, or a school that was in the Achievement School District (ASD) to use state and local money toward education expenses, including tuition and/or fees at approved private schools,” said the Tennessee Education Savings Account website…
By Ashley Benkarski MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TN — Freedom Day (August 8) in Clarksville got off to a resounding start this year with the installation of a series of historical markers honoring African Americans’ contributions throughout the region. With four stops slated for unveiling the event took place at 11 a.m. on Sat., Aug.6 and stretched into the sweltering afternoon, but the heat couldn’t prevent people from coming to honor and learn the history that shaped Clarksville. Frederick Murphy, a documentarian and historian, was there to film the entire event for his upcoming project, as was Middle Tennessee State University’s Jason…