By Cillea Houghton NASHVILLE, TN — Delishia Porterfield began training for a seat in Metro Council before she was running for one. Porterfield, a special education coach in Metro Nashville Public Schools, is campaigning to take over the seat in District 29 in Antioch left vacant by Karen Johnson, who accepted a position at the Davidson County Register of Deeds. Porterfield was introduced to the power of city government when she worked with the Antioch community and Metro Council in 2015 to stop the downtown jail from being relocated to Harding Place. Since then, she’s consistently attended council meetings, learning…
Author: Cillea Houghton
By Cillea Houghton NASHVILLE, TN — For Chef Cleveland Shearls, cooking unites his two passions in life, people and food. Growing up in Alabama, Shearls was instilled with a passion for cooking by his mother and grandmother. “I can remember her with this cast iron skillet, and I thought it was amazing that she was really doing a magic trick cooking an egg and bacon in the pan at one time. That picture always stayed with me,” Shearls described of his grandmother. “She didn’t even have to say a word, the food did it all.” Shearls followed this passion to…
By Cillea Houghton NASHVILLE, TN — Community members have expressed support for Bill Lee following his inauguration as Tennessee’s 50th governor. In his speech, Lee addressed the platforms of education, prison reform and the needs of rural communities. Lee stated that while Tennessee has the highest improvement rate in educational outcomes, it’s still in the bottom half nationwide, and even with “record low” unemployment and tax rates, Tennessee is home to some of the poorest towns in the country. “When we consider our state, we see how fortunate we are, and yet we also see how much we have to…
By Cillea Houghton NASHVILLE, TN — Students at Pearl-Cohn High School were enlightened to STEAM opportunities (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) through the Young Enterprising Women Mentoring Forum. Created by the Enterprising Women Foundation, the forum takes place in cities across the country, connecting high school students with female entrepreneurs and STEAM advocates in their communities. “We chose Pearl-Cohn because they’ve got a fantastic school,” said DevMar Products President and CEO Sharon Reynolds, who sponsored the event in Nashville for the first time. “They already have a STEM program and they’re very innovative in their approach as it relates…
By Cillea Houghton COLUMBUS, OH — Pamela Springer has a gift for building success from the ground up. As an entrepreneur in the technology field for more than two decades, Springer founded Manta in 2005, a LinkedIn style website for small businesses that better connects them with customers, an idea she turned into one of the 50 largest websites in the country. She pivoted these skills into her current role as president and CEO of ORIS Intelligence, an online monitoring service that enforces minimum advertised prices across the web. The company was launched in 2012 by founder Lisa Stein, who…
By Cillea Houghton MEMPHIS, TN — The Metal Museum in Memphis is commemorating its 40th anniversary in 2019 with a special exhibit devoted to the past, present and future of metalworking. Titled Crafting A Legacy: 40 Years of Collecting & Exhibiting at the Metal Museum, the exhibit combines the work of veteran artists from its Master Metalsmiths collection with the variety of pieces from up and coming artists from the Tributaries series. The exhibit, which features works including sculptures, ironwork and jewelry, sets up shop in the Gasparrini Galleries. “These artists represent both the heights of achievement and the promising…
By Cillea Houghton NASHVILLE, TN — The Nashville Farmers’ Market is breaking ground on a series of renovations to update and expand the facility in a project titled “Growing Together.” Major components of the expansion include the Fresh Savings Program, a new grand entrance at the north side of the market facing the Tennessee State Museum, additional leasing space, a new waste center and an urban farm and artist residency program. Additionally, $1.2 million from Metro Government funds are going towards replacing the heating and cooling system. The project will feature a public art installation at the grand entrance, along…
By Cillea Houghton NASHVILLE, TN — The release of a case study conducted by the Policing Project and Stanford Computational Policy Lab provides evidence that there are racial disparities among traffic stops in Nashville, the main policing tactic used by the Metro Nashville Police Department. The overall stop rate in Nashville was nearly double that of cities such as Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C. and is five times higher than Austin and Seattle. The study shows that while traffic stops have decreased since 2012, African-American drivers were stopped at a 44 percent higher rate than white drivers in 2017, while non-moving…
By Cillea Houghton NASHVILLE, TN — Sixteen-year-old patient Chip Crabb came into Dr. Linda Brady’s office in August of 2017 with symptoms of what appeared to be a cold. But as the weeks progressed and Chip’s illness worsened, Brady knew something was wrong, running tests and referring him to high caliber doctors to get to the root of the problem. It was this instinct that led to the discovery that Chip had a rare autoimmune disease known as GPA vasculitis. Brady, Chip’s longtime primary care doctor at Old Harding Pediatrics Associates, was honored for her critical diagnosis with the prestigious…
By Cillea Houghton NASHVILLE, TN — Voter education, organization and participation are the three pillars of Rueben Dockery’s campaign for Tennessee State Senate District 19. He and Christina Callaway are running as independents against Brenda Gilmore (D) for the seat held by longtime representative Thelma Harper, who’s retiring at the end of her 27th term. Dockery has been a resident of District 19 for 31 years and worked in social services for 25 years in several positions including as a special education teacher in MNPS, authoring one of the first charter school applications in Tennessee and serving as founder of…