YWCA Bristol’s  Emerge women's professional development series continues this week with an event Sept. 29 from 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the Kingsport Center for Higher Education. Catalyzing women’s professional advancement is the name of the game for the series. Incepted in 2015, the female focused, expert led series is geared to empower women at all levels of their career. Workshops are held quarterly. The Se ...

NN, Inc., (NNBR) a diversified industrial company that grew from a northeast Tennessee bearing and roller business to an international supplier of multiple industries today announced that it will relocate its global headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina from Johnson City, Tennessee. The move, the company said, supports NN's strategy of building a diversified industrial business through improved access t ...

From the TN Department of Health: www.tn.gov/health/news/53364 Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner John Dreyzehner, MD, MPH, today announced the request for a Certificate of Public Advantage from Wellmont Health System and Mountain States Health Alliance has been granted. The approval allows the two entities to combine under the corporate umbrella of Ballad Health. “This has been an unprecedented an ...

Photo above: Business owner Jason Gilliland accepts the first check from the new downtown loan program. Photo by Scott Robertson By Scott Robertson Bank of Tennessee, First Tennessee Bank and Mountain Commerce Bank have created a new loan program to assist downtown businesses. Representatives of all three banks were on hand for the presentation of the first loan check to entrepreneurs Jason and Julie Gillil ...

Photo above: Travis Staton and Brianna Morris Fillers at the offices of the United Way of Southwest Virginia in Abingdon. Photo by Scott Robertson By Scott Robertson Imagine if the United Way decided to be not just a clearinghouse where employers could go to guarantee their charitable contributions would be well-directed, but to also be one of the driving forces in addressing issues like regional workforce ...

Photo above: Jobs for Life Director or Training & Leadership Development Shay Bethea teaches Bristol Jobs for Life volunteers about relational poverty. Photo courtesy JFL By Scott Robertson “You hear about giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish,” says Scott Emerine, the chairman of the Jobs for Life steering committee for the United Way of Bristol. “What we’re finding more and more in society n ...

Photo Above: Melinda Thayer Leland of Virginia Highlands Community College outlines recommendations during the Aug. 3 stakeholder meetingin Marion.  Photos by Scott Robertson By Scott Robertson Following a whirlwind August and a Sept. 7 board meeting in Wytheville, GO VA’s Region 1 (GO VA 1) staff is sending the region’s Economic Growth and Diversification Plan to Richmond for review and approval by the sta ...

Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center to offer cybersecurity certifications through ODU By Scott Robertson Institutions like the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center are founded on the concept of partnerships beneficial to the surrounding region. That description fits the creation of the just-announced Cisco Networking and Cybersecurity Academy at the center to a tee. In an environment in which V ...

Photo above: Kevin Stafford, vice president of Marketing, Food City The fifth in a series of “Operation Tomorrow’s Workforce” articles by the United Way of Southwest Virginia We cannot reap a harvest if we do not plant seeds, nor can we reap a harvest if we plant seeds but fail to care for them as they grow. We’re not talking only about crops, though. The statement also holds true speaking metaphorically ab ...

By Scott Roberston I’d like to humbly propose a corollary to the old adage that all politics is local. All economics is local. I spoke recently with a Northeast Tennessee county mayor who’d had site selectors in his county looking at an industrial property. They spent more time talking about the regional workforce than anything else. 100,000 square feet of flat land is 100,000 square feet of flat land. But ...