Graham Harrell, right, talks about the Young Professionals Association of Chattanooga at the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce open house in September.About Graham Harrell
Age: 28Job: Implementation advisor at MediTractNew position: President-elect of the Young Professionals of ChattanoogaPersonal: He and his wife, Erin, moved to Chattanooga in 2014
President-Elect Donald Trump will change a few things after his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Here in Chattanooga, another president-elect wants his organization to have a new focus: to help high school students land internships with area businesses so the students can develop skills they'll need to make it in today's complex, changing global economy.
Graham Harrell, the president-elect of Young Professionals Association of Chattanooga (YPAC), thinks the 150 or so 21- to 40-year-olds who belong to YPAC are a natural fit for Step-Up Chattanooga, a new program of the Public Education Foundation (PEF) that last summer placed 76 low-income Hamilton County high school seniors and juniors in internships at local businesses.
"Our goal is really to work with these students and help them find work experience," says Harrell, who takes the reins in July as YPAC's new president.
YPAC members can share their insights to help students in Step-Up Chattanooga learn such "soft skills" as acing a job interview, he said.
"We're the generation, we understand how to still communicate with the generation that's in high school," says Harrell, 28.
YPAC's current president, Callie Starnes, who's the news director for WRCB Channel 3, said that Harrell has been instrumental in helping YPAC focus on the service project.
"Graham has really got the ball rolling," says Starnes. "We did service in the past. It just hadn't been a big focus."
One reason that Harrell got the idea to team up YPAC members with Step-Up Chattanooga interns is that Harrell's wife, Erin, works for PEF.
Neither of the Harrells had jobs lined up in Chattanooga when they made the decision in 2014 to move here.
The couple met at John Brown University, a private, interdenominational, Christian liberal arts college in Siloam Springs, Arkansas founded by evangelist John E. Brown.
The Harrells now own a 1920s-era home in Highland Park.
Graham worked for a while at Unum and now is an implementation advisor at MediTract, a Chattanooga health care contract and document management provider that was one of three finalists in the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's 2016 Spirit of Innovation Award.
"We're in about a quarter of the nation's hospitals," says Harrell, who helps hospital staff learn how to use MediTract's software.