The Bessie Smith Cultural Center hopes to revamp its image by hiring a former board member and foundation fundraiser to head the African-American museum and event hall that has been under intense scrutiny.
Dionne Jennings, who helped head a halfway house for women with substance abuse and previously raised money for the SunTrust Foundation, was named the director of the Bessie Smith center on Monday.
“My primary goal is to rebuild trust with the community in hopes that everyone understands we are a vibrant organization here in the community and a much-needed organization,” Jennings said Monday afternoon.
Jennings replaced the previous director, Rose Martin, who resigned in the middle of a critical audit that revealed financial concerns and questions about the center’s management of its largest and most popular fundraiser, the Bessie Smith Strut.
Dionne Jennings is the new executive director of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center.The audit showed that at the end of the June 9 blues-and-barbecue party employees collected all the cash, stuffed the uncounted money into a desk drawer, then locked the drawer and stuck the key in an open safe that wasn’t locked. In July, former Bessie Smith employee Torrey Hines admitted he stole about $42,000 in cash from the office drawer and returned almost all of the cash. But cultural center officials said about $88,000 was missing.