Ray Brooks named head of Cleveland State and more Chattanooga-area career moves

Brooks named head of Cleveland State

Ray Brooks, a retired president of Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood, South Carolina, has been named interim president of Cleveland State Community College after the resignation of Ty Stone, who was college president for the past year.

Brooks retired two years ago after 13 years as chief executive of Piedmont Technical College. He previously served 22 years as president of Northwestern Technical College in Rock Spring, Georgia. During his 35 years of experience as a college president, he assisted in recruiting $2 billion in capital investments and creating thousands of jobs.

In an announcement of Brooks’ appointment, the Tennessee Board of Regents said it will begin the search process for Cleveland State’s next president later. The first step will be developing and approving criteria for the position, posting the position for applications and appointing a search advisory committee with representatives of the board, the campus community and business and civic leaders. No timeline has been set, according to a news release.

Taylor joins Magnolia as development director

Magnolia Trust Co. has hired Brent Taylor as its business development and strategies director.

Taylor has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Most recently, he served as the business development officer and director of foundations/endowments for CIBC Private Wealth Management. Taylor earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of North Carolina and a Master of Business Administration in finance from Georgia State University. He also holds a certified financial planner certification.

“Brent’s expertise in relationship management and proven track record of helping clients achieve their financial goals will be an asset to our company and team,” Magnolia President and CEO Todd McMullen said in an announcement of Taylor’s hiring. “His focus on serving others will advance Magnolia’s strategic growth as we engage with clients and their professional advisors across the Southeast to provide best-in-class services.”

With offices in Chattanooga and Atlanta, Magnolia is an independent trust administration serving high-net-worth clients across the Southeast.

Turley heads Rossville Morning Pointe campus

Pam Turley, a registered nurse with an extensive senior living background, has been named executive director of Morning Pointe at Happy Valley, the new assisted living and memory care campus in development in Walker County, Georgia.

In this role, Turley will help open the senior community at 2989 Happy Valley Road in Rossville, Georgia, and oversee operations.

Turley resides in Ringgold, Georgia, and has been a RN for 37 years. Her career has encompassed home health care and senior living, including both assisted living and memory care. She was an executive director at an assisted living facility in Cleveland, Tennessee, for the past 15 years before joining Morning Pointe.

“I was always drawn to seniors, even in nursing school,” Turley said. “I love their depth of knowledge, and I always found senior living to be fun.”

Turley earned her licensed practical nurse license from Dalton Vocational School of Health Occupations and her RN from Chattanooga State School of Nursing.

Morning Pointe at Happy Valley is set to open in late 2023. The building will encompass 58 assisted living apartments and an additional 24 memory care apartments, specifically designed for residents with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of memory loss.

Trust for Public Land names Peterson director

Longtime community engagement specialist and advocate Daniela Paz Peterson is now the Tennessee program director for belonging strategies for the Tennessee office of Trust for Public Land.

A native of Chile, Peterson holds a degree in social work from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. She joined the Trust as a creative placemaking fellow in 2018 and most recently served as its community strategies senior advisor. Among her achievements are the East Lake Free Family Photo Day, a project offering professional photographs for families in their local park, and the Park Listeners Program, focused on community input in park planning.

Her work has gained national recognition, earning her awards such as the Footprint Foundation’s Footprint Award, La Paz Chattanooga’s Latino Leadership Award and Trust for Public Land’s Will Rogers Fellowship. She serves on the board of La Paz Chattanooga, ArtsBuild, the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority and the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga.

“Working alongside members of the Chattanooga community to help connect more families with the rich benefits of parks and high-quality public spaces has been both my profession and my passion for years,” Peterson said in a news release. “I’m honored to accept this new role with TPL and eager to find ways to continue the important work we’ve begun in neighborhoods like Alton Park, Oak Grove and everywhere else.”

Trust for Public Land is a national nonprofit that works to connect everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors. Since 1972, the Trust has protected more than 3 million acres of public land, created more than 5,000 parks, trails, schoolyards and iconic outdoor places, raised $93 billion in public funding for parks and public lands and connected more than 9 million people to the outdoors.

Bridge Public Affairs among top lobbyists

Bridge Public Affairs has been named a top-performing lobbying firm in the United States by Bloomberg Government for the fourth year in a row.

Upon completing its first year in business in 2019, Bridge was recognized as the country’s fifth most successful new firm and has ranked among the top-performing firms in the United States each year ever since.

Bridge Public Affairs serves a wide array of clients across America from its Tennessee and Washington, D.C., offices.

“We are fortunate to work with a number of well-respected clients who trust our team to provide sound counsel, accurate and timely information and impactful advocacy that not only advance their objectives but help them have a positive impact across the globe,” said Todd Womack, president and CEO of Bridge Public Affairs. “It is great to have the opportunity to ‘be in the arena’ with such an outstanding roster of organizations who are doing great work in their industries and moving our country forward in such positive ways.”

The Bloomberg Government report is based solely on Lobbying Disclosure Act reports filed during 2022 and does not include nonlobbying revenue.

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