Retired AT&T manager Patsy Hazlewood will head a new "jobs base camp" in Chattanooga to help coordinate state government services for new and existing businesses in Southeast Tennessee.
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development said Friday that Hazlewood will fill the last of the state's nine regional director posts for the state's Jobs4TN initiative.
The position was created for the 10-county area around Chattanooga as part of a restructuring of the state development agency under Gov. Bill Haslam.
Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty said Hazlewood "has the experience and skill to serve Tennessee businesses as a single-point-of-contact for state services and to align communities in the region behind a unified job creation strategy."
The move comes as the state agency prepares to lay off 58 workers on July 20 after Hagerty eliminated the state planning functions of his department and created the regional job camps across the state.
The Southeast Tennessee region includes Hamilton, Marion, Grundy, Sequatchie, Bledsoe, Rhea, Meigs, Bradley, McMinn and Polk counties.
"There are many forward-thinking and innovative companies in Southeast Tennessee and our office will do its best to help them grow and create new jobs," Hazlewood said in a statement Friday.
Hazlewood, who worked in the telecommunications industry for more than 30 years, is a former chairman of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and was the first woman elected president of the downtown Chattanooga Rotary Club. A native of Fayetteville, Tenn., Hazlewood is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has served on the boards of CapitalMark Bank and Trust, United Way, the Enterprise Center and Stadium Corp. She is the vice-chairwoman of the Speech and Hearing Center board, and chairwoman-elect of the Community Foundation board.