Kennard Brown, Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer of The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Honored for Promoting Diversity in Health Care Education

Memphis, TN — Kennard Brown, JD, MPA, PhD, FACHE, executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has received the Healthcare Education Award from the Nashville-based Council on Workforce Innovation.

The statewide award, presented at the recent 2014 Healthcare Diversity Forum in Nashville, recognized Dr. Brown’s efforts in promoting diversity in health care education. The regional forum, which drew administrators, clinicians, educators, human resource specialists, and business leaders, focused on the financial value of diversity in the health care workforce, and discussed resources for advancing quality health care delivery for underrepresented populations.

The Council on Workforce Innovation is part of the National Organization for Workforce Diversity, a private, public and non-profit coalition to promote workforce diversity initiatives.

Dr. Brown has been with UTHSC for 15 years. He started in the Office of General Counsel, and has directed several UTHSC offices, including Equity and Diversity, Employee Relations and the Center on Health Disparities.

As Tennessee’s only public, statewide, academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region, by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service. Offering a broad range of postgraduate and selected baccalaureate training opportunities, the main UTHSC campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UTHSC also educates and trains cohorts of medicine, pharmacy and/or allied health students — in addition to medical residents and fellows — at its major sites in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville. Founded in 1911, during its more than 100 years, UT Health Science Center has educated and trained more than 56,000 health care professionals in academic settings and health care facilities across the state. For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.

PRESS CONTACT:
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Sheila Champlin — (901) 448-4957, schampli@uthsc.edu or
Peggy Reisser Winburne — (901) 448-4072, mreisser@uthsc.edu