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Foundation BoardCouncil and Foundation Executive Committee
Foundation Members
Council MembersAnn Ayers, East Tennessee Development District Representative |
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Carol Danehower, PhD., Chair, is Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at The University of Memphis. She received her doctorate in Management from the University of Kentucky. As Associate Dean, Dr. Danehower is responsible for all academic programs (undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D.) in the College, including recruiting, admissions, advising, curriculum, and scheduling. Dr. Danehower represents the Tennessee Board of Regents on the Council. 
Elliott Moore, M.S.S.W., Vice-Chair, of Bristol, is the Director of Community and Government Relations for Mountain States Health Alliance (MSHA), a hospital healthcare system based in Johnson City. She previously served as President/CEO of the Hospital Alliance of Tennessee and is past President of both the Nashville and the Tennessee Women's Political Caucus. She represents the East Tennessee Grand Division for two years on the Council's Executive Committee, and serves as the First Development District representative on the Council. 
Dena Wise, PhD., is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist with the University of Tennessee focusing on Family Economics. She works with county extension agents and partners across the state to reach more than 3 million Tennesseans each year with information about money management, consumer education and fraud prevention. Dr. Wise is state coordinator of Tennessee Saves and gives statewide leadership to Extension's bankruptcy educator program and support to homebuyer education. She is principle author and project coordinator of On My Own, a financial education simulation conducted with 20,000 junior high and high school youth across Tennessee each year and coordinates a multi-state project funded by the FINRA Foundation to reach young adults with financial and investor education. Dr. Wise represents East Tennessee on the Executive Committee. 
Yvonne Wood, M.Ed., represents the Greater Nashville Development District on the Council and represents Middle Tennessee on the Executive Committee. She also serves as Chair of the Boards & Commissions Initiative. She owns Wood Consultants, a conference and event planning company. She is Chair of the ATHENA Foundation, International, honoring and advancing women in leadership around the world. 
Ellen Bronaugh Vergos, represents the Memphis Area Development District on the Council. She is a partner in the Memphis office of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP, where she practices in the areas of creditors' rights, business bankruptcy and commercial litigation. Ms. Vergos is a certified as a specialist in business bankruptcy law and is listed by the Tennessee Supreme Court as a Rule 31 general civil mediator. Her career includes public service in the U.S. Department of Justice as United States Trustee for Region 8 (Tennessee and Kentucky) by the appointment of former Attorney General Janet Reno, from 1995 to 2003; private law practice in Memphis and Nashville, and a judicial clerkship in the U.S. District Court for the Honorable Harry W. Wellford (retired Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals judge.) She is a member of the boards of directors of the Tennessee Justice Center, the Shelby County Health Care Board, and the Memphis Convention Center. Ms. Vergos represents West Tennessee on the Executive Committee. 
Sandra Bennett, Secretary, of Manchester, is President of the Tennessee Women's Political Caucus and currently serving her third term as Vice President of Legislation for the Nashville Women's Political Caucus. In 2003 and 2004, as President of Greater Nashville Business & Professional Women, Ms. Bennett spearheaded a grassroots effort for the passage of the Tennessee Equal Pay Remedies & Enforcement Act. In June of 2004, she was presented with Tennessee Joint Resolution No. 955 to acknowledge her efforts on behalf of the women of Tennessee. Ms. Bennett was appointed to serve on the Council in 2006 representing At-Large Women's Groups and is Chair of the Legislative Committee. She served two years as Chair of the legislative workshop "Everyday Politics for Everyday Women." 
Carol Berz, L.C.S.W., J.D., Ph.D., Treasurer, of Chattanooga, owns Private Dispute Resolution Services, LLC, a mediation services and conflict management system design organization. Dr. Berz is a Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31 Listed mediator and a national trainer in both general civil and family mediation. The Council's Southeast Development District representative, she organized the Council's statewide forums on the Economic Impact of Domestic Violence and co-authored subsequent Council publications on that topic. She leads the Council's strategic planning component and chairs its Economic Impact Committee. 
Rep. Janis Sontany, Immediate Past Chair, is in her fourth term in the Tennessee General Assembly and was previously a member of Metro Council for 8 years. She recently retired from DuPont with 21 years of service in government affairs and customer service. She is a past president of the Nashville Women's Political Caucus and was their 2002 Athena Nominee. She served as a board member of Outlook Nashville and was awarded the CMRA Public Leader of the Year in 1998. Rep. Sontany is a Representative of the Tennessee House on the Council. 
Dr. Christine Bradley, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Community, Neighborhood and Government Relations at Vanderbilt University, has an extensive career in both the public and private sector, spanning more than 25 years. Her office handles relationships with both state and local government including legislative issues, community grants, neighborhood relations, lifelong learning programs and a virtual school initiative that provides a bridge between rural schools and the university. Prior to her current position, Christine was the Executive Director of the Nashville Career Advancement Center, where she interfaced with business, labor, economic development, education and government officials. Previously she oversaw state operations for a private behavioral health care firm and served on the cabinet for Governor McWherter, as one of the first women to head up a Department of Corrections in the U.S. While in that capacity, she received the first CEO award presented by the American Correctional Association. At their 2007 awards ceremony, The Nashville Business Journal honored Christine as a "Woman of Influence in Public Policy".
Deborah Clubb is executive director of the Memphis Area Women's Council, an independent not-for-profit that influences and changes policies to benefit local women and girls in areas of health, education and economic self-sufficiency. The Women's Council leads Shelby County's Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence and organized the Erase Domestic Crime Collaborative to recruit new partners, new resources and energy to the task of providing additional shelter, advocates and prevention programs. Deborah also is project coordinator for the Memphis Women's Economic Security Collaborative, in partnership with the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis. The Council's Girls for Change project, for teens ages 13-17, this spring developed and performed a dramatic script based on new research showing that 9 of 10 girls in local schools experienced at least one incident of sexual harassment in their current school. Deborah is a member of the Victims of Crime Advisory League appointed this summer by Mayor AC Wharton in response to the Council's call for new oversight of the troubled Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center. She is co-founder of Women of Achievement which for 25 years has recognized women for community leadership; board secretary of the Memphis and Shelby County Domestic Violence Council; board secretary of Ladies in Training; member of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center Advisory Board; member of the board of trustees of the Memphis Regional Design Center and elder at Lindenwood Christian Church.
Patricia Ann Pierce retired from Vanderbilt University in August 2007 after a career of almost thirty years as the Senior Director of the Opportunity Development Center (ODC). She was responsible for all University and Medical Center matters related to equal opportunity and affirmative action laws, regulations, and guidelines. She designed and conducted workshops on a variety of topics related to equity and diversity and she served as a fact finder and mediator of grievances filed by faculty, staff and students. Previously she worked as Compliance Director for the State of Tennessee Human Rights Commission. Ms. Pierce achieved outstanding success in the academic world and is recognized internationally as an advocate for diversity and equity. She has also served in a leadership capacity in most of the organizations in which she's been involved, which include serving as President of the Nashville and Middle Tennessee YWCA, CABLE, Women in Numbers (WIN), Mayor's Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities, International Association on Higher Education and Disability, and Women in Higher Education in Tennessee (WHET). She is the recipient of numerous awards and is a graduate of Leadership America, Leadership Nashville, the Oxford University Roundtable, and was recently an inductee of the Tennessee International Women's Forum. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of Commissioners for the State of Tennessee Human Rights Commission; a Board member for ATHENA International, CABLE, Women in Higher Education in Tennessee, Women in Numbers, and Tennessee Economic Council Foundation. She will serve for the fifth consecutive year as Scholarship Chair for the Tennessee Economic Council Summit.
Wendy Pitts Reeves is a licensed clinical social worker who founded Cove Mountain Counseling, an association of independent practitioners in Maryville. She's a graduate-level field instructor for UT's College of Social Work, and a former Adjunct Professor for Maryville College. Ms. Reeves has chaired or served on several boards, including the TN Economic Council on Women, Women's Equity Foundation, AAUW- Maryville Branch, Blount Co. Children's Home, the Blount Co. Chamber of Commerce and others. She served on the Blount Co. Commission from 2006-2010, and was named "Public Official of the Year" by the Tennessee Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. She's a graduate of Leadership Blount, Class of 2006, and is the proud mother of Caleb and Maiah.
Alma Sanford lived in Hopkinsville, KY, Wichita, KS and Falls Church, VA, before moving to Tennessee in 2001. She practiced law in Wichita and was very active in the Democratic Party and with the Kansas Women's Political Caucus, serving as the State's Vice President. After moving to Tennessee, Sanford served as a board member for the Center for Health Services at Vanderbilt Medical School from 2001 through 2005 where she was chair of the fundraising committee. She also has continued her political work in numerous local, state and national political campaigns. Sanford served on an Election Integrity Study Committee by the Nashville League of Women Voters that was completed in 2006. She also served three years as a citizen lobbyist for Common Cause/TN in its efforts to require voter verified paper ballots in all elections, resulting in the Voter Confidence Act being passed and signed into law by Governor Phil Bredesen in 2008. Sanford has received numerous awards, most notably being named the national "Humanitarian Of The Year" by the National Federation of Democratic Women at its annual convention in 1994 for her pro bono legal work on behalf of financially disabled seniors. Sanford currently serves on the Tennessee WECF and is a board member of the TN Federation of Democratic Women. She also works with the Hickory Hollow Action Partnership and is on the fundraising committee of the Southeast Easter Nashville Event that annually draws over 3,000 people. She is the mother of two adult children who live in the Nashville area.
