Gee named to Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce post

Chancellor Gordon Gee was recently named vice chair of education for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Gee

According to the NACC, Gee will complete the term begun by ChrisMcComish, who was transferred in December by First Union Bank to Atlanta. Gee will continue to serve through the next term of office, which ends June 30, 2002.

"The most important way a community can serve its young people is by giving them a quality education," said Gee. "I look forward to working with the chamber, business, school and community leaders to make sure we do everything we can to help make our schools our greatest resourcehere in Nashville."

In addition to serving as spokesperson for the chamber on education issues, Gee will lead the chamber's annual Community Visit to Metro Schools next fall, when more than 100 business and community leaders will tour schools. He will also name the chair of the 2001 Citizens Panel for a Community Report Card when it convenes later this year.

"Gordon Gee will help our business leadership understand the education issues and the best way for them to support our mutual best interests," said Sarah Knestrick, the NACC vice president of education. "The other thing he will do in this role is strengthen the partnership Vanderbilt already has with Metro schools."

Gee has long advocated partnerships between universities and K-12 schools. As president of Brown University, he chaired the successful search for a new superintendent of schools in Providence, R.I.

"Gordon Gee is a person with a compelling mission, and that is impressively revealed in everything undertaken by this educator," Cal Turner Jr., Chamber chairman, Vanderbilt Board of Trust member and CEO of Dollar General Corporation. "Every single student of Metro Schools deserves empowerment for maximum development. Chancellor Gee is uniquely able to help us rise to that high calling."

Chamber chairman-elect Doyle Rippee, managing director of Morgan Keegan, said, "We are lucky to have Chancellor Gee to serve in this critical role for the chamber. Both Gee and Vanderbilt are leaders in education issues, and the University has also participated in hands-on programs to prepare students for success, like the chamber's job shadowing program for high school students."

Gee has co-authored six books and written more than 25 articles, and currently sits on boards of the American Council on Education, the Association of American Universities, the Historic Black College and University Advisory Committee of the Kresge Foundation, The Campus Compact, Dollar General of America, Massey Energy Corporation and the Boy Scouts of America.

The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce is Middle Tennessee's largest business federation representing more than 4,000 member companies.