~ from Town Hall East
On Monday, May 11, at 7 p.m., we will have our final meeting of the 2024-2025 year in the Rust Fellowship Hall of Eastminster Presbyterian Church. Before hearing our speakers Aaron Browning and Carol Evans, who will discuss parks and recreation in Knoxville, we will elect officers and board members for the coming year. The nominees are:
Officers
President Krista Rines has lived in Chilhowee Hills for 30 years with her husband Tony, four boys and many pets. She graduated from Carson Newman University with her bachelor’s degree in Special Education K-12, and a master’s in Education Leadership. She holds a Trauma-Informed Specialist certification from California State University. She has worked for Knox County Schools for twenty-six years and is currently the Trauma-Informed Specialist for Knox County Schools. She enjoys spending time with her family on outside adventures, reading, and cooking.
Vice-President Tobias Kight served as Vice-President of Town Hall East in 2021-2022. He moved to Knoxville in 2006. For a decade he worked as the owner/operator of a residential construction firm. He is currently a realtor with Weichert Realtors Advantage Plus, and he works with Terry Raby in the Holston Hills based firm Airtech Tools, LLC. Tobias has one son who studies and plays soccer at Milligan University. Tobias also has been a member of Historic Holston Hills Community Club. In his spare time, he enjoys woodworking, gardening, and meeting people.
Treasurer Isaac Sherman will be serving his second term as Treasurer. He moved to Tennessee in 2000 and has only left to serve in the Air Force for 6 years. He has been in the Knoxville area most of that time. He has lived in Chilhowee Hills since 2018 with his wife Shannon Webb. He studied at UT for both his Bachelor’s and master’s in computer science, graduating in 2017. He is currently a software engineer working for AMETEK. He enjoys reading, cooking, computers, tabletop roleplaying and video games.
Secretary Marisa Connolly was raised in Holston Hills, where she now lives just down the road from her childhood home. She earned her degree in Business Analytics from the University of Tennessee in 2021 and currently works as a legal secretary for the State of Tennessee. A nature enthusiast with a love for the nearby Smoky Mountains, Marisa spends her free time gardening and hiking. Her long-term dream is to open an animal sanctuary, but in the meantime she shares her home with three cats and one very fluffy dog.
Board seats for 2025 -2028
Sharon Davis has been a long-time advocate of neighborhoods, particularly serving our Town Hall East board in every position. Currently she heads the Parks Committee and was instrumental in the efforts to establish Tank Strickland Park. Sharon also served Knox and surrounding counties for 40 years as a professional Realtor with Hammontree Real Estate. Recently some of her time and effort has been directed to the National Garden Clubs of America, for which she qualified to be a National Flower Show Judge. She is currently the President of the Flower Lovers’ Garden Club.
Lauren Fyfe grew up in Memphis but made her way to Knoxville for college at the University of Tennessee, where she studied 4D Studio Art (video, sound, performance, and installation). She is the Vice President of Client Services at Loch & Key, a local video production and digital marketing company that she has been with since 2013. In 2024, she and her husband, Landon, moved from Fountain City to Holston Heights, where they have been busy turning their new house into their forever home. Lauren has been part of Knoxville’s PechaKucha board since 2017, helping bring inspiring, offbeat presentations to life each quarter. When she is not working or organizing events, you will find her gardening, cooking, crafting, doing yoga, planning her next trip, spending time with her dog, or catching live music.
Lydia Pulsipher is an emeritus professor in the Geography Department at UT. She has lived in Holston Hills for over thirty years. Lydia serves as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Slovenia, making Holston Hills one of the fourteen sites in the nation that hosts a diplomatic representative of that county. Her husband, Mac Goodwin, now deceased, served as President of Town Hall East from 2012 to 2014.
