Kennard Brown, JD, MPA, PhD, FACHE, executive vice chancellor and chief operations officer at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has been named to the Memphis Business Journal’s list of 100 Most Powerful People in Memphis Business for the second time. In 2019, Dr. Brown was named to the MBJ’s inaugural class.
Dr. Brown has been with UTHSC for more than 20 years. Most recently, he has led the campus through the challenges faced throughout the pandemic.
Early in the pandemic, Dr. Brown, who serves as executive director for the Plough Center for Sterile Drug Delivery Solutions, directed the production of hand sanitizer at the Plough Center, because it was in short supply. It was distributed to the campus, frontline hospital partners, and university system partners across the state.
Dr. Brown led the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination efforts for the campus in December. “I don’t know that in my 20 years here, there has been a bigger deal,” he said at the time. UTHSC received 2,900 doses of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine, and was the only university at the time, to meet the state’s guidelines and receive a vaccine allocation.
His vision for campus improvements has spanned his service at UTHSC. He has directed the Campus Master Plan, which has resulted in the restoration of the Historic Quadrangle at the center of campus.
The restoration includes reopening the old Mooney Library Building as office and conference space, the Nash and Nash Annex Buildings as research space, and the Crowe Building as the first home for the UTHSC College of Nursing. The $70 million project took almost three years to complete.
In addition to the Plough Center, the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center is also managed by Dr. Brown. He has led numerous projects of grand scale at UTHSC, including the construction of the Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation (CHIPS), the Plough Center, the Emergency Operations Center in the General Education Building, and has directed security improvements on campus, resulting in UTHSC being named among the Safest Colleges in America, multiple times.
The Memphis Business Journal’s editorial team compiled the Power 100 list, which names religious, civic, sports, or government leaders in business.
Other UTHSC Leaders Named
For the first-time Jon McCullers, MD, senior associate dean for Clinical Affairs and chief operating officer for the UTHSC College of Medicine, and pediatrician-in-chief at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital was named to the list. Dr. McCullers, who is also chair of Pediatrics at UTHSC, has been on the front lines of the response to the coronavirus pandemic at UTHSC and Le Bonheur. He is an infectious disease leader, advising the local and statewide response to the pandemic. Dr McCullers is a member of the Shelby County Board of Health, the Memphis and Shelby County COVID-19 Joint Task Force established by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Mayor Harris, and on the COVID-19 Advisory Committee for the UT System.
Manoj Jain, MD, assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the UTHSC College of Medicine, and medical advisor for the Memphis Shelby County COVID-19 Task Force was also named to the Power 100 list.
Among others named to the list are City of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland; Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris; and University of Memphis men’s basketball head coach Penny Hardaway.