At Scale: The tnAchieves Podcast

Most students picture one job when they picture Tractor Supply. Melissa Kersey, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, is here to widen the frame. Melissa joins Ben Sterling and Graham Thomas to talk about what a career at Tennessee’s largest rural lifestyle retailer actually looks like: about 100 internships a year, co-op programs in engineering and IT that earn college credi...

Sylvamo spun off from International Paper five years ago, but its Memphis roots run much deeper. On this episode of At Scale, Neki Catron, Global Community Engagement Manager at Sylvamo, sits down with hosts Krissy DeAlejandro and Tyler Ford to talk about how a global paper company builds real community engagement at home. Neki walks through her own path from Memphis native to what she calls her d...

Economic prosperity has always been the goal. For nearly two decades, tnAchieves has helped Tennessee students navigate the journey from high school to college, from college to graduation and, increasingly, from graduation to a meaningful career. What began as a local idea has become a statewide model built on a simple conviction: opportunity only matters when students can turn it into lasting eco...

Mentor registration for the tnAchieves class of 2027 is open, and this episode of At Scale is dedicated entirely to the mentor program: why it exists, how it has changed, and what it looks like today. tnAchieves Chief Content Officer Ben Sterling and Chief Community and Government Affairs Officer Graham Thomas open the episode by revisiting 2008, when the mentor program launched with 165 volunteer...

Hilton has stood alongside tnAchieves since 2011, making it one of the organization's longest-standing corporate partners. On this episode of At Scale, hosts Ben Sterling and Tyler Ford sit down with Hope Thomas, Senior Manager of HR Consulting at Hilton, to talk about what that partnership looks like today and why Hilton continues to invest in it, even as Tennessee's economy and workforce needs h...

Everyone's asking if college is still worth it. Dr. Jeff Strohl, Director of Research at Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce, brings 20+ years of labor market data to answer that question — and to define what actually makes a job "good." He talks with At Scale hosts Ben Sterling and Tyler Ford about earnings variance, underemployment myths, credentialing, and what it takes to connec...

On this episode of At Scale , tnAchieves welcomes Dr. Brian Noland, President of East Tennessee State University, for a conversation on building Northeast Tennessee’s workforce from the ground up. Dr. Noland shares how ETSU is expanding access, supporting student success and working with regional partners to create stronger pathways from high school to postsecondary education to career. The conver...

Herbert Brown didn't set out to work in construction. A Memphis native with a political science degree from UT and a master's in public administration from TSU, he spent his early career at the Higher Education Commission and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce — learning how education, workforce, and economic development all connect. Today, as Community and Citizen Director at Turner Construction,...

In this episode of At Scale, tnAchieves welcomes Alfred Degrafinreid II, President and CEO of Leadership Tennessee, for a conversation about leadership, education, public service and building stronger connections across the state. A proud Memphian, Alfred shares how his journey through Tennessee State University, law school, government, campaigns, higher education and civic leadership shaped the w...

What happens when a community invests in curiosity? In this episode of At Scale, tnAchieves is joined by Scott Williams, President and CEO of Discovery Park of America, to explore how one of Northwest Tennessee’s most unique destinations is helping students and families “see beyond.” Scott shares the story of Discovery Park’s founding, the vision of Robert Kirkland and the role hands-on learning p...

In this episode of the At Scale Podcast, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp joins us to discuss why he has made education and workforce development a priority in his role—something not typically associated with county government. Wamp shares how his administration is working to expand postsecondary opportunities for students by investing in career and technical education, supporting multiple pathwa...

In this episode of At Scale, the podcast hosted by tnAchieves, Krissy DeAlejandro and Ben Sterling sit down with Dr. Tracy Hall, president of Southwest Tennessee Community College, and Dr. Michael Torrence, president of Motlow State Community College. Together, they explore leadership, innovation and partnership in support of student success across Tennessee’s community colleges. The conversation...

This week’s episode is a special one. We are celebrating one year of the At Scale podcast, and we could not imagine a better guest to mark the occasion than the 49th Governor of Tennessee, Bill Haslam. Governor Haslam has been deeply connected to the tnAchieves story from the very beginning. From early skepticism around a small idea sketched on a whiteboard to helping scale it into what became Ten...

In this special edition of At Scale, tnAchieves releases Tennessee’s Future Workforce Framework, a new strategy grounded in student voice and nearly two decades of experience supporting postsecondary access, persistence and workforce readiness. Drawing from survey responses from nearly 6,000 students, the framework highlights key challenges facing Tennessee students today—from financial hardship a...

In this episode of At Scale, Tara Scarlett discusses leadership, scholarship impact, statewide education strategy, and preparing Tennessee students for the future workforce. In this episode: Tara’s journey from corporate marketing to nonprofit leadership The mission and impact of the Scarlett Family Foundation Expanding scholarship access across rural, suburban, and urban Middle Tennessee Why Tenn...

In Episode 23 of At Scale, Chancellor Donde Plowman of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville joins tnAchieves for a conversation about leading a flagship, land-grant university with clarity and purpose. At the center of the discussion is a simple idea: student success must remain the north star, even within a large and complex institution. Chancellor Plowman shares how alignment across leadership...

Every statewide movement has a beginning — and for tnAchieves, that beginning was a simple but bold idea sketched out on a whiteboard: every Tennessee student deserves a chance to continue their education and build a future through a credential of value. In this episode, An Idea on a Whiteboard Part 2, former Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale — founding board member and longtime champion of public s...

In this episode of At Scale from tnAchieves, Josh Brown, CEO of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, and Stephanie Coleman, CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, join the conversation to break down what is driving Tennessee’s economic growth and what it will take to sustain it. From regional job creation and rural prosperity to education-to-career pathways and high-wage, high-demand industr...

In this listener-recommended episode of At Scale, hosts Ben Sterling and Graham Thomas sit down with Jeff Riley, former Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education and current Executive Director of Day of AI, a nonprofit launched out of MIT that helps schools and communities understand and responsibly use artificial intelligence. After more than three decades in public educati...

In this episode of tnAchieves At Scale, we dive into the cutting-edge world of automated manufacturing with the team behind HAMMER – Hybrid Autonomous Manufacturing, Moving from Evolution to Revolution. Hosts from tnAchieves are joined by Dr. Glenn Daehn and Dr. Samantha Trzinski from The Ohio State University to discuss how this ambitious national initiative is reshaping the future of advanced ma...

In this episode of the tnAchieves At Scale Podcast, we are joined by Dr. Keith Gray and Craig Pickett from UT Medical Center for an in-depth conversation on workforce demands across East Tennessee and the critical role healthcare partners play in preparing the next generation of talent. Together, we explore how tnAchieves and UT Medical Center collaborate to create meaningful job shadowing and car...

From Policy to Practice with Senator Bo Watson On this episode of the At Scale podcast, tnAchieves President and CEO Krissy DeAlejandro and Senior Vice President Graham Thomas sit down with Senator Bo Watson, longtime representative of Hamilton County and Chair of the Senate Finance Committee. Guided by his belief that his role is to “improve quality of life for all Tennesseans,” Senator Watson di...

The TN Promise scholarship offers every high school senior in the state of Tennessee the chance to go to community college or technical school tuition and mandatory fee free. As a partnering organization to the TN Promise scholarship, tnAchieves could not do the work we do without the partnership and support of the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR). TBR is a unified system that oversees every commu...

At tnAchieves, we believe that Building Tennessee’s Future Workforce begins with ensuring that every community—especially our rural ones—as a seat at the table. That means making a commitment to making sure students are skilled, educated and prepared to meet the needs of businesses once they graduate and enter the workforce. It also means fostering partnerships with organizations that are on the g...

Building Tennessee’s Future Workforce means having strong relationships with the chambers of commerce across the state. We often sit down with their leaders who wake up each day thinking about the best ways to drive a thriving economy, hire a diverse and talented workforce and attract the best businesses to their area. Those are also things we think about as we help students into and through colle...