Darla Scott to Represent Northeast Tennessee Region on Leadership Tennessee Team

Local executive Darla Scott has been named to the 2023-2024 Leadership Tennessee Signature Program Class X.  The Leadership Tennessee program recruits local professionals from fourteen Tennessee counties with a wide range of executive leadership experiences in business, education, nonprofit, and government sectors.

Scott–a native of Kingsport and executive leader with Bank of Tennessee–will represent the Appalachian Highland region in the new class to bring our unique perspective to current opportunities to improve and grow our state’s capabilities for all Tennessee residents. The cohort will spend the next ten months visiting all corners of the state, collecting information about our state’s needs, and working together to identify the best solutions and opportunities. The Leadership Tennessee statewide tour will then produce a concrete plan to continue dialogue and tasks addressing the highest priority issues discovered.

As someone who has spent much of her life in the beauty of Northeast Tennessee, Scott has become deeply committed to seeing the communities represented here flourish and grow. “The people in our communities are really special,” explained Darla Scott, EVP & CFO for Bank of Tennessee. “The personality, generosity, and hospitality here are second to none, and the natural beauty and amazing resources will surely attract more like-minded professionals to our region in years to come. I’m really looking forward to representing my neighbors on the Leadership Tennessee cohort and bringing back invaluable insights to help us improve and work more effectively together in our region.”

The Leadership Tennessee Class X held their opening session this past month and had great success in helping each member share their insights, perspectives, and goals with the rest of the team. “I loved the opening session and was incredibly impressed by the quality of people collected for this class. There are so many successful and talented Tennesseans in our cohort, and I’m very much looking forward to learning a lot from them and contributing to the goals we are setting,” said Scott.

The Class X cohort will be setting goals and priorities of what they will begin to focus on as they develop recommendations and ongoing insights into the most pressing opportunities for the state. In the opening session, several crucial issues came to the forefront. “Our class is looking forward to really drilling into the biggest issues that impact our economy, our future, and our quality of life,” explained Scott in an interview. “Education will be a keystone topic for our class. However, there is already a long list of topics that we as a team have identified that we need to evaluate and consider. These include healthcare, child services, diversity, drug addiction, and many others that are common across all the counties in Tennessee.”

Scott stated, “It is such a privilege to be nominated to represent our communities in this important work. I’m looking forward to the personal growth opportunities this experience will provide that I can bring back to our region while also offering our unique perspective, infectious optimism, and unbeatable work ethic to the Leadership Tennessee team.”

To learn more about Leadership Tennessee, please visit www.leadershiptennessee.org.

ABOUT LEADERSHIP TENNESSEE

Leadership Tennessee was founded in 2013 as an initiative of the College of Leadership and Public Service at Lipscomb University, and in 2021, it launched as an independent 501(c)(3). The program fosters collaborative, non-partisan dialogue on issues of state importance, connecting a network of diverse leaders and engaged citizens. Citizens with demonstrated community and professional leadership from every region of the state bring their diverse backgrounds and experiences to an in-depth exploration of the complex issues facing Tennessee, with a focus on how leaders can collaborate to effectively address those issues.