Hutchins Named New Chair Of Tennessee Association of Community Leadership

Mark Hutchins has been named the new chair of the Tennessee Association of Community Leadership.

Hutchins serves as the board chair at IMPACT Cookeville where he was a founding member 10 years ago. Hutchins said he is honored to lead a statewide association to cultivate leaders across Tennessee.

“It’s important for those that aspire for leadership to have access to skills and training to really understand what that means, whether it’s in their community or in the nonprofits within their community,” Hutchins said. “And it’s helpful for citizens of any type to understand what is available and what’s going on within their community.”

Hutchins said he plans to continue to develop the curriculum that the association uses to teach individuals and other leadership programs. Hutchins said he expects the association to have a great impact on leaders in the Upper Cumberland when the annual Leadership Conference comes to Cookeville in 2024.

“What we’re trying to do this next year is to promote stronger leadership within our communities, to help smaller communities be able to develop leadership programs because that does take people and money and things like that to run a successful program,” Hutchins said. “And to also just provide a toolbox of information and helpful resources for those programs so that they can sustain great programs.”

Hutchins replaces Stephanie Brackman from Leadership Rutherford. He said he plans to follow the progression that they planned together to ensure that the association is the service that smaller local programs need to be able to rely on. He said he intends to place more emphasis on providing that service and promotion for smaller programs across the state.

“I’m just excited to have TACL come visit our hometown, and I’m looking forward to share more with the community as the year progresses,” Hutchins said.