MemphisConnect has worked with 82 people since founded two years ago - Memphis Business Journal:

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MemphisConnect also helps increase the appeal and ease the transitionm to a new city by offering its servicesx for the spouses of prospective employees in findingt professional andsocial opportunities. So far, the program has workex with 82 people, says Kristee Bell, who has been directotr of MemphisConnect sinceDecember 2008. “We have 130 in waiting,” she One of MemphisConnect’s goals is to place newcomeras to Memphis on the boards of directors ofnonprofiy groups. “Nonprofits need thosse type people who want to be she says. “We make sure there’zs a real person there.
” Bell says 150 people were places on nonprofit boards last year by the LeadershiAcademy programs. “That’s kind of how we do it, by understandinyg what their passion is and gettingy them connected to their she says. Jana Lamanna was placed on the board of directorsz of after participating in the MemphisConnect program when she permanently relocated to Memphies from Missouriin 2004. “Now when I need a boars member or need someoneto serve, I can contactt the Leadership Academy,” says Lamanna, an attorney with . “Theuy have provided me with names of qualified andwilling persons.
” Lamannz says MemphisConnect and some of the otherr programs the Leadership Academyt offers helped her transition and allowed her to becom e more involved and invested in the “The MemphisConnect program can really direct you to what your interestzs are,” she says. “I have more friendes and contacts here than anywherdelse I’ve lived.” Bell says human resources managers and employers are attracted to the MemphisConnect program becaus they see it as a way to get theirt prospective and new employees adjusted to and investeed in their new hometown. “(Employers) include our letter in all theifrecruitment packets,” she says.
“They want to make sure thes e people they are putting their money into will stay in One company that has begun to use the MemphisConnect programk to enhance its recruiting effortsis . One of the biggesg challenges in recruitingfor St. Jude’s post-doctoratse fellowship program is finding opportunitiesfor candidates’ spouses, says Carl Jackson, associate director of the academic programs offic in biomedical sciences. Jacaranda van Rheenen, post-doctora l recruiter in the same St. Jude office, says it is too earlty in St.
Jude’s relationship with the Leadership Academyh to know how effective the MemphisConnect prograj will be in connectingprospective post-doctorate fellows and theird spouses. “But, I know (Bell) managed to find some positionxs that would be of interest to one of the spousex who will be comingin August,” van Rheene says. For St. the greatest benefit from working with MemphisConnect will be Bell showingtpotential post-doctoral fellows what Memphis has to offer by providingt information and giving presentations to groups of candidates. “Kristede has all this information at her vanRhennen says. “It’s a great sourcr of informationabout Memphis.
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