Vanderbilt University Archives

Five receive Muddy Boot Awards

Posted at 3:09 pm December 22, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Five people won Muddy Boot Awards this year. In the top row, from left, they are Tom Ballard, David Bradshaw, and Sue Cange. In the bottom row are David Millhorn, left, and Ken Rueter.

Five people received Muddy Boot Awards this year. They include scientists, business leaders, government officials, and a man who has done a little of everything during his career, a press release said.

Here are the winners of the 2017Â Muddy Boot Awards, which are from the the East Tennessee Economic Council:

Tom Ballard, who has had three careersâ€”with the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and now Pershing Yoakley and Associates, and still finds time to “spread the gospel of innovation” with his daily Teknovation.biz newsletter.
David Bradshaw, another multi-tasker who has worked at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Technology 2020, and most recently Pinnacle Financial Partners, and who has also served as the mayor of Oak Ridge and chairs of dozens of community causes.
Sue Cange, whose career with the U.S. Department of Energy saw her rise from a new employee in the environmental management program to the acting head of that same program before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University this fall and who, in many ways over the years, enabled the reindustrialization program at the East Tennessee Technology Park site.
David Millhorn, senior vice president of the University of Tennessee and a leader in the revitalization of both the university system and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Ken Rueter, president of URS | CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), a relative newcomer to East Tennessee who brings energy to everything he does, whether it be the environmental stewardship programs at ETTP or his work building hiking and biking trails while supporting the Foothills Land Conservancy and the East Tennessee Childrenâ€™s Hospital.

â€œThe one common trait in these five individuals,â€ ETEC President Jim Campbell said, â€œis the passion they bring in their own way to the work they do. Their dedication is infectious, and it makes everyone around them better. Clearly each person has made East Tennessee a better place to work, to play, and to thrive.â€ [Read more…]

JMS Principal Phil Cox inducted into basketball hall of fame in Kentucky

Posted at 10:36 am July 29, 2017
By John Huotari 1 Comment

Phil Cox, principal of Jefferson Middle School in Oak Ridge, has been inducted into the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame. (Photo courtesy Kimberly Cox)

Phil Cox, principal of Jefferson Middle School in Oak Ridge, has been inducted into the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame, according to the Middlesboro (Kentucky) Daily News.

The newspaper reported that Cox, a high school basketball legend, was one of 19 inductees in the 2017 class.

Cox was a standout at Loyall Elementary School, where he played for Hall of Fame member Billy Hicks, and he earned all-state honors by the time he was a junior at Cawood High School, where he averaged 35 points a game, the Daily News said. He was Mr. Basketball in Kentucky as a senior and was, at the time, the all-time leading scorer in Harlan County, with 2,401 points. [Read more…]

Updated: Cange, former Oak Ridge cleanup manager, appointed visiting scholar at Vanderbilt

Posted at 12:05 am July 7, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Sue Cange, who was then manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, is pictured above at the end of demolition of the K-27 Building on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was updated at 12 p.m.

Sue Cange, former head of the federal government’s cleanup program in Oak Ridge, has been appointed as a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, a spokesperson said Wednesday.

It’s a two-year appointment as a visiting scholar in civil and environmental engineering that started July 5, Vanderbilt University spokesperson Jim Patterson said. Cange has bachelorâ€™s and masterâ€™s degrees in environmental engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Cange remains a paid U.S. Department of Energy employee, Patterson said. At Vanderbilt, she will help to establish a nuclear environmental engineering curriculum and internship program.

Cange is a formerÂ manager of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. She had most recently worked at U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C.Â In December, sheÂ was named principal deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM. She had previously beenÂ interim principal deputy assistant secretary,Â temporarily serving in the role formerly filled by Mark Whitney, who took a job in the private sector.Â Whitney is also a former manager of the Environmental Management program in Oak Ridge.

In January, CangeÂ became acting assistant secretary for environmental management, the Exchange Monitor reported. She replaced Monica Regalbuto on a temporary basis, at about the time that President Donald Trump was inaugurated. Regalbuto was the Obama administrationâ€™s final appointee to the position that oversees DOEâ€™s $6-billion-a-year legacy nuclear cleanup program.

But last week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that James M. Owendoff had been promoted to principal deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Environmental Management, or EM, replacing Cange. Owendoff had served as a senior adviser to the assistant EM secretary since January 2010, DOE said. [Read more…]

Former officer, football player reaches plea agreement in statutory rape case

Posted at 1:40 pm June 16, 2017
By John Huotari 1 Comment

Cassen Jackson-Garrison, a former police officer and professional football player, has agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct, and he will be sentenced to two years of supervised probation, officials said this week. Jackson-Garrison is pictured above standing at right during a plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, June 12, 2017. At left is his attorney Greg Isaacs of Knoxville. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

CLINTONâ€”Cassen Jackson-Garrison, a former police officer and professional football player, has agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct, and he will be sentenced to two years of supervised probation, officials said this week.

Jackson-Garrison, 32, had a plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Monday. He is a former Oak Ridge Police Department officer who once played football for Vanderbilt University and the Kansas City Chiefs.

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Cassen Jackson-Garrison, a former police officer and professional football player, has agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct, and he will be sentenced to two years of supervised probation, officials said this week. Jackson-Garrison is pictured above standing at right during a plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The rest of this story, which you will read only on Oak Ridge Today, is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.

Already a member? Great! Thank you! Sign in here.

Not a member? No problem! Subscribe here:

Basic

Pro

Temporary

Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

We also haveÂ advanced subscription options. You can see themÂ here.

We also acceptÂ donations. You can donateÂ here. A donation of $50 or more will make you eligible for a subscription.

Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support!

Bill Haslam at ORNL Tennessine Martin McDonald Thom Mason ORHS Students

Principal Martin McDonald, left, and students from Oak Ridge High School accepted the first new chart of the periodic table featuring element tennessine and signed by Governor Bill Haslam, right, and ORNL Director Thom Mason, second from left. To mark the discovery of tennessine, UT-Battelle is donating a new chart to all public middle and high schools in Tennessee. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam visited the U.S. Department of Energyâ€™s Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Friday to congratulate the ORNL team involved in the discovery of the element tennessine, named in recognition of the vital contributions of the state of Tennessee to the international search for new superheavy elements.

UT-Battelle, the managing contractor of ORNL, is marking the discovery by providing more than 1,000 public middle schools and high schools in Tennessee with new charts of the periodic table. Tennessineâ€”the official name for element 117â€”completes the seventh row of the table and the column of elements classified as halogens.

The charts will include the signatures of Haslam and ORNL Director Thom Mason.

â€œWe had two very significant announcements in Tennessee this fall as it relates to science,” Haslam said. “In October, the Nationâ€™s Report Card announced that Tennessee students are the fastest improving in the nation in science, and in November, Tennessee became only the second state to be recognized in the periodic table of elements. Having an element named in our honor is further evidence of the scientific excellence that exists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University, and other institutions throughout our state, and by UT-Battelle donating new periodic tables to every middle and high school in Tennessee, students can feel proud of our stateâ€™s important role in the scientific community and inspired to play a role in its future.â€ [Read more…]