Staff
Leslie Henderson
President/CEO of The Roane Alliance
Ms. Henderson has been the President and CEO of The Roane Alliance since February 16, 2004. She serves on the International Advisory Committee of the International Economic Development Council, and was featured in the March 2006 Business Tennessee magazine in their Executive Profile. Leslie came to the Alliance from the City of Knoxville, where she had been Development Director under former Mayor Victor Ashe. During her tenure in Knoxville, she oversaw the redevelopment of Market Square in downtown Knoxville, as well as implemention of a new downtown residential tax incentives program. She has lived and worked overseas twice, once in Beijing and another time in Prague. She is married, and now lives in a house on Watts Bar Lake, South of the River, with her husband, Barry, who is the editor of a weekly newspaper in Knoxville. They have four grown children and two beloved grandchildren.
Wanda Pinkerton
Business Retention & Expansion and Chief Administrative Officer.
Ms. Pinkerton joined the Alliance as Chief Administrative Officer in September, 2005. Previously she handled trusts, estates and real estate for a bank in Knoxville, and for a number of years was the Executive Assistant to the County Administrator in Citrus County Florida. Wanda is currently the Secretary of the Roane County Association of Women Executives. Her husband Jim is the Kingston City Manager. They live in Kingston on Watts Bar Lake.
Teresa Jackson
Fiscal and Industrial Services Specialist
Ms. Jackson has been an employee of the Industrial Development Board and the Roane Alliance for over eight years. Ms. Jackson also serves as the Three Star Program Coordinator for Roane County. Ms. Jackson is originally from Coalfield but now resides in Kingston. She is the mother of two grown children and the proud "Nana" of two precious grandchildren.
Brenda Lunsford
Member Services Director
Ms. Lunsford holds a business degree from Knoxville Business College and worked for seventeen years in social work. She also formerly filled several positions at Whittle Communications in Knoxville including Marketing and Public Relations Specialist and Publishing Specialist for the Special Report Network, a print and television program produced exclusively for doctors' waiting rooms. Her duties included traveling to major cities nationwide and working with major advertisers such as P&G, Johnson & Johnson, McNeil, HBO, Nike and PepsiCo. She and her husband, Bob, moved from Knoxville to Roane County several years ago and now live in West Roane County. She enjoys gardening and traveling as well as being with her family which includes two wonderful grandchildren.
Paulette Johnson
Office Assistant/Visitors' Services
Paulette Johnson is the newest addition to The Roane Alliance. She is presently working in areas of tourism, Visitor's Center, Chamber of Commerce and administrative tasks. She is a Roane County native and resides in Kingston, TN with her 3 beautiful children - Macy, Josh and Colby. She is also the owner/director of the World Champion, South Eastern Cloggers of Knoxville, TN. When Paulette is not working she enjoys running, reading and playing with her children.
Donna Hall
Office Assistant
Ms. Hall works part time for The Roane Alliance helping out in the areas of tourism, Visitor's Center, Chamber of Commerce, and with administrative tasks. Donna is a lifelong Roane Countian who worked for BWXT Y-12 for ~23 years. She has always dreamed of becoming a teacher and is pursuing that dream through Roane State Community College, where she will graduate in the summer and begin Tennessee Tech's 2+2 Teaching Program in Education in the fall. She lives with her husband, Rusty, their son, Alex, and her three poodles in Harriman. When Donna is not working or studying, she enjoys watching her nephew, Cody, play baseball and camping with her family.
Beverly Stroh
Manager, Tourism & Marketing
Ms. Stroh is the tourism/marketing manager at The Roane Alliance, where she has worked for nearly two years. In the last year, the hotel/motel rates for Roane County have increased ten percent and she was instrumental in launching the first annual Chamber of Commerce fishing tournament drawing over 300 fishermen to the area. She relocated to Tennessee from Michigan, where she was employed in the communications/marketing office of a public university, serving as the university webmaster. Beverly holds a bachelors degree with high honors in computer information systems and a masters degree in public administration. Her final thesis was a concentration of municipal issues to include broadband access and public services. She is retired from the United States Air Force and received many commendations and medals for her service. Beverly is a board member of the civic group Rockwood 2000 and also works on a volunteer basis with the Rockwood Industrial Board. She resides with her husband and two Belgian Tervuren sheepdogs in Rockwood.
