2024 DEI Summit

May 17, 2024

7:30 am – 3:00 pm

MeadowView Convention Center in Kingsport, TN

Attend the DEI Summit in Kingsport to gain essential insights and skills for fostering a more inclusive and equitable workplace. Network with industry leaders, expand your knowledge, and be part of a community committed to creating positive change in your organization and beyond.

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Why attend the DEI Summit?

More than ever, fostering and protecting diversity, equity, and inclusion is critical in our Appalachian Highlands region. That’s why we come together each spring to network, learn, and advance DEI initiatives in our area. When you attend the DEI Summit, you’ll gain invaluable knowledge from thought leaders and business experts, but also the rich perspective from your neighbors, colleagues, and new faces who are also passionate about DEI.

Highlights from last year

2024 DEI Summit Speakers

Calvin Butler

President & CEO, Exelon

Bio

Calvin Butler is president and chief executive oﬃcer of Exelon, the nation’s largest utility company by customer count, serving 10.5 million electric and gas customers in New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Delaware, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, through six local electric and natural gas companies. Butler serves on Exelon’s Executive Committee and is a member of the company’s Board of Directors.

Professional History

Prior to being named CEO at the end of 2022, Butler was president and chief operating oﬃcer of Exelon with responsibilities for Exelon’s six local energy companies: Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO and Pepco. Butler also served as CEO of BGE from 2014 to 2019. Previous roles at the company include senior vice president of Corporate Aﬀairs at BGE and vice president of Governmental and Legislative Aﬀairs at ComEd.

Before joining Exelon in 2008, Butler held senior leadership roles with the print, digital and supply chain solutions company R.R. Donnelley. Butler spent his early career with Central Illinois Light Company

(CILCORP, Inc.), where he worked in government aﬀairs, legal and strategy.

Industry and Civic Involvement

Butler serves as the vice chair of the Board of Directors for the Edison Electric Institute (EEI). He is on the Board of Directors and serves as the vice chair of the Institute of International Education (IIE) and on the Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory. He is a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, on the Board of Directors of the Economic Club of Chicago and is immediate past chair of the Greater Baltimore Committee. Butler also serves on the Board of Directors for the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, Batelle, Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, the Caves Valley Golf Club, and the Annika Sorenstam Foundation, in addition to the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.

He has been recognized by several organizations for his leadership and community commitment. The Daily Record listed him three times as one of Maryland’s “Most Admired CEOs.” In 2020, he was named among Black Enterprise magazine’s “Most Inﬂuential Black Executives in Corporate America.”

In 2022, the Boy Scouts of America recognized him with the Distinguished Citizen Award. That same year, The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture announced Butler as the ﬁrst recipient of its “Titan Award.” Butler is an active member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Education

Butler earned a bachelor’s degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., and a Juris Doctor degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Mo. He received an honorary doctorate of Humane Leters from Morgan State University in 2014.

Dr. Dannie Lynn Fountain

Disability Accommodations Program Manager, Google

Bio

Dannie Lynn Fountain is a multipassionate human – by day, she’s a Disability Accommodations Program Manager at Google and by night she supports clients and brands with HR-focused diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies. Her focus is on expanding disability inclusion within DEIB efforts by equipping people with the tools to craft change within their own situations, regardless of their seniority at work or authority within their team. Dannie Lynn has been interviewed or quoted in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Bustle, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Cosmopolitan, Digiday, The Everygirl, Girlboss, and more. Dannie Lynn’s latest book, Ending Checkbox Diversity: Rewriting the Story of Performative Allyship in Corporate America, was a #1 Amazon new release and is available everywhere you buy books.

Dr. Anthony C. Hood

EVP and Chief DEI Officer, First Horizon Bank

Bio

Dr. Anthony C. Hood serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for First Horizon Bank. Dr. Hood’s tenure as a DEI executive has garnered a number of leadership awards including from Savoy Magazine, the American Marketing Association and the Birmingham Business Journal. He previously served as the Director of Civic Innovation in the Office of the President at UAB as well as a Tenured Associate Professor of Management in the Collat School of Business at UAB. An electrical engineer by training, Dr. Hood enjoyed a 10-year career with Bellsouth and AT&T supporting startup telecom companies in the firm’s wholesale division. He was honored with the Pinnacle Award, the company’s highest honor for productivity and leadership. He holds a PhD from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!), and has completed studies at the Harvard Business School, Stanford University, and the Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Hood holds his undergrad and MBA from UAB (Go Blazers!), where he has been honored by the UAB Alumni Association with the prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award. Dr. Hood is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham and serves on the boards of a number of organizations including the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. He is also the Immediate Past Board Chair of the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District, the largest affordable housing provider in the state of Alabama.

April Lomax-Means

Director, Corporate Workforce Diversity, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee

Bio

April Lomax-Means is the director of corporate workforce diversity at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. In her role, she oversees all aspects of the BlueCross diversity and inclusion program. This includes developing and implementing an effective strategy within the organization and maintaining an environment that is sensitive to the needs of today’s workforce and enhances the BlueCross competitive advantage in the market. Lomax-Means has more than 10 years of experience in diversity and inclusion, and before joining BlueCross, most recently served as assistant director of DEI for Liberty Mutual. Prior, she was a senior manager of diversity and inclusion for Change Healthcare and served as an adjunct instructor of humanities at Georgia State University. Lomax-Means holds a master’s degree in corporate communication from Austin Peay State University and earned a bachelor’s in mass communications from Middle Tennessee State University with minors in African American studies and Spanish.

2024 DEI Summit Sponsors

Thank you to our regional partners and sponsors who are supporting the critical work of DEI in the Appalachian Highlands.