Housing Education Symposium

2025 Housing Education Symposium 

The Housing Education & Resource Team hosted the 2025 Housing Education Symposium in Memphis this year, as we celebrated Tennessee Housing Counselors with a Memphis Soul Stew Blues theme! It was a wonderful collaboration of Housing Counselors, lenders, and housing industry experts coming together to enhance sustainable housing across Tennessee.  The event was kicked off with a City Bus Tour of Memphis neighborhoods showcasing development of homes being constructed by one of our network partners, United Housing Inc., as well as showcasing development of Klondike Smokey CDC and The Works. Our City Bus Tour Sponsor, Pinnacle Financial Partners, was able to show their Pinnacle Economic Empowerment Resource (PEER) Center in the Whitehaven community that has banking and community space the community can utilize for meetings or classes. We conducted our Opening Plenary on Monday with a Welcome Video from THDA’s Executive Director, Ralph Perrey, and a warm greeting from Ashley Cash with the City of Memphis.

During the Monday evening Memphis Soul Stew: Awards Reception, we celebrated Tennessee Housing Counselors by recognizing their outstanding work.

Top Producer Awards included:

  • You Can Make It Homeownership Center
  • Unlimited Potential CDC
  • HomeSource of east tennessee
  • Affordable Housing Resources
  • Eastern Eight CDC
  • UT Extension Dyer County
  • Dominion Financial Management
  • United Housing
  • UT Extension Hamblen County
  • Knoxville Area Urban League
  • Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Chattanooga
  • UT Extension Madison County

 Housing Counselors who were recognized with a Wow Award were:

  • Elizabeth Elizondo Renfro of UT Extension Washington County (1st to Register Award)
  • Selah Melvin of Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise (Rising Star Award)
  • Ernesto Rene Yanes of Knoxville Area Urban League (Reporting Award)
  • Rachel Erwin of UT Extension Dyer County (Exceptional Service Award)
  • Stacy Clark of UT Extension Lawrence County (Perseverance Award)
  • Donna Calhoun of UT Extension Polk County (Kindness & Willingness to Help Others Award)
  • Antoinette Jenkins of New Level CDC (Continuing Education Hour Award)

The 2025 Vicki Goerge Award of Housing Industry Excellence was awarded to:

  • Deborah Balthrop of Good Neighbor Foundation & Life of Victory

Housing Education & Counseling partners and Symposium sponsors were recognized in the Memphis Soul Stew video.

Congratulations to all our winners!

Tuesday’s keynote speaker, Dr. Earl Suttle, energized and lifted everyone in the audience on their feet with Dr. Earl’s Inspirational Pearls. His challenge was to have everyone do a personal growth plan and determine the attitude they will live by to achieve their goals. Yvonne Hall, HERT Manager, also challenged each Network Partner to collaborate with 1 sponsor and 1 vendor from this year’s conference to connect on how they can work together to promote their programs and services to the greater community.

Click Here for 2025 Symposium Photos 

 

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

We want to thank the many banks and housing industry sponsors who made this event possible. They not only shared information about the incredible work they are doing in the community, but they also made great connections to the Housing Counseling community in Tennessee. We want to recognize them for their outstanding work!

SESSION PRESENTATIONS