Board
In May 2008, the Hooks Institute’s Advisory Board (Board) was created to assist the Hooks Institute in the strategic development and implementation of its mission and programs. The Board is composed of accomplished individuals dedicated to the uplift of communities in Memphis and the nation. Members have included community activists, attorneys, engineers, corporate and public relations officials and the clergy.
Board Officers | Executive Committee
Steve Swain, Chair
Steve Swain is a senior vice president and community lending manager at Pinnacle Financial Partners. Steve is a native of Alabama and joined Pinnacle in 2019. He relocated to Memphis in 1997. He leads the lending production office teams and partners with consumer, mortgage, and community development to deliver lending programs. Steve serves on Pinnacle’s Corporate Social Responsibility committee, Community Development committee, and Retail Credit committee. Prior to joining Pinnacle, he held several senior leadership roles with First Horizon and Associates First Capital Corporation. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from the University of Montevallo in Alabama. Steve currently serves as vice president of the Memphis CRA Association. He is a past board member of Operation HOPE, Inc. - HOPE Inside National Advisory Board.
Claire Brulatour, Vice Chair
Claire Brulatour is the Senior Community Relations Specialist for the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Community Trust and Foundation, where she executes community relations efforts through charitable giving and volunteer initiatives in West Tennessee. Claire oversees a diverse portfolio of sponsorships related to the company’s overall mission: to provide peace of mind through better health, including the Foundation’s signature cause, building active, healthy spaces in communities across Tennessee. Claire serves as the Board Chair for the parks advocacy group, Bloom, the associate board of Make-A-Wish of Memphis and the Mid-South, and a past board member of Latino Memphis. She is a graduate of Leadership Tennessee Next as well as the New Memphis Institute’s Fellows program. Claire received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and French from Christian Brothers University and a Master of Arts in English Literature from George Mason University.
Marvin Todd, Secretary
BOARD
Andrew Meyers, Immediate Past Chair
Dr. Andrew Meyers is an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Memphis, where he served as vice president for research and executive director of the University’s Research Foundation. He is a three-time winner of University’s Superior Performance in Research Award and received the College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Research Award and the college’s Meritorious Faculty Award. Meyers has also served as president of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. He has been a consultant to the U.S. Olympic Committee on issues of athlete and coach performance. Meyers is a graduate of Leadership Memphis and has been actively involved in community issues throughout the Mid-South.
The Honorable Bernice B. Donald
The Honorable Bernice B. Donald received her law degree from the University of Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, a LLM from Duke University School of Law, and an honorary Doctors in Law from Suffolk University. Prior to being appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2011, she served on the U.S. District Court for over fifteen years.
Judge Donald is a member of the prestigious American Law Institute and the American Bar Association (“ABA”) including ABA sections; Judicial Division, Appellate Judges, Criminal Justice, Labor and Employment Law, Antitrust, Civil Rights and Social Justice, and Litigation, as well as the Center for Human Rights, where she chairs the Dignity Rights Project. She has served as Chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights and chaired a committee which published an implicit bias resource book for judges and practitioners titled, Enhancing Justice: Reducing Bias. Judge Donald served as Chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section, focusing on issues concerning implicit bias, children of incarcerated parents, mass incarceration, and the collateral consequences of incarceration.
Reverend Dr. LaSimba Gray Jr.
Reverend Dr. LaSimba Gray Jr. is a Memphis civil rights activist with international reach. Educated at the Memphis Theological Seminary he served for 25 years as pastor of the historic New Sardis Baptist Church. His activism and service for the community extended far beyond his Church and earned him awards and honors too numerous to list. To pick just one: in 1999, the Shelby County Commission renamed a major section of Holmes Road in Memphis “The Dr. L. LaSimba Gray, Jr. Road” to honor Dr. Gray for his long tenure of service in Shelby County. Numerous other leadership roles include service on the Board of Director of Tri-State Bank and representation of the American Clergy at the 2005 G-8 Summit in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is highly accomplished in community organization and fundraising and responsible for five historical markers in Memphis. He currently leads an initiative to erect an Ida B. Wells Memorial Statue on Beale Street.
The Honorable Kenya Hooks
Kenya Hooks is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia in 1996 and started her professional career at National City Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. Hooks relocated to Memphis in 2003 to attend law school and received her Juris Doctor from Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 2008. She is married to Michael Hooks, the great-nephew of Benjamin and Frances Hooks. She worked as a legal assistant for Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks throughout law school and until he died in 2010. Hooks worked in private practice as a civil litigator for Bruce Turner, PLLC from 2010-2013. In 2013 she began her career at the City of Memphis as an Assistant City Prosecutor, prosecuting violations of the City Code and working in partnership with the District Attorney General's office to reduce blight in the Memphis community. In Jan. 2019 she was appointed to Chief Prosecutor at the City of Memphis and in 2022 she was elected as Judge of Memphis Municipal Court, Division 1.
Raminder Lotay
Raminder (Rami) Lotay is a Project Manager at the FedEx Institute of Technology, the applied research arm of the University of Memphis. In his current role, Rami focuses on providing workforce development opportunities to corporate, non-profit and government organizations. He provides research support to the 7 research clusters located at the FIT and countless researchers across the UofM. He also works closely with local technology community partners on events, hackathons, etc. Rami received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Memphis and is a graduate of the New Memphis Institute’s Fellows program.
Joylisa Scott
Joylisa Scott is a native of Jacksonville, Florida. She received both a Bachelor of Science in Food and Resource Economics and Master of Business Administration from University of Florida. Joy has over 10 years of sales and operations leadership experience at PepsiCo. In her current role as Transformation Manager, she provides training and change management support to PepsiCo sales and operations leaders on new internal processes. Prior to this, she served as the General Manager of PepsiCo for the Greater Memphis area where she led sales, delivery, and warehouse operations for the area. In this role, she also partnered with local organizations such as Collierville Chamber of Commerce, Memphis Chamber of Commerce, Memphis Grizzlies, and Boys and Girls Club of Memphis to solidify the organization is a staple in the Memphis community.
Emeritus Board Members
Logan Meeks
Logan Meeks is a partner and president of operations at A2H, Inc., the leading architectural, engineering, and planning firm in the Mid-South region. He serves on the executive committee of the firm as a partner. In addition to his service on the Hooks Institute Community Advisory Board, Meeks is a board member at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
He is a member of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis and the University Club of Memphis. Meeks is also active on several technical engineering boards for local and state organizations. Meeks served as the Hooks Institute Advisory Board Chair from 2014– January 2018.
Honorary Board Members
Aashish Gahlaut
Aashish Gahlaut is a Vice President of Marketing with FedEx and a Memphis resident
for over 25 years . He grew up in India and got his Masters in Industrial Engineering
from the University of Alabama before joining FedEx. He is passionate about making
Memphis a better place each day.
Patricia Hooks Gray
Patricia Hooks Gray is the daughter of Rev. Benjamin L. Hooks and Frances D. Hooks. She is an innovative educator who taught language arts and social studies in the Princeton School District in Cincinnati, OH. Pat created and presented reading units for teachers at Core Knowledge Conventions across the country. Her master's degree as a Reading Specialist was earned at Xavier University in Cincinnati.
For twenty-one years, she was an Adjunct Professor at Xavier teaching undergrad and graduate-level courses in reading. Her time is spent supporting the Education Ministry with teenagers at her church. She is an avid reader and researcher of relevant issues and topics in society.
Johnnie R. Turner
Ms. Johnnie R. Turner was born in Hughes, Ark., to sharecropper parents. When she was 3 years old, her parents escaped with their children under the cloak of darkness and made their way to Memphis, where she later graduated from Manassas High School in the top 5% of her class. Her activism began during her years at LeMoyne-Owen College where she participated in sit-ins and was subsequently arrested. She returned to Memphis and taught for 30 years at Memphis City Schools, assuming leadership roles, including serving as executive director for the Memphis Branch of the NAACP. Ms. Turner represented District 85 in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 2010 to 2018. Awards include Who’s Who in Black America, Great Women of the 21st Century, Shelby County Schools Hall of Fame, and Legislator of the Year.