business briefs

• Cole Sitzlar, Joe Conley and Landon Carter recently joined EXIT Realty Pros team of real estate professionals in Knoxville.

• Darrell Hitson, Rachel Matousek and Julie Robinson recently joined Pinnacle Financial Partners’ team in Knoxville with a combined 54 years of experience.

Hitson joined the firm as a senior vice president and mortgage advisor with 17 years of industry knowledge experience; Matousek brings 19 years of experience to her role of senior vice president and credit advisor; and Robinson, with 18 years of experience, joins Pinnacle as a treasury management analyst in the firm’s client advisory group.

• University of Tennessee associate professor Neelam Chandra Poudyal recently received a Fulbright Scholar Award for 2022-2023. This fall, Poudyal will visit the Institute of Forestry, Pokhara Campus of Tribhuvan University in Nepal, where he will collaborate with the faculty of Wildlife and Protected Area Management to conduct research on sustaining human-wildlife co-existence in the fringe areas of Nepal’s national parks.

• Knox County Health Department and East Tennessee Wellness Roundtable are hosting a recognition ceremony to celebrate 11 local businesses and agencies that are taking steps to support worksite wellness 9 a.m., Thursday, May 19, in Ijams Nature Center’s Visitor Center Banquet Hall, 2915 Island Home Ave. The businesses and agencies are: CASA of East Tennessee, Compassionate Choice, Metro Drug Coalition, Nourish Knoxville, Profile, Edfinancial Services, UT Institute for Public Service, YWCA of Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley, Covenant Health Systems, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Oak Ridge Associated Universities.