Driving our Economy Forward: EPB Supplier Diversity Day

May 29, 2024

Kay Blevins,

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – EPB hosted a Supplier Diversity Day recently to celebrate small and diverse businesses serving our community. It provided a forum for minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses to hear from experts on expanding opportunities.

Learn more about how EPB continues to drive our economy forward.

Kristin Copeland is EPB’s manager of minority and women owned businesses.

“Supplier Diversity Day is an opportunity for us to engage with our suppliers’ contractors’ vendors and even people who are just interested in doing business with EPB we are a new supplier for EPB,” Copeland said.

“The very first reason I decided to come here today was to support the idea of them doing this,” Chanda Chambers with Chambers Welding and Fabrication said. “Because I remember when we weren’t doing this and how hard it was for a new business like myself to get a relationship with EPB. So, this right here is very vital.”

The event took place on May 23 at the Chattanoogan Hotel.

“Underserved people are part of our community; they’re all of us. And so, we want to make sure they have an opportunity as well,” Copeland added. “They deserve it, they earn it, especially if they offer a value proposition. And so, a very interesting thing about small and disadvantaged businesses is they provide a very unique perspective. They have different backgrounds, different barriers, and them being able to navigate that provides innovative solutions for us. It creates competitive advantage, and they also give back to the community as well.”

Michael Jones, owner of Special Touch Landscape, attended the event as well.

“My company started in 2004. I was working out of my house. I’ve been able to move up to uh the purchasing the building and hiring guys that probably deserve a second chance in life,” said Jones. “Dealing with EPB has really opened up a lot of doors. I mean the networking base has been tremendous. And so, I’ve taken that… just even here today, has been an opportunity.”

Chambers also said, “I think it’s important right now that we have a lot of our bigger businesses here in Chattanooga reaching out to our small people. And I want to encourage that. I wanted to say that once again EPB being the leader in the community showing how to do it is a big step to everybody. Um that are other bigger businesses to do the same thing.”