RISE’s leadership team is the organization’s board. They help determine organizational priorities, ensure RISE is led by its vision, mission, and calues, and holds fiduciary responsibility. The board also works with staff to problem solve and dream up new ideas.
If you are interested in participating with RISE as a volunteer or leadeship team member, please contact us.
Khia Hudgins-Smith (she/they)
Khia Hudgins-Smith is the Diversity-Focused Clinical Counselor at East Tennessee State University's Counseling Center. The work she implements is focused on cultural competence, diversity, equity, and inclusion for underserved and marginalized student populations enrolled at the university.
Before coming to ETSU, Khia focused on serving adult and adolescent transgender individuals through individual therapy and support groups to optimize their care and sense of community. Khia is level 2 trained in Brainspotting, and she recently received her 200-hour Yoga Certification through Downtown Yoga's Black Yogi scholarship.
Outside work, Khia loves spending time with her partner and their fur babies, singing, gardening, lifting weights, crocheting, reading, teaching yoga, and enjoying nature.
Khia says, "RISE: Healthy for Life is doing something different in our area by being bolder in their approach to sex education. The inclusivity that their platform provides drew me in immediately. RISE offers a safe space by allowing each person to learn from a unique place by including all values and belief systems and not just one perspective or 'right' way."
Khia is committed to expanding RISE's voice in our community and furthering its reach to create change and reform sex education nationally.
Darlene Fogg (she/her)
Dr. Darlene Fogg has been practicing obstetrics and gynegology (OBGYN) in Kingsport, TN for more than 14 years. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her M.D. from The University of Miami School of Medicine. She completed her residency in OBGYN at Loyola University School of Medicine.
While Darlene enjoys all aspects of OBGYN, she has a special interest in adolescent medicine. she believes she has a unique opportunity to educate girls and teens about puberty, sexuality, safe relationships, contraception, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Phyllis Thompson (she/her)
Phyllis is the interim chair for the Dept. of Counseling and Human Services at ETSU and director of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. She co-edited Lessons from the Pandemic: Trauma-Informed Approaches to College, Crisis, Change (Palgrave, 2021) and Trauma-Informed Pedagogies: A Guide for Responding to Crisis in Higher Education (Palgrave, forthcoming) with Janice Carello (Edinboro University).
Phyllis is passionate about bringing an equity-centered, safe, and inclusion-based trauma-informed approach to her work at RISE, on the Advisory Board for ETSU Equity and Inclusion, on the ETSU Strong BRAIN Institute, as a Safe Zone trainer, and in the classroom—teaching and learning.
Suzanne Emberton (she/her)
Suzanne is a customer success enablement manager with Medable.
Jess White (she/her)
Jess is a senior compliance analyst by day and a stage performer by night. She serves as RISE’s finance director and leadership team secretary. Jess has a passion for mental and sexual health that grew during her 12-year burlesque career and her participation in the queer and fetish communities around the country. She champions health and consent through her many creative hobbies and bookkeeping.