CIS Staff

Kim Denton serves as the Tennessee Certified Economic Developer (TCED) Director for the University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services.  The TCED Program provides quality training, continuing education and professional development opportunities for economic and community development practitioners and community leaders.

Denton came to the university in 2014 as Associate Director in the UT Office of Corporate & Foundation Engagement, which connects industry and foundation partners to opportunities in research, innovation, technology and economic development.  Denton also served as Associate Director of Corporate Relations in the UT Haslam College of Business, where she built a corporate engagement program and managed corporate partnerships.

Prior to coming to UT, Denton spent 15 years as President/CEO of the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership leading the economic development efforts for greater Oak Ridge.  She previously served as Marketing Director for Tennessee’s Resource Valley (now ETEDA) and as Director of Marketing & Corporate Communications for PHP Companies (now Humana).

Denton is past chair of the Tennessee Economic Partnership, past president of the Tennessee Economic Development Council and currently sits on the CDFA Tennessee Advisory Committee and Blount Mansion Board of Directors.  

Denton earned her B.S. in Marketing Communications from the University of Florida and is a Certified Economic & Community Developer.  She is married to Dennis Denton, an account manager with WW Grainger, and enjoys sports, travel and antiques.

I have been in the Fire service for 37 years. I became the first Haz Mat Inspector in the City of San Jose, Califonia. I am an OSHA outreach instructor and a Past International Association of Firefighters outreach instructor. I had a Occupational Safety Company in California, from 1990 to 2008. Relocated to east Tennessee, to be close to grandkids. 

Bill serves as the Solutions Consultant for sixteen counties in East Tennessee including Anderson, Blount, Campbe​ll, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Hamblen, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon, Monroe, Morgan, Roane, Scott, Sevier and Union counties.  Bill rejoined CIS in this Solutions Consultant role in July 2016.  Prior to this Bill served in a variety of roles, both technical and managerial, in multiple Tennessee manufacturing companies and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Bill also spent 10-years as a Resource Consultant for UT CIS sharing his expertise in environmental, health and safety regulations, various management system standards and lean manufacturing.  Bill is an alumni of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he received his bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1991.

Beth Phillips leads the Economic Development Team of the University of Tennessee’s Center for Industrial Services, an agency of the Institute for Public Service.  Working with partners across the state, the team focuses on connecting businesses, governments, and economic development organizations with the assets of the university to grow Tennessee’s economy.  Phillips is also the Director of the University’s EDA University Center, which leverages university resources to build regional economic competitiveness, help existing companies innovate and expand, and advance entrepreneurship and technology commercialization.  Her team also manages the Tennessee Certified Economic Developer program, and coordinates its technology-led economic development efforts, including the SBIR/STTR (Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer) Assistance Center.  Phillips has over thirty years’ experience in economic and community development in Tennessee, including working with the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to recruit new businesses to the state, support existing industry retention and expansion, and enhance community economic competitiveness.  Phillips received her undergraduate degree in marketing and transportation from the University of Georgia, and her MBA from the University of Tennessee.  She and her husband have two daughters and live in Knoxville, where she is active in many community organizations.

Dwaine Raper leads the Solutions Consultant Team at the University of Tennessee’s Center for Industrial Services(CIS).  CIS is an agency of the Institute for Public Service, and the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partner Center serving the state of TN.  The CIS Solutions Consultant Team provides industrial extension services throughout the state of TN, working with manufacturers and industry partners, helping them improve performance and profitability, and to grow.  Before joining CIS in 2007, Dwaine gained 15 years of manufacturing operations and supply chain management experience with manufacturing companies in the automotive and electronics industries.  Dwaine holds two business degrees from East Tennessee State University (MBA and BBA).  He also maintains supply chain management related professional certifications; Certified Production and Inventory Manager (CPIM) and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), both from APICS – The Association for Operations Management.

Kenny Smith has more than 25 years of manufacturing experience in both Textiles and the Bearing Industry holding Quality Assurance positions from Quality Engineer, site level Quality Manager and multi-site Director of Quality.  From 2004 through 2015, he helped launch NN Inc’s Continuous Improvement (CI) program in their Erwin, TN factories that reduced manufacturing costs by approximately 2.5% of sales annually.  Kenny is trained in the skills of lean manufacturing and TPM and is an ASQ certified Black Belt in 6-Sigma.  He has taught these skills to students in Italy, Slovakia, China and multiple sites around the US and participated in many rapid deployment teams to help troubleshoot for the root cause of specific problems and eliminate or improve these problems.

In 2015, Kenny came to work for the Center for Industrial Services as a resource, helping the factories in Northeast Tennessee.  In 2016, he began working full time for the University as the Solutions Consultant for Region 9, Northeast Tennessee.