Kay Senter

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DSC09622fix1_ppKay Senter was elected to the Morristown City Council in 1993.  During her tenure, she has served as Vice-Mayor and chaired the Finance Committee for several terms.  Kay serves on the Tennessee Municipal League Board (TML) as the Chair of the Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund Board (TMBF).  She is a member of the University of Tennessee-Municipal Technical Advisory Board (MTAS) and Tennessee Women in Government (WIMG) Advisory Committee. Her service experience includes TML Board Past-President; TML Risk Management Pool Board; Past-President of Tennessee Women in Government.  In 2011, Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey appointed Kay to a four-year term on the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR).   Speaker of the House Beth Harwell reappointed her to another four-year term on TACIR in 2015.

Kay represented Tennessee on the National League of Cities (NLC) Public Safety Steering Committee/NLC Advocacy Committee from 1997-2020.  She is Past-President of the NLC- Women in Municipal Government (WIMG) organization and currently serves on the NLC-WIMG Advisory Board.  Senter has served on the NLC Nominating Committee and as a presenter and/or moderator at NLC City Summit Conferences several times during her tenure on the Morristown City Council.

Service on local boards currently includes:  Morristown-Hamblen/Covenant Hospital Board and Credentials Committee; Morristown-Hamblen/Covenant Hospital Foundation (Secretary); Boys & Girls Club, Inc. (Past-President); GFWC Somo Sala Circle (Past President); Senior Citizens Center Board; Morristown-Hamblen Imagination Library Advisory Council; Crockett Tavern Museum.  She is a member of PEO (National Women’s organization – provides financial support to women attending college); the Chamber of Commerce; Girls, Inc. (100 Club); Tusculum College President’s Advisory Council; DAR; APTA - Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities; 911 Board (2005-2018) reappointed 2021; First United Methodist Church Trustee.

Kay received her Bachelor’s degree from Emory & Henry College, Virginia; her Master’s degree from UT Knoxville, Tennessee; and completed 45 graduate hours above her Master’s degree.  In 1984, she became a Career Ladder II Teacher.  In 2004, Kay was selected Hamblen County Teacher of the Year, advancing to become one of the 6 state finalists for Tennessee Teacher of the Year-2004.

Kay taught English at Morristown-Hamblen East High School for 38 years, retiring in 2011.

 

Honors include:  Rotary Club Paul Harris Fellow Award; First Lady of Morristown; Bob Harbison Hall of Honor; Hamblen Women’s Hall of Fame; Hurricane Alumni Hall of Honor; Hamblen County Good Scout Award (2017), selected and awarded by the Boy Scouts of America Great Smoky Mountain Council; The National Society of the DAR Women in American History Award (2023); Boys & Girls Club of Morristown Lifetime Achievement Award (2023).

Kay is the daughter of the late Dr. John and Betty Kinser, wife of the late Jim Senter, and mother of Jimmy Senter, III.  Jimmy and his wife, Brooke, are the parents of Kay’s two grandchildren.