Luke 10:27 – And he answered, ” You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Our guest speaker is Cynthia J. Finch, LMSW, CCM, CMCE
Her favorite bible verse is: Luke 12:48; for unto whom much is given of him; much is required.
Cynthia is a native of Newport, TN, where she grew up within a large family of five brothers and three sisters.
She was just blessed to have celebrated her mother’s 84 th birthday. She is a graduate of the University of
Tennessee – Knoxville, TN, with a Bachelor’s of Art, in Human Services and Master’s in Social Work
Administration and Planning. She is a Licensed Master of Social Work, a Certified Case Manager and Certified Manage Care Executive.
Her professional career spans over 30+ years in Health Care, as a manager, owner and a clinician. In 2017 Ms.
Finch launched her own non-for-profit agency, New Direction HealthCare Solutions. New Direction focuses on
innovative approaches of dealing with health care disparities for people of color and providing consulting work
for new start-up businesses and operation management, especially, for health care businesses. Previously
she managed and operated a large healthcare/hospice agency in Knoxville and surrounding counties. Other
professional work employment has led her through city and county governmental positions. In the private
sector has managed multi-million programs and operations for non-profits, healthcare companies and
managed care insurance programs. Her creative style and professional skills have led to company growth, job
creation and business expansion.
During the COVID-19 pandemic she has been instrumental in the building of a Faith Leaders Church Initiative
Coalition. This Initiative has rallied and organized over 100+ churches and numerous faith leaders, on how to
safely deal with COVID-19 crisis. Her involvement has led to over 12,000+ individuals being COVID-19 tested.
Cynthia’s most rewarding efforts has been the creation of access to over 30,000+ African Americans and
people of color to be vaccinated. She has coordinated the sponsoring of over 25+ pop-up community vaccine
clinic site for people to get vaccinated.
This truly is a woman of God and a speaker of the word. She is a member of the Greater Warner Tabernacle
AME Zion Church, Knoxville, TN. She serves on the Trustees’ Board and is President of the Missionary Society
(WHOMS). She was appointed by the AME Bishop to serves as the Knoxville District’s Health and the Episcopal
Health Liaison for the Mid-West Region for the Balm in Gilead.
She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. – Psi Zeta Omega Chapter – Newport and serves as the
President, TN; She is the 22 nd South Eastern Regional Director, 2002-2206; Serving as a International leader she
presently serves as the International Membership Intake Process (MIP) for the sorority.
Cynthia’s volunteer work includes serving on the following Boards of Directors: East Knoxville Free Medical
Clinic – Secretary, Knoxville Branch of the NAACP- 3 rd Vice-President, Knoxville Mental Health Association and
the Tennessee Women’s Political Caucus; Additionally, she serve on the News Sentinel Advisory Council; East
TN Society of Health Care Social Workers, Knoxville Case Management Society, Tennessee Association of
Home Care – Hospice Task Force and many more.
(You can watch our worship service streamed at 11 am on our Facebook page https://tinyurl.com/yfx9pnx6, or our website https://tvuuc.org/ and also on our YouTube channel https://tinyurl.com/ycksxc98.)