Suzy Newton is currently Executive Director of the Tennessee Literacy Coalition. She has been a member of the Nashville CARES board since 2003, was Vice President in 2006-2007, and was elected Board President in November 2007.

A native of Macon, Georgia, Newton graduated from the University of the South in 1978 with a BA in English Literature.  Her diverse work experience includes positions with the Commerce Union Bank, Gruhn Guitars, and Medibuy/empact health.com. She joined the TLC as Executive Director in 2003.

Newton’s extensive volunteer work includes service as an ESL Tutor with the Adult Literacy Council, as a grant reviewer for the Metro Arts Commission from 2001 to 2007, and as Co-Chair of Artrageous Escapade in 1999.  She currently serves on the boards of Artrageous and the Richland West End Neighborhood Association as well as Nashville CARES.

Joseph Interrante is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nashville CARES.   He joined the staff of CARES in May of 1994.

Interrante received a B.A. from Brown University in 1974 and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1983, and has taught at Harvard University and Oberlin College.  In the mid 1980s he moved from academics to nonprofit work with the AIDS Action Committee of Boston MA. and later the AIDS Taskforce of Cleveland OH.  In the early 1990s, he was a member of the Education Advisory Committee for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) and the Citizen's Committee on HIV/AIDS for Greater Cleveland.  More recently, he has served on the Board for the Center for Nonprofit Management and the Community Investments Committee and Wellness Strategy Team for the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville.

Currently Interrante is Chair of the AIDS Action Council of Washington DC, a Board member of the National Association of People with AIDS, and Vice Chair of the Southern AIDS Coalition.  He also serves as a member of the Metro Nashville HIV/AIDS Planning Council and as a community advisor to the National Quality Center for HIV/AIDS and the national Tuberculosis Trials Consortium.

In 2005, Interrante was recognized as Nonprofit CEO of the Year by the Association of Nonprofit Executives and in 2006 as Public Citizen of the Year by the Tennessee Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.  He is a 2005 graduate of Leadership Nashville.