Tene Hamilton Franklin

Tené Hamilton Franklin is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Tennessee Justice Center (TJC), where she utilizes her extensive expertise in public health, healthcare, and organizational change. In her role, Tené focuses on strategic leadership, team development, and driving measurable outcomes to enhance the organization’s impact.

Before joining TJC, Tené served as the Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement at Health Leads, where she promoted intercultural competence and inclusive leadership. In this position, she developed the organization’s internal and external racial health equity strategy and provided consultation on community engagement and public health initiatives aimed at improving health equity.

Tené later became the Executive Director for Health Leads in the Southeast United States, overseeing program design, development, implementation, and operations in that region.

Prior to her work at Health Leads, Tené was the Minority Health Officer for the State of Tennessee. In this role, she championed health equity strategies to eliminate health disparities through collaboration with legislators, diverse communities, and Tennessee Department of Health programs.

Tené is a member of the Health Equity Community Collaborative’s Child Health Equity Workgroup and is the Principal and Founder of Hamilton Franklin Strategies, a consulting practice focused on systems change and health equity solutions.

In addition to her professional work, Tené chairs the Metro Public Health Department Board of Health in Nashville, TN, as well as the Tennessee State NAACP Health Committee. She is actively involved in several national and community organizations, including the National Association of Local Boards of Health (NALBOH), the American Cancer Society’s Voice of Black Women, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Nashville General Hospital Foundation Board, and the Meharry Medical College/Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center/Tennessee State University Cancer Partnership (MVTCP).

A native of Chattanooga, TN, Tené holds a master’s degree in Genetic Counseling from Howard University and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Virginia. She resides in Davidson County, TN, with her husband and two daughters. Tené is also a breast cancer survivor who enjoys running, bird watching, and spending time with her family.