Memphis Mayor-elect Paul Young has made his first two appointments to his administration.
Tannera Gibson will be the city attorney and chief legal officer, while Penelope Huston will be the chief communications officer, according to a news release.
Gibson is an attorney at Burch, Porter & Johnson, where she practices in government relations and municipal law, commercial and business litigation, labor and employment law and personal injury litigation. She was the first African-American woman president of the Memphis Bar Association and the first African-American woman partner at the law firm.
Huston is currently vice president of communications and marketing for the Downtown Memphis Commission, where Young is president. She previously worked for Contemporary Media, ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness arm for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Memphis in May.
Both Huston and Gibson are native Memphians.
The Young administration also launched Friday a portal for people interested in working in the new administration, which takes office Jan. 1. That portal can be viewed at the Young for Memphis website.
Katherine Burgess covers Memphis City Government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kathsburgess.