In her current position as Director of Strategic Partnerships at the University of Memphis, she advises the Dean of the Loewenberg College of Nursing (LCON) on strategy, health policy, financial and operational issues, as well as managing the research administration life cycle for nursing faculty to include identifying potential funding opportunities, leading proposal and budget development, ensuring compliance with federal/sponsor regulations and performing post-award administration.

Within a 12-month period, she increased sponsored research six-fold for LCON to a total of $7.4 million, including proposal development for the largest, single federal (HRSA) grant awarded ($3.24MM) in the College’s history designed to help increase the number and diversity of nursing students serving rural and underserved areas in west Tennessee.

Casem has more than 15 years’ experience managing multimillion-dollar initiatives and has served as project director on numerous state and federal workforce, economic development and asset building grants funded by the Delta Regional Authority, TN Department of Human Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Labor, and Health and Human Services. As a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Certified Workforce Development Professional (CWDP), she has expertise in human capital management and career development.

Chermale Casem received her MBA from the University of Memphis and is certified as both a Human Resource Professional and a Workforce Development Professional. She is an expert in the areas of large scale federal and private sector initiatives in workforce training, adult/youth education, asset building, health benefits access, technology solutions, entrepreneurship, financial empowerment and economic development.

Chermale is a strong supporter of initiatives addressing diversity & inclusion, health disparities, economic empowerment and social equity. She has been honored as a New Tri-State Defender Woman of Excellence and graduate of Leadership Memphis’ 2014 Executive Class.  She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in Finance and holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Memphis.  Since 2017, Chermale has been an active member of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) BONUS group.  In 2018, she was elected as BONUS’ Chair of Special Projects and serves on the Steering Committee.