Brandon Pennington (Photo submitted)

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Harlan Countian Brandon Pennington has been nominated for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s Young Professional of the Year award.

Pennington, Executive Director of the city of Harlan Tourist and Convention Commission, was nominated for the award by a co-worker.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley mentioned Pennington’s nomination via social media.

“Brandon Pennington puts his heart and soul into his work,” Mosley said. “He’s a rockstar in the tourism industry and I’m honored to work with him on many projects. Go vote for him for this prestigious award!”

Pennington was initially unaware he had been nominated.

“I didn’t even know I was going to be up for the award, Laura Adkisson (City of Harlan Tourism Downtown Development Coordinator) at the office nominated me for it,” Pennington said. “They chose six finalists from all over the state. I’m just very humbled for the nomination.”

Adkisson explained the reasons she nominated Pennington for the award.

“We nominated Brandon because of the significant contributions he has made at such a young age not only to our community, but to the industry of tourism and to the Commonwealth,” Adkisson said. “It’s impressive at his age to be leading as the chairman of KTIA (Kentucky Travel Industry Association), even though there are impressive accolades and awards that he’s won, I really think the thing that impacts the community the most is his passion and the way he tirelessly promotes our community and is always looking for innovative ways to bring events and new opportunities here to continue to grow Harlan. It’s a combination of what he does for us here locally and what he does on the state level.”

According to the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s website at https://www.kychamber.com, Pennington is nominated along with five other individuals including Chief Information Officer and Co-founder of EnVue Health Shermia Holland; Founder and Executive Director for Puzzle Pieces Amanda Owen; Human Resources Business Partner, Home of the Innocents Ladaya Owens; Restaurateur and owner of Hometown Hospitality Casey Todd; and Adryanne Warren, Superintendent of LaRue County Schools.

The winner will be recognized on stage at the 2025 Young Professional’s Summit, statewide recognition through Kentucky Chamber social media outlets and communications and will be highlighted in a press release distributed to Kentucky media.

Voting is open until July 1. Votes will be counted based on the combined number of shares, comments, and likes across all four of the Kentucky Chamber’s profiles, which include Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram.