First Community Mortgage recognizes annual ‘We Serve Four’ award winners

First Community Mortgage recently recognized five team members with its Third Annual We Serve Four Achievement Awards. The ceremony was held at the Stones River Country Club.

We Serve Four recognizes employees who have gone above and beyond in service of four cornerstone areas: customers, employees, community and shareholders. The Lorenzo Adams Community Service Award also was presented as part of the festivities.

The award winners in the Non-manager Category are Laura Wade, Murfreesboro, and Kim Yarbrough, Murfreesboro. In the Manager Category, the winners are Jennifer Bourgeois, Atlanta, and Amy Crutcher, Murfreesboro. Debi Folkman, Florida, received the Lorenzo Adams Award.

“A key facet of these awards is that nominations are made throughout the year by fellow employees, which we believe underscores both our culture of shared responsibility and our everyday emphasis on stellar service,” says Keith Canter, CEO and one of the founders of FCM, who presented the awards.

Nominees for the Lorenzo Adams Community Service Award, in addition to Folkman, were Autumn Gordon and Carrie Smotherman. Adams served as Vice President of Wholesale Operations and was a revered FCM team member who was known as resourceful and team-oriented; he passed away suddenly in 2020. His colleagues established the award to honor him, and this is the second year it has been presented.

“Our team goes above and beyond every day, and all of the nominated and winning individuals take it one step further by putting the We Serve Four mission first daily without hesitation,” Canter says. “Likewise, ‘Zo” as we called our friend Lorenzo, would want us to keep moving forward with the positive attitude and can-do energy he exemplified, so naming an award for him is a fitting tribute.”

In January, the judges choose winners from among all nominees, based primarily on input from the nominators. We Serve Four winners receive a trip for themselves and a guest and may take that trip at any point during the calendar year.Other We Serve Four nominees (in both non-manager and manager categories) include: Lisha Bargers, Valeria Bautista, Garett Boham, Megan Busbee, Chris Bussey, Misty Cagle, Becki Carlton, Andy Comer, Kele Cuddy, Christine Cundiff, Megan Dirheimer, Laura Epling, Lori Figueredo, Leigh Ann Freeman, Sharmaine Haun, Rasha Ibrahim, Kelly Key, Brandy Kuper, Candra McLaughlin, Eden Rabinovitz, Kelli McMurran, Mary O’Neill, Dottie Osborne, Danielle Pacetti, David Parsley, Fay Phillips, Pierce Phillips, Laura Pruitt, Cara Pryor, Leeann Rodriguez, Matt Roman, Jan Speed, Jimmy Stephens, Duke Stokes, Maronda Tinnin, Abby Vaquerano, Becky Watkins and Sarah Whyte.

Canter concludes by noting that (FCM’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources) “Tammie Russell and her small-but-agile team did the majority of the work to put the We Serve Four and Lorenzo Adams award ceremony together. They understand firsthand the incredible talent we have across this organization of 375 employees, and the importance of recognizing their daily above-and-beyond contributions.”

He also notes that First Community Mortgage won several “best places to work” awards over the past year, including being named one of the 2022 Top Workplaces USA by Energage, one of the Best Places to Work 2021 by the Nashville Business Journal and one of the Top Work Places 2021 by the Tennessean. FCM also recently won the Better Business Bureau’s (Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky) highest honor: The Torch Awards for Ethics, Extra-large Business Category.

First Community Mortgage, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of First Community Bank of Tennessee, and includes Wholesale, Correspondent and Retail divisions. FCM is a FNMA, FHLMC, and GNMA seller/servicer and offers mortgage solutions to consumers and financial institutions. It funded nearly $3.5 billion in home loans in 2021. First Community Mortgage is an Equal Housing Lender, NMLS ID 629700.