For Brent Hooks, that legacy is both inherited and actively built. 

The native Memphian and regional vice president at Cornerstone Engineering recently became the first professional from Memphis and Tennessee to earn dual recognition on two of the nation’s most prestigious young professional lists in architecture, engineering, and construction: Engineering News-Record’s Top Young Professionals 40 Under 40 and Building Design + Construction’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2025. 

In an industry where representation shapes opportunity, Hooks’ achievement sends a clear message: Memphis produces leaders who shape cities across the country. 

Rooted in Memphis 

Born and raised in Memphis, Hooks’ leadership journey began early. He earned his degree in accounting and finance from the University of Memphis before completing an Executive MBA at Vanderbilt University, building a foundation that blends financial strategy with operational leadership. 

Before joining Cornerstone Engineering, Hooks served as Chief Administrative Officer at Allworld Project Management, helping guide the civil engineering and construction management firm through rapid growth. Under his leadership, the company earned recognition on Inc. Magazine’s Fastest-Growing Companies in America list in 2019 and 2023. 

Allworld played a role in several transformative Memphis developments, including Crosstown Concourse, the Fairgrounds redevelopment, Hotel Chisca, and The Citizen at Union and McLean — projects that continue to shape how residents experience the city. 

Today, Hooks leads strategic growth and operations for Cornerstone across the Southeastern United States, including Memphis, Atlanta, and Birmingham. His work drives business development while ensuring projects directly impact quality of life. His work increasingly intersects with large-scale redevelopment efforts, capital strategy, and public-private partnerships that influence how cities grow. 

“I view my work as an opportunity to make a positive contribution to my community,” Hooks has shared. 

Hooks has expressed long-term ambitions in real estate development and financial structuring, aiming to help shape the next generation of transformative projects in Memphis and beyond. 

A Legacy of Leadership 

Excellence for Hooks is generational. His great-great-grandmother, Julia Britton Hooks, was the first Black woman to attend Berea College. His great-uncle, Benjamin L. Hooks, served as Tennessee’s first Black criminal court judge and later as executive director of the NAACP. 

That legacy informs his commitment to access, opportunity, and civic investment. 

Beyond his executive leadership, Hooks serves on several boards, including the Downtown Memphis Commission, the New Ballet Ensemble & School, and the Chairman ACE Mentor Program of Memphis, supporting economic development and creative growth across the city. 

“This honor reflects the power of Memphis and what’s possible for our young people,” Hooks said of his national recognition. “I hope it inspires students across our city to explore careers in STEM.” 

Brent Hooks’ story is a reminder that Black legacy in Memphis isn’t just historical — it’s present, active, and building the future in real time. 

Because here, excellence doesn’t just live. 

It leads. 

The post Black Legacy Lives Here: Brent Hooks appeared first on We Are Memphis.

She was in fourth grade when her teacher assigned the class to memorize a poem. Sabrina chose Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son,” a reflection on perseverance — a reminder that life “ain’t been no crystal stair,” but you keep climbing anyway.

At that moment, Sabrina’s own climb had already begun.

In the spring of 2009, her grandmother noticed a lump on Sabrina’s cheek. Within days, a series of tests led her to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®, where she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that develops in soft tissue.

Even at nine, Sabrina understood the gravity of her diagnosis. Cancer was not abstract. Her aunt had died of breast cancer just months earlier, and another uncle had worked decades before at St. Jude as one of its first Black pharmacists.

“I was very aware of what cancer was — and what cancer could do,” Sabrina has said.

A Little Soldier With a Notebook

Sabrina endured surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. After a tracheotomy, she woke unable to speak, terrified as she tried to communicate with her grandmother. She spent weeks hospitalized and nearly a year in intense treatment.

Through it all, Sabrina carried notebooks with her everywhere.

Writing became the one thing she could do entirely on her own. While her body was exhausted — often nauseous, weak, and in pain — poetry gave her a place to pour out fear, grief, and confusion.

“It’s an interesting feeling,” she later reflected, “to know that you are simultaneously growing, but also in the process of dying. I could feel my body at war with itself.”

As she recited Hughes’ poem again and again for homework, Sabrina began to fall in love with the way words worked — their rhythm, their weight, their ability to hold emotion without explanation. It was then that she knew poetry would always be part of her life.

Growing Beyond Survival

At ten, Sabrina had her first poem published in her school’s literary magazine. She kept writing as she navigated survivorship — learning that the impact of cancer does not end when treatment does.

At fourteen, she celebrated five years of clear scans, a major milestone for childhood cancer survivors. That same year, she learned radiation therapy had damaged her hearing in one ear. Years later, vision complications surfaced — another late effect of treatment.

Still, Sabrina thrived.

She excelled academically, joined honor societies, ran cross-country, fenced, performed in theater, and eventually became editor-in-chief of the same literary magazine that first published her work. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing from Washington University in St. Louis, joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.®, and returned to Memphis to pursue her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Memphis.

Now 25, Sabrina teaches freshman composition and prepares to defend a thesis exploring grief, Black womanhood, the South — and poetry.

“I love sharing my words,” she says. “Creating connections. Making people feel something.”

A Legacy Larger Than One Story

Sabrina’s journey is deeply personal, but it also reflects the foundation St. Jude was built upon.

When St. Jude opened in Memphis in 1962, it became the first fully integrated children’s hospital in the South — treating patients regardless of race, religion, or ability to pay, and hiring Black doctors, nurses, and researchers at a time when segregation was still the norm.

That commitment shaped lives.

Early research at St. Jude included studies on sickle cell disease, a condition disproportionately affecting Black communities and long neglected elsewhere. Physicians like Dr. Rudolph Jackson, one of St. Jude’s first Black doctors, helped pioneer treatments that would be shared worldwide.

This legacy of equity and inclusion is what allowed children like Sabrina not only to survive, but to imagine a future beyond illness.

“St. Jude Lays Stones for Streets of Safe Passage”

In 2022, Sabrina returned to St. Jude not as a patient, but as a poet. She performed an original spoken-word piece titled “When I Was Nine,” reflecting on fear, faith, and the fragile courage of childhood.

The poem ends with a line that captures both gratitude and legacy:

“St. Jude lays stones for streets of safe passage
so kids like me can grow up to be adults like me.”

Sabrina credits the village that carried her — her mother, aunt, grandmother, and the institution that refused to turn her away.

“I’m not who I am today without St. Jude,” she says.

A poet. A survivor.

A living reminder that Black legacy lives here — in resilience, in care, and in the power of words.

The post Black Legacy Lives Here: Finding Power in Poetry at St. Jude – We Are Memphis appeared first on We Are Memphis.