Meet Our Staff

David W. Edwards - School Director

David W. Edwards grew up around bartending. David’s mother Lynn was a bartender and was the Director of the International Bartending Institute for more than a decade back in the late seventies and eighties. David has bartended for over 25 years and attended the St. Louis campus in 1986 and began bartending in hotels, the St. Louis Airport, neighborhood bars, and a fine dining restaurant until 1992 when he opened the Professional Bartending School of Nashville. He has directed the Professional Bartending School of Nashville for the last 19 years and during that time the campus has been awarded “School of the Year” 12 out of 19 years. He also Directed the Knoxville campus from 2000 to 2005 in which the campus was recognized as one of the top bartending schools in the country and won the 2004 “Instructor of the Year” Award.

David still loves bartending. In the last 19 years, he’s not only directed the campus but has worked part-time in hotels, bartended private parties and functions such as weddings, the convention center, and the Bonnaroo Music Festival. David loves introducing new people to the profitable, flexible, and fun career of bartending.

David recently took back over the direction of the Knoxville campus and now is the full time Director. He has brought in the award winning job placement department from Nashville to oversee the Knoxville campus placement department and has seen an amazing increase of job openings in the Knoxville area in just a short time. David looks forward to introducing you to the wonderful career of bartending. He encourages you to come into the campus for a personal tour and find out all you can about the flexible and profitable career of bartending.

 
Victor Barkley
Instructor

Victor has bartended for the past 17 years in Michigan and in the Knoxville area. He was a corporate trainer for Bailey’s Sports Grill and has instructed at our Knoxville campus for two years. Victor has bartended at Star Shooter’s Bar & Grille in Big Rapids, Michigan. He has also bartended in several Knoxville bars and restaurants such as Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon, Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant, Woodsmoke Lodge and Bailey’s Sports Grill. Victor is a graduate of Ferris State University in Michigan and also has attended the Professional Bartending School of Knoxville. He loves teaching and he puts an extra effort in to working with each student until the graduate our school. Victor is very patient and caring and gets a lot of satisfaction of training some of Knoxville’s finest bartenders.