Bass, Berry & Sims PLC has elected six new members in the firm, including four in Nashville. They are:

Douglas W. Dahl II advises both public and private companies on issues related to the legal compliance and tax-qualification of ERISA-covered employee benefit plans, as well as executive compensation and equity plan matters. Dahl earned an LL.M. in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center, a J.D. from Samford University Cumberland School of Law and a B.A. from Kansas State University.

Lara A. Flatau counsels health care companies on joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions and other strategic transactions. Flatau earned a J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School and a B.A. from Vanderbilt University.

Charles G. Jarboe concentrates his practice on complex business and commercial litigation matters. He earned a J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.

Erica Bell Vick serves as legislative counsel to a number of businesses and trade associations and is a registered lobbyist with extensive experience representing the interests of clients before the Tennessee General Assembly and the state executive branch. Vick earned a J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law and a B.A. from the University of Tennessee.

Former CoreCivic attorney joins Neal & Harwell

Groom

Nashville attorney Steve Groom, who served for 27 years in executive leadership and general counsel roles with two large public companies and spent a decade in private law practice, has joined Neal & Harwell, PLC.

Groom was formerly executive vice president & general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America (now CoreCivic), and served before that as senior vice president and general counsel for SunTrust Bank. Prior to joining Neal & Harwell, Groom served in dual roles with Butler Snow LLP as of counsel with the firm and as principal in the Nashville office of Butler Snow Advisory Services.

Groom is also a Rule 31 mediator approved by the Supreme Court of Tennessee, and provides training and counsel in the areas of negotiation, mediation and conflict management. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the Risk Management Association, the Tennessee Association of Professional Mediators, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, the Association for Conflict Resolution, the Bank Lawyer’s Committee of the Tennessee Bankers Association, the Nashville Bar Association and the Tennessee Bar Association.

Groom is a graduate of Lipscomb University and earned his J.D. from the University of Memphis. He also has completed extensive executive education programs from Harvard University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Elder Law taps Graham as public benefits specialist

Tracy Graham has joined Elder Law of Nashville as public benefits specialist. She will assist clients with long-term care and Medicaid applications.

Graham was previously a managed care specialist with TennCare, Health Care Finance Administration. Prior to that, she was an eligibility counselor for the State of Tennessee Department of Human Services, where she was the emergency Medicaid case worker in Wilson County. In total, she has nearly eight years of experience.

She is a 2008 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University.

Lipscomb hires dean of Intercultural Development

Ashford

Prentice Ashford has been hired him as Lipscomb University’s first dean of Intercultural Development to further develop the welcoming campus climate for students of diverse backgrounds and to enhance university services and activities that promote inclusion.

Recognizing the increasing importance of supporting a growing inclusive climate on campus, Lipscomb expanded its Office of Intercultural Development by creating this new dean position.

Since 2014, Ashford has served in a similar capacity at Abilene Christian University as the director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. In this role, he was responsible for directing all student-facing diversity efforts including education, student support, student advocacy and more.

A native of Abilene, Texas, Ashford attended ACU where he earned a degree in family studies, a master’s in higher education and is pursuing an organizational leadership doctorate degree.

Ashford will begin his transition from ACU this semester and will officially begin his new position this March.

MLK senior selected as Regeneron Science Scholar

Yao

Youli Yao, who attends Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School, has been named a Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar.

Society for Science & the Public’s Regeneron Science Talent Search program is a premiere pre-collegiate science competition that began in 1942. This year, it received more than 1,800 applications with 300 selected as semifinalists. Yao was Tennessee’s only semifinalist.

Yao is a student in The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt, a joint venture between Vanderbilt University and Metro Schools that offers high school students an intensive interdisciplinary, research-centered learning experience. Eligible students are selected for the program through an annual application process.

Yao completed her project, “Integrin Function is Preserved in SPRR3 Deficient Fibroblasts Isolated from a Cardioprotective Mouse Model,” with Pampee Young, M.D., Ph.D., in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. Yao will receive a $2,000 prize, with a matching award sent to MLK.

Her principal, Dr. Angela McShepard-Ray, says the $2,000 award will be used to purchase microscopes for the science lab.

“The money is a welcome gift and is always needed to help keep our school technologically up to date,” she says. “However, this kind of national award is most important to our school. It serves to help inspire other students to know ‘I’m here at MLK and if a student like Youli can do this, I have a shot and I need to apply myself’.”

Sexual Assault Center names new president, CEO

Freeman

The board of directors of the Sexual Assault Center in Nashville has named Rachel C. Freeman as the center’s new president.

Beginning at the center as a clinical therapist in 2002, Freeman assumed the position of clinical director in 2007 and vice president of programs in 2011.

Active on numerous boards and coalitions, Freeman serves on Mayor Megan Barry’s community-wide task force to design a system that provides victim-centered, reliable forensic evaluation to sexual assault survivors. The result of the task force is the city’s first non-hospital option, the Sexual Assault Forensic Exam clinic.

A graduate of Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, Freeman holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Tennessee.

Ewoldsen named president of Johnston & Murphy

Ewoldsen

Genesco Inc. has named Danny Ewoldsen president of the Company’s Johnston & Murphy division.

A 15-year veteran of Johnston & Murphy, Ewoldsen most recently served as executive vice president, retail and ecommerce. As president, he will expand his responsibilities to include the division’s wholesale and retail operations.

Also at Genesco, Mimi Eckel Vaughn, the company’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, is to be named chief operating officer of the company once her successor as chief financial officer is appointed. The Company has launched a search for a new chief financial officer.

Vaughn, a 14-year veteran of the company, joined Genesco as vice president - strategy and business development in 2003, was promoted to senior vice president - strategy and business development in 2006 and was named senior vice president - strategy and shared services in 2009.

Prior to joining the Company, Vaughn was executive vice president of business development and marketing and acting chief financial officer for Link2Gov Corporation in Nashville. From 1993 to 1999, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, based in Atlanta.

Kennedy named chair of PM&R at VUMC

Kennedy

David J. “D.J.” Kennedy, M.D., clinical associate professor and residency program director in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation with Stanford University’s Department of Orthopaedics, has been named chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Kennedy will join the faculty on April 1.

Kennedy succeeds the department’s founding chair, Walter Frontera, M.D., Ph.D., who stepped down in February 2017. Jeffery Johns, M.D., associate professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and medical director for Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital, has served as the department’s interim chair while a committee completed a national search for Frontera’s successor.

At Stanford, Kennedy’s clinical focus has been on physical medicine and rehabilitation, particularly spinal disorders and diseases. His research focuses on the safety and efficacy of treatment options for spine and peripheral joint pathologies.

Pancoast Benefits hires communications associate

King

Pancoast Benefits has hired Kaitlyn King as the communications associate.

She serves as a first point of contact for Pancoast’s guests and clients with responsibilities that include online and print media. The Nashville native holds a degree in communications from Arizona State University.

TNSEA honors Yarbrough for lifetime achievement

Yarborough

Don Yarbrough, former president of Ross Bryan Associates, has been named a Distinguished Member of the Tennessee Structural Engineers Association for his dedication and continued advancement of the profession.

He was active in both the local and state chapters of the TNSEA, holding numerous leadership positions including president of the Middle Tennessee Region. During his career, Yarbrough was involved with structural design engineering for many iconic structures, including Nashville’s Music City Center. He retired at the end of 2017.