Twenty-five attorneys at Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison have been named to The Best Lawyers in America 2020.

Firm attorneys included in the publication are: Michael G. Abelow, Albert J. Bart, C. Dewey Branstetter, Jr., Kim A. Brown, L. Webb Campbell II, C. Mark Carver, Phillip F. Cramer, John L. Farringer IV, Scott W. Fielding, William L. Harbison, Lisa K. Helton, J. Scott Hickman, Mark Ison, Carla L. Lovell, Elizabeth E. Moore, Todd E. Panther, Gregory J. Pease, Tracy A. Powell, Michael D. Roberts, John H. Roe Jr., Carolyn W. Schott, Thomas J. Sherrard III, Mark T. Smith, John R. Voigt and Christopher C. Whitson.

Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation.

For the 2020 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America, 8.3 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 62,000 leading lawyers being included in the new edition.

GSRM Law welcomes estate, probate attorney

Miller K. Hunt has joined the law firm of Gullett Sanford Robinson & Martin PLLC as a staff attorney.

She will practice in the firm’s Estate Planning and Probate section with a focus on providing individuals and families with estate planning solutions including wills, trusts, financial and health care powers of attorney, and probate administration.

Previously, Hunt was an attorney at Elder Law of Nashville. She earned her law degree from Belmont University School of Law and undergraduate degree from Clemson University.

TICUA names class for Executive Leadership Inst.

The Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association has announced the fourth cohort of its Executive Leadership Institute, which includes 14 senior officials from private and independent colleges across the state.

The program is designed to prepare university leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to serve students and build healthy campuses.

The ELI participants, known as Pressnell Fellows, have been selected by their institution’s president to participate. During the course of the program, they will gain knowledge and insight on key issues related to leading higher-education institutions, including institutional governance, educational policy and politics, strategic planning, friend- and fundraising, public relations, internal and external communications, enrollment management, academics and faculty relations, and financial management.

2019-20 class members are:

• Will Ingram, associate vice president and CIO, Belmont University

• Kimberly Martin, vice president of the College of Professional Studies, Bethel University

• Tim Hostetler, vice president of student services & ministries, Bryan College

• Eddie Lovin, executive director of enrollment services, Cumberland University

• Matt Roberts, vice president for academic affairs, chief academic officer, King University

• Darlette Samuels, vice president for institutional advancement, Lane College

• Mark Walker, vice president for ministerial development, Lee University

• Allison Duke, associate dean, college of business, Lipscomb University

• Daniel McMasters, vice president, student affairs, Martin Methodist College

• Dan Klingensmith, vice president and dean of the college, Maryville College

• Lindsay Elkins, director of academic programs, Southern College of Optometry

• Katrina Chapman, registrar, Trevecca Nazarene University

• Candice Lee, associate vice chancellor/deputy athletic director, Vanderbilt University

• Craig Mahler, vice president for financial affairs/chief financial officer, Welch College

VUMC adds staffers, recognizes award winners

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has announced the addition of staff members and named staffers who have recently won awards.

Joining the staff are:

• Ryan Belcher, M.D., has joined Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt’s pediatric department of otolaryngology after completing a yearlong fellowship with the program

• Edward Case, JD, chief compliance officer for University of Rochester Medical Center, has been named chief compliance officer for VUMC

• Mark Denison, M.D., Craig-Weaver Professor of Pediatrics, professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and director of the Lamb Center for Pediatric Research has been named director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the Vanderbilt department of pediatrics

• Maureen Gannon, Ph.D., professor of medicine, molecular physiology and biophysics, cell and developmental biology, and vice chair for faculty development in the Department of Medicine, has been named to the newly created role of associate dean for faculty development for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

• Callie Thompson, M.D., assistant professor of surgery at VUMC, has been named director of the Vanderbilt Burn Center, one of the largest burn centers in the United States

Award-winners are:

• Michael DeBaun, M.D., MPH, director of the Vanderbilt-Meharry Center for Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease, has been awarded the American Society of Hematology’s 2019 ASH Mentor Award

• Xiao Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, associate director for global health and co-leader of the cancer epidemiology research program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and Wei Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center and Anne Potter Wilson Professor of Medicine, received the Vietnamese Ministry of Health’s Memorabilia Medal “For the People’s Health.”

Kraft recognizes 7 ‘Women of Wonder’

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee will honor seven trailblazing ‘Women of Wonder’ as the 2019 Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award recipients.

This year’s honorees are:

• Clare Armistead, style icon, philanthropist and fundraiser

• Janet Ayers, philanthropist and education patron

• the late Colleen Conway-Welch, longtime VU School of Nursing Dean

• Inez Crutchfield, Tennessee State University educator, political insider and Civil Rights activist

• Annette Eskind, champion of adoption, and education and social reformer

• Carrie Gentry, TSU educator and Civil Rights activist

• Rosetta Miller-Perry, founder of The Tennessee Tribune and Civil Rights activist

The 26th Annual Kraft Award Luncheon will be held Oct. 17. Each year this award honors a person or persons who, like the late Joe Kraft, demonstrates a commitment to community, home and hearth, and individuals in need.

Honorary chair of this year’s event is Martha Ingram, noted philanthropist and business leader, and a prior recipient of the Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award.

“The breadth and depth of heroism in this community may not start with the seven women we will honor at the Joe Kraft Humanitarian Luncheon on Oct. 17, but it won’t end, either,” said Ellen Lehman, president of The Community Foundation.

State selects Beaty as top veterinarian

Beaty

Samantha Beaty, D.V.M., has been named state veterinarian and assistant commissioner for animal health by Charlie Hatcher, state agriculture commissioner.

With 18 years of veterinary medicine experience, Beaty will now be responsible for protecting and monitoring animal health throughout the state.

She most recently served as the interim director for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s C.E. Kord Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory. In that role, she led 21 lab staff members in providing timely diagnostic services to Tennessee animal owners and veterinarians.

Beaty joined TDA as a staff veterinarian in 2016. In that role, she implemented and oversaw the department’s livestock welfare program. She assisted with regulatory disease response and was the case manager when high path avian influenza affected Tennessee in 2017. Beaty completed training at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory and is a Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostician.

Beaty began her work in veterinary medicine as a high school student in her hometown of Jamestown, Tennessee. After graduating from vet school, she worked in large and mixed animal practice for several years before transitioning to small animal practice.

Before joining TDA, Beaty was an associate veterinarian at Premier Vet Care in Smyrna. She has served as a volunteer veterinarian in Botswana with the Maun Animal Welfare Society.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Tennessee Tech University in 1998, then completed her degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.

TMA promotes Reeves to member services director

Reeves

The Tennessee Medical Association has promoted Christy Reeves to director of member services.

The association has also hired Kathleen Caillouette as Continuing Medical Education administrator.

Reeves joined the association in 2015 as membership manager primarily to recruit individual and physician group members. In her new role, she will continue to work with and grow TMA’s membership, working with large membership groups and individual members, and develop relationships with corporate sponsors and promote a portfolio of value-added member benefits.

Caillouette is responsible for managing TMA’s CME program, including certifying CME content for internal and external customers and maintaining the association’s national CME accreditation status.

She spent the past 12 years working for various law firms in the Nashville area, primarily in marketing and business development. Before that, she was the Continued Legal Education Administrator at the Tennessee Bar Association, and also worked for the Nashville Area Junior Chamber of Commerce.

TMA is a nonprofit advocacy organization representing more than 9,000 doctors across the state. TMA members benefit from legislative, legal, regulatory and insurance advocacy, education, physician leadership training, business resources and other programs and services.