Vanderbilt University is launching a new instructional design support service, available this summer and fall to all faculty, designed to provide concierge-level support to help faculty transition to teaching online.

The Instructional Design Support Center is designed to ease the transition to online teaching for faculty and, by extension, improve course quality for students. The center will help meet the diverse needs of faculty – whose course loads, disciplines and experience-level with online teaching vary widely.

The university will tap independent instructional design firm iDesign, which has worked with more than 100 institutions to design, build and support award-winning online courses.

“Recent months have reaffirmed the critical importance of faculty-led innovation, resilience and collaboration, especially in today’s difficult and unusual circumstances,” says Tracey George, vice provost for faculty affairs at Vanderbilt. “As educators and students alike navigate uncertain times, this on-demand support center will provide an invaluable service for educators at Vanderbilt, helping them build their capacity, overcome hurdles to online instruction, and refine their teaching practice in an online or hybrid teaching environment.”

Over the course of the summer, all Vanderbilt faculty will receive access to a hub of resources to support online teaching and course design, a la carte access to instructional design support services and troubleshooting, and templates for use within Vanderbilt’s learning management system.

“In the wake of COVID-19, we’re continuing to see increased demand for resources that can help ease the faculty transition to online instruction – whether they are seasoned online educators or teaching their first online course,” says Paxton Riter, co-founder and chief executive officer at iDesign. “This work is about equipping faculty with the back-end support to master the fundamentals of online teaching and translate their capacity for mentoring, supporting, and educating students into the digital world.”

Bernstein to advise NFL Players Association

Bernstein Private Wealth Management, headquartered in Nashville, will participate in the National Football League Players Association’s institutional program to offer financial advice services to current and former NFL players.

Bernstein will be among a few select advisory firms registered by the NFLPA to work with its network of nearly 5,000 athletes.

“We are excited to welcome Bernstein as our newest participant in the NFLPA’s financial institution program,” says Dana Hammonds Shuler, senior director of player affairs at the NFLPA. “Bernstein’s strong track record and expertise will go a long way in equipping our player members with the resources and guidance necessary to navigate their unique financial situation, both during and after their playing careers.”

The NFLPA created the Financial Advisor Program in 2002 to help clients access services including financial planning, investing, tax and estate planning. Over the past year, the organization has updated its policies to vet financial institutions for the program, rather than individual advisers. Institutional participants in the program are selected based on their reputation and range of service offerings that meet the specific needs of the players. Each institution designates and monitors participating advisers who must meet specific criteria and follow a code of conduct.

Gatehouse Treatment expands to Nashville

GateHouse Treatment, behavioral health care for addiction treatment, will open a drug and alcohol rehab center in Nashville.

Fatal overdoses recently reached a five-year record high in Tennessee, most of them opioid-related. Nationwide, COVID-19 has caused a near 50% surge in overdoses.

“We cannot stand by while so many lives are being destroyed by this crisis, which is playing out right here in my backyard,” says Dr. Samuel MacMaster, GateHouse Treatment’s chief science officer.

“GateHouse’s proven drug rehab programs have been a force for recovery from addiction for so many people. We felt it was time to expand our reach and continue to fight on the front lines of the battle against drug and alcohol addiction.”

With more than 30 years of experience in addiction treatment, Dr. MacMaster is a pioneer and thought leader in the behavioral health field. He has served as a tenured associate professor at the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee for 16 years, where he published more than 75 articles on addiction and substance abuse.

The new center offers Intensive Outpatient and Outpatient Program levels of care and a sober living community. Partial Hospitalization Program will be added soon.

Online home buying increasingly popular

Homebuyers and sellers say they are more likely to make the purchase or sale of a home online.

A new Zillow survey finds more than a third of Americans (36%) say they are more likely to try to buy a home entirely online during the coronavirus pandemic, and 30% say after the current outbreak ends, they would do the same.

The Schwartz family went under contract to buy a home sight-unseen in the Nashville suburbs after COVID-19 prompted them to move their family out of New York City for more space.

“We didn’t feel safe getting on a plane so having these digital tools on Zillow allowed us to narrow down our search and find the right home for us and our 8-year-old son,” says Jarrod Schwartz, a sales manager. “After our real estate agent provided a video tour, we had the confidence to make an offer.”

Nashville-based Zillow Premier agent Erin Krueger says her team has sold 10 homes sight-unseen during three months of shelter-at-home orders, twice as many as in all of 2019.

“People are realizing they can make some very big purchases from afar,” says Krueger, with the Erin Krueger Team at Compass. “Now we’re equipped with the systems and processes to serve our clients virtually when they can’t be there in person, and that’s absolutely been accelerated by the pandemic. Our clients are very happy with their new homes.”

A majority of people still want to tour a home in person before committing their down payment. However, when asked to choose between taking an in-person or a virtual tour after the current outbreak has ended, one out of three say they would choose the virtual or video tour -- a meaningful departure from traditional shopping behavior.

Hemp Association closes Tennessee chapter

The Hemp Industries Association has closed its existing Tennessee chapter.

The board recently voted to form a task force to study chapter structures and make recommendations on a new structure to serve the needs of their members at the state and regional levels.

“This is a much-needed change for the HIA as we continue to modernize the organization,” says HIA President Rick Trojan “We have seen extraordinary leadership in the states and will seek to continue to partner with those and others to shape the future of the program.

“As the HIA continues building for the future, we look forward to involvement on the state, regional and national level to help bring groups together in advancement of our hemp economy.”

The chapter program was first launched in 2015 and had chapters in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, the Pacific Northwest, Tennessee and Texas.

Envision named Patient Safety Organization

Nashville’s Envision Healthcare will be listed as a federally certified Patient Safety Organization for an additional three years through the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality.

PSOs were created by the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005, which establishes a reporting system to enhance the data available to assess and resolve patient safety and health care quality issues.

PSOs collect and review patient safety information, with the focus of reducing the occurrence of events that adversely impact patients. Through earning both an initial certification in 2017 and recertification in 2020, Envision has deepened its commitment to improving the quality and safety of health care delivery.

“Every day, our 27,000 clinicians demonstrate an incredible commitment to their patients and the communities they serve,” says Envision Healthcare Chief Medical Officer Chan Chuang, M.D., FCCP, FACP. “The PSO designation affirms that our team goes above and beyond to ensure the health, safety and well-being of those in our care. As a PSO, we are better able to recruit, retain and support our clinicians so they can focus on what matters most: providing the highest quality care to patients.”

BOS Framework earns accelerator spot

Nashville’s BOS Framework has earned a spot in Techstars Atlanta’s 2020 accelerator program.

BOS is a comprehensive approach to building better products faster, allowing developers to set up a new project in the cloud with DevOps and built-in functionality in under five minutes.

The Nashville tech company was the Tech Startup of the Year in 2019, and Shashank Purighalla, founder and CEO of the firm, was named Innovator of the Year by the Nashville Technology Council.

Techstars Atlanta, in partnership with Cox Enterprises, named 10 startups for the program.

Techstars received hundreds of applications from founders worldwide.

This year’s class is heavily consumer-focused, with seven B2C startups. Overall, it includes four startups from the U.S. South, and also represents founders from Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington, Washington, D.C. and Canada.

Starr Investment funds ACA Compliance

ACA Compliance Group, a provider of governance, risk, and compliance advisory services and technology solutions, has secured $40 million in new funding from its existing investor group.

The group, led by Starr Investment Holdings, acquired a controlling interest in ACA in 2018. Starr Investment is a multibillion-dollar New York and Nashville-based investment adviser that manages capital on behalf of the Starr Companies together with that of select institutions and family offices. SIH invests in privately-held technology-enabled services businesses with a particular focus on information and health care services.

Founded in 2002, ACA is now the premier provider of regulatory compliance, performance, and cybersecurity consulting services and technology solutions to the world’s top-tier hedge fund, private equity and asset management firms.

On behalf of the investor group, Jordan Lee, Managing Director at Starr Investment Holdings, says: “We are excited about what lies ahead for ACA as the firm continues to grow and address its clients’ mission critical governance, risk and compliance requirements.

In the first half of 2020, ACA focused on continuing to build its operational infrastructure, streamlining its offerings, and further strengthening its leadership team, including by hiring Shvetank Shah as CEO, Dave Metzger as chief financial officer, and Carrie Yonenson as CHRO.