The Tennessee Medical Association has named Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s M. Kevin Smith, M.D., Ph.D., MMHC of Nashville as 2020-21 president of the member-based nonprofit advocacy organization that represents 9,500 physicians statewide.

He is the 166th physician elected to TMA’s highest office since its founding in 1830.

Smith will serve as the organization’s public representative and help guide its work in collaborating with fellow physicians, legislators, patients and nearly 50 component medical societies across the state of Tennessee. He will also hold a seat on the TMA board of trustees.

Smith is an assistant professor of clinical medicine and works as a general internal medicine specialist and primary care physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is a graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency at Vanderbilt.

He also has earned doctor of philosophy and master of management in health care degrees from Vanderbilt. He is a prior president of the Nashville Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

NCVC adds 4 to board of directors

Jim Gingrich, chief operating officer at Alliance Bernstein, Leesa LeClaire, general manager of the Hilton Nashville Airport, Burke Nihill, president and CEO of the Tennessee Titans, and Pat Martin, founder of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint and Hugh Baby’s BBQ & Burger Shop, have joined the board of directors of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.

Robert Fisher, president of Belmont University, continues to serve as chair of the board of directors for Fiscal Year 2020-2021. Other members of the executive committee include John Esposito of Warner Music Nashville as chair elect, Ronnie Smith of Regions Bank as immediate past chair, Kevin Lavender of Fifth Third Bank as finance and audit committee chair and Kevin Green of Chartwell Hospitality as sales and marketing chair.

The four new board members join existing NCVC board members for FY 2020-2021: Patrick Chaffin of Ryman Hospitality Properties, Maneet Chauhan of Morph Hospitality Group, former Titan Eddie George, Ed Hardy of Hardy Media & Entertainment, Ken Levitan of Vector Management, Kimberly Lewis of Emerson Grace, Eric Opron of Omni Nashville Hotel, Dr. Jonathan Perlin, HCA, Ellen Pryor, Frist Art Museum, Brian Tibbs of Moody Nolan and Marcus Whitney of Health:Further.

Ex officio members include Butch Spyridon, NCVC, Charles Robert Bone, legal counsel, and Sarah Trahern, CMA.

Adams & Reese attorneys make Best Lawyers list

Best Lawyers in America has released its annual list, which includes many attorneys in the Nashville area listed in last week’s Ledger.

Those from the Nashville office of Adams & Reese are:

• C. Dale Allen, government relations practice
• Cynthia Mitchell Barnett, public finance
• Reber M. Boult, copyright, litigation - intellectual property, litigation - patent, patent, trademark
• F. Laurens Brock, personal injury litigation - defendants
• Martin S. Brown, Jr., corporate, litigation - securities, mergers and acquisitions
• William R. Bruce, government relations
• Charles W. Cook III, financial services regulation, health care, litigation - banking and finance, litigation - bankruptcy
• Fred Russell Harwell, Real Estate
• D. Reed Houk, banking and finance, financial services regulation, real estate
• Linda Edell Howard, copyright, entertainment - music, media
• Philip M. Kirkpatrick, commercial litigation, entertainment - motion pictures and television, entertainment - music, litigation - intellectual property
• Edward H. L. Playfair, trademark
• Brad A. Lampley, government relations
• Anne L. Russell, litigation and controversy - tax
• Thomas Anthony Swafford, labor - management, litigation - labor and employment
• Guilford F. Thornton, Jr., education, government relations practice, health care, insurance
• Larry Stewart, bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization, public finance
• Lynn Morrow, copyright, entertainment - music, litigation - intellectual property, media
• Haverly MacArthur, litigation - intellectual property, litigation - patent, trademark
• Maia Woodhouse, copyright, litigation - intellectual property

Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. For the 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, 8.3 million votes were analyzed. Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.

Nashville Symphony has new board chair, members

The Nashville Symphony has announced the addition of 15 new members to its board of directors. Along with the election of these new directors, the Nashville Symphony’s board also has welcomed a new slate of officers, with Pamela Carter as board chair.

Carter was elected attorney general for the state of Indiana in 1992, making her the first woman and African American to hold that position in that state, as well as the first African American woman in the United States to be elected to that position. A former litigator, a securities law prosecutor and law partner, she later served as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Cummins Inc. In 2005, she became president of Cummins Filtration and finally president of Cummins Distribution Business, making her the first woman to run one of the four business units at Cummins.

Carter also serves on the boards of Hewlett Packard Enterprise as chair of the human resources and compensation committee; Enbridge Inc., where she chairs the governance committee; and Broadridge Financial Solutions, where she serves as chair of the audit committee.

In addition to Carter, the Nashville Symphony’s new slate of Board officers includes:

• Dr. Mark D. Peacock, immediate past chair
• Father Dexter Brewer, vice chair
• Robert Olsen, treasurer
• Hank Ingram, secretary

New directors joining the Nashville Symphony Board are:

• Steven Brown, Bass Trombone, Nashville Symphony (orchestra representative)
• Keith Davis, senior vice president, Trust & Investment Advisory, Pinnacle Financial Partners
• Travis Dunn, senior vice president, Private Wealth Management, Brown Brothers Harriman
• Rod Essig, founding partner, Creative Artists Agency
• Tony Giarratana, president, Giarratana, LLC
• Austin Hatley, president, Medical Ventures, Seed Six Ventures (Young Leaders Council Intern)
• Amanda Kane, senior managing adviser, Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Inc. (associate board president)
• Trey Lee, president & chief medical officer, Real Time Neuromonitoring Associates & Real Time Tele-Epilepsy Consultants
• Vicki McCluggage, former VP of sales in the television industry, former board member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
• Phylanice Nashe, principal, MaxxContent, LLC
• Victoria Pao, angel investor and business adviser
• Teresa Sebastian, president & CEO, The Dominion Asset Group
• Michael Sposato, general counsel, Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation
• Jim Todd, Attorney, Hagan & Todd
• Gail Williams, associate director of community, neighborhood and government relations, Vanderbilt University

Under Carter’s leadership, the Nashville Symphony’s Board is guiding the organization through one of the most dramatic moments in the orchestra’s nearly 75-year history, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the institution to furlough all of its musicians and the majority of its administrative staff, and to postpone or cancel all scheduled programming through July 2021.

Bridgestone Americas names Rodabaugh CIO

Bridgestone Americas has named Taren Rodabaugh its chief information officer for Bridgestone Americas effective Aug. 31. She will lead the information technology strategy in support of the company’s ongoing evolution to become a sustainable mobility and advanced solutions company.

Rodabaugh will be responsible for leading the strategy and operations of Bridgestone Americas Information Technology function and more than 300 employees and contractors in both North America and Latin America. She will develop and execute the future architecture roadmap and evolve the information technology delivery model through partnerships with cross-functional leaders across Bridgestone.

Rodabaugh joins Bridgestone Americas from Harley-Davidson, where she most recently served as chief information officer. During her time at Harley-Davidson, she was responsible for digital platform and ERP system modernizations, establishment of key IT performance and security functions and execution of IT organizational transformations. Before Harley-Davidson, she held roles with increasing responsibilities at IBM and Deloitte.

Rodabaugh is a graduate of Miami University with a degree in manufacturing engineering management. She earned her MBA from Northwestern University.

Southern Word selects board chair, treasurer

Southern Word, which offers creative solutions for youth to build literacy and presentation skills, reconnect to their education and to their lives, and act as leaders in the improvement of their communities, has appointed Janet Walsh as board chair and Liza Kawaller as treasurer.

Walsh joined Southern Word as a founding board member in 2008 and succeeds Asha Hunter as chair.

During her academic career, Walsh has provided training, web technology initiatives, program development and strategic planning to businesses as well as college and university libraries. She has worked with Sirsi Corporation, CQ Press, Ingram Book Company and EBSCO Industries, Inc. She has held local library positions at Fisk University, Tennessee State University and American Baptist College.

Kawaller is a business development professional who has worked the tech startup, entrepreneurship and real estate spaces. Her experience in the startup space has allowed her to be present during the seed stage, assisting founders while fundraising venture capital and helping to strategize through growth stages toward profitability. Additionally, she is a spoken word artist whose work has been shared on the TedX stage, WeWork corporate conferences, the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, and many venues throughout the city. She has served on Southern Word’s board since 2017.

TN Voices hires chief development officer

TN Voices, a mental health support services nonprofit, has named Michelle Thomas its chief development officer.

Thomas has nearly 10 years of development experience in the health-related field and independent school sector in the Middle Tennessee area.

She earned a degree in mass communications from Middle Tennessee State University.