Taylor, Pigue, Marchetti and Blair, PLLC has named Matt Pietsch a partner of the firm.

Pietsch returns to tpmbLaw, where he practiced 2008-2015, following five years in private practice representing individuals and businesses in complex business, real estate and immigration matters. Before joining tpmbLAW, he served as an assistant state attorney in West Palm Beach, Florida, and as an assistant district attorney general in Nashville.

Pietsch has received an AV Preeminent rating for ethical standards and legal ability from Martindale-Hubbell and has been named a Mid-South Rising Star by Super Lawyers since 2014.

Pietsch is a member of Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Catholic Business League and, fluent in Spanish, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. His areas of practice include: General Civil Litigation, Real Estate Law, Immigration Law, Insurance Defense, Insurance Coverage, Employment Law, Government Law, and Regulatory Law.

He is a graduate of Georgetown University, the University of Miami School of Law, the U.S. Department of Justice National Advocacy Center at the University of South Carolina and the International Association of Defense Counsel Trial College at Stanford University.

Baker Donelson hires 3 Nashville associates

Baker Donelson has added 18 associates firmwide, including three in Nashville. They are:

Brianne Kerbyson, who specializes in securities, trusts and estates – planning and administration, tax, business succession planning, corporate governance, and business and corporate. She earned her LL.M. in taxation from the University of Florida Levin College of Law and her J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Jordan Ferrell, who specializes in business and corporate, corporate finance, corporate governance, corporate formations, acquisitions and other business transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where he also earned an MBA and his J.D. Before attending law school, Ferrell umpired professional baseball for nine years.

Tenia L. Clayton, who specializes in health law, health care mergers and acquisitions, and business and corporate. Clayton earned her J.D. from the Belmont University College of Law. She also holds a degree from Emory University.

LifePoint Health adds to compliance leadership

LifePoint Health has named Ellen M. Hunt, J.D., and Michelle Rigby, CFE, CHC, to newly created leadership roles in the organization’s ethics and compliance department.

Hunt has been named vice president, compliance program operations and chief privacy officer, and Rigby has been named assistant vice president, head of internal investigations. Hunt and Rigby will play key roles in the ethics and compliance department’s efforts to continue driving an organizational culture focused on ethical business practices and compliance with local, state and federal laws and regulations. They each bring more than 20 years of compliance experience to the organization.

Hunt comes to LifePoint from AARP, where she served as senior vice president and chief audit, ethics and compliance officer. Before her time at AARP, she served in a number of compliance leadership roles, including as vice president, compliance, at U.S. Foodservice, Inc., and vice president, compliance operations, at Health Care Service Corporation, dba Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Hunt earned her juris doctor from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s John Marshall Law School. She serves on the advisory boards for the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Center for Compliance Studies, Compliance Week and the Quorum Initiative. She writes on topics related to ethics and compliance and is a frequent presenter at national conferences.

Rigby, who has extensive experience in building and launching compliance programs, most recently served as director at BluePeak Advisors, a division of Gallagher Benefit Services which specializes in consulting on complex Medicare and other government health care programs.

Zander Insurance secures pair of senior executives

Nashville-based Zander Insurance, one of the country’s largest independent insurance agencies, has added two senior executives for its leadership team. Kent Kirkwood joins as executive vice president of personal lines and senior health, and Aaron Peterson has been appointed to executive vice president of marketing.

Kirkwood brings nearly 15 years of experience to his new role and was most recently the vice president of policy sales for Austin-based All Web Leads.

Peterson has more than 20 years of marketing and business development experience with Fortune 500 and fast-growing corporations. He comes to Zander from Denver-based Diablo Media, where he was general manager of the company’s Law Scout division. Peterson also brings vast experience in insurance online marketing and lead generation from his past roles.

Woodard tapped for MTSU’s Pleas Award

Jennifer Woodard, assistant dean of the College of Media and Entertainment and an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, has been honored with the John Pleas Faculty Award.

Pleas, for whom the award is named, is an MTSU professor emeritus of psychology who won the Outstanding Teaching Award in 1999. The award, which is presented annually during Black History Month to a Black faculty member who had demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and service, was created in 1997 to honor Pleas.

Woodard teaches classes on convergence, digital writing, podcasting, audio journalism, women in the media, and race, class and gender. Her emphasis on media literacy instructs students in how to judge the media they see and hear based on credible facts, a valuable skill in an age of growing disinformation.

Woodard earned a degree in journalism at MTSU, graduating summa cum laude with a double major in English and mass communication. She earned a master’s in mass communication from the University of Georgia and her doctorate in mass communication from Indiana University-Bloomington.

ESa hires Ball, Lynn for architecture team

Samuel Ball and Eric Lynn have joined ESa as members of the architecture team.

Ball graduated from Mississippi State University School of Architecture in 2014. He previously worked as an architectural associate in the health care studio of Gresham Smith. He joins ESa as a member of the architecture team, serving as a design manager.

Lynn holds a degree in architecture from Mississippi State University. He previously worked at HBG Design as an architectural professional and was responsible for assisting in the design, coordination and documentation for various projects. He joins ESa as a member of the architecture team.

OneDigital Tennessee executive leadership team

Industry veteran Heath Holt will join OneDigital Tennessee, the state’s office of the strategic advisory firm, as principal and business development executive.

Holt has two decades of experience in the human resources industry. Most recently, he served as principal consultant at Mercer, where he was accountable for creating and implementing innovative employee benefit plans. His previous experience also includes time with Willis and CIGNA Healthcare.

Holt will be responsible for driving growth through new client acquisition and leading other business development initiatives.

First Farmers promotes wealth management officer

First Farmers and Merchants Bank has promoted Dawn D. Moore to chief wealth management officer. Moore has served as senior personal trust officer since 2014 and has directed the administration of hundreds of trusts and investment accounts.

Moore will spearhead the overall strategic direction of wealth management services, including trust, investment management and brokerage. She succeeds Chuck McDonald, who will assist with the transition and remain part of the Wealth Management team, focusing his efforts on growth in Williamson and Davidson Counties.

A graduate of Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi School of Law, Moore was previously an attorney at DuBois & Mounger. Her career also includes developing the President’s Leadership Society at Columbia State Community College.

Moore is a past president of the Maury County Bar Association.

Also at First Farmers, Joseph E. Yaroszewski has been added as a senior credit officer.

Yaroszewski brings more than 20 years of banking experience to his new role managing the credit risk of First Farmers’ loan portfolio. He will also be responsible for working closely with the bank’s lending team, credit analysts and special asset areas.

He holds a degree in business administration from Longwood College and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Yaroszewski also holds RMA’s Credit Risk Certification.

Dowdle names Plott preconstruction director

Dowdle Construction Group has hired David Plott as director of preconstruction. He will succeed current director Terry Mulliniks, who has been named director of preconstruction emeritus and will continue working with Dowdle.

Responsible for pricing new construction projects, David Plott has almost 40 years of estimating experience and six years of project management experience. He has worked on construction projects in many sectors, including retail, banking, industrial, warehouse/distribution, office, health care, multifamily, hospitality, military, educational and government.

Plott comes to the Dowdle team from W.G. Yates Construction, where he was manager of preconstruction services. Before that, he worked as senior estimator and estimating manager at Skanska USA Building.

He earned a degree in building construction from Auburn University, and he has an ASHE Healthcare Construction Certification.