Entertainment and IP attorney Brenner McDonald has joined McGlinchey Stafford as a member of the firm and resident in its Nashville office.

With more than 30 years in the entertainment industry, she brings a wide range of experience in entertainment, sports, corporate, business litigation and transactional law and will expand the firm’s intellectual property practice.

Brenner previously spent nearly two decades in artist management, operating a successful entertainment management company that guided the careers of award-winning artists and songwriters. In that role, she negotiated recording contracts and managed music licensing, touring, television, film, video, internet, music and book publishing deals for her clients.

Brenner is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and holds a law degree from University of Tennessee.

Bradley’s Dalton named to diversity post

Alé Dalton, an associate in Bradley’s Nashville office, has been selected to the 2021 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Pathfinders program.

The LCLD Pathfinder program is among the most comprehensive legal talent development programs in the country, designed to increase diversity at the leadership levels of the nation’s law firms and corporate legal departments.

With more than 350 members, the LCLD is a national organization made up of general counsel and law firm managing partners who participate in programs designed to attract, inspire and nurture the talent in society and within the members’ organizations, thereby helping a new and more diverse generation of attorneys ascend to positions of leadership. The LCLD was launched in 2009.

Bradley joined LCLD in 2020 and is proud to participate in the Fellows, Pathfinder, Alumni and 1L Scholars Programs to prepare future generations of diverse talent for the highest positions of leadership.

Gresham Smith’s Chester will transition to CEO

Gresham Smith, a Nashville-based architecture, engineering and design firm, has announced Al Pramuk, chairman, will transition out of his CEO role at the end of the 2021 calendar year. Rodney Chester, the firm’s COO, will succeed Pramuk as CEO in January 2022.

Pramuk has more than 30 years of experience working for the firm. He has served as CEO since 2017 and was named chairman of Gresham Smith’s board of directors in 2016. During his tenure as CEO, the firm grew its net revenue by 43%, expanded into the Chicago and Charlotte markets, launched its “Genuine Ingenuity” rebrand, developed a robust “Build U” employee development program and established an innovation incubator.

Chester has worked for the firm for nearly 24 years. He joined Gresham Smith’s board of directors in 2015 and has served as COO since 2018. Chester previously served in a variety of leadership positions at Gresham Smith, including senior vice president of firmwide operations and division vice president.

Pramuk will actively serve as CEO through the end of the 2021 calendar year and will continue as chairman following the transition. He also will serve in a leadership role focused on enhancing ongoing relationships with clients and the business community.

In addition to Pramuk and Chester, Gresham Smith’s management team is composed of chief strategy officer Randy Gibson and chief financial officer Dwayne West.

Lipscomb appoints Steele presidential faculty fellow

Michelle Cummings Steele, associate professor in Lipscomb University’s College of Leadership & Public Service and director of its master of arts in leadership and public service program and Department of Urban Studies, has been selected as the 2020-21 Lipscomb University Presidential Faculty Fellow.

Lipscomb’s office of the president annually appoints a full-time faculty member in the role of Presidential Faculty Fellow to work in a one-year, part-time assignment with the president and members of the senior leadership team. Nominations are received by faculty peers or are self-nominated because of their interest in higher education administration.

With more than 14 years of experience working with governmental agencies, Steele served as director of Nashville’s Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods for four years during the Bill Purcell administration, is a former case manager for the Mid-Cumberland Community Services Agency and supervised the customer service team at the Metropolitan Nashville Department of Codes and Building Safety. She has worked with countless local community groups teaching them to develop the capacity within themselves to affect sustainable and collaborative change.

In 2016, Steele co-facilitated the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County discussions on Race, Equity and Leadership (R.E.A.L. Talks) that brought together over 1,100 people from across the city. She has also worked with the YMCA of Middle Tennessee to facilitate community discussions about the future of the Northwest YMCA.

Dismas House expands team with new hires

Leading Middle Tennessee reentry program Dismas House of Nashville has added to its leadership team with Nashville philanthropy strategy expert LoLita Toney joining the team as vice president of development and Phillip Hill joining as vice president of operations.

They become members of the executive team joining former board chair and interim CEO Kay Kretsch and Dr. Julie Doochin, vice president of programs.

Toney previously served as director of development and chief of staff at the National Museum of African American Music, where she led capital fundraising including establishing a national membership campaign and major gift society. Before that, she worked in higher education leading fundraising and community relations efforts at Meharry Medical College, Belmont University and Fisk University.

She is pursuing a Ph.D. in business psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Hill brings decades of experience in operations management, project management, staff development and customer service to his role. He oversees day-to-day operations to support the growth of the organization and the delivery of services for residents and staff.

Before Dismas House, Hill was territory sales manager for Ben Tally + Associates in Atlanta, and previously as store director, store designer and project manager at Turnip Truck Natural Markets in The Gulch and East Nashville. Before that, he spent almost 15 years as an interior designer for Bradford’s Interiors and his own design firm.

Wilhoite named to diversity task force

Metro Nashville and Davidson County Assessor of Property Vivian Wilhoite has been named to The International Association of Assessing Officers’ Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.

The global organization of property assessing professionals has charged the task force with providing policy initiatives that affect change on the race, gender and ethnicity of professionals working in the field and supply IAAO’s board of directors with recommendations on attracting a more diverse pool of candidates into careers in property valuation.

Wilhoite will be joined by colleagues from Tampa, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, New Orleans and St. George, Utah.

Wilhoite was elected in 2016 and was the first African American elected to the office in Davidson County history. She was reelected last year.

Wold | HFR Design taps Dennis as health care manager

Wold | HFR Design architecture and engineering firm has hired Wayne Dennis as health care project manager. Dennis will oversee the effective delivery of the firm’s health care projects in the Southeast.

Dennis brings more than 20 years of expertise as a licensed architect to the firm and has managed various health care, senior living, commercial and residential projects with budgets in excess of $25 million.

Before joining Wold | HFR Design, Dennis was a senior architect at several architectural firms in Huntsville. Most recently, he served as a senior architect at Tetra Tech, a leading provider of consulting, engineering and technical services worldwide.

Dennis earned a degree in architecture from Auburn University. He is a licensed architect in Alabama and Georgia with National Council of Architectural Registration Board Certification (NCARB) and an active member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) since 1996. Dennis holds the LEED for Building Design and Construction (LEED BD+C) professional accreditation.