Gresham Smith has named 14 new firm owners, including six from Nashville. Nashvillians selected are:

• Andy Aparicio is director of corporate communications and has joined the firm in 2020. He has since developed an extensive internal and external communications strategy to support the firm’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also has led his team to deliver several other high-profile initiatives, including the firm’s first virtual Celebration and the communication of the firm’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion program.

• Brandon Bell, AIA, is a senior architect in the Corporate + Urban Design market who joined the firm in 2015. During Bell’s 21-year career, he has guided clients through the feasibility, design, entitlements and construction phases of complex multifamily residential projects. His success with the Fifth + Broadway project led to the establishment of a dedicated multifamily residential practice at Gresham Smith in 2020, with Bell designated as the residential practice leader.

• Sejin Kim, AIA, LEED AP, is a vice president in the Industrial market. He joined the firm in 2003 and is known for his technical ability, design leadership and client orientation. He has served as client liaison on projects such as Hankook Tire’s greenfield passenger tire plant and LG Electronics’ new manufacturing facility in Clarksville, as well as Ultium Cells’ new $2.3 billion-dollar battery manufacturing plant in Lordstown, Ohio.

• Andy Stoebner, P.E., is the structural department leader in the building engineering market. He joined the firm in 2012 and became structural department leader in 2017.

• Rob Whitson, P.E., is a senior civil engineer in the land planning market, having joined Gresham Smith in 2004. He leads Land Planning’s project management group. He also serves as Land Planning’s representative on the firm’s Project Management Champions group.

• David Zegley, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, is a senior architect in the health care market and joined the firm in 2006. He is currently leading the design efforts for two major health care projects, including a pediatric surgery addition at Methodist LeBonheur Children’s Hospital. A sustainability thought leader, he received the Gresham Smith Sustainability Award in 2016.

Barge’s Cundiff promoted to Tennessee civil lead

Jeff Cundiff, vice president, PE, LEED AP, has been promoted to Tennessee civil lead by Barge Design Solutions, Inc.

Cundiff has 20 years of experience as an engineer, project manager and group leader in civil engineering and land development. In his new role, Cundiff will provide leadership to technical services and staff and be responsible for supporting the continued growth of the civil site and land development services, focusing his efforts in Tennessee.

Cundiff earned a degree in civil engineering from Tennessee Technological University and an MBA in Sustainability from Lipscomb University.

Wuerdeman moves from Bass to Sherrard

Lora A. Wuerdeman has joined Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison as an associate after previously serving as an associate at Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC, in the Corporate & Securities practice area.

Wuerdeman earned her J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law, where she served as a staff editor for the Mississippi Law Journal. She is a member of Phi Delta Phi Honor Society.

She is a member of the American Health Law Association and the American Bar Association.

Mitchell elected to First Farmers board

First Farmers and Merchants Corporation, the holding company for First Farmers and Merchants Bank, has announced that shareholders voting at its annual meeting reelected 10 incumbent directors and elected E. Marlee Mitchell as a new director.

Mitchell is a partner at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP, where she has practiced law for more than 30 years. She was inducted as a Nashville Bar Foundation Fellow in 2016 and is a member of the American Bar Association’s Committees on Federal Regulation of Securities, the Tennessee Bar Association’s Corporation and Business Law Section, and the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society.

A graduate of Leadership Nashville and a past Athena Award nominee, Mitchell chairs the Tennessee State Parks Conservancy board of directors and the Pet Community Center board of directors.

Mitchell completed her undergraduate studies at Rhodes College and earned her juris doctorate from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where she has served as an adjunct professor teaching securities regulation.

Directors reelected to the board are:

• Jeffrey L. Aiken, president of the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation

• Jonathan M. Edwards, president and CEO of Edwards Oil Company

• Thomas Napier Gordon, attorney and managing partner of Gordon Brothers Properties

• Jeffrey L Pannell, CEO of Tennessee Farmers Insurance Companies

• Richard C. Perko, president and CEO of Lee Company

• Timothy E. Pettus, vice chairman of the company and the bank

• H. Alan Watson, CEO of Maury Regional Health

• Brian K. Williams, president of the Company and the Bank

• Gina B. Wolf, owner/operator of Wolf Enterprises.

Greene named chair for Light The Night walk

The Tennessee Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has announced that Dustin Greene, CEO of TriStar Skyline Medical Center, will be the 2021 Light The Night Corporate Walk chair.

Greene will work with local chapter volunteers and staff as a business partner and will assist in creating new relationships with other businesses throughout the region.

He has been involved with LLS for six years, including becoming a perennial participate in “Light the Night” and serving on the Corporate Walk Committee last year.

During his 20 years with HCA, he has served on a number of nonprofit boards, often related to health care or the community.

His commitment and passion for LLS was emboldened when his mother-in-law, affectionately known as “Mimi” by her grandchildren, was diagnosed with leukemia.

Information about Light The Night can be found at www.lightthenight.org.

Trevecca names Silliman dean of new STEM school

Trevecca Nazarene University has hired Stephen Silliman, Ph.D., professor of engineering and environmental studies, to serve as dean of the university’s new School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Silliman, recognized extensively in his career for his work in both academics and research related to science and engineering, was dean of Gonzaga University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science 2012-2018. He later served at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Global Development Lab as a Jefferson Science Fellow before returning to Gonzaga as an environmental studies and engineering professor in 2019.

Before Gonzaga, Silliman was a professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, where he also served in leadership roles like associate department chair and associate dean for undergraduate programs.

Silliman earned his Ph.D. and master’s degrees in hydrology and water resources from the University of Arizona. He also has a civil engineering degree from Princeton University and is a graduate of the management development program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

Trevecca recently broke ground on a 33,000-square-foot health sciences expansion of its STEM facility.

WPLN news adds environmental reporter

WPLN News has hired Caroline Eggers as the newsroom’s first environmental reporter. She will join WPLN in June.

Eggers will cover environmental issues with a focus on equity for WPLN News as a member of Report for America, a national service program that places emerging journalists in local newsrooms across the U.S. to report on under-covered topics and communities.

The newly created position adds another reporter to WPLN’s growing news team. In the past two years, the station has added seven positions to its news team.

Eggers spent the past few years covering water-quality issues, biodiversity, climate change and Mammoth Cave National Park for newsrooms in the South. Her reporting on homelessness and a runoff-related “fish kill” for the Bowling Green Daily News earned her 2020 Kentucky Press Association awards in the general news and extended coverage categories, respectively.

Eggers graduated from Emory University in Atlanta.