Brentwood attorney Sherie Edwards has taken office as president of the Tennessee Bar Association, taking the oath of office from Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeff Bivins during the group’s annual convention in Memphis.

Edwards is vice president of corporate and legal for State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company in Brentwood. Before joining SVMIC in 1998, she was director of risk management for Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin.

Edwards says she will focus on three areas: business education, attorney wellness and diversity. The TBA will offer new programming in these areas and integrate them into all programming. In addition, Edwards said the TBA “will continue to support Access to Justice and encourage pro bono service, advocate for members at the General Assembly, produce first-class subject matter CLEs and offer more and better member benefits.”

Edwards had been the District 5 governor on the TBA Board of Governors, chair of the board’s membership committee and the association’s treasurer for six years. She is a member of the TBA’s Access to Justice and Attorney Well-Being committees and is a 2010 graduate of the TBA Leadership Law program.

Edwards has also served as the Nashville Bar Association’s delegate to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, as past chair of the NBA Sister Cities Committee and as a mentor for the Nashville Bar Foundation’s Leadership Forum. In 2018 she was awarded the Association of Corporate Counsel’s prestigious Jonathan Silber Network Member of the Year and was an Athena Award nominee in 2014. She is a graduate of the Nashville School of Law.

Belmont graduate joins tpmbLAW

Matt Byron has joined Taylor, Pigue, Marchetti and Blair PLLC as an associate.

Byron, who earned his J.D. in 2019 from Belmont University College of Law, will focus his practice in civil litigation, including insurance defense, creditors’ rights and commercial law.

While at Belmont, Byron competed at the 2019 L. Edward Bryant, Jr. National Health Law Transactional Moot Court Competition in Chicago, where his team was awarded the National Championship. He was actively involved with the law school’s Health Law Journal and served as a legal research assistant to the director of Belmont’s health law program, Deborah R. Farringer. He interned for Davidson County Judges Claudia C. Bonnyman and Kelvin D. Jones, and in the Office of General Counsel at TennCare during law school.

Byron, a native of Chicago, graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston in May 2016 with a double major in music business and management and bass performance. He remains active in the Nashville music community.

Butler Snow gets commercial litigator

Matthew R. Hinson has joined Butler Snow’s Nashville office in its commercial litigation practice group.

Hinson is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College and earned his juris doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While there, he worked as a research assistant under the Honorable Richard E. Myers, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Hinson is a member of the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations. He is licensed to practice in Tennessee and the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Bradley adds five Nashville attorneys

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has added 24 attorneys in six cities, including five in Nashville. They are:

Alex Brent, an associate in the Healthcare Practice Group, earned his J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he graduated first in his class. He also holds a degree in business administration from UT.

Katelin Davis, an associate in the Real Estate Practice Group, earned her J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law, where she was executive online editor for the Mississippi Law Journal. Davis holds a degree in journalism from the University of Mississippi.

Tanner Hamilton, an associate in the Real Estate Practice Group, provides counsel in real estate acquisitions and dispositions, finance and development, leasing and lending. Before attending law school, Hamilton worked as a licensed real estate agent and property manager in the Nashville real estate market. He earned his J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Clemson University.

Shelby Lomax, an associate in the Banking and Financial Services Practice Group. focuses on litigation and regulatory compliance issues. Lomax earned her J.D. from Belmont University College of Law, where she served as associate editor for the Belmont Law Review. She is a graduate of Florida State University with a degree in sport management.

Rachel Sodée, an associate in the Litigation Practice Group, earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, where she was symposium editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review and president of the Labor and Employment Law Society. Sodée earned a degree in French and English from the University of Alabama.

Two from VUMC win Career Awards

Two physician-scientist instructors in medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center – Jeeyeon Cha, M.D., Ph.D., and Celestine Wanjalla, M.D., Ph.D. – are among 12 recipients of the 2021 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists.

The highly competitive program provides $700,000 over five years to physician-scientists who are committed to academic careers as they transition from fellowship and postdoctoral positions to faculty service.

Cha’s award recognizes her research on sexual dimorphism in diabetes, while Wanjalla was recognized for her studies of the long-term immunologic effects of aging with HIV.

Cha and Wanjalla are the first women among five physician-scientists at VUMC who have received the BWF Career Award. This also is the first time two early-career faculty members from VUMC have received the award in the same year.

Cha was born in South Korea and grew up in Kentucky. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular & developmental biology and reproductive sciences at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in 2013 and her M.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 2015.

A native of Nairobi, Kenya, Wanjalla earned her M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology and microbial pathogenesis in 2013 from the Sidney Kimmell Medical College and the Jefferson Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

After completing her residency in Internal Medicine at VUMC in 2015, she was a clinical fellow in the physician-scientist track and co-chief fellow in infectious diseases before joining the faculty in 2018. She is the primary author or co-author of 27 research publications.

Centerstone promotes Hardy, Nunn to new roles

Centerstone has promoted Dr. Matt Hardy to chief operating officer for Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina and Dr. Brad Nunn to chief clinical quality officer for the same areas.

Hardy previously served as regional vice president and joined Centerstone in 2000 as a therapist. He earned his Psy.D. in psychology from Wheaton College and is a licensed clinical psychologist.

Additionally, Hardy is a critical incident responder and also helped launch three Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinics at Centerstone, which provide mental health services to veterans, active-duty soldiers and their family members.

Nunn will facilitate organizational planning for improvement in care and services. He previously served as vice president of quality improvement and joined Centerstone in 1987, helping establish research and data analytics for the organization.

Nunn earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Auburn University and has been a licensed clinical psychologist in Tennessee since 1988.

Hunter Industrial Fans names channel director

Hunter Industrial Fans, a division of the Hunter Fan Company, has added Benjamin Braitsch as channel director for the company’s Jan Fan division. In 2019, Hunter Industrial acquired Jan Fan, a manufacturer and distributor of fixed and rolling-mount caged fan solutions for commercial and industrial workspaces.

Braitsch will oversee Jan Fan’s sales strategy and focus on developing, nurturing and growing the business in partnership with the brand’s key accounts and distributors. Braitsch also will manage administration and customer support for sales, logistics, distribution, delivery and more.

Braitsch previously served as president & CEO and market development director for Airmaster Fan Company, responsible for all strategic business aspects as well as developing marketing and sales strategies and brand partnerships.