Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has hired Van P. East III to the firm’s real estate practice group as a partner in the Nashville office.

East has extensive experience in commercial real estate, representing clients in purchasing, financing, leasing and selling commercial properties ranging from shopping centers to vacant land. He also works with clients on matters involving closely held business entities, including formations, conversions, mergers, acquisitions and dispositions, as well as restructuring ownership and control.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, East is an active member of the Tennessee Bar Association and currently serves on the executive council of the Business Section. Through his involvement with the TBA, he participated in drafting legislation regarding Tennessee’s business entity statues, including the Tennessee Revised Limited Liability Company Act. East also is a fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation and has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® since 2012.

TN Independent Colleges name Hall of Fame Class

The Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association has announced its second class of hall of fame inductees. TICUA and its member institutions have selected 24 alumni, highlighting their contributions to the state, country and world in a variety of disciplines.

The 2021 class of inductees includes civil rights and women’s rights activists, veterans, civic and faith leaders, news, entertainment and business professionals, and passionate philanthropic and humanitarian leaders, all hailing from Tennessee private nonprofit institutions.

Dr. C.T. Vivian, a 1960 graduate of American Baptist College, is one of the civil rights leaders recognized in this year’s class. He earned a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., leading boycotts and marches across the South.

Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni is considered one of America’s foremost and widely read American poets and an outspoken civil rights activist. A 1967 Fisk University, she often returns to campus to engage, teach and mentor Fisk students, including a semester tenure as a visiting distinguished professor.

The TICUA Hall of Fame Class of 2021:

• Dr. C.T. Vivian - American Baptist College

• Steve Bachus - Aquinas College

• Denese Shumaker - Baptist Health Sciences University

• Harry Allen - Belmont University

• Dr. Ken Hanna - Bryan College

• Ted Russell - Carson-Newman University

• Joe Birch - Christian Brothers University

• Howell Edmunds Jackson - Cumberland University

• Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni - Fisk University

• John DeBerry - Freed-Hardeman University

• Dr. Martha Raile Alligood - Johnson University

• Dr. Catherine Peeke - King University

• Donald Hollowell - Lane College

• Eugene Ward - Lincoln Memorial University

• Pat Boone - Lipscomb University

• Mary Wilson McTeer - Maryville College

• Dr. Cherae Farmer-Dixon - Meharry Medical College

• Nathaniel Owens - Sewanee: The University of the South

• Terry Shaw - Southern Adventist University

• Dr. Glen Steele - Southern College of Optometry

• Dr. Lynn Massingale - Tennessee Wesleyan University

• Dr. Melvin Welch - Trevecca Nazarene University

• Dr. Larry Brotherton - Tusculum University

• Dr. George Savage - Union University

Pinnacle’s Kidd is top financial consultant

Pinnacle Asset Management’s Brock Kidd is the No. 1 financial consultant in the nation among the Financial Institutions Division of Raymond James Financial Services. He earned this distinction for having the highest total dollar amount of assets under management at more than $700 million.

Kidd is also ranked No. 25 among Raymond James Financial Services internationally and was named to the company’s Chairman’s Council for the fifth consecutive year.

Kidd is a founding partner and managing director of Pinnacle Asset Management and a private wealth manager with Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. He began at Pinnacle Asset Management in 2000 and joined Raymond James in 2002.

Pinnacle Asset Management is a division of Pinnacle Financial Partners.

Word accepts senior TN Medical Association post

The Tennessee Medical Association has promoted Doug Word to senior director of membership and communications. He will direct all facets of the organization’s strategic communications, membership recruitment and retention efforts.

Word has served since 2018 as TMA’s director of regional development with primary focus on membership recruitment and retention, physician leadership development and member engagement. He joined TMA in 2014 as marketing manager, where he earned a Profiles in Excellence Award from the American Association of Medical Society Executives in the Excellence in Membership category for TMA’s membership marketing campaign.

Before joining TMA, Word worked in sales and marketing with BlueSky Synergy, LLC, a Nashville-based medical staffing software company, and in communications with Athlon Sports Communications, Inc. He has worked in Vanderbilt University’s alumni relations department and as an intern with McNeely Pigott & Fox, a Nashville-based communications firm.

A Nashville native, Word earned a degree in communications from the University of Tennessee. He holds memberships in the Tennessee Society of Association Executives and AAMSE.

Ross named Mindyra national sales director

Digital behavioral health company Mindyra Health Corporation has hired David Ross as national sales director. Headquartered in Nashville, Ross will oversee all aspects of Mindyra’s sales business including targets, lead generation and sales force performance.

Ross brings more than 20 years of experience in sales and business development to Mindyra. During that time, he’s worked as the owner and CEO of Ross Financial Planning and serves as president of AMA Nashville, a marketing and advertising association which provides networking opportunities to young marketing professionals.

He is the founder and CEO of Phoenix Consulting, which provides professional training and coaching to businesses, and has served on the board of Genetics Associates, a privately held cytogenetic laboratory.

Ross earned a degree in music from West Virginia University and went on to Middle Tennessee State University, where he earned a master’s degree in music. He also holds an MBA from the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University.

Scarritt Bennett Center taps new exec director

Scarritt Bennett Center, a Nashville’s conference, retreat and transformative education center, has selected educator, lawyer and faith-based leader the Rev. Sondrea L. Tolbert as its next executive director. She will begin her new role Nov. 1.

Tolbert is the immediate past director of the National Consortium of Black Women in Ministry, Nashville Chapter, where she fostered a focus on the community through ministry initiatives involving breast cancer awareness, domestic violence, and HIV/AIDS. While leading NCBWIM, she established Pink Sunday Nashville, which is held throughout churches in middle Tennessee to raise breast cancer awareness.

Tolbert is the first woman ordained and appointed as assistant pastor of the historic Fairfield Missionary Baptist Church in Goodlettsville. Furthermore, she is the author of “On the Bright Side Morning Joy Devotions,” a freelance writer for Abingdon Press, and founder of Sisterhood ROCKS Ministry (Radically Obedient Christian-Women Kingdom Surrendered).

The Alabama native also served as administrator at Meharry Medical College and adjunct professor at Tennessee State University. She also practiced law at the Nashville-based firm Watkins, Clayton & Tolbert, and most recently served as a judicial law clerk for Judge Monte Watkins, Davidson County Criminal Court Division V.

She earned a degree in English from Fisk University and holds a master of divinity degree from Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio, JD from North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham, North Carolina.

Hall Strategies makes three hires

Hall Strategies, a Nashville-based public relations and government relations firm, has made three staff additions: Ann Marie Anderson, account supervisor, Jessica Cardwell, operations and marketing manager, and Cameron Snow, account coordinator.

Anderson joins with a focus on statewide media relations. She previously served as communications director at Tennesseans for Student Success and director of communications and community engagement to Tennessee First Lady Maria Lee. She is a graduate of University of Tennessee-Chattanooga

She also served as deputy press secretary to former U.S. Senator Bob Corker, and later as a major donor consultant for Kaegi Resources, a Nashville-based fundraising and event management firm.

Cardwell previously served as director of marketing and finance for the Tennessee Hospitality Association. There she oversaw the organization’s marketing initiatives and collaborated in the planning of 20 to 30 annual events.

Cardwell holds a marketing degree and MBA from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.

Snow joins Hall after serving as an intern for the firm. He was an assistant account manager at Wildwood Advertising in Lexington, Kentucky, and was an intern for U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky.