Baker Donelson has named two attorneys to leadership roles within its Health Law Group.

S. Craig Holden has been named co-chair of the Baker Ober Health Law Group, one of the largest health law practices in the country. He serves as co-chair of the group with Ashby Q. Burks, a shareholder in the firm’s Nashville office.

The firm also named Michelle A. Williams as leader of its Health Care Regulatory Center of Excellence.

Holden, a shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Baltimore office and a member of the firm’s board of directors, recently completed service as president of the American Health Law Association. He previously served as the chair and chief executive officer of the firm of Ober, Kaler Grimes and Shriver, which merged with Baker Donelson in 2017.

Holden focuses his practice on health law with particular emphasis on matters involving Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse, pharmaceutical pricing, Medicare and third-party reimbursement and compliance.

His numerous recognitions include being listed in The Best Lawyers in America in Health Care Law and twice being named the Best Lawyers Baltimore Health Care “Lawyer of the Year.” He has also been recognized by Chambers USA as a leading health care attorney both in Maryland and nationally. He was named a “BTI Client Service All-Star” and is listed in Who’s Who Legal in Healthcare.

Williams, a Baker Donelson shareholder, focuses her practice on the regulatory and structuring aspects of hospital mergers, acquisitions and integrations.

Williams, who was an in-house counsel at University Hospitals of Cleveland and the former Mount Sinai Hospital, has been on-loan in-house counsel to several academic medical centers, and was a commissioner on the Advisory Committee on Childhood Vaccines, advising the U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund.

Williams has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America in Health Care Law since 2012 and has been recognized by Chambers USA since 2008. A graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, she is a member of the American Health Law Association, served as president of the Georgia Academy of Hospital Attorneys and worked as a medical technologist in microbiology before law school.

Stites & Harbison add Raque, Hutchison

Stites & Harbison, PLLC has hired attorney J. Ross Hutchison for the firm’s Construction Service Group as a member and Samuel A. Raque as a registered patent attorney for the firm’s Intellectual Property & Technology Service Group.

Raque’s practice will focus on intellectual property protection, including counseling clients on patent infringement, patentability, patent drafting and patent prosecution. He previously was a judicial law clerk with the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Patent Trial and Appeal Board in Alexandria, Virginia. Before that he served as a mechanical patent examiner for the USPTO’s Patent Examining Corps.

Raque earned his J.D. from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. He also earned a degree in bioengineering from the University of Louisville J.B. Speed School of Engineering.

He is admitted to practice in Tennessee and Kentucky. He is a member of the Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association.

Hutchison’s practice focuses on both litigation and transactional matters within the construction industry.

Before joining Stites & Harbison, Hutchison was a partner with a boutique construction firm in Nashville.

Hutchison stays active in a variety of professional and civic organizations. He is a member of the American, Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations, the Tennessee Association of Construction Counsel and the Associated General Contractors. He serves on the board of directors for AGC’s Construction Leadership Council.

Entrepreneur Center presents NEXT Awards

The Nashville Entrepreneur Center, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs and local businesses throughout Middle Tennessee, recently honored 10 businesses, two individuals and four Entrepreneur Hall of Fame inductees at its annual NEXT Awards.

There were 31 business finalists across five industry categories and eight finalists for the Emerging Entrepreneur of 2021 Award and Entrepreneur of 2021 Award. The industry category winners are:

Products, Services and Retail

• Emerging: Granite Test Prep, founder Grant Neely

• Market Mover: Thistle Farms, founder Becca Stevens

Technology

• Emerging: CodeX, co-founders Phil Henry, Christian Morsing & Byron Sommardahl

• Market Mover: Stratasan, co-founders Jason Moore & Brian Dailey

Real Estate, Hospitality and Construction

• Emerging: Pillars Development, founder Edward Henley

• Market Mover: Certified Construction Services, co-founders Jared & Ashley Bradley, Scott DeLano

Music, Sports and Entertainment

• Emerging: Bauer Entertainment Marketing, founder Brian Bauer

• Market Mover: mtheory Nashville, founder Cameo Carlson

Health care

• Emerging: Advocatia, co-founders Ryan Brebner & Laura Robbins

• Market Mover: MediCopy, founder Elliott Noble-Holt

Other honors included:

Emerging Entrepreneur of 2021

• Joshua Mundy, Pivot Technology School

Entrepreneur of 2021

• Travis Messina, Contessa

2021 Entrepreneur Hall of Fame Inductees

• Leatrice McKissack, former President & CEO, McKissack & McKissack

• Lucius E. Burch, III, chairman & CEO, Burch Investment Group

• Trisha Yearwood, Country superstar, bestselling author, chef, business owner & TV personality

• Phil Bredesen, former mayor of Nashville & governor of Tennessee, founder, HealthAmerica Corp., Coventry Corporation, Qualifacts, Clinical Pharmaceuticals, Silicon Ranch and ClearLoop

Business Roundtable adds communications specialist

The Tennessee Business Roundtable has hired Jessica L. Davis to the staff position of communications and meetings specialist.

A 2020 graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin, Davis earned a degree in communications, working in several related roles throughout her collegiate career before launching an independent marketing and communications firm which served clients in Northwest Tennessee and nationally.

Pazdur named publisher of HarperCollins line

HarperCollins Christian Publishing has promoted Ryan Pazdur to vice president and publisher for Zondervan Reflective and Study Resources. Pazdur will lead and manage the publishing programs for both product groups, including the acquisition, editorial development and overall title strategy.

Pazdur joined Zondervan 13 years ago and has spent the past 10 years serving as associate publisher and executive editor. He began his tenure at the company acquiring and editing church, ministry and academic books, and in 2019 helped lead the launch of the Zondervan Reflective imprint.

He previously spent 11 years as a pastor while also working as a freelance editor. As associate publisher, Pazdur worked on New York Times bestseller The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby, as well as with award-winning authors Timothy Keller and Pete Scazzero.

He has also developed and shepherded publishing partnerships with the Exponential Network, The Gospel Coalition, Saddleback, North Point Ministries and Seedbed Publishing.

Pazdur earned degrees in English literature and engineering from Hope College, a Master of Divinity from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and a Master of Theology in systematic theology from Calvin Theological Seminary.

Osborne get new role at Trevecca Nazarene

Trevecca Nazarene University has promoted Patrick Osborne to vice president of graduate and adult education, school officials announced.

Osborne has served in academic leadership roles at Trevecca since 2019 and was named an associate provost earlier this year. Previously, he worked as a vice president and general manager with Lamar Advertising.

This summer, Osborne helped Trevecca obtain a $1 million Tennessee Department of Education grant that will allow teachers statewide to earn free endorsements in either special education or English as a second language through TNU.

A 2015 graduate of Trevecca’s Doctor of Education in leadership program, Osborne earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Morehead State University.

Osborne has served with the Nashville Sports Council since 2012.

Spry to direct HR at Gresham Smith

Gresham Smith, a national architecture and engineering firm, has named Tonya Spry, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, the firm’s director of human resources.

Spry has more than two decades of broad-range human resources leadership experience that includes developing and implementing innovative approaches for talent attraction and retention, fostering engaged employee cultures, and building strong professional development programs.

Spry earned a degree in business management with a minor in business administration from Middle Tennessee State University and is a member of both the national and Middle Tennessee chapters of the Society for Human Resource Management. A Tennessee native, she will be based in the firm’s Nashville office.