McGlinchey Stafford has selected attorney Shaun Ramey to co-chair of the firm’s national financial services litigation practice group. Ramey also serves as managing member of the firm’s Nashville office and on McGlinchey’s executive Policy Committee.

With decades of experience as a trial lawyer and adviser, Ramey represents financial services providers, mortgage loan servicers, banks, auto finance companies, manufactured housing lenders and real estate entities in all types of financial services litigation.

He also advises clients in litigation and transactional matters in other industries.

Ramey joined McGlinchey in 2018 and is licensed in Alabama, Florida and Tennessee. As one of 10 members of the policy committee, he also helps shape the firm’s long-term, strategic growth plans.

Patent attorney joins Bradley in Nashville

Alex Huffstutter has joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP’s intellectual property practice group as a senior attorney.

Huffstutter is a registered patent attorney focusing on electrically based patent prosecution and mechanically based patent prosecution. He regularly prosecutes design patents for clients across a variety of industries, and his experience includes technical innovations in electrical engineering, graphene synthesis and hydroponic inventions for the expanding cannabis industry.

A graduate of Belmont University College of Law, Huffstutter also holds a degree in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University. He is licensed to practice in Tennessee and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and is a member of the Tennessee, Nashville and American bar associations, as well as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

MTSU names new dean of College of Business

Middle Tennessee State University has named Joyce Heames as new dean of the Jennings A. Jones College of Business following a national search.

Heames, who serves as dean of the Campbell School of Business at Berry College near Rome, Georgia, starts her new role July 1. She takes the reins from Dean David Urban, who is returning to a faculty position within the college.

Before going to Berry College in 2016, Heames was an associate dean of innovation, outreach and engagement at West Virginia University. She also served in administrative and teaching positions at the University of Mississippi and Samford University.

Heames earned her Ph.D. in management from the University of Mississippi and her MBA and bachelor’s in management from Samford University in Birmingham.

2023 Periscope class announced

The Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville has announced the selection of the 2023 class of Periscope: Artist Entrepreneur Training (Periscope Nashville), an annual business development intensive that empowers working artists to see their creative practice through an entrepreneurial lens.

Artists are chosen through a competitive application process and scored by a panel of community reviewers that includes leading artists, curators, musicians and creative entrepreneurs in Nashville’s arts, culture and business sectors.

Selected artists participate in eight weeks of entrepreneurial training followed by six months of individualized mentorship by high-caliber business mentors. The program culminates at the Periscope Pitch + Artist Entrepreneur Showcase in September, in which artist entrepreneurs unveil their creative businesses to the community.

The 2023 class includes:

• Alexa Lipman, visual art

• Ariel Bui, music

• Asia Pyron, dance

• Beth Barnard, visual art, sculpture

• Brooke Hoffert, public art/creative placemaking, visual art, curatorial arts

• Bryson Finney, music

• Cassy Laessig, visual art

• Dalia Garcia, visual art

• Darius Montgomery, fashion/textiles, visual art

• Gina Sicilia, music, culinary art

• Grace Chee, visual art

• Kayleigh Walder, public art/creative placemaking, visual art

• Kristin Wiens Keyes, public art/creative placemaking

• Leroy Ramon Dawson, visual art

• Lisa Jennings, visual art

• Martha Morales Purucker, visual art

• Princella Smith, Film/television, literary arts

• Renea Weston, music

• Sam Drapeaux, visual art

• Sharita Henderson, visual art

• Stephanie Graves, visual art

• Susan Thornton, jewelry/metals

• Thalia Ewing, music

• Tree Lily Butcher, visual art

• Yamil Conga, music

Waddell & Assoc. names Bailey office president

Bailey

Waddell & Associates, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm with offices in Nashville, Memphis and Aspen, Colorado, has promoted Teresa J.W. Bailey to president of the firm’s Nashville office.

She joined the W&A team in 2017, bringing more than a decade of experience in advising small-business owners and high net worth individuals. Bailey also has built a professional services business from the ground up, affording her invaluable firsthand knowledge of the entrepreneurial world her clients live in.

Bailey was named one of Memphis Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2016. In 2022, she was named a finalist for RIA Intel’s Advisor of the Year, Think Advisor’s Luminaries Awards and Wealth Management’s Industry Awards. She is a member of the Exceptional Women Alliance, Economic Club of Nashville and Nashville chapter of The Private Directors Association.

Bay named airport manager of the year

Heather Bay, CEO of the Lebanon Municipal Airport and Direct Flight Solutions, LLC, has been named “Airport Manager of the Year” by the TDOT Aeronautics Commission.

Bay has served the Lebanon Airport for 15 years, during which the airfield operations increased 5,800 to almost 60,000, from 44 hangars to now 69 completed and more than 30 additional in development, and 40 people on the waiting list.

The TDOT Aeronautics Division Staff and Commission awards recognize the hardworking airport sponsors and aviation professionals in Tennessee. Aviation Manager of the Year awards recognize superior achievement and leadership in the state’s aviation field. These awards honor excellence and professionalism at all levels of airport operations.

Holder named SRMC chief nursing officer

Jennifer Holder, RN, BSN, MBA, CPPS has joined the Sumner Regional Medical Center executive team as its chief nursing officer.

Holder, a Wilson County native, began her career as a bedside nurse at Baptist Hospital and Saint Thomas Health Services. For 11 years, she worked in multiple areas across the Saint Thomas health system including med/surg, ICU, MICU, NICU, SICU and IV/PICC units.

In 2013, she joined HighPoint Health System, starting off as the director of quality and risk management at Riverview Regional Medical Center and then serving for 2.5 years as the director of quality and case management at SRMC.

Waste management firm makes personnel moves

VaVia, a provider of dumpster rental services, has announced the hiring of three individuals and the promotion of three team members to meet the increasing needs of its construction industry clients during a time of exponential growth for the company.

Five of the positions will bolster the company’s franchise expansion and operations, while one will be taking over the company-owned Nashville market.

VaVia’s franchise side appointments include:

• Eric Gustaffon, hired as vice president of franchise development

• Allison Pulk, promoted to director of operations

• Fred Kyzer, promoted to service and parts manager

• Patrick Wells, hired as consumer sales manager

• Olivia Hernandez, hired as executive administrative assistant

Since its founding in 2019 in Nashville, VaVia can now be found in 18 markets in seven states. It manages the Nashville market at the corporate level, with other areas led by franchisees, the most recent addition being the Tampa, Florida market which opened in March.