Thompson Burton PLLC has expanded its land use and development practice group with the addition of Doug Sloan as its newest partner. Sloan, who has more than 20 years of experience, joins the largest land use and development team in Nashville.

Sloan has served as executive director of the Metro Planning Department, senior attorney with the Metro Legal Department, Mayor Karl Dean’s office and as chief legal officer and vice president at Nashville International Airport.

Sloan has written numerous pieces of local legislation for Metro Council regarding land use and zoning matters, as well as state legislation affecting land development. He also has served as a partner for Holland & Knight and Spencer Fane. He also served as an attorney for Bone McCallester Norton.

He is a graduate of the Nashville School of Law and Middle Tennessee State University.

Smith earns Chambers High Net Worth honor

Chambers High Net Worth has selected Stites & Harbison, PLLC attorney Gregory D. Smith for inclusion in its 2024 guide in the category of Family/Matrimonial for USA: Tennessee. He is one of only three attorneys honored for Tennessee.

Chambers High Net Worth ranks top lawyers and law firms in the international private wealth market. This is Smith’s fourth time earning the honor.

Smith is chair of the firm’s domestic service group and a member of Stites & Harbison based in Nashville. He is a family law lawyer whose practice focuses on complex, difficult disputes between spouses and former spouses.

Smith is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, which comes by invitation and cannot exceed 1% of the total lawyer population of any state or province.

Thurman named director of Waste Services Department

Tracey Thurman has been appointed by Mayor Freddie O’Connell to be the city’s first director of the Waste Services Department. Thurman, a graduate of Belmont University, comes to Nashville after a decade as the director of Solid Waste in Lexington, Kentucky.

Thurman’s hire marks the first for the new department, which will oversee the city’s trash and recycling collection. Thurman has experience managing a 200-plus member department in Lexington that executed on a $42 million budget to serve 96,000 residents and 4,000 businesses.

The formation of the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure resulted in the moving of solid waste services to the Metro Water Services Department, which is otherwise a ratepayer-funded entity. It has now been moved to a standalone department.

Thurman has served four terms on the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Municipal Waste Management Association.

TriStar hires assistant chief financial officer

TriStar Skyline Medical Center has hired Kevin Sommers as assistant chief financial officer.

Sommers previously worked at SCA Health, part of Optum and United Health, in its financial operations group supporting surgery centers and surgical hospitals across the U.S.

Originally from Huntsville, Sommers earned a master’s degree in health administration and an MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also completed his accounting degree at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. He serves on the Young Alumni Council for the Auburn University College of Business and is an avid supporter of Auburn athletics.

Columbia taps Cummins as its new fire chief

The City of Columbia has announced the appointment of interim fire chief Chris Cummins as the new full-time chief of Columbia Fire & Rescue.

Cummins has more than three decades of experience with Columbia Fire & Rescue. He began his career with the department in 1990 as a firefighter and steadily rose through the ranks, serving as a fire engineer/driver, captain, assistant chief of suppression and ultimately deputy chief before retiring in May 2021. Additionally, Cummins has served more than 20 years in total as a volunteer firefighter in both Maury and Lawrence counties.

Following his retirement, Cummins was rehired in August 2021 in a part-time capacity. He was appointed to the position of interim chief in March.

Cummins will oversee all aspects of Columbia Fire & Rescue, including emergency response operations, training programs and community outreach initiatives. He will work closely with city officials and department personnel to ensure the safety and well-being of all residents and visitors.