Natasha Kamrani, a former teacher, attorney, school board member and foundation executive, has been named the new president of the Nashville Public Education Foundation.

She recently moved to Nashville from Houston with her husband, Chris Barbic, who now serves as superintendent of the Achievement School District for the state of Tennessee.

Kamrani graduated from Miami University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and a minor in political science. Following college, she went to work as a Teach For America (TFA) corps member, teaching English as a second language to recent immigrants in Houston’s public school system, before becoming the executive director of Teach For America’s Houston office. In 2000, she received a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Houston Law Center.

McNeely Pigott & Fox adds partners, senior VP

Alice Chapman and Andrew Maraniss have been named partners at Nashville-based McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations, and Jennifer Brantley has been promoted to senior vice president. All had been vice presidents. Chapman and Maraniss are the first new partners at MP&F since 1998.

Chapman joined the firm in 1995, Maraniss arrived in 1998 and Brantley celebrates her 20th anniversary with MP&F this year. Other partners at the firm, which is the largest in the state, are Mike Pigott, David Fox, Katy Varney and Keith Miles.

Chapman joined MP&F as a staff associate and has since worked for a variety of clients at the local, regional and national levels.

Maraniss, a native of Washington, D.C., specializes in writing and media relations, working with a diverse mix of clients including CSX Transportation, Hennessy Industries, Hyde Family Foundations, Manheim Consulting, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Tennessee Charter School Incubator and Qualifacts.

Brantley’s specialties include account management, strategic planning, research, public relations, media relations and event planning. Since joining MP&F in 1992 as an intern, Brantley has worked with such clients as Baptist Hospital, Colonial Pipeline, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, West Tennessee Healthcare, LUNGevity Foundation, Republic Services and Western Baptist Hospital.

Civil Site Design Group names new principal

Hal B. Clark, ASLA, LEED AP, has been named a principal at Civil Site Design Group, PLLC. Clark, who joined the Nashville civil engineering, planning and design firm in 2010, has more than 18 years of experience in creating master-planned and mixed-use communities in Tennessee, throughout the United States, and internationally.

Clark is currently working on several projects in the greater Nashville area including the ONEC1TY urban mixed-use development adjacent to the 28th Avenue Connector project in Nashville; regional business and technology campuses in Wilson, Robertson and Cheatham counties; and multi-family residential communities throughout the middle Tennessee region.

The Franklin resident is a 1994 graduate of Mississippi State University with a degree in landscape architecture. In 1997, he received a master’s in urban & regional planning from the University of Tennessee.

Litigation attorney joins Nashville School of Law

Patrick J. McHale has joined the Nashville School of Law faculty as instructor of conflicts of law. McHale has served as an adjunct teacher at NSL since 2009 and brings more than 35 years of legal experience to his position.

McHale will also continue to serve in his current position as assistant disciplinary counsel for the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary, a post he has held since 2009. Prior to this, McHale practiced with Stewart, Estes & Donnell, PLC focusing on worker’s compensation and torts cases. He also worked at the Tennessee Department of Labor from 2004 to 2007 with a focus on worker’s compensation. In this role, he represented the state’s Second Injury Fund and other significant exposure cases.

Prior to joining the Department of Labor, McHale was a litigator for nearly 30 years.

Baker Donelson earns another top 100 spot

For the third consecutive year Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC has been named to FORTUNE’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. The law firm is ranked 54th on the 14th edition of the listing.

The full list and related stories are available at Fortune.com/BestCompanies.

Four engineers achieve career designations

Four engineers at Nashville engineering and architecture firm Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon, Inc. have achieved professional credential designations.

Brian Wood, PE, SE, LEED Green Associate, has achieved the structural engineer designation that allows him to obtain licensure in states that require an SE license to practice structural engineering. He earned degree in civil engineering degree from the University of Tennessee, Martin and a master’s in civil engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology (2008).

Drew Muirhead, PE, has achieved designation as a professional engineer. A civil engineer, Muirhead has worked with the firm’s Nashville Water Services division since 2005. He is a graduate of Mississippi State University with a degree in civil engineering.

Daniel Gibbs, PE, LEED Green Associate, a mechanical engineer, has achieved the professional engineer designation. He has been associated with the Industrial and Buildings division since 2009. He is a graduate of Tennessee Tech with B.S. and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering.

Joel (Jay) Fulmer, PE, a civil engineer in the Nashville Civil Division since 2010, has achieved the professional engineer designation. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University (2007) with a degree in civil engineering and is seeking an MBA from Trevecca Nazarene University.

MDHA names Drury communication director

Mark Drury has been named Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency’s new director of communications. Drury is the former assistant commissioner for communications at the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD).

Drury will be responsible for media relations, as well as internal and external publications for the organization.

Drury spent the past six and a half years at ECD, a period which saw the agency recognized as the most competitive state in the U.S. for job creation. During his tenure, ECD launched its first efforts in the area of social media and web site analytics. Drury also led the agency’s initiatives promoting exports by Tennessee companies to foreign markets. Prior to joining ECD, Drury managed public affairs for the Tennessee operations of Dell, Inc. and served as press secretary for former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen. He was also a reporter for WTVF-TV, Channel 5 in Nashville from 1988 to 1998.

Vonderfecht receives McWherter Award

The Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence has named Dennis Vonderfecht, president and CEO of Mountain States Health Alliance, the 2012 Ned R. McWherter Leadership Award winner.

The Ned R. McWherter Leadership Award, named for the former Tennessee governor, annually recognizes an individual who exemplifies outstanding leadership in the pursuit of performance excellence and has furthered performance improvement beyond the boundaries of his or her organization.

Vonderfecht leads a network of 13 not-for-profit hospitals that serves a 29-county, four-state region (Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Southeastern Kentucky and Western North Carolina).

Previous honorees include Dr. Bob Bell (president, Tennessee Tech University), Dr. Andy Czuchry (AFG Chair of Excellence, ETSU), Jan McNally (director of leadership development, Covenant Health), Ed Scott (treasurer, Caterpillar, Inc.), Dr. Susan Williams (professor of management, Belmont University), Dr. R. Michael Browder (CEO, Bristol Tennessee Essential Services), David McClaskey (president, Pal’s Business Excellence Institute).

Appointments made to airport art board

The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority board has voted to reappoint two members and add three to the Arts at the Airport Foundation board of directors.

Nathaniel Harris, gallery owner and art advocate; Robert S. Patterson, trial lawyer with Bradley, Arant, Boult, and Cummings; Phil Ponder, an artist best known for his limited edition prints of skylines and famous buildings; Martha Profitt-Strueli, AP/IB visual arts teacher at Hillsboro High School; Jay Turner, director of development of Marketstreet Equities Co. and Marketstreet Management LLC.

Working closely with the 15-member Arts at the Airport Foundation board, the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority showcases the region’s visual and performing arts through its Arts at the Airport program, which receives some funding from the Tennessee Arts Commission.

Wellness Solutions adds Nashville staff

Wellness Solutions of Tennessee continues to expand its patient services in Nashville by adding the following additional psychiatric and medical services providers in December 2011.

John E. Burkhardt II, Psy.D. is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who provides neuro-cognitive and psychological assessments along with individual and group psychotherapy to children, adolescent, adult and geriatric patients.

Jennifer Nichols DeHaven, MSN, APN, PMHNP-BC, a board certified family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, earned a degree in psychology from the University of Tennessee College of Arts and Sciences in 1997 before receiving her master’s in Nursing from Vanderbilt University in 2007. She received both the Kathleen S. Nelson Scholarship and the Nightingale Scholarship from Vanderbilt University. Following graduation, she earned a National Health Service Corps award through the Department of Health and Human Services.

Karen F. Hyden, APN-BC, MSN, M.Ed is a board certified women’s health nurse practitioner with a primary focus on Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT). Her focus integrates a combination of traditional and natural medicines that help prevent illness while restoring health to give women power over their bodies.

Karen earned a master’s of education in applied child studies and a master’s in nursing from Vanderbilt University in 2008. Since that time, she has worked as a nurse practitioner in several family practice clinics across Middle Tennessee.