The Nashville Health Care Council has recognized Thomas G. Cigarran, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Healthways, with the Nashville Health Care Council Crystal Leaf Award. The award highlights Cigarran’s significant role in fostering health care industry innovation and entrepreneurism in Nashville.

This is only the second time that the Council has presented the Crystal Leaf Award. It was granted for the first time in 2009 to Dr. Harry R. Jacobson, vice chancellor for Health Affairs Emeritus at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Cigarran is co-founder, former CEO and current chairman emeritus of publicly-traded, Nashville-based Healthways, Inc. Healthways is the largest independent global provider of well-being improvement solutions. The company offers comprehensive programs for chronic diseases and conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and chronic pulmonary disease. These programs are currently provided to more than 40 million people on four continents.

Cigarran is also co-founder, former chairman and CEO and current director of the publicly-traded AmSurg Corporation, an ambulatory surgery center company. In addition, he has served on the boards of several health care and other companies.

Known for his commitment to education and community service, Cigarran currently serves on the Alignment Nashville operating board, on the Haiti Education Mission committee and as chairman of the Healthways Foundation board. He has also served on the board of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the advisory board of the Owen School Healthcare MBA Program. He is a director and past chair of the Nashville Health Care Council Board of Directors.

Tefel named 2012 Young Leader of Year

Santi Tefel, assistant vice president and private banker for Avenue Bank, and member of Young Leadership Council Class 54, has been named the 2012 Young Leader of the Year by YLC, a Nashville-based nonprofit organization that has trained more than 2,000 men and women to effectively participate on the boards of nonprofit agencies.

The Young Leader of the Year award is presented annually to a graduate of the YLC training program from the past 27 years who has made significant contributions to the fulfillment of the YLC mission, as well as demonstrated a commitment to ongoing community service and board leadership to local nonprofit organizations.

Tefel serves on the board of directors for YLC as development chair and has been instrumental in organizing the philanthropic efforts for YLC and assisting in the placement of current class members with local nonprofits to serve their internships.

He serves on the Young Leaders Board for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, is a member of the Nashville Area Junior Chamber of Commerce and was appointed by Mayor Karl Dean to the Metro Nashville Arts Commission as a City Commissioner in 2012.

Shortly after moving to Nashville five years ago, Tefel became involved in several organizations as a volunteer, fundraiser and donor, including Family and Children’s Services and the Music City Tennis Invitational benefiting the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. In 2009, Tefel was selected for the inaugural group of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Nashville’s Top 30 Under 30 and currently serves as its chair of alumni relations. He was recognized as a finalist for the 2011 Nashville Emerging Leaders (NELAs) awards through the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and YP Nashville.

Born in Mexico City and raised in Miami, Tefel graduated from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., with degrees in economics and finance in 2007.

CapStar appoints chief financial officer

CapStar has named Rob Anderson as chief financial officer for the four-year-old bank.

Anderson brings more than two decades of leadership experience in the financial sector to his new position, including stints at Bank of America Corporation and Capital One. Most recently, he was senior vice president of business performance management with Bank of America Corporation, leading the global wholesale banking technology and operations group.

Additionally, he held multiple finance roles with Bank of America, including serving as chief financial officer of business banking, a segment within the Commercial Bank.

Between two different tenures at Bank of America Corporation, Anderson served as SVP of Capital One Bank, North America, and chief financial officer of Capital One’s Commercial Bank, with $2 billion in annual revenues.

Capella Healthcare taps VP for risk management

Capella Healthcare has announced the appointment of Giselle Krieger, RN, BSN, MS, CLNC, as vice-president, risk management.

For the past four years, Krieger has served as director of risk management and patient safety officer at Parkway Medical Center in Decatur, AL. She holds a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing from the University of Alabama-Huntsville, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She also earned a master’s degree in patient safety leadership from the University of Illinois-Chicago.

She is also a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant (CLNC); has a Barton Certificate in Healthcare Risk Management from American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, and is currently pursuing certification in quality from the National Association for Healthcare Quality. Previous roles have included working in case management and surgical care. Additionally, she worked for four years in Saudi Arabia as a Charge Nurse in Emergency Services.

Goodrich to chair group opposing death penalty

Robert Goodrich, an attorney with Stites & Harbison PLLC, has been elected chair of the board of directors for Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

TADP is a non-profit organization that seeks repeal of the death penalty by educating Tennesseans statewide about the problems that plague Tennessee’s death penalty system, including its exorbitant cost, unfair application and the risk of executing innocent people.

Other newly elected board members include Gayle Ray, former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Corrections; Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the Tennessee State Conference of NAACP; Margaret Vandiver, a criminology professor at the University of Memphis; and Charles Strobel, founding director of Room in the Inn and its Campus for Human Development.

TADP will hold its seventh annual Student Conference on the Death Penalty at Lipscomb University on Feb. 23. This free conference is open to high school, college and graduate students interested in learning about the issue and hearing from those directly impacted by the system.

Theiss named VP at Crain Construction

Crain Construction, Inc., a provider of design/build, construction management and general contracting services in 12 states across the Southeast, has named Lizabeth Theiss vice president, business development.

Theiss joined Crain in 2004 and previously served as director of business development.

With this new role, Theiss will serve on the firm’s executive board and be involved in strategic decision making for the 80-year-old firm. Her responsibilities also will include numerous industry interactions to expand Crain’s client relationships.

Theiss has been heavily involved in Middle Tennessee professional, civic and charitable organizations, currently serving with the Nashville Chamber of Commerce Partnership 2020 initiative and on the board of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association. She is a 2008 graduate of Leadership Middle Tennessee, a Women of Influence award winner, a past board member for Hoover Hope Foundation and a former volunteer with Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.

Emerging Leaders announces 2013 class

Nashville Emerging Leaders, an annual leadership training program that brings together Middle Tennessee’s most promising young professionals with the region’s top community and business leaders, has announced its class for 2013.

Thirty Middle Tennessee young professionals representing an array of industries and backgrounds have been selected to participate in the 11-week program that begins in February.

Each week, NEL participants hear from established local community and civic leaders and discuss critical issues facing our city. The sessions are led and moderated by Nashville-based Management Solutions Group.

The 2013 class includes:

Aerial Ellis, Lipscomb University; Andrea Goodman, KPMG LLP; Charles Beard, East Side Story/Oasis Center; Charles Friedman, Nashville Classical School; Christopher Laborde, C Works Engineering; Danielle Insignares Nellis, Nellis Law; David Jon Walker, Rhealisitic; Eden Cathey, TIIRRC; Hada Flores, PLAN (Principal’s Leadership Academy of Nashville); Hamilton Patrick, Waller Landsen Dortch & Davis LLP; Hayley Hovious, Consensus Point; Jennifer Barrie, Consultant; John Spragens, law clerk, United States District Judge Kevin H. Sharp; Jon Romero, Vector Management; Julia Doolittle, Smith Seckman Reid; June Manning, Premier W.E.D./The Tennessean; Kallie Bienvenu, The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee; Kevin Thompson, Thompson Burton; Lee Ann Ruffing, Vanderbilt University; Lisa Howe, Nashville GLBT Chamber; Rob Hazard, Gullett Sanford Robinson & Martin PLLC; Ruth Elliott, American Paper and Twine; Ryan Holt, Sherrard & Roe; Shameak Belvitt, Baker Donelson; Stephanie Coleman, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce; Stephanie Mundy Self, FBMM, INC; Steven Patton, DoubleTree by Hilton Nashville Downtown; Travis Todd, Littlejohn Engineering Associates; Trey Flowers, Woodmont Christian Church; Xavier Van Widekens, Asurion.

DVL Public Relations announces 2 hires

DVL Public Relations & Advertising recently added Meghan Butler as vice president and Niki Giacchina as administrative assistant.

Butler joins DVL with experience in brand building, communications strategy, media relations and crisis management. She previously worked at Seventh Generation and GCI Group/Cohn & Wolfe, a global communications agency. She is a Texas State University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in public relations. At DVL, Butler’s primary focus will be working with clients in the food and beverage and healthcare industries.

Prior to DVL, Giacchina served as executive assistant to the editor of The Virginian-Pilot, marketing assistant for the Burlington Indians minor league baseball team and public relations assistant at Big Brothers Big Sisters in Chesapeake, Va.

Urness leads fundraising for Legal Aid Society

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP partner and Nashville Pro Bono program Chairman of the Board Thor Urness will serve as the Legal Aid Society’s 2013 Campaign for Equal Justice community chair.

This campaign is an annual initiative that raises funds for the Legal Aid Society, Tennessee’s largest nonprofit law firm, and the Nashville Pro Bono Program.

In addition to his involvement with the Nashville Pro Bono Program, Urness serves on the boards of the Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville and the FiftyForward Endowment. He frequently speaks at continuing legal education seminars on intellectual property and technology related issues.

Members of the 2013 campaign committee include:

Large firm co-chairs: Dan Elrod of Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens and Cannada PLLC and Rinety Green of Bass, Berry & Sims PLC.

Small firm co-chairs: Edgar Rothschild of Rothschild & Ausbrooks, PLLC and Emily Shouse of Waddey & Patterson P.C.

Government attorneys chair: Henry Martin of the Federal Public Defender’s Office

Judges co-chairs: Chancellor Carol McCoy and Judge Dan Eisenstein

Corporate attorneys chair: Rachel Seifert with Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation

Williamson County attorneys chair: Tara Swafford of The Swafford Law Firm.