Accelerent, a national partnership-driven business development platform, has named five new leadership committee members in its Nashville market.

These individuals are selected to lead the rest of the partner companies in each geographic market, providing guidance, creating community, fostering business relationships, encouraging partner involvement and continuing to define what it means to be a part of Accelerent.

The new committee members are:

• Stephen H. Price, managing partner, Stites & Harbison

• Tena Mayberry, president, Century II

• Robert Stewart, president, Major Commercial Cleaning Company

• Pat Moore, managing partner, Genesis Planning Group and co-founder of Peachtree Planning

• Donna Griggs, CEO, E3 Performance Group

The committee will host a meeting Sept. 17 for leadership of Accelerent partner companies. Information: accelerent.com, 969-6067.

Miller, Koostra join Barge Waggoner

Evie Miller has joined Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon, Inc. as marketing coordinator, and Andy Koostra has been hired as manager of IT infrastructure.

Miller will coordinate the development of qualification-based proposals and its follow-through production with outside vendors for a variety of business units at Barge Waggoner. She was previously employed with Gresham, Smith and Partners (GS&P) as Senior Marketing Coordinator with primary point-of-contact for GS&P’s Transportation Division, where she gained significant proposal experience with Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida departments of transportation.

Koostra is responsible for information technology infrastructure, including all data centers, virtual servers, storage and backup, network security, wireless, local area and wide area networks. He has more than 14 years of professional experience. Prior to joining Barge Waggoner, he served as Systems Manager for Consolidated Utility District of Rutherford County, overseeing the development and management of IT operations for Tennessee’s largest water utility district.

Blumenthal joins Bone McAllester Norton

Steven E. Blumenthal, former general counsel for Carfax, Inc., has joined the law firm of Bone McAllester Norton PLLC. He practices in the areas of business and corporate law, banking and financial services, commercial lending and creditors’ rights and entrepreneurial and emerging business law.

Blumenthal’s practice includes both traditional and commercial transactional work and innovative Internet, technology and data privacy work. As the general counsel for Carfax, he managed all of the company’s legal affairs, including intellectual property matters, litigation and employee matters, and he had a key role in the recent sale of Carfax to IHS Inc. Earlier in his career, he was an equity partner with Dow Lohnes PLLC, where he represented clients like Cox Communications and AutoTrader.com

Churchill Mortgage names V.P. of operations

Churchill Mortgage has named Cara Costa as its vice president of operations.

Costa brings more than 25 years of risk management and quality assurance expertise to Churchill Mortgage. Previously with Franklin American Mortgage Company, she served as vice president and Wholesale National Underwriting manager where she directed a team of five regional managers and more than 70 underwriters and was responsible for the credit quality of all wholesale loans produced.

Prior to Franklin American, Costa served as wholesale lead underwriter, staff underwriter and onsite contract underwriter for SunTrust Mortgage; mortgage operations manager for Fifth Third Bank; mortgage loan underwriter for Capital City Bank; and mortgage loan administrator for First South Bank.

LocalShares adds director of marketing

LocalShares, Inc., the investment adviser of the recently launched Nashville Area ETF, has named Michael Schulz as its director of marketing. As part of the management team, Schulz will lead marketing efforts that raise awareness of the new fund to financial institutions, institutional and individual investors.

Prior to joining LocalShares, Schulz held positions for more than 10 years in the office of U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, where he most recently served as field director managing 33 counties in the Middle Tennessee area.

The Nashville Area ETF is the nation’s first city-specific exchange traded fund and began trading on New York Stock Exchange on August 1, 2013. The Nashville Area ETF enables investment in a basket of qualifying Nashville area publicly-traded companies. Shares for NASH are available through securities brokers.

Advance Financial expands management team

Advance Financial has announced it is expanding and realigning its executive team.

The new executive team will be led by Tina Hodges in the dual roles of CEO and a newly created position of chief experience officer. Former CEO Mike Hodges has been named chairman of the board and will continue to drive corporate strategy.

Bryan Link, who served as chief information officer, is now president and chief information officer.

Jeff Smith, formerly vice president of operations, is now chief operations officer.

Advance Financial was founded in Franklin and employs more than 450 Tennesseans. It operates more than 40 locations in Middle Tennessee.

Diversified Trust expands Nashville leadership team

Diversified Trust, a southeast-based wealth management firm, has announced the hiring of Michael L. Winter as vice president and client service manager.

Prior to joining Diversified Trust, Winter led the member services team at The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF) where he managed relationships for the organization’s foundation, endowment and retirement plan clients. In addition to his member services responsibilities, Winter also managed the implementation of strategic initiatives at TIFF, which included refining the member service model and increasing the organization’s focus on member development.

Prior to his time at TIFF, Winter worked for investment consulting firm Cambridge Associates, where he focused on performance reporting and investment analytics.

DVL hires Miller as production coordinator

Callahan Dylan Miller has joined DVL Public Relations & Advertising as production coordinator.

Miller previously worked as a freelance production assistant on projects such as the CMA Awards, CMT Crossroads, GAC Top 20 Countdown, Wal-Mart Soundcheck Series and the ACM New Artist of the Year Nominee Video. A native of South Bend, Ind., she has also worked with CMT, and CMG Interactive. At DVL, Miller is working with clients in different industries to manage a variety of needs for broadcast projects and live events.

Miller is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, where she earned a degree in Mass Communication.

Deutschmann joins board of The Bank of Nashville

The Bank of Nashville, a division of Synovus Bank, has added Sherry Deutschmann, founder and chief executive officer of LetterLogic, to the division’s local board of directors.

In 2009, Deutschmann won Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurial Winning Women competition, which recognized her leadership and elevated the profile of her company to a national level. Through her leadership, LetterLogic has continually been recognized as one of the 50 Fastest Growing Companies in Middle Tennessee by the Nashville Chamber of Commerce. It also was named one of the 50 Fastest Growing, Privately-Owned, Women-Led Companies in North America by the Women Presidents Organization.

Deutschmann also serves on the board of directors of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Library Foundation adds, promotes fundraising staff

The Nashville Public Library Foundation, which raises funds to enhance the facilities, collections and programs, has hired Mackenzie Grosser as special projects assistant and promoted Stephanie Koehler to director of marketing and community engagement.

Grosser joins the Foundation with a background in public relations and writing. Previously an account executive for the Bradford Group, Grosser brings experience in event management, digital marketing, copywriting and client relations.

Koehler, recently the Foundation’s development and communications coordinator, has been promoted to director of marketing and community engagement. She has been with the Nashville Public Library Foundation since 2009, and coordinated the launch of the Foundation’s library awareness campaign, “Books are Only Half the Story” in 2011.

Since 1997, the Nashville Public Library Foundation has raised more than $30 million in support of the Nashville Public Library.