Capella Healthcare has announced the promotions of three senior leaders to executive management positions and four others to its senior management team. Promoted to executive vice president duties are:

• Neil Kunkel, EVP, chief legal and administrative officer
• Andy Slusser, EVP, chief development officer
• Denise Warren, EVP, chief financial officer
• Promoted to senior vice president positions are:
• Mark Medley, SVP, president, hospital operations
• Carolyn Schneider, SVP, human resources
• Alan Smith, SVP, chief information officer
• Lori Wooten, SVP, chief financial officer, hospital operations

Dan Slipkovich, founder of the company, remains as executive board chair. President and CEO Mike Wiechart, Slipkovich and chief medical officer Erik Swensson comprise the senior leadership team.

Kunkel joined Capella in 2011. He has more than 20 years of experience in the practice of law, 15 of those in health care. Before joining Capella, he was vice-president and associate general counsel for LifePoint Hospitals, which he joined in 1998 prior to its spin-off from HCA in 1999.

Slusser is a founding member of the executive team and has more than 28 years of hospital operations, corporate finance and development experience. He leads the company’s efforts to partner with local communities to improve healthcare services by delivering more capital to expand services, recruit more physicians to serve the community and provide a new tax base to the local governments.

Warren has more than 25 years of diverse financial experience. Prior to Capella, she was senior equity analyst and research director for Avondale Partners, LLC.

Baker Donelson’s Owen honored for service

Baker Donelson’s Carol Owen has been named a recipient of the Litigation Counsel of America’s inaugural Peter Perlman Service Award, which is sponsored and supported by the organization’s 2013 president, Peter Perlman.

A shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Nashville office, Owen is a fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA) and a member of the LCA’s Complex Commercial Litigation Institute. Membership in the LCA is by invitation only and is limited to 3,500 Fellows.

The inaugural class of recipients of the Peter Perlman Service Awards is composed of LCA Fellows and others within the legal profession who have made contributions to society by giving back their time and resources in their local communities.

Owen is a member of Baker Donelson’s Government Regulatory Actions Group, where she concentrates her practice in complex litigation and risk management counseling for clients in the automotive and medical device manufacturing fields and in operations and risk management.

She has spent more than 20 years serving as an officer and trustee of non-profit educational institutions that seek to provide educational opportunities to people seeking public service careers. She recently served as pro bono counsel to Jane Doe 2 in U.S. v. Adan, one of the largest sex-trafficking prosecutions in U.S. history.

Lifepoint Hospitals hires 2 vice presidents

LifePoint Hospitals has announced the hiring of Chip Staton as vice president of the company’s newly established Enterprise Program Management Office and Jennifer C. Peters as vice president and chief operations counsel.

Staton comes to LifePoint from Deloitte, where he led the project management office responsible for ensuring the firm’s compliance with the federal government’s contractor regulations. His background includes leading shared services and project management operations in a variety of areas such as finance, technology, human resources, enterprise risk and audit.

A CPA, he earned his degree in business administration in accounting from Texas A&M.

Peters will oversee how LifePoint’s legal department meets the operational needs of the company’s hospitals and physician practices.

She joins LifePoint from Simplex Healthcare, where she served as general counsel, secretary and chief compliance officer. She earned her JD with a concentration in health law from the University of Maryland School of Law.

ReviveHealth promotes two to leadership posts

ReviveHealth, which provides communications services for health systems, health services and health technology companies, has promoted Jeff Speer to senior vice president and Elizabeth Musson to vice president.

Speer will serve as strategic team leader for clients. Prior to joining ReviveHealth in 2010, he served as a vice president in Porter Novelli’s Life Sciences division following its acquisition of FischerHealth.

Musson, who has been with the firm since its start in 2009, brings 10 years of experience to her role as vice president. She will serve as client team leader, providing strategy and execution for internal and external communications programs, issues and crisis management, and branding and reputation building. Prior to ReviveHealth, she served as a project coordinator at a national PR firm in California.

Gullett Sanford hires COO

The law firm of Gullett Sanford Robinson & Martin PLLC has announced the addition of Maureen E. Wylie as the firm’s first chief operating officer.

Within this newly created role, Wylie assists management in implementing strategic initiatives and oversees the daily business and administrative operations of the firm.

Before joining GSRM, Wylie served as chief operating officer at Nashville-based Anesthesia Medical Group. She earned a bachelor of arts in film and a bachelor of arts in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Poplar Hill Realty hires principal broker

Poplar Hill Realty has hired Rick DeBusk as the firm’s principal broker.

With 17 years of experience as an owner, broker and educator, DeBusk will be responsible for maintaining compliance, training and recruiting.

VUMC’s Petracek named chair of Cardiac Surgery

Vanderbilt’s Michael Petracek, M.D., has been named chair of the Department of Cardiac Surgery after leading the department on an interim basis since January 2013.

One of the region’s leading heart surgeons for the past 30 years, Petracek earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1971. He completed residencies in Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery, as well as a research fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Before joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 1983 as assistant clinical professor of Cardiac Surgery, he was a member of the team of surgeons at Saint Thomas Hospital who performed Nashville’s first adult heart transplant.

His expertise in minimally invasive valve surgery led to another significant milestone in cardiac surgery – the country’s first implantation of the St. Jude stentless aortic porcine valve and the Regent mechanical valve.

Sullivan branding adds 2 to staff

Sullivan Branding Nashville has added two staff members, Amy Fucci as junior art director and Rosana Gambino, account coordinator.

Prior to joining Sullivan Branding, Fucci previously served as graphic designer for Big Machine Label Group, as well as freelance photographer and designer in Nashville. She earned her BFA in design communications with an emphasis on photography from Belmont University.

Gambino’s previous experience includes a marketing internship at Retro Press, while studying abroad in Sydney, Australia. She graduated from Northeastern University with a B.S. in business administration with a marketing concentration.

Fifth Third Bank promotes retail regional manager

Fifth Third Bank has promoted Ryan Walsh to assistant vice president and retail regional manager.

Walsh comes to Tennessee from Fifth Third Bank’s Chicago affiliate, where he served as financial center manager for the Merchandise Mart banking center. During his Chicago tenure, he was selected to participate in the executive leadership program hosted by DePaul University and participated in the Graduate School of Banking program at the University of Wisconsin.

Walsh earned a degree in finance from Southern Methodist University.

DVL names Morgenstern senior vice president

DVL Public Relations & Advertising has hired Susan Morgenstern as senior vice president.

Morgenstern has experience in strategic planning, crisis communications, corporate communications, media relations, internal communications, media training and presentation coaching, and is certified by the Institute of Crisis Management. Her past experience includes work in health care, retail, restaurants, hospitality, corrections, financial services, manufacturing and government services.

Morgenstern is a graduate of the University of Kansas where she earned a B.S. in journalism.

Neal & Harwell names Deardorff an associate

Megan N. Deardorff, whose practice focuses on civil and criminal litigation, has been named an associate at Neal & Harwell, PLC.

Deardorff earned her J.D. at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, where she was awarded the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence – Best Appellate Brief and served as a Bar Governor on the Student Bar Association.