W. Brantley Phillips, Jr. has been elected to serve on the executive committee of Bass, Berry & Sims PLC.

Phillips serves as chair of the firm’s Securities & Shareholder Litigation Group, and his practice focuses on class action defense, derivative actions and other complex business litigation. Phillips has, for the past three years, served as chair of the firm’s Marketing & Business Development Committee.

He earned his law degree from Washington & Lee University and received a M.P.P. from Duke University and a B.A. from Birmingham-Southern College.

Phillips and new member David Thornton of the firm’s Memphis office join existing executive committee members Todd J. Rolapp (managing partner), Anna M. Grizzle, George H. Masterson, Howard H. Lamar III and Overton Thompson III.

Peal becomes partner at Neal & Harwell

Robert A. Peal, who joined Neal & Harwell, PLC in 2009 as a litigation associate, has been named partner. His practice is concentrated on criminal defense and civil litigation with emphasis on False Claims Act and aviation-related litigation.

Prior to joining Neal & Harwell, Peal served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 13 years, first as an F/A-18D flight officer, followed by three years as a senior prosecutor. While on active duty, he deployed three times and saw combat in Operation Southern Watch and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Peal earned his J.D. in 2006 from Vanderbilt University School of Law, where he was Order of the Coif and associate editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He is a 1996 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S. in mechanical engineering.

Churchwell selected for VUMC diversity post

Andre L. Churchwell, M.D., associate dean for diversity at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, has been promoted to the new position of senior associate dean for diversity affairs.

Churchwell is also a professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology, professor of Radiology and Radiologic Sciences and professor of Biomedical Engineering.

In addition, Churchwell was recently named one of the nation’s 15 Most Influential African-American Medical Educators by Black Health magazine. He was selected to receive this distinction through peer nomination and by the magazine’s editorial leadership. He will be acknowledged in the publication’s sixth annual Black History Month issue along with fellow honorees from other leading U.S. medical schools.

Churchwell graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1975 with a degree in engineering. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1979 and later completed his internship, residency and a fellowship in cardiology at the Emory University School of Medicine and affiliated hospitals in Atlanta.

He joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1991.

Baker Donelson chooses Grindon for Board

Tonya Mitchem Grindon, a shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Nashville office, has been elected a member of the firm’s board of directors. Grindon was elected by Baker Donelson’s shareholders to a three-year term.

Grindon, chair of the Baker Donelson’s Securities/Corporate Governance Group, is the first woman from the firm’s Nashville office to be elected to the board. She concentrates her practice in securities and corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, investment, management and international business transactions.

Capella Healthcare announces promotions

Capella Healthcare has announced eight promotions:

Michelle Carpenter has been promoted to vice president-revenue cycle.

Jeff Cobb, CISSP, CISM, chief information security officer, has been promoted to vice president.

Libba Estep, CFO-Physician Operations, has been promoted to assistant vice president.

Shawn Green, RN, MSN, ACNS-BC, has been promoted to vice president-care management and appeals.

Gay Huff has been promoted to assistant vice president, controller-hospital operations.

Terry Lague has been promoted to director, clinical applications.

Christina Patterson has been promoted to vice president-finance and investor relations.

Warren Smith has been promoted to assistant vice president, corporate accounting.

Cooper named to key VUSM, VUMC roles

William O. Cooper, M.D., MPH, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics, professor and vice chair for faculty affairs in the Department of Pediatrics, and professor of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University, will assume two new roles: associate dean for Faculty Affairs within the Faculty Affairs & Career Development Office in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy.

Cooper will also continue to serve as vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics directing the department’s Office for Faculty Development and continuing his involvement in other programs within the department.

He will assume the CPPA’s leadership role from its founder Gerald Hickson, M.D., who was recently promoted to senior vice president for Quality, Safety and Risk Prevention for VUMC.

Cooper will be responsible for oversight of the CPPA and its ongoing mission to promote patient and professional satisfaction within the health care experience.

As associate dean for faculty affairs, Cooper will work closely with David Raiford, M.D., associate vice chancellor for health affairs and senior associate dean for faculty affairs, to facilitate issues of professionalism for Medical Center faculty.

Barge Waggoner hires 2 to lead practice group

Rhett Baggett, PWS, TN-QHP, and Mike Williams, TN-QHP, have been hired to direct Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon’s Environmental and Natural Resources Group.

This group brings together each member’s experience to strengthen the firm’s already-defined skill sets and capabilities: stream and wetland mitigation, 404/401 permitting, natural channel design, wetland restoration, and stream determinations as well as wetland identification and delineation.

Baggett joins Barge Waggoner as Environmental and Natural Resources Practice leader with 14 years’ experience in environmental consulting. He earned a degree in biology from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and also holds a master’s in earth science hydrology from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Prior to Barge Waggoner, Baggett was project manager for Civil and Environmental Consultants, where he managed permitting, natural resource studies, natural channel design, and wetland and stream mitigation projects.

Williams is a senior biologist/mitigation specialist with 14 years of experience in stream determinations and wetland identification and delineation as well as surveys for threatened and endangered species.

Williams earned a degree in wildlife and fisheries science, as well as a master’s in biology from Tennessee Technological University. He was previously the statewide mitigation program manager for TDOT, where he managed stream and wetland mitigation including acquisition, development, and monitoring.

End Slavery Tennessee names officers, board

End Slavery Tennessee, a non-profit organization working to end human trafficking, has named its board of directors and officers for the 2014 year.

2014 officers include Susie Higginbotham, president; Bill Decker, vice president, Lee Tabor, treasurer; and Beth B. Wright, secretary.

Higginbotham, a CPA, is president of Higginbotham CPA Group, PC. Decker is managing member of Decker Wealth Management LLC. Tabor, a CPA, is senior analyst in the Valuation, Litigation and Business Transition Services Group at Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain, PC. Wright is vice president of corporate communications and strategic marketing at Capella Healthcare.

Others serving on the board of directors include Whitney Akin, local civic leader; Mark Edwards, vice president, chief labor and employment counsel for HCA Holdings; Julie Hunt, president of Smart Kids 101; Kye Hudson, vice president of human resources and safety for Rogers Group, Inc.; Marilyn Jones, local civic leader; Derri Smith, executive director of ESTN.

Crider is now chair of Women’s Initiative

Christy Tosh Crider, a shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Nashville office, has been named chair of Baker Donelson’s Women’s Initiative.

In this role, Crider will lead the group dedicated to creating an environment where female attorneys thrive through recruiting, promoting and retaining female professionals by cultivating mentoring programs and preparing women for leadership positions within the firm and the community. Crider has created 12 committees responsible for addressing various areas such as the retention of female attorneys, mentoring, pathways to leadership and programming and training designed to help the advancement of the firm’s women attorneys.

Crider has served as marketing chair of Baker Donelson’s Women’s Initiative for seven years. She also heads the firm’s Long Term Care Industry Service Team and concentrates her practice in long-term care, behavioral health companies, managing the litigation of numerous long-term care facilities around the country, medical malpractice litigation and many areas of tort and commercial litigation.

Jones named VP at Argent Trust

Matthew S. Jones has joined Argent Trust Company in the roles of vice president and financial advisor.

Jones, in his eighth year in the financial services industry, started his career as a financial advisor at Ameriprise Financial.

In 2009, he was employed by Charles Schwab & Co. in its active trading division and was promoted to vice president and financial consultant in that company’s Nashville office.

Tennessee Voices for Children picks executive director

Rikki Harris has been named chief executive officer of Tennessee Voices for Children.

Harris previously served TVC as director of development and marketing and director of child and adolescent services at a community mental health center in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Fifth Third adds Rivergate banking center manager

Alicia Cunningham has joined joins Fifth Third Bank as assistant vice president and financial center manager for the Rivergate banking center.

She comes to Fifth Third from Allstate Insurance and has more than 15 years of experience in the insurance industry. She holds an accounting degree from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.