Gary

Two health care veterans and international law firm Dickinson Wright PLLC are launching a new corporate health care venture to be based in Nashville, DW Franklin Consulting Group, LLC. The firms will work together to provide solutions spanning both legal and business consulting services.

Hart

Led by CEO C. Timothy Gary and consulting leader Kerry Hart, DW Franklin Consulting Group is a full-service health care firm providing comprehensive consulting services in the areas of government relations and general business guidance, strategic planning, interim management, turnaround consulting, acquisition and disposition analysis, corporate and contract structuring, and risk analysis, among other services.

DW Franklin Consulting Group will be based in Nashville and will serve health care clients across the country.

Prior to joining DW Franklin, Gary led the health care practice at Adams and Reese, LLP. He has also served as vice president and general counsel for one of the first managed Medicaid companies in the United States, as well as senior vice president and chief operating officer for a national health and wellness company providing population health management services. He holds a law degree from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.

In addition to leading DW Franklin, Gary will practice law with Dickinson Wright’s Health Care Law Practice Group, which includes attorneys in Nashville and across the U.S. and Canada.

Hart previously founded a health care consulting company specializing in large-scale performance improvement. He is the former CEO of two national health care companies and held management positions at General Motors, Partners National Health Plans, Aetna and Concentra. He holds a master’s degree in management and organizational behavior from Western Kentucky University.

Powers, Westling Return to Waller health care team

Powers

Patsy Powers and Richard W. Westling, attorneys with more than 50 years of combined health care law experience, have rejoined Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP as partners in the firm’s Nashville office.

Powers, a health care compliance attorney with widely recognized experience in federal and state fraud and abuse laws, returns to Waller from Vanderbilt University, where she served as senior associate general counsel and focused primarily on matters related to the medical center.

Westling

Westling, who most recently served as first assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, brings extensive experience in high-profile government investigations, white collar criminal defense and healthcare litigation.

Powers and Westling are the most recent additions to Waller’s expanding Healthcare Compliance and Government Enforcement Defense Team, which includes more than 30 attorneys. In the last year, Waller has added 10 attorneys to this team, which focuses on health care compliance, government enforcement, internal and external investigations, and white collar defense.

The expansion of Waller’s Healthcare Compliance and Government Enforcement Defense Team comes in response to the increased government enforcement actions brought against health care providers since the creation of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) - a joint effort between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In 2014, HHS recovered nearly $5 billion in government health program funds. HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are increasingly focused on developing approaches to monitor, limit and remediate such payments, all of which makes compliance more complex for providers.

Powers earned her J.D. from the University of Tennessee and her B.S. from Vanderbilt. Westling earned his J.D. from Tulane and his B.A. from The University of the South.

Centresource names new chair, managing partner

Holland

Centresource software has named founder Nicholas Holland to the additional role of chairman and tapped Brandon Valentine as managing partner to position the firm for future growth.

Valentine, a software developer who is active local technology community, has been with Centresource for nearly six years and was named lead technologist in 2010.

Before joining Centresource, Valentine worked at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, supporting scientific research through his expertise in high performance computing. While there, he helped bring Nashville’s first Top500 supercomputer to the campus.

Valentine

Valentine also worked in Nashville’s music industry at local agency BubbleUp. In 2012, Valentine joined the founding board of the Nashville Software School.

Holland founded Centresource in 2003 and is also founder of Nashville’s JumpStart Foundry, Surge Growth and Populr.me.

The move comes as Centresource transitions to an employee-owned, employee-managed structure.

Since its founding, Centresource has created four spin-off companies, expanded its staff and helped clients find success through the three-tiered approach to product management: product strategy, product development and product marketing. Centresource’s client roster includes Bridgestone Americas, The General Insurance, BMI, Vanderbilt University, Ramsey Solutions and more.

Compassus welcomes SVP of human resources

Wade

Compassus, a nationwide network of community-based hospice programs and palliative care services, today announced the addition of Dennis Wade as senior vice president of human resources and organization development.

Wade comes to Compassus from Corizon Health, where he served as executive vice president and chief human resources officer. There, he was accountable for the administration of personnel policies, programs, compensation and benefits for more than 12,000 employees in 27 states.

In his new role, Wade will be responsible for all human resources functions, including recruitment and retention, compensation and benefits.

A native of Birmingham, he earned degrees in business and psychology from Birmingham-Southern College.

Winston selected for higher education award

Winston

Tameka Winston, a professor in the Department of Communications at Tennessee State University, recently received the 2015 Woman of Achievement Award in Higher Education in Tennessee. The award was presented at the 35th Annual Women in Higher Education in Tennessee conference in Murfreesboro.

The Woman of Achievement Award is presented to a dedicated leader who has earned admiration and respect, has vision and leads by example, faces challenges with grace and courage, and lives with dignity, integrity and honor.

Winston also received 3 other awards earlier this year including the College of Liberal Arts Professor of the Year for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Bradford Group adds 3 staff members

Maida

Nashville public relations and marketing firm the Bradford Group has been joined by account director Damon Maida and account associates Mimi Hamid and Madeline Bok.

Hamid

Bok

Maida comes by way of New York’s MSLGROUP, a strategic communications and engagement company, where he was part of the corporate financial and media services teams. He brings over 15 years of public relations experience to the Bradford Group, including work with clients JPMorgan, PayPal and Netflix. Originally from Washington, D.C., Maida earned his bachelor’s degree from Bates College and his master of fine arts degree from the University of Florida.

Hamid and Bok join the agency as support for the account teams.

Hamid interned at the Bradford Group during her time at Middle Tennessee State University. After she graduated with a degree in communications and marketing, she worked in e-mail marketing at G/O Digital before returning to the Bradford Group as an account associate.

An Akron, Ohio, native, Bok comes to the agency after working for two years in southern Spain. She has a bachelor’s degree from Marquette University and a background in advertising and graphic design.

MP&F welcomes Mulgrew

Mulgrew

MP&F Public Relations, has hired Thomas Mulgrew as its newest assistant account executive.

A Nashville native, Mulgrew graduated from the University of Tennessee in 2010 with a degree in history.

Prior to joining MP&F, Mulgrew worked as a music journalist before turning to the field of public relations.

He worked for the Megan Barry for Mayor campaign coordinating communication, field and operations teams.

Bankers Association hires communications director

Nelson

The Tennessee Bankers Association has hired Tyler Nelson as director of communications. Nelson will lead the organization’s public relations and marketing efforts.

Previously, he served as communication coordinator at The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and account executive for the Bradford Group.

Nelson earned a degree in journalism from the University of Mississippi.

Vanderbilt Heart Institute names medical director

Clair

Walter Clair, M.D., MPH, associate professor of Medicine and medical director of Cardiac Electrophysiology, has been named executive medical director of the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute.

In this role, Clair is responsible for providing leadership and administrative oversight for strategic planning, growth and business development to support VHVI and Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s overall mission and objectives for the future.

Clair joined Vanderbilt in 2006. As a clinician, he is a nationally recognized specialist in arrhythmias, sudden cardiac death, syncope, palpitations, pacemakers and defibrillators and has led a number of firsts for VUMC’s Electrophysiology team.