Churchwell

Andre Churchwell, M.D., the Levi Watkins Jr. M.D. Chair, professor of Medicine, Biomedical Engineering and Radiology and Radiological Sciences, and senior associate dean for Diversity Affairs, has been named to serve in the newly created role of chief diversity officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

In this new role Churchwell will continue to oversee the Office for Diversity Affairs, which will have a continued vital role in Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, while also engaging with other leaders across VUMC to create new opportunities that will increase diversity and inclusion throughout the organization.

Since the ODA’s founding in 1999, each of the office’s four successive leaders – Kenneth Robinson, M.D., the late Michael Rodriguez, M.D., George Hill, Ph.D., and Churchwell – have helped toward building diversity within VUMC’s workforce by increasing diversity among the School of Medicine’s student body, and more recently its programs in Graduate Medical Education.

The number of applications and admissions to VUSM from students underrepresented in medicine has increased so that now one out of every four members of each incoming class of VUSM’s students is URM.

Among his first initiatives, Churchwell will be creating an Executive Diversity Council, composed of key stakeholders, to provide a forum for the ODA to share new information, present new ideas and new programs for review and response.

Churchwell is a 1975 magna cum laude graduate of Vanderbilt University with a degree in biomedical engineering. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed his internship, residency and cardiology fellowship in Atlanta at Emory University. In 1984, he became the first African-American chief resident of medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital.

After completing his training he joined the faculty at Emory, where he served as the first director of diversity for the medical school from 1985 to 1991, receiving the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Minority Faculty Development Award in 1986.

Earlier this year, he was named to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows.

Also at Vanderbilt:

Colombo

-- Armando Colombo, chief executive officer for Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital at Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital, has been chosen to serve in the additional role of interim chief executive officer for the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital.

As interim CEO for VPH, Colombo succeeds Harsh Trivedi, M.D., MBA, who left Vanderbilt to become the president and CEO of Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore.

Colombo will serve as the hospital’s interim CEO while an active search for a permanent successor continues to move forward.

Williams

-- Christopher Williams, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, was recently named associate dean for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s Physician-Scientist Education and Training Program (PSTP) and director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP).

Williams succeeds Terence Dermody, M.D., MSTP director since 2003, who left Vanderbilt to become chair of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The Vanderbilt MSTP trains students for faculty and research posts in the biomedical sciences. Successful completion of the program enables them to earn both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees.

Vanderbilt established the M.D./Ph.D. program in 1964. The dual enrollment program is one of 45 MSTP programs in the country funded by the National Institutes of Health. Each year about 14 new students are admitted to the program.

Hiebert

-- Scott Hiebert, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry and associate professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB).

Hiebert is the Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and is associate director of Basic Research and of Shared Resources at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). He is among six people nominated to the federal board.

The NCAB Board consists of 18 members appointed by the president to advise the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The group reviews grant applications for research, training, health care information and programs for cancer patients and their families.

Individuals are selected from among leading representatives in health and science, along with members of the general public, including leaders in public policy, law, health policy, economics, management and the environment. Members are appointed to serve for overlapping terms of six years.

Bone McAllester Norton welcomes new attorney

Burns

Bone McAllester Norton PLLC has hired Jonathan R. Burns, who specializes in estate planning, probate, corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and taxation.

Burns earned his J.D. from the University of Mississippi in 2010 and his L.L.M. in taxation from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011. He graduated cum laude from Middle Tennessee State University in 2006 with a degree in business administration.

Before joining Bone McAllester Norton, he practiced law with Watkins & McNeilly.

Legal Aid Society taps Gallatin attorney

Cooley

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, Tennessee’s largest non-profit law firm, has named Allison Cooley, a family law attorney in Legal Aid Society’s Nashville office, managing attorney of its Gallatin office.

In this role, Cooley will lead the day-to-day operations of Legal Aid Society’s Gallatin office, which provides free civil legal services to low-income people in Macon, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale and Wilson counties. She will supervise a staff of four, including two other attorneys.

Cooley is a graduate of the Charlotte School of Law and completed her undergraduate degree at Loyola University in New Orleans in 2007.

She was a Charlotte School of Law Post-Graduate fellow with the Family Law section of the Nashville office of Legal Aid Society for six months before joining the staff in 2012.

Nashville Film Festival announces board members

Nashville Film Festival announces new and returning board members for the 2016-2017 year.

New members include Scott Borchetta of Big Machine Records, Marcella Gomez of Hispanic Marketing Group, Carey Nelson-Burch of Hideout Pictures and Stacy Widelitz of Plainview Diner Music.

Former 2015-2016 President Taryn Anderson of Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy is being succeeded by Courtney Ross of Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, last year’s vice president.

Anastasia Brown of Format Entertainment, is vice president for the 2016-2017 year.

Returning board members: Taryn Anderson, Anastasia Brown, Shannon Casey, Natasha Corrieri, Steven Gaydos, Bonnie Horton, Ken Levitan, Tyler Middleton, Stephanie Mundy Self, Brandyn Payne, Bob Raines, Courtney Ross, Jim Scherer, Dawn Soler, Spencer Wiggins, Julia Bonner - Board Intern

Castilaw joins Pinnacle as senior vice president

David Castilaw has joined Pinnacle Financial Partners as a senior vice president and financial advisor.

Castilaw brings more than 30 years of experience in corporate and commercial banking and comes from SunTrust Bank, where he was a senior vice president and manager of the bank’s commercial line of business department.

He earned his degree in business administration from Southeastern Louisiana University. He received a Leadership Certification from the Scarlett Leadership Institute at Belmont and is a graduate of Leadership Nashville.

Castilaw is based at Pinnacle’s downtown Nashville office at Pinnacle at Symphony Place.

Edgenet welcomes new chief technology officer

Rudolph

Edgenet, a Nashville-based Software as a Service company, has hired Brian Rudolph as its chief technology officer.

Rudolph joins Edgenet after spending nearly two and a-half years at software giant Microsoft, where he served as a senior engineer. There he managed projects related to data encryption, application building and back-end data modeling, among others, and sharpened a vision for enterprise-level technology development, performance and innovation strategy.

Prior to his work at Microsoft, Rudolph spent more than 16 years working at Edgenet and its predecessor companies, eventually becoming the firm’s vice president of architecture and performance.

In his new role as chief technology officer at Edgenet, Rudolph will oversee the information technology, engineering and quality assurance departments of the company and lead strategic direction for technology architecture and development.

Crye-Leike’s Brewer named managing broker

Brewer

Tim Brewer of Crye-Leike, Realtors has been named principal & managing broker of its Hendersonville branch office.

Brewer, a Hendersonville resident, will be responsible for managing and recruiting a sales force in his office that lists and sells residential and commercial real estate in Middle Tennessee. The office, located at 383 Johnny Cash Parkway, generated a sales volume of $62.37 million in 2015, representing 313.5 transaction sides.

In addition to his new administrative role, Brewer will continue to list, sell, develop and lease residential and commercial real estate in and around Middle Tennessee. As a master auctioneer and principal auctioneer in Middle Tennessee with the company, he also provides auction services for all types of real estate.

Brewer has been with the Hendersonville office since 1994.

Leadership Franklin announces 2016-17 class

Leadership Franklin is announcing 20 members for its 21st class. Founded in 1996 to develop leaders in Franklin and Williamson County, Leadership Franklin endeavors to provide class members with knowledge, network connections, and resources to bring new ideas to the table for the community.

This year’s class includes:

Judge Denise Andre, Williamson County General Sessions Court; Patty Bearden, Harpeth True Value and WAKM; Tony Cassiol, CapStar Bank; Laura Chavarria, Williamson County Animal Center; Amy Diaz-Barriga, City of Franklin; Bryan Doleshel, Williamson, Inc.; Travis Dumke, Franklin Synergy Bank; Lenda Elmlinger, Pinnacle Financial Partners; Drew Freeman, YMCA of Middle Tennessee – Franklin Branch; Kim Hamner, SunTrust Bank; Adam Hicks, Skanska USA Inc.; The Rev. Kenneth Hill, Historic Shorter Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church; Glenn Johnson, City of Franklin Fire Department; Cassie Jones, Williamson Herald and Southern Exposure Magazine; Wynn Lembright, New Hope Academy; Matt Magallanes, Southern Land Company; Julie Miller, Williamson Medical Center; Ernie Reynolds, Outdoor Classic Structures, LLC; Tim Stillings, NCR, Inc.; Joann Willhite, City of Franklin Police Department.