Stevenson

The Tennessee Bar Association has named Nashville lawyer Joycelyn Stevenson as its new executive director.

A shareholder with Littler Mendelson PC with a practice focused on labor and employment law, Stevenson has been a leader in the Tennessee legal community, serving as president of both the Nashville Bar Association and the Lawyers’ Association for Women - Marion Griffin Chapter. She is the first African-American woman to lead both organizations and will be the first African-American woman to direct the TBA.

Stevenson is a native of Macon, Georgia, who earned her undergraduate degree at Howard University and her law degree from Vanderbilt University in 2001. She spent 12 years practicing law at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Nashville before joining the Nashville office of Littler Mendelson PC as a shareholder in 2013.

Stevenson is the 2017 recipient of the Napier Looby Bar Association’s J.C. Napier Trailblazer Award and previously was recognized with a Nashville Chamber Emerging Leader Award, a Nashville Athena Young Professionals Award and a Nashville Business Journal 40 under 40 Award.

In addition, Stevenson has served as president of the Council on Aging of Greater Nashville and secretary of the Nashville Farmers Market Board.

Heritage Law hires retired US Marine officer

Johnson

Heritage Law Group, PLLC, has hired Chris Johnson, who brings years of legal and military experience to the team.

Johnson was born in Detroit and graduated with merit from the United States Naval Academy with a degree in mechanical engineering. Upon being commissioned as a second lieutenant, he graduated from The Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, on the Commanding General’s Honor Roll and then graduated from the Infantry Officer Course.

After completing his first tour of duty serving as a platoon commander, company executive officer and company commander, with two deployments, and was one of eight selectees to the Marine Corps Law Education Program.

He chose the College of William and Mary School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia and was selected for the Funded Law Education Program. Upon graduation, he attended Naval Justice School in Newport, Rhode Island. After redesignation as a judge advocate, he served as both defense counsel and senior defense counsel for Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, the head prosecutor for Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, chief legal assistance officer at Parris Island, and executive officer of 3rd Recruit Training Battalion at Parris Island.

He also served on the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing commanding general’s staff as his deputy staff judge advocate and as the officer in charge of the Legal Service Support Team at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. He also served as the deputy chief advisor for the Afghan National Army/Ministry of Defense Legal Advisor Team for one year at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Johnson retired from the Marine Corps as a major and relocated to Nashville.

Attorneys honored with Chambers USA listings

Chambers USA ranks the leading firms and lawyers in an extensive range of practice areas throughout America. The guide determines its rankings through an extensive information gathering process that includes independent research and in-depth interviews with clients and attorneys.

Among the Nashville attorneys on this year’s list:

Baker Donelson:

Steven J. Eisen, banking and finance, banking and finance – regulatory

Richard G. Cowart, health care

Kenneth P. “Pete” Ezell Jr., health care

Gary C. Shockley and Robert M. Steele, environment

John S. Hicks and Gary C. Shockley, general commercial litigation

Ashby Q. Burks and Philip S. McSween, Health Care

M. Kim Vance, labor and employment

John A. Gupton III and Matthew T. Harris, real estate

Tonya Mitchem Grindon, corporate/M&A

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP:

Stephen T. Braun and Andrew J. Murray, health care

Jay Hardcastle and Kevin B. Campbell, health care, health care: regulatory

E. Berry Holt, health care: regulatory – eminent practitioner

Ann Peldo Cargile, John R. Haynes, David A. Rutter, Brooks R. Smith, J. Thomas Trent Jr., Richard F. Warren and Robert E. Wood, real estate

Jeffrey S. Buschmann, corporate/M&A – recognized practitioner

Doug Franck and John W. Titus, corporate/M&A

William F. Goodman III and Robert S. Patterson, litigation: general commercial

Bob Hannon, John E. Murdock III and John W. Myers II for banking & finance

Samuel D. Lipshie, media & entertainment

Matthew C. Lonergan, Chuck Mataya and Craig Oliver, labor & employment

Russell B. Morgan for litigation: general commercial

Jim Murphy for real estate: zoning/land use

William L. Norton III for litigation: bankruptcy)

Thor Y. Urness for litigation: general commercial

Butler Snow

Kathryn Reed Edge, banking & finance: regulatory

Dan H. Elrod, health care: regulatory

Gregg C. Gumbert and Robert M. Holland Jr., real estate

John C. Hayworth, Gayle Malone Jr. and Randall D. Noel, litigation: general commercial

Robert J. Walker, litigation: general commercial (star individual)

David P. Jaqua, labor and employment

Kara E. Shea, Bart N. Sisk, labor and development

Robert L. Trentham, litigation: medical malpractice defense

Dickinson Wright:

Derek C. Crownover, media and entertainment

N. Courtney Hollins, real estate

Neal & Harwell, PLC:

Aubrey B. Harwell Jr., William T. Ramsey and James F. Sanders, general commercial litigation

James R. Kelley, bankruptcy litigation

Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, PLC:

Albert Bart, Thomas J. Sherrard and Chris Whitson, corporate/mergers & acquisitions

Tracy A. Powell and John R. Voigt, health care

L. Webb Campbell, Phillip F. Cramer and William L. Harbison, litigation

Kim A. Brown, C. Mark Carver and John H. Roe, real estate

Kim A. Brown and Michael D. Roberts, banking and finance.

Stites & Harbison, PLLC:

Stuart Campbell, banking & finance

Julian L. Bibb, real estate; banking and finance

Schmidt promoted by DeAngelis Diamond

Schmidt

Kaisa Schmidt, who started her 10-year career with DeAngelis Diamond in 2007, has been promoted to vice president of marketing and public relations, overseeing all marketing and public relations initiatives throughout DeAngelis Diamond’s four regional office locations.

Starting out as the only marketing team member at DeAngelis Diamond, Schmidt has led and developed the department into a collaborative four-person team.

Schmidt has been named Marketing Director of the Year for the past two years and has led her team to win over 36 construction marketing awards during her career. Her accomplishments include leading the companies rebranding efforts throughout the United States, developing public relations, and acting as the lead in the design and innovation behind presentations and project wins.

DeAngelis Diamond has more than 20 years of general contracting experience with a strong commercial and health care construction presence across the United States and in the Caribbean Islands.

Former Salsify director joins competitor Edgenet

Solomon

Mikael Solomon has been named vice president of product at Edgenet, a Nashville-based Software as a Service company that develops and distributes nationwide a leading platform for managing product content.

Solomon comes to Edgenet from Boston-based competitor Salsify, where, as director of product management, he was responsible for the ideation, definition and creation of their analytics products – including the Content Grader, a product used by manufacturers to grade the quality of their product content on retail websites.

Previous to his tenure at Salsify, Solomon founded Austin-based Edgecase.

Solomon earned a degree in economics from Stanford University and a master’s in management from Wake Forest University School of Business.

Gillihan named CEO of Vanderbilt Home Care

Gillihan

Kerry Gillihan, MHA, D.Sc., has been named president and CEO of Vanderbilt Home Care Services, the home health care services of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He has managed and developed hospitals and health care systems, both acute and post-acute, in rural and urban settings within Kentucky since 1979.

VHCS has been a leading provider of home health operations since 1985, and it’s an area that’s fast growing with 275 full-time equivalent employees who last year drove more than 718,000 miles to see more than 35,000 patients. The VUMC home health team is made up of nurses and physical, occupational and speech therapists, companions and patient care attendants.

Also:

Alexopolous

Sophoclis Alexopoulos, M.D., has been named chief of Vanderbilt’s Division of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation.

He comes to Vanderbilt from the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, where he was assistant professor of clinical surgery in the Division of Hepatobiliary/Pancreatic and Abdominal Organ Transplant Surgery. He also served as the surgical director of the Kidney Transplant Program at Keck Medical Center of USC, associate surgical director of the Pediatric Liver/Intestinal Transplant Program and surgical director of the Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Alexopoulos said he wants to build on the work of his predecessors, which will allow his team to offer pediatric patients with liver disease broader access to transplantation through the use of technical variant grafts (split, reduced and live-donor liver transplantations).

Weaver joins FiftyForward as development director

Weaver

Karin Fielder Weaver recently joined FiftyForward as development director for the 60+ year-old nonprofit agency serving those 50 and older.

In her new role, she will oversee all relationships with individual, corporate, and foundation donors, including donor recognition, annual and planned giving, capital and endowment campaigns, and special events and projects.

Weaver was previously executive director, development and public affairs, at Nashville State Community College Foundation. Prior to that, she was the director of strategic initiatives and partnerships at Bright Horizons Foundation for Children in Watertown, Mass.

In 2014, Weaver earned her executive MBA in the Vanderbilt/Center for Nonprofit Management Executive Program. She a degree in English from Rhodes College in 1989.