Monteggia named director of Vanderbilt Brain Institute

Friday, April 27, 2018, Vol. 42, No. 17

Monteggia

Neuroscientist Lisa Monteggia, Ph.D., has been named the Barlow Family Director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Monteggia was identified as the top candidate to lead the Vanderbilt Brain Institute following an extensive national search. She previously served as research assistant professor at UT Southwestern Medical School beginning in 2000 before joining the faculty as assistant professor in 2002.

The Vanderbilt Brain Institute was founded in 1999 as a trans-institutional entity to oversee and facilitate the extensive neuroscience-related endeavors carried out at Vanderbilt University. Its primary missions are to promote research, education and training in the brain-related disciplines at Vanderbilt and to foster excellence in each of these arenas.

She will begin her tenure at Vanderbilt this summer.

Also at Vanderbilt:

Karp

Seth Karp, M.D., H. William Scott Jr. Professor and chair of the Department of Surgery and director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center has been named the new Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Section of Surgical Sciences and the Medical Center’s Surgeon-in-Chief, succeeding R. Daniel Beauchamp, M.S, who led the Surgical Section since 2001.

In 2015, Karp was named chair of the Department of Surgery, which includes the Divisions of General Surgery, Hepatobiliary Surgery & Liver Transplantation, Surgical Oncology & Endocrine Surgery, Kidney & Pancreas Transplantation, Trauma and Surgical Critical Care including burn surgery and vascular surgery. These programs house more than 90 fulltime faculty, nearly 100 residents and fellows and more than 40 staff.

In his new role as section chair, Karp will participate in increasing administrative activities that support the Medical Center’s broad programmatic initiatives. He will also serve as the leader for the section’s many academic programs across the School of Medicine.

Otten

Bobby Otten has been named senior director of Space and Facilities Planning at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In this new role, Otten will oversee ongoing construction projects at VUMC, planning of new construction and renovation of existing Medical Center space.

Otten succeeds Ken Browning, who has overseen Space and Facilities Planning for several years. Otten and Browning will share a transition period of several months and Browning will continue to oversee the ongoing addition at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Tennessee Bank & Trust adds Veith as senior VP

Veith

Tennessee Bank & Trust today has hired Sue Veith as senior vice president of the bank’s Treasury Management division.

With more than 35 years of banking experience, Veith will be charged with providing strategic direction, administration and ongoing support for all aspects of the bank’s treasury management products and services. She began her banking career in Nashville at Commerce Union Bank, a predecessor to Bank of America. Following 27 years of treasury management experience, she retired from Bank of America as regional treasury management sales manager. She most recently worked at Fifth Third Bank serving as large corporate treasury management officer for the retail vertical.

Veith is a graduate of Bowling Green State University and holds a degree in speech pathology and audiology.

Village selects Andaya as chief operating officer

Andaya

Chris Andaya is the new chief operating officer for VILLAGE and oversees the daily operations of both the residential real estate brokerage and the newly created VILLAGE Commercial brokerage.

Andaya joined VILLAGE in February 2017 as director of compliance/legal counsel and was promoted in September 2017 to senior counsel for VILLAGE, Core Development Services, Village Property Management and Solve Marketing.

Andaya moved to Nashville in 2016 after working for 19 years as an executive in business affairs for CBS News in New York and Los Angeles. During his tenure with CBS, he served on the senior management team driving strategic and creative initiatives throughout the news division, handling contracts and negotiations, rights and clearances and talent relations

Andaya earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver College of Law and his bachelor’s degree from the University of San Diego.

Midstate educators honored

Thurston

Erin Thurston of Sumner County and Billy Hix of Motlow State Community College are among four winners of “STEM Excellence Awards” from the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network.

The competitive awards recognize outstanding teachers, leaders and advocates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math education.

Thurston, who is the STEM Coordinator at Jack Anderson Elementary in Hendersonville for Sumner County Schools, won in the “Excellence in STEM Leadership Award.”

Hix

Billy Hix, professor emeritus at Motlow State Community College and director of the STEM Outreach Program, won the STEM Advocate Award.

Other statewide winners include:

Excellence in STEM Teaching Award: Sharon Clark, Teacher, East Side Intermediate School, Haywood County Schools

STEM Innovator Award: Dr. Tony Donen, Principal, STEM School Chattanooga, Hamilton County Department of Education

Thurston works closely with teachers and administrators to provide unique opportunities for all students to apply grade-level standards in ways that allow for the engineering design process. Her role has now expanded to include securing community partnerships, seeking and organizing all STEM resources, designing STEM seminars, and supporting teachers in their implementation of Project Based Learning Units.

Hix is a product of a rural, high-poverty school where he wanted to learn about the night sky and dreamed of working for NASA. He is passionate about sharing his love of learning and astronomy with students from similar backgrounds.

Additionally, Hix manages a visiting planetarium program, where he provides students from across the state with the opportunity to be awed by the night sky. He also created videos for the TSIN to prepare students and teachers for the Eclipse of 2017. These videos were viewed over 5,000 times by teachers across the country. In 2018, he was selected as a NASA Solar System Ambassador and is one of three nominees for the prestigious American Astronomical Society Outreach national award.

MNPS names Berry STEAM Director

Jennifer Berry, an 18-year veteran of Metro Nashville Public Schools, has been promoted as the new director of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) to lead the district’s work already underway in transforming teaching and learning in the district’s middle and elementary schools.

Berry is currently the academy principal at Stratford STEM Magnet High School also has been in various capacities, classroom teacher, instructional coach and administrator. She will begin her tenure as director of STEAM on May 7.

Berry earned a degree in zoology and a master’s in teaching from University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a doctorate of philosophy from Capella University at Minneapolis.

Columbia’s Massey named Administrator of the Year

Columbia City Manager Tony Massey has been selected as the 2018 Middle Tennessee Local Government Administrator of the Year.

Massey worked previously in Bristol and Frankfort, Kentucky before returning to his hometown of Columbia five years ago to serve as the city’s chief executive. Under Massey’s leadership, the city achieved an ISO rating of one for Columbia’s Fire & Rescue Department. The City also received CALEA certification for Columbia’s Police Department.

Massey has been instrumental in establishing an arts district in Columbia, branding the city and hiring a tourism & marketing director to help establish Columbia as a “destination” city with attractions like the President James K. Polk Home & Museum, Ridley Sports Complex, historic downtown Columbia, the emerging Arts District and special events attracting visitors.

Lipscomb U. appoints VP of university marketing

Bruno

Lipscomb University has appointed branding and higher education veteran Dave Bruno vice president of marketing.

Bruno, president and founder of Middle Makers, a creative strategy firm focused on business strategy, customer engagement, process improvement and ideation for clients in higher education, nonprofit, faith-based and values-driven organizations, will provide leadership for all university marketing efforts, including marketing initiatives for undergraduate and graduate enrollment, brand strategy, videography, social media, website, and creative design. He is a member of the university’s senior leadership team.

Prior to his appointment at Lipscomb, Bruno served as a consultant to the institution, working collaboratively with its academic and enrollment management leadership teams on marketing and recruiting strategies and leading the university through the development of a new website, which he will continue in his new role.

Bruno has served a variety of educational clients, including the University of Southampton, Seattle Pacific University, University of Redlands and Claremont McKenna College.

Prior to his consulting roles, Bruno was the associate director of digital marketing and web at Point Loma Nazarene University.