Lela M. Hollabaugh, managing partner of Bradley’s Nashville office, will chair the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands 2020 Campaign for Equal Justice, an annual initiative that raises funds for Legal Aid Society.
The Campaign for Equal Justice, held annually since 1987, has a goal of $830,000. Last year’s campaign raised more than $830,000. Hollabaugh participated in the 2019 campaign committee as a large firm co-chair and has served in other campaign roles in previous years.
Hollabaugh is general counsel to the Nashville Bar Association, a trustee of the Nashville Bar Foundation, past president of the Nashville Bar Association and a past member of the International Association of Defense Counsel’s board of directors. She is a past chair of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility and is listed on the American Arbitration Association’s (AAA) Roster of Neutrals for Commercial Litigation.
At Bradley, Hollabaugh has served as lead trial lawyer in more than a dozen jury trials and more than two dozen bench trials, arbitrations and administrative hearings. She works with clients from the natural gas, infrastructure, pharmaceutical and medical device industries, largely focusing on products liability and mass tort matters.
Fifth + Broadway selects marketing director
Brookfield Properties has hired Kristen Fischer as director of marketing for Fifth + Broadway, its downtown Nashville mixed-use project.
Fischer will support the overall Fifth + Broadway brand, with a particular focus on building anticipation, excitement and interest in the project’s 200,000 square feet of entertainment and retail.
Fischer, who has relocated from Nashville from California for the role, has spent the last several years as an independent digital marketing and social media consultant working with retail and mixed-use developments that include The Shops Buckhead Atlanta and River Oaks District in Houston, as well as Miami Design District, City Center Bishop Ranch, Manhattan Village and Villa Marina Marketplace Mall.
Before working as a communications and marketing consultant, she spent eight years as the vice president of digital media for “The Dr. Phil Show” and “The Doctors.” Before that she worked in television production for shows like Ballers on BET, as well as a decade as an editor and producer at ESPN.
Fischer is a graduate of the University of Maine with a degree in communications.
Bond named president of Mortgage Bankers board
The Tennessee Mortgage Bankers Association has installed Karley Bond as president of the association for its 2020-2021 term. Jeff Tucker, CMB, AMP, recently completed his term, and will remain on the TNMBA board of directors one more year as immediate past president.
Serving with Bond on the TNMBA board:
• President-elect: Eric Fellows, New American Funding, Franklin
• Vice president: Debbie Gadberry, CMB, Franklin Synergy Bank, Nashville
• Secretary/treasurer: Todd Brown, Mortgage Investors Group, Memphis
• Past president: Jeff Tucker, CMB AMP, Studio Bank, Nashville
• East Tennessee director: Kevin Tuscan, Mortgage Investors Group, Knoxville
• Middle Tennessee director: Tiffany Searcy Wright, Synovus Bank, Nashville
• West Tennessee director: Nick Huber, Pinnacle Bank, Memphis
• Affiliate director: Jeff McEvoy, Home Surety & Escrow, Memphis
• Legislative chair: Stacy Cook, The Farmers Bank, Nashville
Vanderbilt adds 4 to Board of Trust
The Vanderbilt University Board of Trust has elected four new members:
Adena Friedman, president and CEO, Nasdaq: Freidman resides in New York City and earned her MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management in 1993.
Cindy Kent, executive vice president and president of senior living, Brookdale Senior Living: Kent, a Franklin resident, earned her MBA in marketing in 1999 and master of divinity in 2001.
Dan Lovinger, executive vice president, advertising sales and client partnerships, NBC Sports Group: Lovinger, a Purchase, New York, resident, graduated in 1987.
Damonta Morgan, student at Columbia University Law School: Morgan graduated in 2017 and will serve as a young alumni leader on the board.
The new board members will begin their term July 1.
In addition, senior Nicholas Gardner-Serna has been elected to be a young alumni leader for a two-year term beginning July 1, 2023, following his three-year term on the board of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association.
Freeman reappointed to Airport Authority board
The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority has announced the reappointment of Bill Freeman to its board of commissioners.
Freeman was originally nominated to the board by then-Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and confirmed by the Metro Council in January 2016. For his second term, he was re-nominated by Mayor John Cooper and confirmed by Metro Council.
Freeman, whose new term expires Jan. 1, 2024, is chairman of Freeman Webb Inc., a real estate investment, management and brokerage company that he co-founded with partner Jimmy Webb in 1979. Before founding Freeman Webb, Inc., Freeman was director of Downtown Urban Development for the Metropolitan Nashville Development and Housing Agency.
Freeman sits on a variety of boards and commissions, including the Kennedy Center Advisory Committee on the Arts appointed by President Barrack Obama. He serves as a member of the University of Tennessee alumni board of directors and the AOPA Presidents Council, as well as serving as trustee on the Tennessee State University board of trustees appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam. He has served as co-chair of the National Advisory Board for Organizing for Action and is an alumnus of the Leadership Nashville program. He has also served as Commissioner of the Nashville Convention Center.
First Farmers and Merchants names 2 to board
Shareholders of First Farmers and Merchants Corporation, the holding company for First Farmers and Merchants Bank, have elected two new directors, Jeffrey L. Pannell and Gina B. Wolfe, expanding the number of directors to 11, and reelected nine incumbent directors.
Pannell is the CEO of Tennessee Farmers Insurance Companies. He joined Tennessee Farmers Insurance Companies in 1986 and has served in the roles of chief marketing officer, regional manager, agency manager and agent.
Wolfe is co-owner of Wolfe Enterprises, a McDonald’s franchisee operating six restaurants in the Columbia, Spring Hill and Mt. Pleasant markets.
Along with T. Randy Stevens, chairman and CEO, eight other incumbent directors were reelected to new one-year terms. They are:
• Jeffrey L. Aiken, president of the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation
• Jonathan M. Edwards, president and CEO of the Edwards Group of Companies
• Thomas Napier Gordon, attorney and managing partner of Gordon Brothers Properties
• Dalton M. Mounger, an attorney in private practice
• Richard C. Perko, president and CEO of Lee Company
• Timothy E. Pettus, vice chairman of the company and the bank
• H. Alan Watson, CEO of Maury Regional Health System
• Brian K. Williams, president of the company and the bank
Buchanan named manager at Cedars of Lebanon
Jeff Buchanan, a 25-year veteran of Tennessee State Parks, has been named park manager at Cedars of Lebanon State Park in Wilson County.
Buchanan had been manager at Long Hunter State Park in Hermitage since 2014, where he managed facilities, natural resources, historic earthworks and guest services as well as the park budget. He began his career as one of the original rangers at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville and has served as a ranger for the Ranger Program Office, Cedars of Lebanon State Park and Long Hunter State Park.
Buchanan obtained certification in leadership development through the National Association of State Park Directors and attended the Park Management Technical Institute. He has also been a member of the Tennessee State Parks horse mounted patrol, the search and rescue team and the parks’ special operations team. He has also attained certification as an emergency medical technician. Buchanan is a graduate of Austin Peay State University with a degree in field biology.
Cedars of Lebanon State Park is part of the Cedars of Lebanon State Forest. The park is named for eastern red cedar trees found throughout the area. The trees reminded early American settlers of the famed biblical cedar forests that thrived across Mount Lebanon.
Father Ryan names counseling director
Casey Cossitt Jones has been appointed director of academic counseling at Father Ryan High School.
Jones is returning to the position she held for four years at Father Ryan prior to her departure early this year for the birth of her second child. Before her promotion to director of academic counseling in 2015, she served as the Father Ryan’s director of college counseling for three years. She began her career at the school as a college counselor in 2006.
She succeeds Ben Gatlin, who is leaving to pursue other interests.
Jones earned a degree in communication from Mississippi State University. While serving as a college counselor at Father Ryan, she completed her master of education in organizational leadership and communication at Belmont University in 2012.