FirstBank’s board of directors has appointed Chris Holmes chief executive officer, one year after naming him president of the third-largest bank headquartered in Tennessee.
Doug Cruickshanks, who joined FirstBank as president and CEO in 2002, will continue in his role as vice chairman.
Prior to joining FirstBank as chief banking officer, Holmes was director of corporate financial services and chief retail banking officer for Greenville, S.C.-based South Financial Group. He worked for 14 years in several management positions for National Commerce Financial, including CEO and president of National Commerce Bank Services before joining South Financial Group.
Insight Genetics announces promotions
Insight Genetics today announced that it has promoted four of its team members:
- Brock Schweitzer, PhD, to senior scientist
- Rachel Skelton, PhD, to regulatory scientist I
- Kasey Lawrence to technology specialist
- JonEric Pettersson to manager of commercial development.
Schweitzer, who completed his post-doctoral research training in immune cell function at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, plans and conducts laboratory research on Insight Genetics’ expanding array of diagnostic tests. He also contributes to the company’s licensing of biomarkers and technologies, and supports planning and coordination of its academic, clinical and corporate partnerships. Before joining Insight Genetics as scientist II in 2012, Schweitzer received his PhD in molecular genetics from University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Skelton works with clinicians, researchers and pharmaceutical companies to test patient samples for cancer-causing biomarkers within Insight Genetics’ CLIA-certified molecular diagnostic lab. She also ensures scientific and regulatory compliance for all tests performed in the lab. Skelton joined Insight Genetics in July 2012 after earning her Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Lawrence oversees day-to-day operations and conducts research for clinical tests in development, while also managing data in the CLIA lab. Prior to joining Insight Genetics, Lawrence worked as a research assistant at Vanderbilt University’s Division of Genetic Medicine and the Genome Sciences Resource. He holds a bachelor of science in biology from Tennessee Tech University.
Pettersson guides commercialization of the company’s products for cancer diagnosis and monitoring. He also will identify new diagnostic and partnership opportunities for Insight Genetics. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with a focus on international business, from Belmont University.
School of Anesthesia hires Overstreet
Maria Overstreet, Ph.D., RN, CCNS, has joined the Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia (MTSA) as director of center for clinical simulation. In this role, Overstreet will oversee MTSA’s simulation program, which is designed to enhance students’ skills by exposing them to clinical situations they may encounter with patients in a real operating room.
Overstreet, who has more than two decades of nursing and education experience, also is an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University’s School of Nursing and will continue teaching at the school. She also operates her own simulation consulting business.
She recently served as project director for the Tennessee Simulation Alliance. Funded by the Tennessee Center for Nursing, the Alliance connects the state’s nurse educators with resources, scenarios and conferences focused on simulation.
As a professor, Overstreet has taught in the schools of nursing at King College in Bristol, Belmont and Vanderbilt. She also was orientation coordinator and in-house educator at Nashville General Hospital and manager of clinical education at HCA.
Centerstone elevates 4 to leadership roles
Centerstone Research Institute, a not-for-profit organization that works to improve behavioral health care through research and information technology, has promoted four:
- Kathryn Bowen, PhD, to vice president for research and evaluation.
- April Bragg, PhD, to vice president for research advancement.
- Jan Goodson to vice president for grant writing and research communications.
- Christina VanRegenmorter, MSSW, to director of the Center for Clinical Excellence and National Policy.
As vice president for research and evaluation, Bowen oversees CRI’s clinical research and evaluation divisions in Tennessee and Indiana. Her work will include expanding CRI’s focus on improved implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practices across behavioral healthcare. Previously, Bowen served as director of evaluation and senior program evaluator at CRI. She holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University, a CRNP from the University of Colorado, as well as a master’s degree from the State University of New York and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Murray State University.
Bragg is focusing on growing CRI’s philanthropic base to allow the organization to invest further in new research and technology innovation efforts. She also will seek to build additional strategic relationships for CRI through the Knowledge Network, a national collaborative of academic researchers, mental health care providers, policymakers, and industry leaders that CRI founded. Bragg, who previously served as CRI’s research communications manager, received her Ph.D. in cell biology from Vanderbilt University and degree in biology from Emory and Henry College. She completed postdoctoral training in physiology and biophysics at University of Washington.
Goodson leads the development and submission of CRI’s grant applications and proposals, and directs all of CRI’s internal and external communications. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, where she earned degree in psychology.
VanRegenmorter oversees the work of Centerstone’s new Center for Clinical Excellence. She works with a nine-member, cross-disciplinary team of quality improvement, technology and communications professionals focused on introducing evidence-based practices, improving clinical outcomes and integrating research and technology into Centerstone’s clinical operations in Tennessee and Indiana.
She earned an MSSW with an emphasis in evidence based practice across systems from the University of Tennessee and graduated Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Hope College.
Nashville Eye physicians appointed to posts
Dr. Rebecca J. Taylor has been named the communications committee chairwoman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), and Dr. Brandon Busbee will serve the American Academy of Ophthalmology as secretariat of state affairs for Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Taylor, a native of Jackson, Miss., has practiced at Nashville Vision Associates since 2002. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and earned her medical degree from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. After an internship in internal medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Taylor completed her ophthalmology residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Busbee, a native of Clarksville, graduated magna cum laude from Wake Forest University, where he earned his undergraduate and medical degrees. During his ophthalmology residency at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, he was elected co-chief resident. After residency, Busbee completed a two-year vitreoretinal fellowship at Tufts–New England Eye Center and Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston.
Nashvillian Dr. Paul Sternberg, a Vanderbilt ophthalmologist, was elected the AAO’s 116th president in January.
Health care firm hires senior team member
Rebecca Ayer, 12-year health care and communications veteran, has joined health care public affairs firm Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Inc., as senior executive advisor in the growing Nashville and Chicago-based firm.
Ayer most recently served Hill+Knowlton Strategies, where she served as vice president and co-led an embedded corporate communications team at Tenet Healthcare. Previously, she spent time in Washington, D.C., serving in roles that included director of media affairs for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, director of communications for the Office of Public Health and Science, and in the White House managing health policy projects for First Lady Laura Bush.
Ayer began her work in health care as a public relations manager for Baptist Hospital. She also was deputy political director for the 2002 Lamar Alexander for Senate campaign and worked in the office of Gov. Don Sundquist, as well as in community relations at Bank of America.
Thompson Burton adds business litigation lawyer
Thompson Burton, PLLC has hired J. Cole Dowsley, Jr. as a partner and to lead the firm’s business litigation practice.
Dowsley advises business clients on a broad range of issues, including complex commercial litigation, contract disputes, employment matters, professional liability, entertainment litigation and several other areas. Cole most recently was a partner at the Nashville law firm of Cornelius & Collins, LLP.
Dowsley earned his J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he served on the editorial board of the Tennessee Law Review. He also earned a degree in business administration-accounting from the University of Tennessee, graduating magna cum laude.
Skanska’s Quirk earns spot in HCD 10
Healthcare Design magazine has selected Skanska USA’s Andrew Quirk as an inaugural member of The HCD 10, an elite group of professionals who represent the most inspirational and influential work of the previous year.
Quirk is Skanska’s senior vice president and national director of its Healthcare Center of Excellence.
Skanska currently has more than 50 health care projects under way in the U.S. and $1.8 billion in health care construction backlog.
Before joining Skanska, Quirk spent seven years as an architect on staff at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and as an architect with RTKL. He also oversaw design and construction projects at notable medical research laboratories, including the National Institutes of Health and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Quirk graduated from The Pratt Institute in New York in 1990 with a degree in architecture. He is a fellow of the Health Facilities Institute.