Waller hires Ribeiro to lead health care department

Friday, May 23, 2014, Vol. 38, No. 21

Waller has named Morgan Ribeiro executive director of the firm’s health care department. In this newly-created position, Ribeiro will work directly with Waller’s Healthcare Steering Committee to lead in the development and implementation of the department’s strategy and client development activities.

Prior to Waller, Ribeiro served as a senior executive advisor with Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, a strategic health care communications firm based in Nashville, where she developed and managed communications campaigns for healthcare organizations, including tax-exempt and investor-owned hospitals and health systems and start-up health care technology companies.

A graduate of Tulane University, Ribeiro has worked with a wide range of health care organizations, including hospitals, health systems and pharmaceutical and health care technology clients throughout the United States. At Jarrard, she worked with more than 30 clients in 10 states through a variety of matters, including mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, certificates of need, privacy breaches and other regulatory issues.

Prior to Jarrard, Ribeiro was an account executive with rbb Public Relations in Miami, where she managed the firm’s account with the Cleveland Clinic in Florida. She also was an account executive with Cohn and Wolfe Healthcare in New York City.

Harwell named 2014 Trial Lawyer of the Year

Aubrey Harwell, Jr., co-founder, member and managing partner of Neal & Harwell, PLC, has been named the 2014 Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Southeastern Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

Since its inception in 1971, Harwell has served as managing partner of Neal & Harwell, PLC. The firm is widely regarded as one of the nation’s premier litigation firms and has been involved in several high profile cases throughout the years.

Harwell’s service extends beyond the law firm. He also serves as chair holder of the Jennings A. Jones Chair of Excellence in Free Enterprise in the College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University. He has served as vice chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Nashville School of Law and has taught at both Vanderbilt University and Belmont University in Nashville. He also serves on several corporate boards and provides service to numerous nonprofit and charitable organizations throughout the country.

Dugan named to lead VUMC Geriatric Medicine

Laura Dugan, M.D., the Larry L. Hillblom Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the University of California San Diego, has joined the Vanderbilt faculty to direct Vanderbilt University’s Division of Geriatric Medicine, a division of the Department of Medicine.

Dugan, a neuroscientist, brings a robust research program studying the cellular mechanisms of nerves and neuronal injury in the brain, and the role of inflammation in the aging brain and in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s disease. The Division of Geriatric Medicine at UCSD, led by Dugan, ranked 20th in the nation out of more than 1,500 programs by U.S. News and World Report.

Before joining the UCSD faculty in 2005 with joint appointments in Medicine and Neurosciences, Dugan was at Washington University for 11 years, where she cared for patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Intellectual property group announces 2014 board

The Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association has announced its board of directors for 2014. TIPLA officers and board members are Tennessee attorneys who volunteer to serve the association for a one-year term. 2014 officers and board members are:

• President : A.J. Bahou, Bahou Law, PLLC, Nashville
• Vice President: Rebecca M. Barnett, Stites & Harbison, PLLC, Nashville
• Secretary: Kevin P. Hartley, Stites & Harbison, PLLC, Nashville
• Treasurer: Peter L. Brewer, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell Berkowitz, PC, Knoxville
• At-Large: Phil Walker, Waddey Patterson, PC, Nashville
• At-Large: Martha B. Allard, Bass Berry & Sims, PLC, Nashville
• At-Large: Anita Modak-Truran, Butler Snow, PLLC, Nashville

TIPLA is an organization dedicated to serving the Intellectual Property legal community of Tennessee.

Goehring, Hash join Capella Healthcare

Capella Healthcare has announced the hiring of two new staff members, including one for a newly created position.

Cindy Goehring is director of benefits, coming to Capella from Cigna-HealthSpring, where she spent five years in the same role. Previously, she worked for the Grady Health System in Atlanta, as well as with Hewitt. She earned an MBA from Duke University.

Laurie Hash has assumed a new position as director of managed care and will be responsible for overseeing managed care contracts for employed physicians. She was most recently responsible for managed care contracting for HMA. She holds a degree in health care administration from the University of Phoenix.

VUMC’s Barkin elected VP of Pediatric group

Shari Barkin, M.D., MSHS, William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Medicine and director of the Division of General Pediatrics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, has been elected to serve as vice president of the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR), with succession to the presidency in 2016.

Barkin will serve a four-year leadership term beginning in May.

The SPR provides a forum for young investigators to exchange ideas, encourages research that benefits the well-being of children and allows researchers across the country the opportunity to present their work.

Barkin’s election to the SPR post adds to her long list of accomplishments, numerous awards and appointments with various organizations. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and State of Tennessee, among others. Currently, she leads a seven-year randomized-controlled trial to prevent childhood obesity and serves as the chair of the NIH’s Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research Consortium.

Barkin joined Vanderbilt’s Department of Pediatrics in 2006. She earned her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati and completed her residency at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Before coming to Vanderbilt, she served as an associate professor of pediatrics and public health sciences at Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine, Brenner Children’s Hospital.

Yohn joins Tuck Hinton as Intern Architect

Mary Melissa Yohn has joined Tuck Hinton Architects as intern architect.

Yohn was previously an intern architect at Cohen Carnaggio Reynolds in Birmingham. She is a 2012 graduate of Auburn University with a bachelor of architecture degree. While at Auburn, she spent a semester studying architecture and urban planning in Florence, Italy. She also designed and built her thesis project at Auburn University’s Rural Studio.

TGCSA appoints Ikard as president, CEO

The board of directors of the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association has appointed Rob Ikard as the trade group’s president and chief executive officer.

Ikard will direct all association activities including member relations, public affairs and management of revenue sources and serve as president of the Tennessee Grocers Education Foundation, an independent nonprofit corporation dedicated to providing college scholarships to people in the food industry.

Ikard fills the position vacated by previous president Jarron Springer, who left the association in January 2014 to become the CEO of the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.

Ikard, a former Tennessee state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, brings a long history of association management, government relations and issue advocacy to his role at TGCSA. Most recently Ikard served as a manager in the administration of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett.

Ikard is a native of Nashville. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University.

Johnson, Stringfellow join Pinnacle Financial

Bobbie Johnson and Sarah Stringfellow have joined Pinnacle Financial Partners as service specialists.

Johnson, with 20 years of experience, is based at Pinnacle’s Cason Lane office in Murfreesboro. Prior roles were with Capital Bank (Green Bank/Rutherford Bank & Trust), where she served as branch manager, and First Tennessee Bank, where she was an operations manager.

Stringfellow brings more than five years of experience to her role. She was most recently with Regions Bank, where roles include serving as a financial services specialist and senior teller. She is a graduate of Cumberland University and is based at Pinnacle’s Sam Ridley office in Smyrna.

Also, Danette Bailey has joined Pinnacle Financial Partners as a service specialist for its West Baddour office in Lebanon.

Bailey brings more than 30 years of experience from Regions Bank, where roles included serving as a branch assistant, a financial services specialist and a head teller.

GS&F welcomes additional staff, promotes others

GS&F has expanded once again with the addition of three new team members.

The agency’s account management team recently brought on Julia Hare, who will serve as account director on the Hunt Brothers® Pizza, International Comfort Products and Banded teams. Nicole Parker will support account management’s LP Building Products team as an account coordinator. The agency has also added Jeremy Ellis to focus on new business development.

In addition, GS&F has promoted Molly Russell to account executive on the LP Building Products team and Eric Scism to senior digital marketing strategist.