Burr & Forman adds partner, continues expansion

Friday, September 25, 2015, Vol. 39, No. 39

Burr & Forman LLP has added C. Tucker Herndon as partner in its Nashville office, building upon the firm’s continued expansion in Middle Tennessee. Herndon’s arrival follows the addition of 15 attorneys in early 2015 to its Nashville office, which has more than doubled its attorney count to 26 attorneys.

This announcement also follows the relocation of the firm’s Nashville office to occupy 19,000 square feet of the Nashville City Center to accommodate this rapid growth.

Herndon focuses his practice on commercial lending and creditors’ rights, representing financial institutions and borrowers in loan documentation, foreclosures, and loan and real estate transactions. He also handles issues related to alcoholic beverage licensing and regulatory compliance.

Herndon earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi and his law degree from the Nashville School of Law.

Neal & Harwell recruits former clinical researcher

Marie Tedesco Scott has joined Neal & Harwell, PLC, as an associate.

Prior to joining Neal & Harwell, Scott served as a law clerk to the Hon. Joe B. Brown and the Hon. John S. Bryant at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Scott earned her J.D., cum laude, with a concentration in health law, from St. Louis University School of Law. She received the Dean’s Honor Scholarship and was a staff member of the Saint Louis University Public Law Review.

She also has a background in healthcare, including work in clinical research and in neuromonitoring of complex spinal and cranial surgeries. Scott has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia, where she majored in biology and anthropology.

Sinclair joins Sherrard & Roe

Andrea J. Sinclair has joined Sherrard & Roe, PLC, as an associate. Her practice will be in the area of Trusts and Estates and Litigation.

Sinclair was previously a judicial law clerk for the Hon. W. Neal McBrayer, Tennessee Court of Appeals. She was a summer associate at Sherrard & Roe in 2012 and 2013.

Sinclair earned her J.D. at Vanderbilt University Law School in May 2014, where she was Order of the Coif and a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review. She is a 2011 summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in political science.

A member of the American Bar Association and the Tennessee Bar Association, Sinclair and her husband live in Nashville.

Lifepoint Health promotes Waddey to sr. vice president

LifePoint Health has promoted Melissa Waddey to senior vice president of operations strategy and integration.

In this newly created position, Waddey is responsible for providing support and resources to LifePoint’s hospitals and other system providers to help strengthen, integrate and grow services in the company’s markets across the country. She will oversee service line development, population health, enterprise project management and integration for the company.

Waddey joined LifePoint in 2010 and has more than 15 years of hospital operations and health care management experience. She most recently served as chief of staff to LifePoint Chairman and CEO Bill Carpenter. Previously, she was vice president of LifePoint’s strategic resource group leading the Company’s health care reform initiatives, identifying strategic growth opportunities for hospitals within their markets, and spearheading key service line initiatives company-wide.

Before joining LifePoint, Waddey served in a variety of operational leadership roles at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) for 11 years.

Waddey is former chair of Leadership Health Care in Nashville and the founder and a former board member of the American College of Healthcare Executives’ Middle Tennessee chapter.

Nashville broker elected president-elect of TAR

Brian Copeland, chief of broker services for Village Real Estate Services in Nashville, has been elected 2016 president-elect for the Tennessee Association of Realtors at the statewide association’s annual fall convention in Memphis.

Copeland (M.S., B.A., CRS, GRI, CIPS, ePRO, ABR, Broker), currently serves as TAR’s 2015 secretary/treasurer.

A Golden R President’s Circle RPAC investor and the 2011 Nashville Realtor of the Year, Copeland is one of America’s most sought-after real estate speakers, emceeing and keynoting some of the largest conferences in the profession. In 2014, he was named one of Inman News’ 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders in America.

He is a Realtor Institute (GRI) graduate instructor for Tennessee and founded one of the largest technology camps in the U.S., attracting more than 1,100 real estate professionals from more than 30 states.

Copeland attended Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, studying music and communications, and completed his master’s at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

W Publishing Group hires publicity director

W Publishing Group, a non-fiction imprint of Thomas Nelson, has hired Judy McDonough as director of publicity.

McDonough is filling the role previously held by Stephanie Newton, who now serves as HarperCollins Christian Publishing’s marketing director of Backlist.

McDonough is a 20-year PR and media specialist, whose work has centered on music and entertainment clients. Prior to joining W Publishing, McDonough ran her own independent PR firm, JEMMedia, for seven years, representing festivals and music events, record labels, recording artists and reality TV personalities.

Before starting JEMMedia, McDonough was publicist at Capitol Records Nashville, where she worked with such artists as Keith Urban, Eric Church, Lady Antebellum, Garth Brooks, Darius Rucker and many others.

Watkins taps Hardgrave as community education director

Megan Hardgrave has joined Watkins College of Art, Design & Film as director of community education.

In her new position, Hardgrave will develop and oversee the department’s diverse non-credit and credit programs including the adult community education, young artists, pre-college and outreach programs, which attract approximately 1,200 children, teens and adults annually. Taught by practicing artists, these unique studio-based classes and workshops enable students of all ages to express their artistic abilities and provide them with the tools to pursue a life of creativity.

Hardgrave comes to Watkins from Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum of Art where, as public programs manager, she was in charge of developing and executing all on-site programming including lectures, camps and classes, plus seasonal festivals such as Cheekwood Harvest and Holiday at Cheekwood. Previously, she was art director and visual arts instructor at Masterpiece Dance and Art Studios in Charlotte, NC.

She earned a B.A. from Belmont University in liberal studies, with concentrations in art history and studio art, and served an internship in experiential learning at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

MP&F welcomes new staff associates

MP&F Public Relations has hired Laura Huddleston and Danielle Sampsell as the firm’s newest staff associates.

Huddleston, a native of Huntsville, Ala., graduated from Auburn University in May 2015 with a degree in public relations and a minor in business. She previously worked as the assistant of alumni, data and development at the Auburn Wesley Foundation and as the public relations intern at Women’s Hope Medical Clinic in Auburn, where she managed social media content, marketing, events, and donor and client communication.

Sampsell, a State College, Pa., native, graduated from Penn State University in May 2015 with a degree in public relations and a minor in business. At PSU, Sampsell was a communications committee member for Public Relations Student Society of America and an active member of the Gamma Sigma Sigma service sorority.

FirstBank welcomes Smith as senior vice president

FirstBank has hired Steven Smith as senior vice president and commercial real estate relationship manager. In his role, Smith will work with developers and investors in commercial real estate.

A veteran banker, Smith has more than 30 years of experience, including 18 years as a commercial real estate lender. Prior to joining FirstBank, he helped build a commercial real estate lending department from the ground up at a new bank in Nashville, joining them in 2008. Smith has a degree in marketing from Tennessee Technological University and is a member of National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

Cole joins LBMC Transaction Advisory Services

LBMC, PC, has added Ryan Cole, CPA CA, to the Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) team as a manager. He comes with experience in the audit and assurance group in a number of industries, including technology and manufacturing.

During his rise to manager at PwC Toronto in the last five years, he’s worked with a wide range of clients- including large multi-national public companies listed in Canada, the United States, and other international markets as well as small start-ups with minimal revenues and operations. This also included working with various accounting frameworks, most notably U.S. GAAP and IFRS.

Originally from Toronto, Canada, Cole earned his a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Guelph.

Prior to joining LBMC, he spent six months in the Hartford, Connecticut, office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he gained additional exposure to U.S. companies and further expanded his knowledge of U.S. regulatory matters and U.S. GAAP.

Vanderhoef to lead VUSN mental health program

Dawn Vanderhoef, Ph.D., DNP, has been named director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.

Vanderhoef has more than 20 years of psychiatric nursing experience. She was a faculty member at VUSN from 2003 to 2010, and returned in 2013 from the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. She also actively practices at Centerstone Community Health Center and has published extensively.