Gustafson joins Patterson Intellectual Property Law

Friday, March 25, 2016, Vol. 40, No. 13

Megan Gustafson, Ph.D., has joined Patterson Intellectual Property Law, as an associate. Gustafson is a registered patent attorney with six years of experience.

“Megan adds depth to our already large chemical and life science practice,” said Ed Lanquist, managing shareholder. “Further, we now have three Ph.D.’s. We are thrilled to welcome her to our team.”

Gustafson was previously an associate at Goodwin Procter in Boston, where she represented a wide variety of clients in technology and life sciences, and patent prosecution and counseling.

She earned her J.D. cum laude at Suffolk University School of Law. She earned her Ph.D. in biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her B.S. in molecular biology magna cum laude at Vanderbilt University.

Gustafson is originally from Virginia and currently resides in Nashville. Dedicated to serving the community, her pro bono work has focused on education law.

Legal Aid Society adds director of advocacy

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, Tennessee’s largest non-profit law firm, has bestowed the additional role of director of advocacy – a new position at Legal Aid Society – on David Kozlowski, managing attorney of Legal Aid Society’s Columbia office.

In this role, Kozlowski will lead and coordinate the non-profit law firm’s advocacy work throughout its eight offices and entire 48-county service area. He will continue to serve as managing attorney of the Columbia office.

Kozlowski is a graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School and joined Legal Aid, through its predecessor Legal Services of South Central Tennessee, in 1980. In 2001, he worked with the Tennessee Justice Center on several class action cases. The following year, he became assistant general counsel to Legal Aid Society and managing attorney of the Columbia office.

Kozlowski has been lead counsel on many significant state and federal court decisions in Tennessee involving prisoner and juvenile rights and has extensive appellate experience in Tennessee. He is the author of leading reference works on Tennessee unemployment security law and chapters on appeals from juvenile and general sessions courts in Tennessee Appellate Practice and Tennessee Law of Children.

In 2014, the Tennessee Supreme Court reappointed Kozlowski to a third three-year term on its Advisory Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure. The Tennessee Supreme Court invited Kozlowski and his colleague, Rae Anne Seay, to co-chair the civil subcommittee of the Court Improvement Committee for the purpose of revising the Tennessee Rules of Juvenile Procedures. Seay is an attorney in Legal Aid Society’s Tullahoma office.

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands advocates for fairness and justice under the law. The non-profit law firm offers free civil legal representation, educational programs and advice to ensure people in its region are able to protect their livelihoods, their health and their families. Legal Aid Society is funded in part by United Way.

Industry veteran Hite joins Crichton Group

The Crichton Group, Middle Tennessee’s largest independent insurance agency, has hired Dan Hite as commercial insurance advisor.

Hite is a former executive vice president at Brown & Brown of Tennessee, Inc., where he spent the last 30 years working with health care, specialty general liability, construction and financial institutions.

Hite first began his career at Cooper, Love & Jackson. He is a former member of the board of directors for the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers and The Hanover Regional Agents Advisory Council.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Birmingham Southern College and an MBA from Samford University. He also earned a J.D. from the Nashville School of Law.

Nashville Area Chamber announces staff changes

The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s growth team has announced two promotions and three staff additions.

Chris Cotton will serve as director of business growth initiatives.

Cotton has been with the Chamber’s Research Center since 2008, serving as director of strategic research initiatives. In his new role, he will oversee programming for the region’s small and midsized businesses, such as the Business Studio workshop series, cost-savings programs, CEO Roundtables and ScaleUp Nashville. Cotton holds a degree in finance and entrepreneurship from Belmont University.

Lauren Gregg has been named the organization’s manager of member value.

In this role, she will work to build member involvement through initiatives and events such as the Area Advisory Councils, Pick Your Place, Business Studio and member orientations. Gregg has been with the Chamber since 2014, serving as member relations coordinator. She holds a degree in communications from the University of Tennessee.

Olivia Leow has accepted the position of vice president of member value.

She joined the Chamber’s membership team in 2010, most recently in the position of director of member relations. Leow will lead the Chamber’s member engagement efforts, and will evaluate ways to enhance the value proposition for current and future members. She holds a degree from Mississippi State.

Rita McDonald will move into the position of director of member relations.

She has nearly 27 years of experience in various roles at the Chamber, most recently as director of community and business engagement in education. In her new position, she will be an integral part of the organization’s member relations team, leading member renewal efforts and developing membership campaigns.

Callie Miller has joined the Chamber’s staff as events coordinator.

In this role, she will help execute the organization’s business development and relationship-building events, including Business After Hours and Member Orientation. Miller most recently worked as an administrative coordinator at Community Health Systems. She holds a degree in journalism from Indiana University Bloomington.

Owl’s Hill adds 3 to board of directors

Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary has named three members to its volunteer board of directors. They are:

Dana Coleman, vice president at Nashville-based Lovell Communications. Coleman has more than 25 years of communications and issues management experience in both the public and private sectors, including public relations agency, state and local government, corporate and not-for-profit arenas.

Martha Larkin, a retired human resources professional. Larkin served in former Gov. Lamar Alexander’s cabinet as Commissioner of Revenue and Commissioner of Personnel. The Cookeville native has held many community leadership roles during her 40-plus year residency in the Nashville area.

Jay Levy, an IT executive at Hospital Corporation of America. A native Texan, Levy is a University of Texas graduate who has served as a board member and an officer on various community organizations. With a passion for photography and the outdoors, he enjoys exploring Tennessee‘s rural roads either on a bike or behind a camera lens.

Re-elected to the board were Norm Miede, senior counsel at Nissan North America, community volunteer Llew Ann King and retired Vanderbilt professor Dr. Sharron Francis.

The new board leadership team is composed of Miede (chairman), retired educator Dr. Charles Smith (vice chairman); TBH Global Asset Management partner Sam Davis (treasurer) and attorney Susan K. Massey (secretary).

Owl’s Hill is a 160-acre non-profit nature preserve whose vision is to create a widespread community of environmental stewards of all ages through education, conservation and restoration, and the spreading of appreciation and enjoyment of nature.

Sweatt named chair of Dept. of Pharmacology

J. David Sweatt, Ph.D., the Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair of the Department of Neurobiology, director of the Civitan International Research Center, and director of the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, has been named chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Pharmacology.

Sweatt will join the department, ranked fifth in grant funding last year by the National Institutes of Health, on Aug. 16.

Sweatt earned a degree in chemistry from the University of South Alabama in 1981 and his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt in 1986.

His research program investigates the mechanisms of learning and memory disorders, such as mental retardation and aging-related memory dysfunction. His laboratory uses knockout and transgenic mice to investigate signal transduction mechanisms in the hippocampus, a brain region known to be critical for higher-order memory formation in animals and humans.

Sweatt replaces Heidi Hamm, Ph.D., who stepped down as chair in 2014 after leading the department for 13 years. Joey Barnett, Ph.D., has been acting as interim chair of the department.

Bishop will lead new public relations office

Anne Deeter Gallaher, owner and CEO of Deeter Gallaher Group LLC, has expanded her public relations and marketing firm to Nashville with a new office and a new team member, Monica C. Bishop.

Bishop is a graduate of Penn State University with a degree in public relations.

Headquartered in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, Deeter Gallaher Group’s second office is located in the Nashville Entrepreneur Center at 41 Peabody Street in Nashville.

Tennessee Voices for Children hires Carroll

Emily Carroll has been hired by Tennessee Voices for Children as its director of development and marketing.

Carroll earned her a degree in social work at The University of Tennessee and a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from North Park University.

She previously was director of development at The Refuge Center for Counseling and in various roles at nonprofits in the Nashville, Chicago, and Anchorage areas.