Gibson
Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Jeff Gibson has been named the Tennessee Justice Center’s 2017 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year.
Last year, Gibson and a colleague at Bass provided pro bono representation to a TJC client who had been denied TennCare coverage for nursing home care. The team won the hearing for the client, and the nursing home reimbursed the client’s wife thousands of dollars.
Gibson then spearheaded an ongoing project at Bass to provide pro bono assistance to other TJC clients having problems establishing their eligibility for TennCare or getting medically necessary services once they have enrolled in the program.
Thanks to his efforts, Bass attorneys have provided successful pro bono representation to five low-income clients. One of those cases, in which Gibson and another Bass attorney served as pro bono co-counsel with TJC, was a successful federal court suit involving a working mother of three who was wrongly denied TennCare coverage for two months spent in a coma.
“Jeff truly embodies the spirit of the award,” TJC Executive Director Michele Johnson says.
The Tennessee Justice Center has for 21 years helped vulnerable Tennessee families gain access to basic necessities of life.
Pope promoted to open records counsel
Pope
Lee Pope, who joined the Office of Open Records Counsel last year as Deputy Open Records Counsel, has been promoted to Open Records Counsel, replacing Ann Butterworth.
Butterworth is returning to her primary role as assistant to the comptroller for public finance. Butterworth had served since 2014 as the open records counsel after Elisha Hodge left.
Comptroller Justin P. Wilson said Pope has played a key role in eliminating a backlog of requests for assistance and in developing a model public records policy for use by government entities.
Pope previously worked as assistant director and general counsel for the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board, and as an assistant attorney general in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
Buckley
Also, Rachel Buckley is joining TCOG as assistant open records counsel.
Buckley also previously worked in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, and in state government as assistant general counsel in the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. She is a graduate of Saint Louis University and the University of Tennessee’s College of Law.
The Office of Open Records Counsel was created in 2008 to answer questions about the state’s public records law and issue informal advisory opinions. It receives inquiries from government entities, citizens and journalists. Last year, the General Assembly increased funding of the office to pay for a second position.
Smith named president of state engineering group
Charlie Smith, PE, Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon, Inc., Nashville, has been named president of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Tennessee, an organization whose membership includes more than 100 engineering firms located across the state.
Other Nashville engineers who will serve as officers in 2017-2018 are:
Brad Winkler, PE, WSP, second vice president
Elizabeth Surface, PE, Ross Bryan and Associates, Inc., treasurer
Amy Spann, PE, past President, EnSafe Inc.
Mickey Sullivan, PE, Gresham Smith and Partners, director at large.
Steve Field, PE, Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., serves as ACEC National Director.
Additional ACEC Tennessee Officers for 2017-2018 are:
President elect, Logan Meeks, PE, A2H, Inc., Memphis
First vice president, Tim Verner, PE, Fisher & Arnold, Inc., Memphis
Secretary, Danl Hall, PE, Vaughn & Melton Consulting Engineers, Inc., Knoxville
The Nashville Chapter of ACEC Tennessee has elected Kenny Diehl, PE, Smith Seckman Reid, Inc., as chapter president.
Healthcare Management Partners expands
Winters
Nashville-based Healthcare Management Partners, LLC, a turnaround and consulting firm specializing in health care, has announced the recent addition of Ronald Winters, a nationally recognized leader in health care restructuring, as well as the addition of four professionals in its Nashville-based headquarters.
Winters joins HMP directly from Alvarez & Marsal, where he worked for the past 17 years and was a managing director in its health care industry group. From his New York location, Winters will serve HMP clients across the nation.
Other hires include:
Rowe
Douglas
Zach Rowe, CPA (director). Rowe joins HMP from LifePoint Health, where he was an acquisitions controller for their Eastern group. Over his career, Rowe has specialized in providing companies with his accounting expertise and guidance. He has more than 10 years of corporate and operational accounting experience within the healthcare industry. Rowe holds a B.B.A in accounting and a master’s of accountancy from Middle Tennessee State University.
Lauren Douglas, CPA, MBA (senior associate). Douglas joins HMP after most recently serving as an assistant controller for W Squared Inc., where she was responsible for the accounting for multiple health care clients across difference sectors.
Douglas holds a B.B.A of accounting from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and a M.B.A. with a concentration in business and accountancy from Tennessee Tech University. She is a CPA.
Anthony Jordan (associate). Jordan comes to HMP from Hospital Corporation of America, where he was a staff accountant specializing in physician practices. He has valuable experience closing books for multi-location physician practices as well as reviewing provider pay structures. Jordan obtained his B.B.A of accounting from Middle Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing his master’s of accountancy with a CPA track.
Ward Tishler (associate). Prior to joining HMP, Tishler graduated from Furman University with a degree in neuroscience. Following graduation, he worked as an intern with the neurology department at Houston Methodist Hospital gaining firsthand experience working inside a large hospital. Since joining the firm, Ward has supported senior members on projects including the refinancing of a hospital, daily management of multiple assisted living facilities, and created operational and financial metric reports, using HMP Metrics, for hospitals across the country.
McGowan is new partner at DVL Seigenthaler
McGowan
Nashville-based DVL Seigenthaler, a Finn Partners Company, has added to its partner ranks with the promotion of Philip McGowan. Previously vice president with the agency, McGowan specializes in media relations, issues management, government and community relations, and strategic planning.
Prior to joining DVL Seigenthaler, McGowan was a project assistant for the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. He earned a master’s degree in mass communication from MTSU and a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from Auburn University.
DVL Seigenthaler also has promoted Lisa Button to senior vice president. Button has been with the agency for four years where her prior positions have included vice president and senior account supervisor. Previously, she worked in marketing communications at Saint Thomas Health, Ingram Content Group and Cigna HealthSpring.
Christian Lail has been hired as an account coordinator. Lail came to Nashville to work at DVL Seigenthaler as an intern in June 2016 after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in public relations and political science.
DVL Seigenthaler also has hired Olivia Parven as an account coordinator. She became an intern at the agency in July 2016 after graduating from Rhodes College in Memphis, where she majored in English literature.
Noelle Grimes has been hired as an associate art director. Grimes, a New Orleans native, holds a degree in graphic design from Watkins College of Art.
Epidemiologist honored for protecting, saving lives
Jones
Tim Jones, MD, has been named the 2017 recipient of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists’ Pumphandle Award.
Jones serves as Tennessee state epidemiologist and assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health Communicable and Environmental Disease and Emergency Preparedness, or CEDEP division.
The CSTE Pumphandle Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of applied epidemiology, is aptly named as a reminder of an 1854 effort to prevent the spread of cholera in London, England.
Physician John Snow, attempting to find the source of a cholera epidemic, removed the pumphandle from a well he believed was providing contaminated drinking water. His simple action saved numerous lives.
Jones has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, works as a reviewer for 29 journals and serves on the editorial board of five journals, including as chairman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
He has held multiple leadership positions with CSTE, including service as president in 2013–2014, has testified before the U.S. Congress and has served on numerous national advisory committees for the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
Jones earned his medical degree from Stanford University and completed postgraduate training in family medicine and maternal-child health.
He cared for underserved populations as a family practitioner in Salt Lake City, Utah before joining the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1997, assigned to the Tennessee Department of Health.