The Nashville Bar Association has selected the 2025 NBF Leadership Class. In 2014, the Nashville Bar Foundation established the NBF Leadership Forum – a local leadership program for lawyers with three to eight years of experience – designed to bring together emerging leaders who participate in monthly workshops for nine months to help them realize their potential and to benefit the legal profession and our local community.
The 2025 NBF Leadership Forum Class includes the following local Nashville attorneys
• Pooja Bery, McKellar Law Group
• Madison Biggs, Nashville Public Defender’s Office
• Amanda Bradley, Hartzog & Silva
• Garrah Carter-Mason, Bass, Berry & Sims
• Erica Davis-Bryant, McAngus Goudelock & Courie
• Chantley Frazier, Office of the district attorney general
• Chicoya Smith Gallman, Ortale Kelley Law Firm
• Jordan Gibson, Rainey, Kizer, Reviere and Bell
• Kate Hamilton, U.S. District Court
• Marilyn Higdon, Fisher Phillips
• Lorne Hiller, Freeman Mathis & Gary
• Abby Hodgdon, Shoals Technologies
• JP Horton, Klein Solomon Mills
• Sarah Ingalls, Thompson Burton
• Pirjin Laser, Holland and Knight LLP
• Kendria Lewis, Epstein Becker & Green PC
• Eric Lyons, Meridian Law, PLLC
• John Murphy, Tennessee Bar Foundation
• Diamond Stewart Roach, GSRM Law
• Lauren Rota, Burr & Forman
• Evan Rothey, Sims|Funk, PLC
• Emily Schiller, Stranch, Jennings and Garvey, PLLC
• Rachel Sodée, Bradley
• Kristen Walker, Spencer Fane, LLP
• John Williams, Tennessee Board of Regents
TriStar Health names chief medical officer
TriStar Health, part of HCA Healthcare, has named Ajit Singh, M.D., division chief medical officer for the HCA Healthcare TriStar Division. In this role, Singh will work to ensure the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care by leading clinical and quality initiatives across TriStar Health’s network of 10 hospitals and five freestanding ERs.
An HCA Healthcare veteran of more than 15 years, Singh comes to the TriStar Division from Henrico Doctors Hospital and Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. He previously served as chief medical officer at HCA Healthcare’s Johnston Willis Hospital in Richmond, Virginia and Terre Haute Regional Hospital in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Singh also was a clinical assistant professor of family medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine in Terre Haute.
Singh earned his degree in medicine and bachelor of surgery from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, India, where he also completed his residency in dermatology. Additionally, Singh completed a residency in family medicine at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, New York.
He earned his diploma in dermatology at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, in Glasgow, United Kingdom. He also earned a, MBA from Kelly School of Business at Indiana University, Indianapolis.
ESa adds to architecture, construction, support teams
ESa, Nashville’s largest architectural firm, has added to its roster of architects, construction contract administration team and support staff. Joining the firm are:
• Justin Roark, AIA, ACHA, NCARB, EDAC, LSSYB, who rejoins ESa as senior design manager. Roark previously worked for a large architecture firm in Texas. Roark is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University, where he earned a degree in architecture.
• Jakob Mikres, associate AIA, WELL AP, LEED Green Associate, joins the architecture team after having worked as an intern. Mikres holds a degree in architecture from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a degree in architecture, internation study, from Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.
• Connor Sullivan is a member of the construction contract administration team. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga.
• Kyle Godfrey joins ESa as a construction contract administrator. He previously was a project manager for a large concrete contractor in the Middle Tennessee area. He attended Palm Beach Atlantic University.
• Cooper Terry joins Esa’s construction contract administration team. Terry earned a degree in construction management from Western Kentucky University.
• Dwight Pullen, III, is a member of the construction contract administration team. He has experience in the construction field as a project engineer and holds a degree in architectural engineering from Tennessee State University.
• Sherly Ramirez joins the firm as a member of the support team in the role of receptionist. She has an extensive background in administrative support for professional services firms.
Tennessee F&A’s Ayers joins BHA Strategy
BHA Strategy, a Tennessee public affairs firm, has added Tennessee Department of Finance & Administration Chief of Staff Trevin Ayers to the firm’s government affairs practice.
Ayers joins BHA Strategy after serving in the Lee Administration since 2019. He attended the University of Tennessee. He will begin client service with BHA in October.
Earlier this year, BHA Strategy established a Memphis outpost with the addition of former University of Memphis government affairs chief Katie VanLandingham.
The firm also recently announced a strategic partnership with BGR Group, a premier lobbying and public affairs firm in Washington, D.C, that expands BHA Strategy’s capacity to include federal affairs.