Dismas House Announces 11 New Board Members
July 28, 2021
Dismas House of Nashville is pleased to announce 11 new board members, a new board chair and chair-elect who will each help support the organization’s mission to improve lives and strengthen communities by providing the formerly incarcerated with holistic reentry programming that breaks the cycle of incarceration.
The non-profit elected Steve Cook as its new chair and selected Dawn Mason as its new board chair elect. Cook enters his fourth year on the board while Mason has served since 2019.
The new board members began their two-year terms with Dismas effective July 1, 2021. The 11 new board members are: Terri Aylward, Retired; Lori Bell, EOA Architects, PLLC; Rep. Vincent Dixie, Tennessee House of Representatives, 54th District; Taylor Fortune, Ernst & Young, LLP; Elde Guerrier, Guerrier Development; Rick Heagerty, Exterior Wholesalers; Alisha James, James Group Consulting; Richard McDermott, Strathdon & Farringdon Heights, LLC; Kent Petty, HCA Healthcare; DarKenya Waller, Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands; and David Young, Retired.
Kretsch added, “On behalf of the board, I want to express our gratitude to the great men and women who have concluded their service as a valued board member. We wish them all the best in future endeavors.” Full and advisory board members who recently completed their terms were: Jim Aylward, Jennifer Charles, Lee Cunningham, Alfred Degrafinreid II, Jolene Dressel, Braden Gall, Dylan Hall, Todd Henry, Amanda Jones, Steve Luttrell, April Presley, Vice Mayor Jim Shulman, Marcus Shute, Terry Vo, and Evelyn Yeargin. Bob Adams Blankenship now serves as board member emeritus and is one of only two individuals to achieve this esteemed status.
The other members of the 2021-2022 Dismas House Board of Directors are: Judge Lynda Jones, General Sessions Court Judge, Nominating Committee Co-Chair; Steve Cook, LFM Capital, Board Chair; David Briggs, Fifth Third Bank, Finance Chair; Paul Connelly, HCA Healthcare, Nominating Committee Co-Chair; David Hart, Tennessee Rehabilitative Initiative in Correction (TRICOR), Program Chair; Don Holmes, Consultant, HR/Governance Committee Chair; Dawn Mason, CoreCivic, Operations Chair; Patrick Theobald, Asurion, Secretary; Stacy Widelitz, Nashville Opera Guild, Development Chair; Tameka Winston, Ed.D., Tennessee State University, Marketing & Communications Chair; Julia Baker, Page/Duke Landscape Architects, Government Relations Committee; Ellen Bonner, Callaway Bonner Law, HR/Governance Committee; Lisa Button, DVL Seigenthaler, a FINN Partners Company, Marketing & Communications Committee; Gabrielle Chapman, PhD, Vanderbilt University Peabody College, Program Committee; Mike Dimler, Asurion, Operations Committee; Sarah Fairbank, Owen College of Business Vanderbilt University, Program Committee; Bret Fitchpatric, SitusAMC, Marketing & Communications Committee; Jon Frere, Retired, Development Committee; Jamal Hipps, MYPER Marketing & Advertising, Marketing & Communications Committee; Eric Jackson, Element 47, Marketing & Communications Committee; Dr. Carl Keldie, Physician, Program Committee; Chris Kincade, Janarus – The Good Janitors, Marketing & Communications Committee; Brandee Madden, Vanderbilt School of Nursing, Program Committee; Julie Perrey, The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, Program Committee; Father Anh Tuan Phan, Nashville Diocese, Program Committee; Jolene Ramirez, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Program Committee; Burns Rogers, The Counseling Center at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Program Committee; Mike Rustici, Technology Entrepreneur, Capital Campaign Committee; Phil Ryan, Village Commercial Real Estate, Development Committee; Thomas Stearns, Retired,
Development Committee; Chuck Taylor, Tennessee Department of Corrections, Nominating Committee; and Klaus Thieme, Luftikus Investments, LLC, Development Committee.