2023 ATD Nashville Board Members
| Drew Smith President Drew Smith is the training director at Quore, a hotel operations software company in Franklin. As one of the first employees, Drew championed the self-guided learning strategy for Quore customers by creating, and now maintaining, the online knowledge base and e-learning courses. He is also passionate about the new hire onboarding experience—he launched “Quorientation” and since has successfully onboarded 13 cohorts. Over the years Drew has worked in various customer service and training roles. He holds a degree in journalism from East Tennessee State University. |
 | DeAnne Priddis President-Elect DeAnne (Dee) is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. She has a PhD in Communication (UW Milwaukee) and a MS in Human Resources Training & Development. Her research includes interpersonal and group conflict in families and organizations. Priddis has over 15 years of corporate and nonprofit professional experience primarily in human resources and training prior to her career in academics. She specialized in developing and facilitating onboarding programs and safety training. She is also a Tennessee Supreme Court (TSC) Rule 31 Mediator. |
 | Craig Vining Past President Craig Vining is a highly accomplished and results driven learning and organizational development leader who promotes continuous improvement to drive company, employee, and client success. He has worked in a variety of industries including healthcare, retail, and hospitality and has over 20 years of experience as a subject matter expert in managing the entire life cycle of training including the design, implementation, and evaluation of enterprise learning projects and initiatives. |
| Josh Jeffries Vice President - Finance Josh Jeffries serves as a Learning and Development Advisor at Pinnacle Financial Partners. With 25 years of experience in corporate L&D, he has a broad range of expertise that encompasses a variety of disciplines within ATD’s TD Capability Model. Josh has a passion for volunteerism most recently working on the Grant Advisory Committee as a Learning and Development Subject Matter Expert for the American Association of State and Local History and as a Learning Consultant for Unsilenced. Josh holds a degree in Political Science/Sociology from Buena Vista University. In addition, he holds a CPTD certification issued by the Association for Talent Development and a SHRM-SCP issued by the Society for Human Resource Management. In his free time, he can be found throughout Middle Tennessee at dog-friendly events with his Old English Sheepdog, Dudley. |
| Magda Krych Vice President - Marketing Magda Krych is a solutions-driven learning and development professional with experience spanning the healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, and construction industries. Along with experience, she brings a passion for continuous improvement and the ability to conceptualize and execute training programs, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and deliver initiatives to improve employee development. Magda has a B.A. in English from Tennessee Technological University and an M.Ed. in Leadership and Organizational Performance from Vanderbilt University. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, yoga, reading, and traveling. |
| Kelly Knowles Kelly L. Knowles earned her BBA and MBA from MTSU. She is the Lead Technology trainer at Bradley Law firm where she develops and provides technical and business skill training to all levels of the organization. Kelly is also an adjunct instructor in the Business Management Department at MTSU. Her favorite class to teach is Principles of Management – the basics are always good to review! In 2017, Kelly obtained a certification in the Color Code Personality Science and began Kelly K Consulting. Kelly K. Consulting focuses on helping individuals & teams discover, develop and dig-in to their potential. She guides this through one/one and group coaching as well as through corporate team training. |
| Anthony Gerstner Vice President - Programming Anthony is currently a Training Manager with Veho, a rapidly expanding shipping and logistics startup. With nearly 15 years of experience in Talent Development, Anthony has worked with many well-known brands including Microsoft, Nestle, SodaStream, and Beats by Dr. Dre. He also has experience as an on-camera and virtual training specialist. As a Facilitator, Anthony has presented to groups as small as three and to rooms of over six-hundred. As an Instructional Designer, he has created a facilitator’s guide for Facebook, improved the training slides for Garmin, and helped create an interactive eLearning scenario for Google Fiber. |
| Ty Wheeler Vice President - Sponsorships |
Chance Ryon Chance Ryon serves as an Employee Learning & Engagement Consultant for for Vanderbilt University's Department of Human Resources. As an internal consultant, Chance partners with university departments and stakeholders to provide Vanderbilt employees with professional development opportunities, engagement and appreciation events, and enhanced organizational effectiveness. |
Lei Comerford Member-At-Large Lei is a highly effective Leadership Coach, Facilitator and Learning & Development Consultant experienced helping organizations improve productivity, effectiveness, and engagement. Lei has over 14 years of strategic and operational experience in healthcare specifically the bio-pharmaceutical and pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industries as well as over 5 years in hospitality. Lei has dedicated years delivering best practices in customer service, coaching, mentoring, project management and facilitation to individuals, businesses, and organizations.Lei is master facilitator certified in a variety of assessment tools and holds the ACC accreditation through the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She has held many internal leader roles in corporate settings as well as is the founder of her own consulting firm. She has delivered leadership development programs, implemented internal coaching and mentoring programs, coached 1:1 with leaders at varying levels and has designed annual learning portfolios, team journeys, and onboarding programs. Lei has a passion for helping others reach beyond their goals through increased self-awareness with an objective to empower effectiveness and engagement with each client! Lei gives back to the local and global community through volunteer efforts with the International Coaching Federation “ICF Coaches for Good”, The Association for Talent Development (ATD) Nashville chapter and Humanitarian Coaches Network (HCN). She holds a bachelor’s degree in Resort and Commercial Recreation from Georgia Southern University. |
 | Amanda Bramlett Director - Website and Virtual Engagement Amanda received a BA in Foreign Languages from The University of Memphis in 2007. The language concentrations were Latin and Italian. In 2011 she received an MAT in Instruction and Curriculum Leadership with a concentration in Secondary Education also from The University of Memphis. She taught High School Latin for two years. Amanda then worked in Information Technology for two years. After that, she joined the Learning and Development team of a local Nashville business to become an Instructional Designer. Currently Amanda works in the IT field. Amanda is very interested in technology of all types, languages and linguistics, and kitty cats. |
 | Kim Vance Legal Advisor Kim is a shareholder in the Labor & Employment Department at Baker Donelson's Nashville office. She has more than 25 years of experience representing management in every aspect of labor and employment law. |
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