BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Alfonzo D. Alexander, President & Chief Executive Officer, Alexander Success Group (ASG)
Through ASG, Alexander provides leadership development, strategic business consulting, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy development, and training services throughout the United States. A serial entrepreneur and investor, he has worked with, started, and led multiple businesses across various industries.
In addition to leading ASG, Alfonzo led the NASBA Center for the Public Trust, serving as president of the national ethics and leadership organization for nearly 20 years. He also served as the president and is a board member of MaxxContent, LLC.
Earlier in his career, Alexander served as the regional manager and managing director for the Southeast Region of INROADS, Inc. Before joining INROADS, he held leadership positions in operations management and human resources at the Quaker Oats Company.
Alexander is a business school graduate of Tennessee Tech University, earned an MBA from Lipscomb University, and completed an Executive Leadership Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Alexander has a passion for working in the community. He is the chairman of The PhD Project Board of Directors, chairman of the Nashville Public Education Foundation Board of Directors, and board member of the Memorial Foundation. He is also a graduate and committee member of Leadership Nashville. Alexander serves on the board of trustees and executive committee for Belmont University, is vice chair of the Tennessee Tech University Foundation Board of Directors and is a member of the Tennessee Tech University College of Business Dean’s Advisory Board. He is a member and past chairman of the board for the 100 Black Men of Middle TN, a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, and a member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity.
Adolpho A. Birch III - Chief External & League Affairs Officer, Tennessee Titans
A native Nashvillian, Birch received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, after which he earned his juris doctorate from Vanderbilt University School of Law.
After a clerkship with federal District Court Judge Tom Wiseman, Birch worked as an associate at Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston before joining the National Football League in New York. Over the next 23 years he served as an advisor to Commissioners Paul Tagliabue and Roger Goodell, taking a leading role in labor relations, player engagement, integrity of the game and government affairs.
At the Titans, Birch oversees a variety of club matters, recently working with Metro Nashville, the State of Tennessee and countless stakeholder groups to craft the historic East Bank stadium and development project. He also has been a catalyst in redefining priorities for the team's foundation and community efforts.
Secretary of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust, Birch also participates in many civic and philanthropic endeavors including serving as director of Ingram Industries, commissioner of the Tennessee Access to Justice Commission, national board member of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and national board member of the Sports Lawyers Association.
Birch regularly plays but rarely enjoys golf and is a semi-competent home cook and armchair critic of home design television shows.
Antonio Carroll - Attorney, Nashville Electric Service
As an Arkansas native, Antonio Carroll graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Political Science from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2010. Antonio moved to Nashville in 2013 to attend Vanderbilt Law School. During law school, he clerked for Nashville Electric Service (NES) and the Federal Energy & Regulatory Commission’s Office of Administrative Litigation. After graduation in 2016, he began his legal career at NES. In 2021, NES promoted Antonio to the role of Attorney. In this position, he leads the legal efforts for NES in the areas of employment, regulatory compliance, sustainability, and administrative litigation. He also serves as the government liaison for all elected officials in the NES service territory. He is admitted to practice in Tennessee and Arkansas.
Antonio is a member of the Nashville and Tennessee Bar Associations. He is the Music Director for Dixon Memorial UMC in North Nashville. He is the Immediate Past-Chair of the Nashville Food Project. In 2024, the Nashville Business Journal selected him for Nashville’s 40 Under 40 award. Outside of work, he enjoys gardening, fishing, and time with his wife and two daughters.
A.K. Dettwiller - Past President, DET Distributing Company
Ann Kathryn, “A.K.” Dettwiller comes from a family with a rich multi-generational heritage in the beverage distribution industry in Tennessee. After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 2000, A.K. spent her first year in the industry with a beverage distributor in Alabama. This only reconfirmed her desire to learn the industry; and, in 2001 she joined her father in Nashville at DET Distributing Company – founded by her grandfather in 1951.
For the next 2 decades, unwilling to conform to stereotypes, she learned all facets of the beverage business and industry, in positions ranging from warehouse worker to sales, account management, brand integration and wine and spirits. During her last 2 years she focused on governmental relations while also serving as President of the company.
Passionate about the industry, A.K. served in various capacities on the boards of both the Tennessee Malt Beverage Association and the National Beer Wholesalers Association. A.K. is also a Certified Cicerone, having worked to attain an expert-level of knowledge of malt beverages.
Active in the Nashville community, as well as her industry, A.K. has served or serves on numerous boards including Keep Tennessee Beautiful, Launch Tennessee and the Nashville Police and Public Safety Alliance. Since 2014 she has also served as a Davidson County Election Officer.
Most recently having completed her transition position supporting the sale of the company in 2022, A.K. intends to continue her community involvement and pursue her personal hobbies and interests including travel, reading, cooking and target shooting.
Mignon François – Founder and CEO, The Cupcake Collection
Mignon François is a #1 national best-selling author, entrepreneur, and renowned baker who has inspired millions on her journey from drowning in debt to building a multi-million dollar cupcake empire – The Cupcake Collection. She leveraged her $5 to feed her family and turned it into a legacy with over five million cupcakes sold.
Her grassroots story of success has garnered national attention from TODAY with Hoda and Jenna, Southern Living, Entrepreneur and Business Insider to name a few. She is the author of Made from Scratch: Finding Success Without a Recipe, where shares her story of finding success with no presets in place.
Mignon is a sought-after speaker and is committed to equipping and empowering people to change the trajectory of their lives.
Rusty Gaston - CEO, Sony Music Publishing Nashville
Rusty Gaston is CEO of Sony Music Publishing (“SMP”) Nashville. Since his appointment in 2020, Rusty and his team have advanced the company’s modern vision and songwriter-first approach with landmark deals, enhanced songwriter services and chart-topping hits.
Under Gaston’s leadership, SMP Nashville has closed key deals and extensions with legendary songwriters including Ashley Gorley, Cole Swindell, Lainey Wilson, Miranda Lambert, Kane Brown, Luke Bryan, Gabby Barrett, Chris Young and Dolly Parton, and has continued to nurture the careers of breakthrough talent such as Nate Smith, Megan Moroney and more.
Previously Gaston led THiS Music, which he co-founded alongside Nashville hitmakers Tim Nichols and Connie Harrington. THiS Music’s roster included award-winning songwriters Ben Hayslip, Emily Weisband, JT Harding and more, who together celebrated over 60 BMI and ASCAP award-winning songs. Prior to co-founding THiS Music, he spent five years as the general manager of Song Garden Music, owned by producer Byron Gallimore.
Gaston has been recognized multiple times on Billboard’s Country Power Players list, and in 2023 he received Billboard’s Country Power Player Executive of the Year honor. He serves as a Board Member of the Academy of Country Music (ACM), Nashville’s Studio Bank, and Belmont University.
Lowanda Hill – Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent
Lowanda F. Hill retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in August 2024 after a distinguished 20-year career.
A Mississippi native, Hill entered on duty with the FBI as a Special Agent, after graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Belhaven University. As an agent, she excelled in investigating complex white-collar crimes, public corruption, and financial crimes. Her responsibilities included serving as a Crisis Negotiator in international and domestic scenarios.
As an accomplished Crisis Negotiator and FBI Adjunct Instructor, Hill provided comprehensive training to local police departments and international partners on crisis negotiation techniques, leadership, emotional intelligence, and crime scene investigation. Her advocacy efforts led her to serve as Co-Chair for the FBI Director’s Advisory Committee, where she worked tirelessly to change policies that impacted the workforce.
In August 2015, Hill was appointed as a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI Director’s Office, overseeing Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints and investigations. Additionally, she assumed the role of a mediator, facilitating and resolving EEO matters. In her supervisory capacity, Hill developed standardized operating procedure guidelines for various projects and advised management on employee performance-related matters.
Since retiring, Hill enjoys cooking, dancing, international travel, and spending time with her family.
Dan Hogan - Principal, Barrel Stock Trading Company
Dan Hogan is currently a Co-Founder of his own investment firm, Barrel Stock Trading Company, that specializes in opportunities for investors to participate in the rapidly growing bourbon and whiskey markets.
Previously, he founded and led Medalogix—a Nashville-based post-acute specific predictive modeling and workflow company, established to help home health providers deliver more efficient and effective patient care. A former home health agency owner and operator, Dan’s hands-on healthcare knowledge guided Medalogix from the idea stage to scale as the company solved some of today’s most pressing healthcare challenges, like hospital readmission reduction and end-of-life care coordination.
For his work developing Medalogix, Dan was honored as Nashville’s “2016 Entrepreneur of the Year.” He has been twice recognized as one of the Nashville Business Journal’s “Most Admired CEO” and a “Healthcare Hero.” He was awarded the Nashville Technology Council’s “2016 Innovator of the Year.”
Additionally, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society awarded Medalogix the Health Information Technology award, which distinguishes the software as one of the best emerging technologies in the Southeast. Most recently, Medalogix was recognized by Fierce as a “Fierce Innovation Finalist” and Harvard University as a Health Acceleration Challenge finalist, Becker’s as a “Top Disruptive Healthcare Company to Watch,” and the Nashville Technology Council as “2016’s Early Stage Company of the Year.” As a public speaker, Dan has presented at several conferences, including the National Association of Home Care and Hospice’s annual conference, the Visiting Nurse Association of America’s annual conference, Harvard’s Forum on Healthcare Innovation, Yale’s Global Health and Innovation conference, Leadership Nashville, and TEDx Nashville.
As a graduate of Nashville Emerging Leaders, Young Leaders Council, and Leadership Nashville, he has been civically minded since arriving in Nashville in 1998. He has since been honored as the YLC Young Leader of the Year in 2014, and Dan currently serves on the Boards of Tennessee Resettlement Aid, the Metro Nashville Sports Authority and Entrepreneurs Organization, a group he served as president of in 2016.
A Chicago native, Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in speech communication from the University of Georgia and spends his free time running, mountain biking, dabbling in photography, and hanging out with his daughter, Maddie, when she is home from college.
Michelle Kennedy - President & COO, Nashville Predators
Michelle Kennedy joined the Nashville Predators / Bridgestone Arena in March 2008 as In-House Counsel. Kennedy, a CPA, was named Chief Financial Officer in 2010, while continuing to serve as General Counsel.
In 2017, Kennedy was named Chief Operating Officer and in 2023, Kennedy assumed the additional roles of President and Alternate Governor. She also serves as the chairman of the Nashville Predators Foundation.
Kennedy’s career began at KPMG, where she spent five years working in public accounting. She then joined Vanderbilt University Department of Athletics for seven years, ultimately serving as its Senior Associate Director of Athletics. Kennedy left her post at Vanderbilt Athletics to attend law school at Vanderbilt, continuing to do consulting work for Vanderbilt during law school.
In addition to being named to the Sports Business Journal's "Game Changers’ Class of 2018," Michelle was a finalist for the Nashville Business Journal's CFO of the Year in 2015 and featured in Nashville Lifestyles Magazine's Top 10 Women in Business in 2016. She was named a NBJ Woman of Influence in 2023. Michelle currently serves on the boards of the Nashville Humane Society, the YWCA of Middle Tennessee, Vanderbilt Women’s Volleyball Executive Board, and the Nashville Police & Public Safety Alliance.
Kennedy obtained both a Bachelor of Arts in economics (1992) and a Juris Doctorate (2007) from Vanderbilt University.
Michel Moore – Former Chief of Police, Los Angeles Police Department
Michel Moore served as the 57th Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), drawing on more than four decades of experience to lead one of the nation’s largest and most dynamic law enforcement agencies.
A steadfast advocate for reform, Moore prioritized transparency, overhauled use-of-force policies and training, and deepened engagement with Los Angeles’ diverse communities to foster trust and accountability.
He championed the modernization of the department’s information technology, advancing data-informed strategies and improving operational efficiency to meet the evolving needs of public safety.
Throughout his tenure, Moore emphasized “Policing with Purpose, Compassion, and Partnerships,” reflecting his commitment to balancing crime reduction with meaningful collaboration and community care.
After 42 years of service with the LAPD, Moore retired in 2024 and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter.
Nick Ogden – Founder and CEO, The Clear Blue Company
Nick Ogden is the founder and CEO of The Clear Blue Company (CBC), a Nashville-based private equity real estate firm. CBC manages over $850 million in assets and oversees 4,854 units across 16 markets in the Southeastern United States.
CBC focuses on addressing the affordable housing crisis while delivering attractive returns to investors and promoting upward mobility for its residents. Nick strongly advocates increasing the supply of workforce housing as the key solution to this issue. CBC is tackling this challenge at a regional level through two main strategies: preserving existing workforce housing and developing new units. The long-term goal is to use their expertise and regional influence to impact national housing policy, which will increase supply.
Nick’s connection to Nashville began in 2003 when he moved to the city to attend Vanderbilt University. He currently resides in East Nashville with his wife and two daughters. He actively engages with the community as a Board member of Nashville Classical Charter School and the East End Neighborhood Association.
Beyond his role at CBC, Nick is an engaged entrepreneur. He is an active participant in the Entrepreneurs Organization and serves as a mentor through the Nashville Entrepreneur Center and Urban League’s Red Academy. His commitment to addressing housing issues and fostering community development reflects his deep ties to Nashville and his dedication to creating positive change.
Diego Eguiarte Solomon – Founder, Nuestro Financial
Diego is a naturalized American citizen. He was born in Mexico City and grew up in Central Mexico, in the city of Leon. Nine years ago, Diego arrived in Nashville after graduating from the University of Loyola in New Orleans. Diego has a long career in Finance and Entrepreneurship. He founded Nuestro Financial to help immigrant and low-income entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
But the most important thing about Diego, is that he is the father of three smart, strong, and compassionate daughters. With his wife Jamie, they are navigating the ups and downs of raising a mixed race, mixed culture, and mixed language family in the Southern United States. Diego loves talking about his experience as an immigrant, hoping that it can inform those who have not experienced it and give visibility to those who have.
Alexandra Spredemann – Vice President, Client Solutions, Alorica
Alexandra Spredemann is a global leader with more than 15 years of experience in strategic business development, corporate law, and customer experience. Her career spans the food and beverage, automotive, and telecommunications industries, where she has successfully driven organizational transformations, managed large-scale operations, and cultivated strategic partnerships. As Vice President of client solutions at Alorica, Alexandra oversees complex, multinational operations, delivering innovative solutions that enhance customer satisfaction and drive sustainable growth.
Passionate about fostering inclusive communities, Alexandra is deeply committed to initiatives that create meaningful connections. Her leadership experience includes roles at Cummins, where she led the global shared service for translations and implemented groundbreaking digital transformation strategies, and Alimentos Polar Colombia, where she guided strategic legal initiatives and built collaborative frameworks across diverse stakeholders.
A dedicated advocate for public safety and community engagement, Alexandra is proud to support the Nashville Police + Public Safety Alliance’s mission to make Nashville safer through innovation and collaboration. She believes in the power of partnerships between law enforcement, businesses, and nonprofits to create lasting change.
Alexandra enjoys reading, traveling, and connecting people from diverse backgrounds to one another. Fluent in English and Spanish, she combines a global perspective with a passion for building stronger, safer communities.
Clay Stauffer - Senior Minister, Woodmont Christian Church
Dr. Clay Stauffer is a fourth-generation Disciples of Christ minister, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.
He was officially installed as Senior Minister of Woodmont in October of 2007 at the age of 27, the youngest minister in Woodmont’s history to ever hold that position.
Clay earned degrees from Texas Christian University (B.A.), Princeton Theological Seminary (M. Div.), and the University of the South (D. Min).
His doctoral research at Sewanee focused on the intersection of faith and politics in a polarized world. Before being called to Woodmont, he served The Riverside Church in New York City (2003-2005), Christ Church in Lausanne, Switzerland (2004), and Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis (2005-2007).
In 2010, Clay was named one of Nashville’s “Top Forty Under 40” by the Nashville Business Journal at the age of 29, honoring top young influential people for their leadership, gifts, and accomplishments. In July 2011 he received the Fred Craddock Award for excellence in preaching during the General Assembly of the Christian Church. In 2017, he was honored by Faith Family Medical Center for his leadership and vision in helping offer health care to the uninsured and underinsured in the Nashville community.
Clay is a regular columnist for the Faith and Values section of The Tennessean, and does some church consulting and leadership training on the side. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Vanderbilt University focusing his research on morality, character, emotional intelligence, and political polarization. His most recent book, Spiritual Reflections on Faith, Values, & Culture, addresses the deeper issues that matter most in life: faith, wisdom, values, spirituality, relationships, connection, and self-reflection. He is also the author of Preaching Politics: Proclaiming Jesus in an Age of Money, Power, and Partisanship, published in 2016 by Chalice Press.
He is a trained speaker and life coach through The John Maxwell Team. Clay has also served on many non-profit boards including the Nashville Food Project, Faith Family Medical Center, Disciples Divinity House at Vanderbilt, Phoenix Club of Nashville, Downtown Rotary Club, The Blake McMeans Foundation, and Woodmont Christian Preschool.
FOUNDING COMMITTEE
Alfonzo Alexander, A.K. Dettwiller, Chief John Drake, Aubrey Harwell, Dan Hogan, Tom Ingram, Phillip Many, Bess McWherter Anderson, Ronald Roberts, Patricia Glaser Shea, Molly Sudderth, Charlie Trost, Jerry Williams, Kristin Wilson