The Nashville Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Announces the Transition of Leadership and Welcomes Barbie Bigelow, NACD.DC; Paul Connelly, NACD.DC; Katharin Dyer; Rita Johnson-Mills and Steve Seger, NACD.DC, to its Advisory Board

NASHVILLE, January 9, 2025 — Today, NACD Nashville announced the transition of leadership and new advisory board members.

The Nashville Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) celebrates the extraordinary leadership of Teresa Sebastian,  NACD.DC®, as she concludes her tenure as Chapter Chair and welcomes Ed Magee as her successor. 

Under Sebastian’s visionary guidance, the chapter achieved remarkable growth, fostering a vibrant community of board leaders and elevating programming excellence. Her tireless efforts to engage members and build a diverse and dynamic advisory board set a strong foundation for future success. 

Magee now takes the helm with a charge to build on this momentum, bringing his own enthusiasm and innovative leadership to strengthen Tennessee’s corporate governance community and further the chapter’s mission of board governance excellence. 

As Sebastian’s legacy endures, the NACD Nashville Chapter looks ahead with optimism and purpose under Magee’s stewardship.

To further the advancement of the chapter, Barbie Bigelow, NACD.DC; Paul Connelly, NACD.DC; Katharin Dyer; Rita Johnson-Mills and Steve Seger, NACD.DC, have been appointed to the advisory board. Each new advisory board member brings a vast skill set of expertise in board governance that will support membership engagement and program development for the chapter.

Barbie Bigelow, NACD.DC, leads engagement for NACD Nashville in East Tennessee. Bigelow currently serves on the board of Henderson Engineers and as a nonexecutive advisor to several private, high-growth digital companies. She previously served as chief information officer (CIO) and senior business executive at Fortune 500 companies Lockheed Martin and Jacobs, where she oversaw digital transformation, mergers and acquisitions, strategic restructuring, cybersecurity and information technology operations. Her experience includes serving as CIO and board risk and audit committee member at two large, private companies as well as operating partner and digital value advisor for private-equity portfolios and funds.

As chair emerita of the board of advisors for the Tickle College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee and as senior faculty at the Digital Directors Network, she champions technology leadership and governance excellence. A first-generation college graduate, she actively focuses on improving college access and advancing opportunities for first-generation graduates and women in technology.

Bigelow is the founder of Emerald Growth Partners, providing strategic advising, executive coaching and investment services to growth-oriented companies.

Paul Connelly, NACD.DC, is a distinguished chief information security officer (CISO) who built the first two cybersecurity programs at two of the world’s highest-risk organizations: the White House and HCA Healthcare.

Connelly began his career as an information security analyst at the National Security Agency and then spent nine years as the information security officer at the White House, where he also served as a presidential communication officer for three US Presidents.

His expertise in creating robust security frameworks continued at HCA Healthcare, where he served as CISO for more than 20 years. Connelly led cybersecurity, privacy, information governance and physical security programs protecting 187 hospitals and 2,000 outpatient clinics serving 32 million patient encounters per year.

Connelly has also been a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, known as PwC, where he led a cybersecurity audit and consulting practice.

Katharin (Kathy) Dyer is an independent director at Liquidity Services (Nasdaq: LQDT), where she is chair of the nominating and governance committee and a member of the compensation committee. She serves on the principal funds board of the Principal Financial Group (Nasdaq: PFG) as well as on the advisory board at a Boston-based venture studio that focuses exclusively on forming or scaling artificial intelligence firms. Dyer is retired from global C-level profit and loss operating roles at American Express and other leading firms. She is a founding member of Extraordinary Women on Boards and is an advisory council member of the “Harvard Business Review.” Dyer has served on global and regional social impact boards, including CARE, the Grameen Foundation, Noora Health and the YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee.

Rita Johnson-Mills is an independent director serving on the boards of Nyxoah SA (NYXH) and Owens and Minor (OMI). She also serves on the private company boards of Quest Analytics LLC and Ellipsis Health. Johnson-Mills also serves as president of the southern region for CINQCARE, a physician-driven ambulatory health care provider focusing primarily on Black and Brown communities.

Johnson-Mills is a former C-suite business-to-consumer health care executive and business unit CEO for UnitedHealthcare and Centene Corp. Her background and experience include a combined 30 years of federal, state and private industry experience; for 15 years she was directly accountable for the profitability of health care organizations. Johnson-Mills spent almost 11 years in progressive leadership positions with UnitedHealthcare, including serving as CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee, a health plan that served more than 500,000 government-sponsored health care consumers and produced over $2.7 billion in annual revenue.

Johnson-Mills previously served as CEO of Managed Health Services and Buckeye Community Health Plan, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Centene Corp., and led the operational turnaround of each health plan. Johnson-Mills possesses a strong regulatory background, having spent 10 years in progressively expansive leadership roles with the State of Ohio, the last of which was chief of the Bureau of Medical Assistance. She spent almost two years with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, where she served as director of Medicaid managed care for the country.

Her numerous honors and accolades include being a 2024 YWCA Academy for Women of Achievement honoree, a 2021 “Savoy” magazine “Most Influential Black Corporate Director,” a 2019 NACD Governance Fellow, a “WomenInc.” magazine 2019 “Most Influential Corporate Director” and a 2018 “Director to Watch,” and a 2017 “Nashville Business Journal” Most Admired CEO award honoree. Johnson-Mills has been featured in numerous publications and journals and is a sought-after public speaker.

Steve Seger, NACD.DC, who will serve as Marketing Chair for the chapter, is known for his board-level experience, especially administration and governance. He has been chair of the board of directors at Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE), a $1 billion corporation providing electricity throughout Middle Tennessee, since August 2023. He has also served as MTE board vice chair and as board secretary and treasurer and has been a member of the board since August 2005. He is also a former chair and vice chair and a current member of the board of directors for United Communications, a leading provider of Internet, digital TV and phone services to enterprise-class businesses and residential customers in Middle Tennessee. United Communications is recognized as a top “Fastest Internet Service Provider” by BroadbandNow and operates approximately 1,200 route miles of fiber across six counties. Seger has served on the board for United Communications since December 2018.

Previously, Seger has served on the board of Express Carriers Association, a trade association that fosters business relationships through innovative networking between local and regional carriers and national shippers or vendors in the transportation industry, including as treasurer from May 2021 to April 2023 and carrier committee chair from March 2014 to April 2021. From December 2007 to March 2022, he was president of Crosstown, which provided courier, home delivery, expedite and warehouse distribution final-mile services. As president, Seger developed strategic plans, organized corporate structure and allocated resources to achieve successful execution of mission, and he led the transaction selling the company in March 2022. He was also the vice chair of the board of directors for Harpeth Wastewater Cooperative, a member-owned wastewater treatment facility serving portions of Williamson County, Tennessee, from September 2014 to July 2021. He began his civilian career as a principal at Associated Corporate Consultants from August 1993 to November 2007, where he provided management consulting services specializing in strategic, operations and revenue management services to businesses in the United States and abroad.

After graduating in the top 5 percent nationally through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), Seger served in the US Army from January 1990 to August 1993, achieving the rank of first lieutenant. He served with the 5-3 Air Defense Artillery Battalion in Germany and was deployed for Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield with the 3rd Armored Division, VII Corps, to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait. During his military service, Seger was awarded a Bronze Star for Meritorious Service.

Seger has an MBA from Middle Tennessee State University and a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Memphis.

To learn about upcoming NACD Nashville Chapter programs, visit us here or follow us on LinkedIn.

About NACD

The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) is the leading member organization for corporate directors who want to expand their knowledge, grow their network and maximize their potential. For more than 47 years, NACD has helped boards and the business community elevate their performance and create long-term value. Our leadership continues to raise standards of excellence and advance board effectiveness at thousands of member companies. NACD’s value insights, professional development events and resources, such as the NACD Directors Summit™  and the NACD Directorship Certification® program, support boards in navigating complex challenges. With a growing network of more than 24,000 members across over 20 Chapters, boards are better equipped to make well-informed decisions on the critical, strategic issues facing their businesses today. Learn more at www.nacdonline.org.

Media Contact

Cynthia Falardeau, Regional Director, NACD, cfalardeau@nacdonline.org