Across the state, women hold key leadership roles as executive directors at the state and four largest city bar associations. Nashville lawyer Joycelyn Stevenson is director of the Tennessee Bar Association. Prior to joining the TBA, Stevenson spent 12 years at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings before becoming a shareholder at Littler Mendelson PC. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School and has served as president of the Nashville Bar Association, the Lawyers’ Association for Women in Nashville and the Council on Aging of Greater Nashville. She also serves on the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority Board.

Lynda Minks Hood heads the Chattanooga Bar Association. Hood is a graduate of Leadership Chattanooga and was nominated for the group’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. She has served on the boards of the American Cancer Society, Erlanger Health System Foundation, Rotary of Chattanooga and the Women’s Fund of Chattanooga. She was named one of the city’s “Women of Distinction” in 2011.

Marsha Watson heads the Knoxville Bar Association. A graduate of George Mason University in Northern Virginia, Watson first worked at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America in Washington, D.C., as a fundraiser. She later was named executive director of Maryland Trial Lawyers Association. Wanting to be closer to family, she moved to Knoxville and was hired as the first director of the KBA. She remains the only person to hold that position, marking her 30th anniversary with the organization in September 2020.

Maury Tower has been the Memphis Bar Association's interim executive director since August 2020. She graduated from the University of Tennessee and earned a master’s degree in marketing from the University of Memphis. Tower’s experience includes positions at Good Advertising, WREG-TV and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She also has served as president of the American Advertising Federation Memphis Chapter and the Midtown Memphis Rotary Club.

Finally, Monica Mackie has been executive director of the Nashville Bar Association since 2015. Mackie ran her own consulting business before joining the NBA. She worked at the TBA from 1998 to 2012, first as financial administrator and then as director of the Leadership Law program.