Board of Directors
Executive Committee
Board Members
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President/CEO, Blakeford Senior Life
Brian Barnes has more than 20 years of senior leadership experience in finance and operations of not-for-profit senior living and healthcare organizations. Mr. Barnes’ experience includes managing the full continuum of senior living care including independent living, assisted living, memory care, and long-term skilled nursing care. Since 2018, Mr. Barnes has served as the President/CEO of Blakeford Senior Life.
Prior to joining Blakeford, Mr. Barnes served as the CFO/COO for Legacy Senior Communities. His background includes new campus development, campus repositioning, merger and acquisition transactions, and financing and operating HUD low-income senior living properties. Mr. Barnes has also launched and managed home and community-based services including home health and hospice. Mr. Barnes’ professional work is focused on providing the highest quality care for older adults both in a campus setting and in the greater community, managing efficient operations to create financially strong organizations with sustainable care models, and providing older adults the necessary tools to effectively navigate the complicated healthcare system.
In addition to his senior living experience, Mr. Barnes spent six years with Ernst & Young’s Business Advisory Group and completed numerous acquisitions and private equity financing transactions in the food service and technology industries. In 2023 Mr. Barnes served on the state of Tennessee’s Health Care Task Force and is currently on the Board of LeadingAge Tennessee. Mr. Barnes holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Texas Tech University and is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas. He also completed from the Long-Term Care Administrator program through St. Joseph’s College of Maine.
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Chief Executive Officer, The Village at Germantown
Mike Craft began his career with Arthur Andersen & Co, an international CPA firm, where he served as Senior Manager in Audit & Business Advisory Services. He then spent nearly twenty years as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Peabody Hotel Group, a collection of upscale hotels. He has enjoyed the transition to senior living and has found the calling to be highly compatible with his personal interests of serving seniors. Mike received a BS degree from Arkansas State University and an MBA degree from The University of Memphis. He is a member of the City of Germantown Mayor’s CEO Council, as well as LeadingAge TN, the American Institute of CPAs, and the Tennessee Society of CPAs. Always striving to give back to his business community, Mike is former Chairman of the Finance Committee of The American Hotel and Lodging Association and board member of The Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals Association.
Mike, his wife Holly, and their canine daughter, Lexie, live in East Memphis. Holly is retired from the practice of law. They have two adult children who live in Chicago and Denver. Mike and Holly are active members of Kirby Woods Baptist Church in Memphis, where Mike serves as Trustee and Chairman of the Finance Committee.
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Vice President of Strategic Consulting, Advanced Health Institute
Lynn has over 38 years of experience which includes Director of Nursing in Long Term Care, Office of Health Facility Investigations, Hospital Operations, Public Health, Clinic Administrator and Clinical Director for Assisted Living. Lynn was also a licensed State Surveyor. She applies her strong well-rounded expertise in a manner that is sensitive to the unique needs of the facility and its leadership while delivering quality driven results that are quickly reproducible.
Prior to joining AHI, Lynn was a Director of Nursing where she taught her staff how to understand and manage the regulations as it relates to the survey process, managing risk and preventing on-site investigations. She also assisted with building census by developing care niches and creating preferred partnerships with area hospitals and clinicians.
Her deep understanding of the daily operations and workload combined with her ability to teach staff how to manage at-risk situations make Lynn ideal for teaching and supporting the LTC industry. Lynn’s mission is to inspire staff working in LTC with the end game of helping residents.
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Special Projects Advisor, Diocese of Nashville
David grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and it was there that he first developed an interest in serving others. A passion for helping came from an experience he had in high school. He did volunteer work and eventually worked in the summer in a facility that really doesn’t exist anymore, a residential treatment facility for people with developmental delays and mental illnesses. After graduating from Kenyon College in Ohio with a degree in philosophy, David came to Nashville where he earned a master’s degree in educational psychology at Vanderbilt University.
David followed his drive to serve others to the Diocese of Nashville. Throughout his career with the diocese, he held a variety of administrative positions, including running the diocesan refugee resettlement program, the St. Mary Villa Child Development Center, Villa Maria Manor, the St. Henry Property Development Corporation, and Mary Queen of Angels. David has also served on the diocese Finance Board and Properties Board as well as the board of trustees for Father Ryan High School and is a former board member of St. Bernard Academy.
After more than 40 years he retired in December 2020. He returned to work August 2022 as Special Projects Advisor for the Diocese of Nashville where his current focus is developing affordable senior living in addition to other duties. David and his wife, Tracy, enjoy traveling to visit their grown children, Austin, who currently resides in Louisiana and Olivia in Vermont.
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Communications Manager, Centerstone
For more than 25 years, Kayse Martin has served as a passionate advocate for older adults, their families, and caregivers. She has championed resources and solutions through marketing and social business strategies, communications, and community education to affect positive change and shine a light on the growing needs of older Americans.
Mrs. Martin has collaborated with LeadingAge Tennessee for more than 18 years as a consultant, annual conference planner, education coordinator, and now proudly serves as a member of the LeadingAge Tennessee Board of Directors.
Currently, Mrs. Martin is the Communications Manager at Centerstone, a nonprofit health system specializing in mental health and substance use disorder treatments. She has three grown daughters and lives with her family on a farm outside of Nashville.
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Chief Executive Officer, Stones River Manor
Kirkland A. Mason has served as the Administrator, CEO and Chairman of the Board, at Stones River Manor, Inc., a not-for-profit senior living community in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He has served as the CEO since being elected to that office in May of 2006. Stones River Manor was Rutherford County’s first Home for the Aged, and is still the county’s only faith-based, nonprofit senior living community. Now a full-service continuing care campus, Stones River provides independent living, assisted living care, long-term care, rehab and skilled nursing care, as well as adult day care services. The Manor was also the first assisted living community in Tennessee to be licensed in Alzheimer’s and dementia care with their Assured Care Center. Mr. Mason’s service in the senior care industry has been like a second career for him, having worked in the contracting trades since his teen years. He spent more than thirty years in commercial contracting before selling his company in 2006 while serving as board chairman at Stones River. He assumed the role of CEO at that time and has continued in that position to this day.
He began his board service with LeadingAge Tennessee in 2008, when the association was known as the Tennessee Association of Homes & Services for the Aging. He has served as chairman of the board and board secretary as well as having chaired numerous committees including governance, education and legislative affairs.
His education at the collegiate level was in architecture and engineering, but later received post graduate certifications in nonprofit governance and finance from Harvard Kennedy School. Mr. Mason was appointed as Governor Bill Lee’s representative to the Tennessee Alzheimer’s Advisory Council in 2018 and continues in that role to this day.
He was assistant chief and director of operations for the Christiana Volunteer Fire Department for about thirteen years and received certifications as a Hazardous Materials Specialist and Emergency Medical Technician as well as having earned numerous certifications in firefighting operations. He was named Rutherford County’s Volunteer Fireman of the Year in 1992.
Kirk has served in church leadership throughout his adult life and as a bible teacher since the age of 21. He was appointed as a deacon at age 28 and began his service in the eldership at age 48 at Mars Hill Church of Christ in south Rutherford County where he and his family have been members since 1987. Kirk is the father of one daughter, Jennifer, one son, Jonathan, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Kirk’s wife, Cindy, was a former nurse turned interior designer, and held her license in interior design for more than 32 years. She specialized in healthcare and senior living design and provided design services for Stones River Manor through their vast expansion projects over the past twenty plus years. She recently passed away on January 30, 2024. Cindy and Kirk were married for 54 years.
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Vice President of Marketing, WelcomeHome Software
Chris Mohrman has been active in the senior living industry for the past seven years. He currently serves as the Vice President of Marketing for WelcomeHome, a leading senior living CRM software solution. Prior to that, Chris was the President of Markentum, a digital marketing agency focused on aging services. Chris also worked for 15 years in the non-profit sector creating content and communication strategies for all ages including older adults. This work involved writing,speaking, filming, and other various media activities.
Chris has also served on the American Advertising Federation Board - Daytona Beach as Education Chair, Vice President, President (for two terms), and finally as Immediate Past President. In 2018, Chris was introduced to Gwyn Earl and the Board of LeadingAge Tennessee. Through this connection, Chris was asked to join the Board for LeadingAge Tennessee and is currently serving in his second term as a board member. In 2020, Chris and Christy Kramer, former VP of Student Engagement and Workforce Partnerships for LeadingAge National, launched a podcast for students studying aging services to have the opportunity to interview leaders and mentors. The Mentor's Voice podcast wrapped its fourth season and continues to provide students and young professionals with the amazing opportunity of connecting with leaders within the aging services world.
Additionally, Chris has spoken on a variety of marketing topics at conferences and leadership gatherings including the LeadingAge National 2023, LeadingAge Oklahoma, BCSLA Annual Conference, LeadingAge Tennessee Annual Conference, CSL Leadership Retreat, and others. Championing creative marketing strategies on behalf of aging services is a passion that Chris loves to share with anyone willing to listen.
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Executive Director, Uplands Retirement Village, Inc.
Herschel Murner is the President and CEO of Uplands Village, a Life Plan Community in Pleasant Hill, TN located on the beautiful Cumberland Plateau. Herschel has had the privilege to be apart of the Uplands Village community since 2013.
Herschel is a resident of Cumberland County and a graduate from Cumberland County High School with furthering education that includes a Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics, as well as other educational endeavors and is a licensed Nursing Home Administrator. Herschel spent the first 25 years of his career in the Healthcare IT field and has ran his own IT consulting business the last 15 years. He enjoys spending time with his family and as much time in nature as possible. He is honored to be able to give back to the community through servanthood and volunteers time to boards such as LeadingAge Tennessee.
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Senior Vice President, Boyle Insurance
As Senior Vice President for Boyle Insurance, Steve assists the agency President with the management of the Memphis and Nashville offices and is responsible for selling commercial insurance products and providing quality service to customers.
He majored in Risk Management and Insurance at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi and began his career in 1984 with R.D. Peay and Son Insurance. In 1988, he joined Crum & Forster as a sales manager before joining Boyle in 1990.
Steve is past President-Elect of the Tennessee Association of Professional Insurance Agents and is a member of the Independent Insurance Agents of America, Insurors of Memphis, and Insurors of Tennessee. He has served on the Thomco Insurance Services Senior Living Producer Council. He is a member of the LeadingAge Tennessee Association for which he serves on the Board of Directors and is Chairman of the Advocacy committee. He is also a member of Tennessee Adult Day Services, the National Adult Day Services Association, and the Arkansas Assisted Living Association. Steve has been invited to speak at several local, state, and regional meetings on loss control issues within the senior care industry.
Steve is active with the Society of St. Vincent DePaul and Knights of Columbus. In addition, Peay has served as a volunteer for the Memphis Italian Festival. He remains active in the Memphis Cursillo Community and the University of Mississippi Alumni Association and is now past board Chair of Gilda’s Club Memphis.
Steve spends his spare time with his wife of over 35 years traveling and entertaining the family.
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Executive Director, The Heritage at Brentwood
Jon Tagatz is the Executive Director of The Heritage at Brentwood, located in Brentwood, Tennessee. He has been employed by Life Care Services since January 1996. He is a licensed nursing home administrator in the States of Tennessee, Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Jon received his Bachelor of Science degree in health care administration from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire in 1986.
He served as the administrator of a city owned nursing home before joining a non-profit religious based organization in Rochester, Minnesota, where he held the position of administrator for several years. He began his career in life plan community leadership in 1996 when he became the administrator of Sandhill Cove located in Palm City, Florida. He was later named executive director in 1999. He continued his leadership role at Sandhill Cove until 2006 when he transferred to The Heritage at Brentwood. Jon was promoted to Corporate Operations Director in 2014. In this role he provides support to other executive directors within Life Care Services, as well as serving in an advisory role for various construction projects.
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