Nashville; Boston — Ten corporate, academic, government, and nonprofit leaders from Metro Nashville-Davidson County completed the Harvard Business School’s Young American Leaders Program (YALP) in June. Now in its 10th year, HBS YALP convened representatives from fourteen American cities who are working across sectors to help their communities prosper.
Leadership Nashville, led by Evette White, is the local strategic partner of the Harvard Business School Young American Leaders Program for Nashville and works with YALP officials in selecting and supporting the 2025 Nashville YALP cohort. Leadership Nashville has been convening leaders in Nashville for 48 years and has more than 1,600 alumni active in every aspect of the city’s life. The organization’s focus on connection, education, and community makes it a strong fit with YALP.
Evette White, CEO/Executive Director of Leadership Nashville, announced the completion of Nashville’s 2025 Class of Nashville Young American Leaders on the campus of Harvard Business School. The ten Nashville leaders who participated in this year’s program are:
YALP Nashville 2025 Class
Lawson Allen, President & Director, Lee Danner & Bass
Adrienne Battle, Director, Metro Nashville Public Schools
Adolpho Birch, SVP & Chief External & League Affairs Officer, Tennessee Titans
Hal Cato, CEO, Community Foundation Middle Tennessee
Tyler Cauble, President, The Cauble Group
Martesha Johnson Moore, Chief Public Defender, Metro Nashville Public Defenders Office
Freddie O’Connell, Mayor, Metro Nashville
Dee Patel, Managing Director, Hermitage Hotel
Evette White, CEO/Executive Director, Leadership Nashville
Mark Yancy, CEO, NashvilleHealth
The Young American Leaders Program grows out of a deep concern and the Harvard Business School’s ongoing project on U.S. competitiveness. The concern is that the local, shared resources which drive American prosperity are not keeping pace with global standards. U.S. workforce skills, schools, and infrastructure, for instance, are not improving fast enough or, in too many cases, are deteriorating.
As research shows, these trends are causing an unsustainable divergence in the U.S. economy: working- and middle-class Americans are struggling, even as firms and individuals who can tap global opportunities are thriving. Prosperity is being generated but not shared as broadly as desired. The Young American Leaders Program is designed to prepare local leaders in Nashville and across the country to address and reverse these trends.
The hope of YALP springs from the local level. In cities and regions across the country, local policymakers, businesspeople, nonprofit leaders, educators, clergy, and others are coming together across sectors to build skills, improve schools, and restore infrastructure to build a foundation for economic growth and shared prosperity.
Ten leaders from each of the fourteen participating cities are selected by senior community leaders to participate each June in an intensive case study workshop on urban and rural regional collaborations and strategies for economic resilience. Other participating cities include Austin, Boston, Columbus, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Salt Lake City, and Seattle, among others. The program was launched to develop leaders who understand cross-sector collaborations for shared prosperity and can implement and spread them more effectively.
“Leadership Nashville bridges community leaders with community issues—engaging, forming, and inspiring shared responsibility for a better Nashville where everyone belongs,” Evette White shared. “We are pleased to be the city affiliate of the Young American Leaders Program at Harvard Business School. Through this collaboration, local leaders work together for the shared growth and prosperity of our region in today’s global economy.”
