(Nashville, TN / February 6, 2014) Christy Tosh Crider, a shareholder in Baker Donelson's Nashville office, has been named chair of Baker Donelson's Women's Initiative.
As chair of the Firm's Women's Initiative, Ms. Crider will lead the group dedicated to creating an environment where female attorneys thrive through recruiting, promoting and retaining female professionals by cultivating mentoring programs and preparing women for leadership positions within the Firm and the community. Ms. Crider has created 12 committees responsible for addressing various areas such as the retention of female attorneys, mentoring, pathways to leadership and programming and training designed to help the advancement of the Firm's women attorneys.
Prior to assuming the role of chair, Ms. Crider served as marketing chair of Baker Donelson's Women's Initiative for seven years. During that time, the Women's Initiative brought about substantive changes focused on helping the Firm's attorneys balance a challenging professional career with their personal lives, including the development of a flex-time policy, a formalized telecommuting policy and a gender-neutral parental leave policy.
"Christy has been an integral part of the success of our Women's Initiative in recent years," said Mark A. Baugh, Chair of Baker Donelson's Diversity Committee. "I am confident that she will continue to thrive in this role and carry the momentum of this group forward."
Ms. Crider, who also heads the Firm's Long Term Care Industry Service Team, concentrates her practice in long term care, behavioral health companies, managing the litigation of numerous long term care facilities around the country, medical malpractice litigation and many areas of tort and commercial litigation. Ms. Crider has been recognized by Mid-South Super Lawyers since 2008 and by the Nashville Business Journal in 2013 as a recipient of the "Women of Influence Trailblazer Award" and was named to the publication's "Top Forty Under 40" and "Health Care Heroes" lists. She also was named a finalist for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce's Nashville Emerging Leaders Award in 2012.
A frequent author and speaker on the topic of long term care, Ms. Crider is the founder and coordinator of the Baker Donelson Long Term Care symposium, a two-day biennial event held in Nashville for long term care executives to share ideas on how to improve long term care. In addition to her professional involvement, Ms. Crider serves on the board of the Nashville Children's Theatre, coaches the Harpeth Hall Mock Trial Team, and is a member of the Gospel Bluegrass Band, The Gospelaires.