NASHVILLE – Tennessee Department of Tourist Development Commissioner Kevin Triplett announced Tuesday the addition of new staff members.
Sara Beth Urban, Alisa Kessler and Andi Grindley will be based at TDTD’s Nashville office.
“We strive to successfully serve and represent our partners across the state, and that success starts with a strong team,” Triplett said. “We will continue to work toward building a team of new members combined with department veterans who have a passion for working with our partners in promoting Tennessee and understand the mission of making our great state the global music destination of choice.”
Urban joined the TDTD team as the Middle Tennessee regional manager. Urban will assist tourism partners in 40 Middle Tennessee counties with marketing and promotion, and works closely with Director of Outreach & Engagement Melanie Beauchamp, as well as West and East Tennessee Regional Managers Marty Marbry and Dave Jones, respectively.
Urban joined TDTD after nearly three years as the executive director at Historic Rock Castle, a house museum and community center in Hendersonville. She is a Nashville native and holds a master of arts in public history with a concentration in museum management from Middle Tennessee State University.
She previously interned for TDTD during the Shiloh Civil War Sesquicentennial Event in 2012 and worked for the Tennessee State Historian Dr. Carroll Van West at the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation.
Kessler joined the TDTD team as creative services manager, a newly created position for the department. In her new role, she is responsible for graphic design, website updates and managing email communication for industry partners and consumers.
Kessler came to the department directly from RFD-TV of Rural Media Group, where she worked as graphic designer, producing print and off-air digital content. She was also lead designer for RFD-TV’s bi-monthly magazine.
Prior to moving to Music City, Kessler resided in Austin, Texas. There, she worked for the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League providing all creative services from print to web, as well as general marketing, social media and in-game operations.
Kessler graduated from Ohio University in 2012 where she majored in visual communication and minored in business and sports marketing.
Andi Grindley joined the TDTD team as sales manager. Grindley works closely with sales director Bennjin Lao and focuses on the student and youth sports travel markets, along with representing the state with Play Tennessee. She promotes Tennessee as a group travel destination by attending conferences and assists in planning familiarization tours for group tour operators and organizers.
Grindley holds bachelor of science degrees in integrated marketing communications, Spanish and politics and government with honors along with a master of science degree in sport management, all from Illinois State University.
Prior to joining the TDTD staff, Grindley spent three seasons with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds Baseball Club, most recently as corporate partnership activation manager. In addition to minor league baseball, she has worked in NCAA Division I athletics, including football, volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball.
