In the spirit of their triple-great grandmother, who led the family whiskey business upon her husband’s death in 1891, Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery leaders Andy & Charlie Nelson founded the Louisa Nelson Awards, to honor Nashville business women excelling in industry and serving the community.

Honorees at the second annual Louisa Nelson Awards, presented last night, exemplify Louisa’s quiet leadership. Congratulations to Beverly Byram, Tatia Rose and Kenetha Carr, whose glowing nominations by friends, family and colleagues (printed below) should inspire future generations of Nashville women to #LeadLikeLouisa.

Beverly Byram, Director of Part D Ryan White Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic

Bev Byram has been a nurse practitioner treating patients with HIV/AIDS at Vanderbilt’s Comprehensive Care Center since 1994. She has been both champion and servant to the positive, gay and immigrant communities in Nashville starting from a time when all were mostly shunned, misunderstood, and/or disenfranchised in our city. She initiated and continues to manage, a program at the CCC which specializes in treatment for HIV positive mothers. Her efforts in this area have produced transfer rates so low that she and the clinic have garnered global attention.

Bev maintains close friendships with all walks of life in this town – from individuals of incredible privilege to those with virtually none. All know her for her strength, talent, and unwavering commitment to her life’s work. Bev wakes up at 4:30am every morning for a workout routine that would make Jack Lalanne wither. She is a tireless volunteer of her time. She is a breast cancer survivor. She is mother to three incredibly grateful, mostly-okay children, and grandmother to two beautiful, sassy granddaughters.

For all these reasons and more, Bev deserves this recognition for her work. She is retiring at the end of the year and I would love to see her receive as much attention as possible for her contributions to her craft and her community.

Tatia Rose, President & CEO of Rose Music Group

As owner of Nashville Music Academy (and mother of two!), Tatia Rose also serves as the primary piano instructor, whose teaching style reflects her classical training, Bachelor’s in Music from West Virginia University, and over 10 years of teaching experience. Rose has also developed a unique Special Needs Music Program, mostly due in part to her advocacy work with Autism Speaks. In addition to her duties as President and owner of the business, she is also an active member of the National Recording Academy, avid supporter of Autism Speaks, and a published songwriter (The Seam 2011/2012).

Kenetha Carr, Co-founder & COO of Infinity Fellowship Interfaith Gathering

If we’re speaking about women of achievement, inspiration, and vision in Nashville, I could not pass up the opportunity to place into nomination my incredible wife, Kenetha Carr, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of The Infinity Fellowship Interfaith Gathering. My personal connection notwithstanding, Kenetha has blazed a little-known path of greatness in her own right.

A former metro school teacher who re-established the theater program at McGavock High school, she established a strong reputation as an actor, director, and Executive Director of the Amun Ra Theatre’s Youth Performing ARTs Academy. Over the course of 9 years, her claim to fame is that 100% of the kids in Cum Laude degree from historic Fisk University) and parlayed her expertise into the co-leadership of Nashville’s only independent, transreligious interfaith spiritual community. Under her direction as COO, Infinity has grown from 5 people to a community approaching 100, with community service activities including the building of Nashville’s 1st Micro-Home Community for the Homeless. She is currently managing the acquisition and building of The Infinity Center, a 4,300 square foot holistic center that sits on 4.9 acres in the inner-city of Nashville’s W. Trinity Lane neighborhood. She’s done all this while also managing raising 5 kids, ranging in age from 5 to 22. I would say that she embodies the spirit of this award, by any measure.