Broad Communication

Well, this here's me, a little ol' farm boy, leading a team building the first E-commerce marketplace to help LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and shoppers find each other.

I've come along way since I was born and raised in Indiana. For over 30 years I've been selling Mercedes Benz, Audis, Porsches, Jaguars and Ranger Rovers to the world's most discerning customers. I've risen to the top of the game by problem-solving, listening, and truly understanding peoples needs. It's why here in Nashville, in 2020, I took the Jaguar Land Rover team from 173rd in sales to No1 in the nation. 

I know how to give people what they want, but it was time to do something that I really wanted to do- help my community. Proudly.Market was born to be the true online hub of the LGBTQ community. For our sellers and buyers, the rainbow never ends!

President 2017- present

Rev Dawn Bennett is an ELCA Lutheran pastor serving The Table in Downtown Nashville. Her ministry work centers the voices of LGBTQ+ people. She has a longtime commitment to education and social justice as it relates to religion-based trauma and the phobias that negatively impact the health and wellbeing of our community. Pastor Dawn is known around town as the #holyhellion where she is active in speaking out and speaking up for our community. Her favorite thing to do is partner with other orgs to make the widest impact possible and help as many people as possible, because we are better together. Common comeback: You're not like any pastor I know. Common response: I know. It's all good.

Lauren Bland is the Membership Manager for the Nashville LGBT Chamber. In her time with the Chamber, she has worked to grow certified LGBT-owned businesses, maintain memberships, build relationships with the community, and orchestrate monthly and annual events. She was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky and moved to Nashville in 2019.

Spencer is a political campaign and organization manager in Tennessee.

Annie drives change within and outside of Warner Music Group in both her capacity as SVP of Publishing Administration and as one of the company’s most visible cultural ambassadors. Annie’s work within the Nashville and wider Tennessee LGBTQ communities transcends her day-to-day role. She has been the company’s Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce delegate for more than three years and joined the Chamber’s Board of Directors in 2022. Her experience in the Chamber led Annie to establish Warner’s first-ever LGBTQ Employee Resource Group for Nashville-based employees, an integral step in advancing the corporate diversity and inclusion strategy. She also serves as the Executive Sponsor of Music City’s Women of Warner and Harmony Nashville Employee Resource Groups. Annie is Co-Chair of the Nashville Fundraising Committee for Victory Fund, an organization dedicated to electing openly LGBTQ people at all levels of government. She steered the company’s stand against discrimination laws in Tennessee, collecting signatures of all executive leadership in open letters to the state legislature that urged Governor Bill Lee’s administration to block bills that posed a threat to members of the state’s LGBTQ community. Furthermore, Annie is an Executive Member of the Board of Directors of the National Independent Venue Foundation (NIVF), a nonprofit organization aimed at creating an emergency relief fund to preserve and nurture the ecosystem of independent live performance venues and promotors. In 2022, Annie was selected as a winner of the Nashville Business Journal's 2022 40 Under 40 Awards.

The Computer Butler LLC is a managed IT services company serving the greater Nashville, TN area for over a decade. We specialize in serving nonprofit organizations and pride ourselves on adhering to best practices and providing top-notch customer service.  Canna Butler is a cannabis- and cannabis-accessory delivery app for mobile and web. Scientific research has revealed that when used in the proper set and setting, psychedelic substances (specifically including cannabis and psilocybin) have great therapeutic benefit. They relieve symptoms of illnesses and stress in both the short and long term, and in some cases reveal and heal underlying traumas, although not without challenge to psychostability. The app itself in concert with our valued vendors will distribute holistic content designed to assist individuals with managing and lowering their stress levels. We will also make available texts of faith to any customer for free, to include the Bible, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Tripitakas. Canna Butler now has a proof-of-concept available for web and Android.  Indigo is a platform-agnostic Remote Monitoring & Maintenance (RMM) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) application. Our endpoint agent provides system information and event log aggregation, remote monitoring and maintenance, as well as bare metal backup and restore capability. Based on our market analysis, Indigo is the only RMM/MDM application that performs all of these tasks within one product. Leveraging Indigo instead of a cyber security solution allows our customers to help shift the information technology industry away from a cycle of escalation to one of preventive maintenance and recovery. The Indigo endpoint application now has a proof-of-concept available for Android.  Energy Butler is a concept company designed to rapidly scale clean energy, specifically community solar power grids, hydroelectric, and safe nuclear energy from Terra Power. The solar arrays will consist of lowest-cost solar panels fastened atop lightest-weight, most-durable, and lowest-cost material frames. The frames will attach to existing structures with sufficient rooftop space to achieve cost effectivity, and can be built to vendor specifications to not interfere with existing rooftop equipment. Hydroelectric turbines from vendors like Turbulent will be installed in water lines as Energy Butler works to replace lead water lines across the United States. Natrium power plants provide lots of clean energy, use fuel from older-generation nuclear plants that needs to be disposed of anyway, and cannot melt down. Their deployment will almost certainly be handled exclusively by Terra Power.

Joe Woolley has been CEO of the Nashville LGBT Chamber since August 2018. Since taking the helm, Joe has been relentless in the pursuit of excellence for the Nashville LGBT Chamber leveraging the Chamber members, community partners, staff, and board of directors. 

Under Joe’s leadership, the Chamber membership has grown 44% to 500+ members. The Chamber garnered national recognition for their advocacy of our members at a local and state level, and finalized LGBT Business Enterprise recognition by Metro Nashville. Additionally, the Chamber received two years of metro appropriations to lessen the disparity of LGBT-owned businesses gaining contracts, and ensuring member representation during the NFL Draft and other major events taking place in the city. At the state level, advocacy against anti-LGBT legislation is a priority and passion for Joe. Under Joe’s leadership, in 2015 the Chamber helped form Tennessee Thrives, a statewide business coalition against discriminatory legislation. In 2019 the Chamber organized and lead another large business coalition that vocally spoke out against the discriminatory legislation filed and pushed to keep Tennessee “open and equal.” Joe pushes that this is key to continued business growth as discriminatory laws make it hard for businesses to attract and retain talent. 

Joe’s dedication to the organization began long before becoming CEO serving four years on the board of directors including two years as President. Joe has a long history of LGBT advocacy, he was one of five founders of the Tennessee Equality Project back in 2004. He is a mayor-appointed board member for Nashville Education Community and Arts Television (NECAT). He was chosen for the 2018-19 class of Leadership Nashville and is currently on the leadership team for the current class. He also serves on the Nashville Area Chamber Partnership 2030 advisory committee, helping shape the economic direction of the city for the next 10 years. He is most proud of the work he does on the Mayor’s Small Business Advisory Council that was responsible for the Equal Business Opportunity legislation and the executive order that made Metro the first city in the South and the 13th in the nation to recognize LGBT certified businesses in city procurement. In 2019 he was named as a Power 100 by the Nashville Business Journal as a “connector” in the city. Joe was named at the start of 2020 as a 40 Under 40 by both; Business Equality Magazine as a top national LGBTQ leader making an impact in the United States, and also by the Nashville Business Journal as an under 40 leader in Nashville. The Business Journal has also highlighted him in their “The Boss” series where he shares his story of buying Jeff Bezos a drink. 

Joe has lived in Nashville since the year 2000, when at the age of 18 he moved from Twin Falls, Idaho after graduating from high school. He supported himself after moving and started Belmont University in 2002. He was the first person in his family to ever attend college and Joe graduated in 2006 as the first graduate of Belmont’s New Century Journalism Program. He moved to New York City after being accepted in the International Radio Television Society (IRTS) Fellowship Program where he worked for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, having written his thesis on young people getting their news from non-traditional news sources. After the fellowship, Joe was hired by CBS News and was a producer on the foreign desk covering the War in Iraq and working with Katie Couric when she anchored the Evening News. 

Joe loves to workout, travel, and to entertain friends in his home in the Belmont neighborhood of Nashville, that he shares with his husband Jim Schmidt and their dog Spooner. 

Experience Extraordinary Healing with Jeff Crawford, “Nashville’s Shaman”. Jeff is a Shaman, Founder of Quantum Light Healing®, Practitioner of Reconnective Healing®, Reiki Master Teacher, Distance Healer, Animal Healer, Tarot & Numerology Specialist, Pastoral Counselor/Coach…your credible, no-nonsense source for training in the energetic healing arts and psychic ability development. 

Jeff worked with various Amazonian shaman during his shamanic journey and used the principles, insights, and mystery teachings learned to develop Quantum Light Healing® Quantum Light Healing® utilizes ancient spiritual energy practices and sacred connectedness to effect profound physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and inter-dimensional healing. The goal is the restoration of our primal pristine state of internal energy flow and connectedness to the divine mind of the cosmos itself. 

As a Reiki Master Teacher, Jeff as been awarded the designation of Approved Provider for the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) and offer's CEU's for Reiki classes.

Lauren, Co-founder of Shakti Power Yoga in Nashville. Grateful to be a part of the Chamber!

Susan Gardner, Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization (CPO-CD), MDiv, has organized with people who are chronically disorganized since 2011, following her personal journey into order and understanding. Discovering the work of Dr. Randy Frost and Dr. Gail Steketee focused her empathy into a discipline addressing Hoarding Disorder. Through work with people in their homes, in group settings, and within the family and friend networks, she has endeavored to ease people's stress and strain, improve living safety and security, and meet the whole person who lives in a very cluttered home. She is a member of thhese professional networks: The Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD), National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO).

Nikki Gibson has been a member of the Dell Technologies team since 1999.  During her tenure, Nikki has been in various roles in Human Resources, Legal and Ethics organizations.  In her role as site director for the Nashville campus, Nikki is responsible for managing a site budget, supporting local talent planning, leading and sponsoring locally led initiatives and community partnerships.  Nikki also works with leaders at the site to set the tone of ethical culture and ensures that Dell Nashville is a great place to work. Additionally, Nikki is the North America Regional Lead for Pride.  Nikki currently serves as a Board Member for the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce and Advancing Women In Nashville. Nikki is honored to have been named one of Nashville’s 2020 Women of Influence and recently received Out & Equal’s LGBTQ Corporate Advocate of the Year Outie Award.

Nikki Gibson has been a member of the Dell Technologies team since 1999.  During her tenure, Nikki has been in various roles in Human Resources, Legal and Ethics organizations.  In her role as site director for the Nashville campus, Nikki is responsible for managing a site budget, supporting local talent planning, leading and sponsoring locally led initiatives and community partnerships.  Nikki also works with leaders at the site to set the tone of ethical culture and ensures that Dell Nashville is a great place to work. Additionally, Nikki is the North America Regional Lead for Pride.  Nikki currently serves as a Board Member for the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce and Advancing Women In Nashville. Nikki is honored to have been named one of Nashville’s 2020 Women of Influence and recently received Out & Equal’s LGBTQ Corporate Advocate of the Year Outie Award.

In addition to being named to the industry publication BizBash's "500 Must Know Event Pros in the US" in 2020, AmosEvents was also voted Nashville’s best event and wedding planner by both the Nashville Scene and Nfocus society magazine the same year. AmosEvents is a full-service published and award-winning event planning and design firm that combines creativity, direction, florals and production to execute unforgettable events. Founder and Chief Event Architect Amos Gott goes above and beyond to deliver an unmatched level of passion and creativity for his clients. Whether producing a high-end gala or an intimate backyard affair, Amos and his team provide event know-how, attention to detail and a clever flair that promise to bring your event to life.

Metro Councilor - Madison