Faculty Profile: Julie Bennett

Julie Bennett is Executive Vice President/Chief Legal and Governance Officer and Corporate Secretary for Ballad Health.  She serves as the senior legal officer and coordinator of governance matters on behalf of Ballad Health, overseeing legal affairs with a concentration on corporate governance and fiduciary issues.  As Executive Vice President and Chief Legal and Governance Officer, Bennett supports the governing body of Ballad Health and its subsidiary governing structures.  Bennett also oversees the activities of the General Counsel, develops and executes on legal strategies relevant to Ballad Health, oversees, supports and participates in external governmental relations and regulatory efforts, and provides oversight to all external legal and counsel relationships.  Bennett oversees the strategic communications function, which manages corporate-level communications and crisis response.  Bennett serves as primary legal counsel to the CEO, executive leadership team and the board of directors.  Bennett also serves as Chief of Staff to the CEO.

Bennett, who has 33 years of legal and managerial experience, is a native of Kingsport, Tennessee and previously was Vice President and General Counsel of Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway for 16 years where she oversaw all legal matters for BMS and assumed various managerial roles.  Prior to that, she was a partner with the law firm of Hunter, Smith and Davis, LLC in Kingsport. She received her bachelor’s degree in pre-law/political science with minors in English, History and Business, from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. She earned a juris doctorate degree from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia where she was a member of the Law Review.  She is licensed to practice law in Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia. 

Bennett is committed to her state and local community and has spent countless hours throughout her professional and personal life serving various community and professional organizations.  She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce.  She is also a Commissioner with the Tennessee Commission for Continuing Legal Education and Specialization, where she serves as Chair.  Bennett is chair of the board of BRIDGE Regional, a regional economic development organization.  She serves as pro bono general counsel and Chair of the Church Leadership Council for First Broad Street United Methodist Church, where she is an active member.  Among many boards and committees she has served, Bennett is a past chair of the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, former member of the Kingsport Economic Development Board, and a former member of the Board of Ordained Ministry for the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. 

Her favorite and most important job is mother of two amazing children, Michael (26), who is an Auburn University and Vanderbilt Law School graduate and is a practicing attorney clerking for a federal judge in Birmingham, Alabama, and Rachel (24), who graduated from the University of Tennessee and is an optical specialist in Austin, Texas.  Bennett lives in Kingsport, Tennessee with her goldendoodle, Bentley.