MP&F Vice President Alice Pearson Chapman has been named a finalist for the Nashville Emerging Leaders Awards.

The finalists were chosen by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and YP Nashville. The NELA program recognizes emerging leaders under 40 for major achievements in their professional careers and outstanding community involvement. Chapman is one of five finalists in the public relations, advertising and marketing category.

Chapman joined MP&F in 1995 upon her graduation from the University of Tennessee. She quickly rose through the ranks and has been a valued member of the senior staff since 2000. She has played a key role in many of MP&F’s most successful and well-known campaigns, including the marketing and branding campaign for Metro Nashville Public Works’ Curbside Recycling Program, known as Curby. As a result of MP&F’s campaign, participation in the curbside recycling program jumped from 8 percent to 50 percent in only seven months. MP&F won its first national Public Relations Society of America award, the coveted Silver Anvil, for the Curby campaign.

Since 2005, Chapman has worked tirelessly on behalf of the Tennessee Alliance for Early Education to facilitate the intensive Pre-K Now grassroots campaign. At the end of the 2005 legislative session, one victory stood above the rest: The Voluntary Pre-K for Tennessee Act of 2005 passed. The effort has helped bring about the expansion of the state’s program so more at-risk families (nearly 17,000 to date) can benefit.

Most recently, Chapman led an MP&F team hired by the World Wildlife Fund to bring Earth Hour to Nashville in 2009. Her MP&F team convinced hundreds of Music City businesses, owners of major buildings and residents to turn off all nonessential lights for one hour on a busy Saturday night in March to symbolize growing concern over the issue of climate change.

Chapman has been a CABLE member since 2002 and Leadership Healthcare since January 2009. She is a Young Leaders Council alumna (Class 41, 2003).

Chapman serves as president of the board of directors for Book’em, where she has been a board member since 2005. Chapman was a volunteer with Saddle Up! from 2001 to 2005 and has been a member of the Nashville Women’s Political Caucus since 2001.

Winners of the Third Annual Nashville Emerging Leader Awards will be announced at an awards ceremony on July 30.

Learn more about the NELAs.