The heart of our mission is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our communities. In the recent weeks, we’ve had the privilege to connect with some incredible artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with the incredible group below. Check out our favorite stories from across the Voyage family.
Garrison Nuckols
I suppose this chapter of my life began when I came to Nashville from Rockwood, TN in October of 2020 to check into Cumberland Heights, a local inpatient drug addiction treatment center. To get there I had first transitioned from a longtime Mechanical Engineering student, to restaurant worker, to individual completely ravaged by addiction and unable to hold employment. Read more>>
Shana Thornton
In 2012, I founded Thorncraft Publishing, a publishing company dedicated to women authors, especially those from or connected to Tennessee. Read more>>
John LeVan
My career began in 1985, when I was in High School. I traded a set of rims from my bike for an old Norma electric guitar. The first thing I did was take it apart and try to put it all back together. Read more>>
Mark Winston Bobb
Born in Toronto, Canada to immigrant parents from Guyana, I was raised in a single-parent household alongside three siblings, including my twin sister who has Down syndrome. From an early age, I learned the importance of showing up for others and doing my part. That sense of responsibility shaped my outlook and continues to guide me today. Read more>>
Brandon Rice
I didn’t grow up in a filmmaking family or even really thinking this was something I could do. I just always felt drawn to stories. Early on, I picked up a camera and started figuring it out by making silly videos with my siblings, that should never see the light of day! Read more>>
David Weflen
I moved to Nashville in 2016 for university and found that photographing weddings was the perfect side job for a full-time student. I could photograph weddings on the weekend and then edit or take meetings in between classes or in the evening. Read more>>
Noah Wolfe
Honestly, my career in photography just kind of happened from saying yes. I picked up my sister’s camera in high school to photograph my dogs (huge dog person btw), realized I actually loved it, then people started asking me to shoot their senior photos not long after. By the time I was 17, someone asked me to shoot their wedding — and that was it. Read more>>
Patrick Gibbs
I grew up in a small town in Tennessee. Blue-collar father, a diesel mechanic. My mother had her own struggles with addiction. They divorced when I was ten. By twelve I was already in and out of juvenile detention. By 23 I was sitting in federal prison on a conspiracy charge for distributing over a kilo of heroin. Read more>>
Kedrin Meehan
I’ve been doing lashes for years, but the real turning point was deciding to stop renting space in someone else’s building and create my own. I got the building in spring 2022 and have been renovating it ever since — finishing the first floor in November 2023 and the second floor just this past March 2026. All of it across two pregnancies. Read more>>
Mandi Goble
I dedicated the majority of my career to wound career before making the change into aesthetics. I was in my mid 30’s and currently living in California. I had family photos taken and was horrified at my crows feet. Most people would have simply sought treatment from a provider. Not me. I’m always going to choose the road less traveled. Read more>>
Marc Hollingworth
I’m a British expat living in Nashville, TN. Why the United States? I have family in Tulsa and have spent many summers in the US and it was instant love for me. My wife and I had made the decision to emigrate in 2023, and we started the journey to figure out how we could make it a reality. Read more>>
Ray Roark
The origins of Party Swizzle are a classic tale of making lemonade from lemons. Founder Ray Roark (that’s me!) graduated from the University of Georgia (Woof!) with a degree in Business Administration. By 2009, I owned a search engine optimization (SEO) company in Colorado and had countless hours of hosting and planning parties. Life was good. Read more>>
Hannah Turner
Like many people in my field, I became drawn to counseling through my own experiences with mental health. I have always been intrigued by the human experience, but it wasn’t until my own experience with counseling that I saw how much growth can come from truly feeling seen and heard. Read more>>
Tana Matz
I’m originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, where I grew up playing music by ear as a little girl. I was actually too shy to play in front of anyone at first, but a few close friends in high school pulled a couple songs out of me, and the rest was history. Read more>>
Jim Cundiff
An Information Security professional by trade/day, I have also been a sports and music photographer for 30+ years. Starting in the dark (room) ages with a small-town weekly newspaper in the early 1990s, I found my love of photography. Read more>>
Reanna Simpson
I was born and raised in Tennessee, and I grew up with the best of both worlds, weekdays spent in the country with my dad, soaking in the slower pace of rural life, and weekends in Nashville with my grandparents, where the energy of the city felt like a second home. Read more>>
Harley Hillis
My name is Harley Hillis, and I’m the Director of Programs at Possibility Place. My passion for serving individuals with disabilities began at home—my younger brother was born with 18q- Syndrome, and I grew up alongside my mom navigating therapies, services, and IEP meetings. That early experience shaped my path. Read more>>
Diana Pontell
My journey into breastfeeding medicine began in a very personal place — the birth of my first son at the end of my pediatric residency. Despite years of medical training, I quickly discovered how many practical gaps I had when it came to breastfeeding. What types of breast pumps are out there? How do you measure a flange? Read more>>
MK McCullum
Well my love for art began pretty early, shaped by the creative community at my home church Hillcrest Baptist Church in Dyersburg TN and the hand-painted mural of Noah’s Ark that filled the church’s nursery walls. Read more>>
Avalon Griffin
I’m Avalon Griffin, and I’m an indie author living in Nashville who writes paranormal fantasy romance. My story starts in the 90’s as an avid romance reader (I had a Fabio-themed sixteenth birthday party), but I drifted away from the genre in my 20s for more “sophisticated” literary tastes. Read more>>
Mike Saint Roth
I stepped on a film set at 17 and never put the script in my mind down. By the time most people are figuring out what they want to do, I was already on set in Hollywood — over 70 productions before I was old enough to look back and appreciate what that meant. Read more>>
Kayla Perlstein
It’s definitely not a straight path, which is part of what makes it fun to share. I originally went to college for restaurant and hospitality management because I thought I wanted to be an event planner, specifically a wedding planner. During school, I interned at a music venue, and that experience completely shifted things for me. Read more>>
Jamie Alvey
I am Jamie Alvey, a sleep deprived award winning multi-hyphenate who specializes in writing (both creative and analytical), acting, and filmmaking. I hold a MFA in creative writing, a MA in English literature, and a BA in English and theatre. Read more>>
Tyler Smith
So I grew up in a small textile town in western North Carolina. Raised by my grandparents so that was quite a task to get them to support the music bug but my dad actually got me a kit for Christmas when I was 11. Read more>>
O’ Buttonz
I started making pin badge buttonz in 2017 and I took it to the next level, I started making small orders and then I worked my way to large commercial orders and that translated into international orders. I throw my own music showcases, vendor events, art showcases. These events act as a commercial for my street brand button company. I am a entrepreneur on steroids Read more>>
Netty Walters
In 2019 I sat in the C-suite with 2 littles under 2 and a new auto-immune diagnosis. Before that, I was marathon runner bedridden from burnout and fighting a debilitating virus, still trying to ‘hustle’ like all my peers. I was ‘healthy’ by cultural standards, until I wasn’t. Read more>>
Amy Peters
I started making beats on Garageband and recorded my first original song when I was seven years old. I’ve been hooked ever since. As a teenager, I performed at every restaurant and outdoor food festival that Chesapeake, Virginia had to offer, posting songs on YouTube and drawing the attention of some publishers in Nashville. Read more>>
Molly Barth
My voice is my flute, and with my flute I specialize in performing contemporary music. I thrive on curating events combining many disciplines of the arts. I have an affinity for commissioning new pieces, and have premiered hundreds of them. Read more>>
Marlyse Moran
The Empanada Sonata is a Latin fusion concept blending Puerto Rican and Cuban flavors with a vibrant, music-inspired identity. Founded in Brooklyn, New York in 2015, the brand built a loyal following through its unique menu and cultural experience. After expanding to the Nashville area in 2019, The Empanada Sonata evolved from a food truck into a brick-and-mortar location, continuing to grow its community presence. Read more>>
Dr. Robins
From the beginning, my interest in psychology was rooted in a desire to understand people on a deeper level. Not just behaviors or diagnoses, but the “why” behind how individuals think, feel, and function. That curiosity guided my academic path through both my master’s and doctoral training, and ultimately into clinical practice. Read more>>
Brooke Wooley
I didn’t start my career from a place of stability. I built it while learning who I was in real time. Over the years, I’ve worked across multiple industries, from travel and logistics to building and scaling businesses, but real estate became the space where everything came together. Read more>>
