Nashville’s recent growth has been as hot as hot chicken itself, and for good reason, too.

The Nashville area is experiencing the third-highest job growth of large metro areas in the United States, and the Metro Planning Department estimates that over 1 million people will move to Middle Tennessee by 2040.

MP&F has worked closely with many people who are helping the area adjust to this growth, and has seen these shifts take shape at the company itself. Almost half of MP&F’s more than 70-person staff has roots outside of Middle Tennessee. As Nashville continues to grow, MP&F’s team is a reflection of the changing city, and is playing a role to shape it, too.

Here’s a spotlight on three transplants who now call Nashville home.

Angela Argiro

Angela Argiro has been in Nashville since she graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 2015. She grew up in State College, Pa., and her move to Nashville was motivated by her desire for a change in scenery after spending 22 years in the same city.

“I knew I wanted to live in the South, but initially planned to move closer to family in Kentucky,” she said. “Nashville quickly won me over, and once I saw all that the city had to offer, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t moved here sooner.”

She says that entrenching herself in the city has helped her gain a greater appreciation for all that it has to offer. Since moving to Nashville, Argiro has become a member of three different boards:

• Proverbs 12:10 Animal Rescue
• Nashville Children’s Alliance
• Public Relations Society of America Nashville, Young Professionals Committee (Co-chairwoman)

While she has been in Nashville for only two years, she has worked on projects that have changed the face of the city. She says that her media relations work with 505 Nashville, the tallest residential building in the city, helped contribute to her love for the city.

“Tony Giarratana is changing the way people live in downtown,” she said. “Working with him on 505 helped me learn more about the city’s potential for growth and where it’s going.”

Ty Fiesel

Ty Fiesel came to Nashville in 2017 after graduating from Illinois State University. Born and raised in rural Ottawa, Ill., Fiesel says he was drawn to the city because of music and family in the area.

Due to the move, Fiesel says, he has learned the value of balancing expectations and embracing new things.

“I’ve learned that, if you’re going to move somewhere, you can’t go into it with the expectation that it’ll be like your home,” he said. “It’s been more rewarding to find ways to adapt myself to the city and enjoy it, rather than have the culture adapt to what I’m used to.”

Fiesel works with The Hermitage, the presidential home that is one of Nashville’s established tourist destinations. He says that connecting with the historic site, which has been open to the public since 1889, has given him a new perspective on the way history comes together.

“Tapping into Andrew Jackson’s complex reputation and educating people on history have been pretty exciting and new to me,” he said. “Being able to learn and teach others about Jackson’s history has been almost the perfect culmination for someone who moved here from the North.”

Lindsey Ganson

Lindsey Ganson moved to Nashville in 2014 from New York City, where she spent almost 10 years working on public policy as COO of Transportation Alternatives and as chief of staff of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

Ganson says her time in Nashville has provided her with a new way to look at urban development, one that is filled with potential.

“In a city like Nashville that is growing so rapidly, there are decisions getting made right now that are going to impact the city for a hundred years,” she said. “You really have more of a clean slate to start with because so much of the city’s infrastructure isn’t hard-coded yet.”

Ganson’s passion for ensuring that decisions made now make Nashville more sustainable in the future is seen through her work with Natural Resources Defense Council’s Nashville Food Waste Initiative. NRDC is using Nashville as a pilot city for programs to reduce food waste, and Ganson says MP&F’s public outreach efforts are helping to maximize the success of the pilot.

“Nashville can really be a model for how food waste initiatives can work in other cities,” she said. “Most cities are more similar to Nashville than to New York or San Francisco, and our work with NRDC in Nashville has resulted in decision-makers across the country becoming more aware of how to turn the big policy ideas into action.”

With all the changes that are taking shape throughout Nashville and Middle Tennessee, Ganson says, MP&F has found a way to drive change with the help of others who call Nashville home.

“Working here, I get to be around a lot of like-minded, dedicated people who really care about Nashville,” she said. “So many people who work here really care about making their community the best place it can be, and that’s really felt like home to me.”

Adit Ahmed is an MP&F summer intern from Glastonbury, Connecticut. He is a senior at Washington and Lee University, where he is majoring in History, with minors in Mass Communication and Middle East and South Asia Studies.