NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Jan. 24, 2022) – Marketing veteran Knight Stivender has been named a partner at MP&F Strategic Communications, it was announced today.

Stivender joined MP&F in 2018 as the firm’s first director of integrated marketing and data analytics. She led a growing team of marketing professionals on behalf of a variety of clients, including Log Still Distillery, Aegis Sciences Corporation, ADS Security, United Way of Middle Tennessee, Solstice Senior Living and the University of Tennessee.

“Knight began making a difference in this company from the first day she arrived,” said Jennifer Brantley, MP&F’s managing partner. “Her marketing and data expertise has proved invaluable to our clients and allowed us to build out our integrated marketing product.”

Stivender joins Brantley, David Fox, Katy Varney, Keith Miles and Mary Elizabeth Davis as a partner in the 35-year-old firm.

“MP&F has always had a stellar reputation as an innovator and leader in public relations and strategic communications,” Stivender said. “Over the last several years, advertising, branding, marketing and data analytics have been added to the menu, and I am very excited about what the future holds.”

Stivender worked in various leadership roles at The Tennessean from 1999–2014. She was named Gannett Innovator of the Year in 2012 for her development of a news and events product designed for millennials, and she played a leadership role on the news team deemed a Pulitzer Prize finalist for coverage of the historic flood of 2010. A 1995 University of Tennessee graduate of the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, she was named Alumna of the Year in 2016. She is a past board member of the Nashville chapter of the American Marketing Association and Chick History humanities organization. Stivender grew up in Mt. Juliet and resides with her family in Franklin.