Last month The Nashville Voice hosted our first Dating in the Ville discussion. We invited women to discuss the dating scene in Nashville with the goal of finding out why many women tend to remain single. We also surveyed the women to determine what character traits they look for in a man.
After reviewing our data 5 characteristics stood out:
- Ambitious
- Financial Stability
- Fun/Outgoing
- God-fearing
- Trustworthy
With this information, The Nashville Voice editorial team selected the Top 10 Bachelors in Nashville.
Editorial Note: The following list is in alphabetical order by first names.
Darryl Taliaferro – External Affairs & Congregational Care; Mt. Zion Baptist Church
Elder Darryl M. Taliaferro, a native of Gary, Indiana, was born to Deacon Clarence Taliaferro and the late Barbara Taliaferro. Understanding the need to grow and to develop intellectually, Taliaferro relocated to Nashville, Tennessee to attend American Baptist College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theological Studies. He also earned a Master of Science in Public Service Management from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, and a Master of Divinity Degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
Now an active member of the Nashville community, he is affiliated with various community organizations, including the:
- Nashville Junior Chamber of Commerce
- Urban League Young Professionals of Middle Tennessee
- The Church Network
- Take One Tennessee (Middle Tennessee Chair)
- New Level Community Development Corporation
- Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. (Life Member)
Also, in 2014, he was honored as one of Nashville’s best and brightest African Americans making significant contributions to the community when he received the Nashville Black 40 Under 40 Award.
In addition to his responsibilities at Mount Zion Baptist Church, Taliaferro is the President & CEO of Taliaferro Leadership Consultants LLC, a company dedicated to strengthening the leadership prowess within organizations.
DeRon Jenkins – Owner; DY Construction Inc. & Co-host of Flip or Flop Nashville; HGTV
DeRon Charles Jenkins is a former American football cornerback in the National Football League and Arena Football League. He played college football at the University of Tennessee. Jenkins also played for the San Diego Chargers, Tennessee Titans, Austin Wranglers and Nashville Kat
Jenkins is a licensed general contractor who has been renovating houses throughout Nashville and Atlanta. He is a co-host with real estate broker Page Turner on HGTV’s Flip or Flop Nashville which premiered in January 2018
Dr. Gerald Onuoha – Internal Medicine Residency; Meharry Medical College
Dr. Gerald Onuoha is a native Huntsville, AL. He moved to Nashville in 2003 to attend Tennessee State University where he received his Bachelors in Physics and Astronomy. He then attended Meharry Medical College where he started his community initiatives while serving as President of the Meharry student body and a member of the Board of Trustees.
Dr. Onuoha later received his Doctorate in Medicine with an intended specialty of Internal Medicine. Before starting residency, he received a Masters in Clinical Practice from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Today, alongside his Internal Medicine Residency at Meharry, Gerald serves as the CEO of the Project DReam Community Initiative and The Paragon Social Club Nashville, 2 local organizations created to assist in Nashville urban, cultural, and community development.
Hameed Yusuf – Director of Web and Mobile Products; Ascension
As an accomplished executive leader in the realm of IT,Hammed is passionate about the projects and teams he leads while innovative in the ways of forward action plans. With industry experience across industrial, telecommunications, and healthcare, he offers the level of adaptiveness and necessary change management skill set to be successful in any role he takes on.
True to my strategic mindset, he is consistently striving to improve, transform, and deliver greater impacts to the business.
Jamal Hipps – Founder; MPYER Marketing
An experienced visionary with an affinity for all things marketing and a “straight no chaser attitude,” Jamal Hipps is the founder and Chief Creative Officer for MPYER Marketing & Advertising. Jamal started MPYER in 2008 to help clients Maximize Potential Yielding Exceptional Results after more than a decade of driving marketing programs for brands and organizations.
In addition to MPYER, Jamal serves in many adjunct professional and social roles including:
- National Black MBA Association
- Friends of Fisk University Galleries -Advisory Committee
- Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
- Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated,
- American Advertising Federation
- Nashville, Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville Board Member
James Crumlin – Attorney; Bone Mcallester Norton PPLC
Mr. Crumlin is a well-known Nashville employment lawyer. His legal counsel is regularly sought out by management on issues arising from the employment relationship. James’ experience includes union and non-union arbitration and all forms of employment discrimination litigation. In addition, he conducts in-house training sessions on compliance with the numerous federal and state laws affecting employers
Encouraged by his mother, and following in his father’s footsteps, James says he wanted to be a lawyer for as long as he can remember. What he enjoys most about the profession is, “helping employers resolve their employee issues and assisting small businesses in maximizing their potential by focusing on the bottom-line and not legal problems.”
Jason Ridgel – Entrepreneur; Guidance Whiskey, Music City Dream Cars & Jusco Medical
Jason Ridgel is an exceptionally successful entrepreneur, funlanthropist, travel enthusiast and business mogul based in Nashville, Tennessee. For over a decade, Jason has founded, invested and led groundbreaking ventures throughout the United States.
Jason currently serves as a partner of Music City Dream Cars (based in Nashville, TN), the premier provider of exotic automobile rentals in the Southeast.
He is also the owner/founder JUSCO Med, a medical supply company Founded in 2012 that serves the needs of active, athletic adults. JUSCO Medical is a healthcare management company that provides pain management solutions and health products.
His most recent venture is Guidance Whiskey, making this company one of the select few African American owned liquor companies in America.
Known in the community as “The Best Jason in the World”, he has continued to press forward into the present, always on a mission to realize his dreams and help others to do the same—one vision, one venture, one charity, one destination at a time.
Omari Booker – Studio Artist; Omari Booker Artwork
Omari Booker began his journey as an artist his senior year of high school at Montgomery Bell Academy. There he realized his gift for visual art and like most true artists, the path to developing his talent has been anything but linear. It has taken him through various disciplines and institutions including Belmont University, Middle Tennessee State University, and Tennessee State University.
Omari takes a process-oriented approach to his art, embracing it as a therapeutic modality through which he is able to express his passion for the freedom and independence that the creative process allows him to experience. His art is his personal therapy, and his desire is that those viewing it will have personal experiences of catharsis. The philosophy that undergirds Omari’s work is FREEDOM THROUGH ART and he aspires to create work that communicates to his audience their unique and intrinsic ability to be free.
Patrick Johnson – Senior Vice President; Meharry Medical College
As Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement for Meharry Medical College, Mr. Johnson works to build sustainable philanthropic partnerships. He previously served as the college’s Senior Associate VP for Institutional Advancement and helped cement relationships with major corporations and foundations. He also built the development infrastructure for a multi-million-dollar comprehensive initiative that supported clinical programs, training and community engagement affiliations with a range of nonprofit, private and government healthcare organizations.
Before coming to Meharry, Mr. Johnson was the former regional director of development for the University of Tennessee system, which included the Knoxville, Martin, Chattanooga, Memphis, and Tullahoma campuses.
He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Fisk University and completed the Mini MBA program at Belmont University.
Wade Mundy – Executive Director; Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors
The son of a Marine and the grandson of a sharecropper, Wade always had big boots to fill. He learned about hard work from his family. He listened to stories about his grandfather and father working the tobacco fields of Robertson County. He started working on a small farm operation at 15 himself.
Wade grew up in Sumner County, attended Trevecca Nazarene University, and earned a Masters of Divinity degree from Vanderbilt University. He was called to religion and public service thinking that he might become a minister or a missionary. After seeing so many politicians who turn public service into personal service, he decided that women and men like the ones he knew, honest and ethical folks, were the ones who need to run for office. So, he began working on campaigns and elections for ordinary folks across the nation and the state.
Politics hasn’t been everything, though. Wade’s public service includes work at an international pediatric cancer research hospital, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, and now as the Executive Director of Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors.
