About Diane

Diane Black has been fighting for conservative values as a Tennessee legislator since 1998.  She tirelessly worked to provide health care to the sick and injured as a nurse for 40 years and continues to hold her nursing license.  Diane began working in health care after receiving an associate’s degree in nursing in 1971. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Belmont University in 1992. She has worked in emergency rooms and has taught at Volunteer State Community College as an assistant professor of allied health. In addition, she served as Executive Director of Sumner Regional Health Systems Foundation and Development Director for the Middle Tennessee YMCA.

Diane was elected to Tennessee’s 18th State Senate District in 2004, which includes Robertson and Sumner Counties.  Diane previously represented Tennessee in the House of Representatives for the 45th District.  Diane currently serves as Chair of the Senate Republican Caucus and is the first woman in Tennessee history to hold that title.  She also serves as a member of Senate General Welfare Health and Human Resources Committee, Judiciary Committee, Finance Committee, TennCare Oversight Committee and Select Committee on Children and Youth.

Since her election to the Senate, Diane has been honored as the legislator of the year by Tennessee Right to Life, Tennessee Nurses Association, American Cancer Society, Champion for Seniors in Assisted Living Award, and recently received the Child Protection Investigative Team Leadership Award by the Tennessee Chapter of Children’s Advocacy Centers.  Throughout her legislative career, she has been a champion for elementary and higher education, traditional family values, long term health care for seniors and disabled, fiscal responsibility and stricter penalties for sex offenders.  

Diane sought public office to continue to give back to her community at the state and local level and now seeks to do the same at the federal level.  She is an ardent defender of the Second Amendment and believes in small government, traditional family values, improved health care that is not government run, better care for seniors, superior education for our youth and zero-tolerance for illegal immigrants who choose to ignore our nation’s laws.  
Diane and her husband David participate in mission trips and traveled to Haiti first in 1989 with the Lutheran Church, to evaluate health and economic projects supported by the church.  Diane joined the Hendersonville Rotary annual medical mission trip to Guatemala in 1996.  The Hendersonville Rotary, of which Diane is a past president, has a relationship with the Las Americas Rotary Club in Guatemala City, and with their help to identify the highest needs throughout their country, the club provides medical, dental and optical services.  Throughout the years, the club has provided over $1 million in services, medicine and equipment to the needy people of Guatemala.

Additionally, as a result of the relationships that Diane and Dave formed with the people of Guatemala, they have hosted children from Guatemala in their home for educational and cultural experiences.  In coordination with other Rotarians, they made it possible to have a child with a severe cleft palate receive surgery that could not be provided in his country.  Diane and Dave have felt blessed by their experiences with their mission work with the people of Haiti and Guatemala.  

Diane lives in Gallatin with her husband David.  They have three grown children and six grandchildren.