Jim Patterson

Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans On clinic day every week, first-year nursing student Brooke Hazen’s 12-hour shift starts at 6:30 a.m. “We’re taking vital signs, helping patients shower and walk, administering shots and IVs, and interpreting lab results,” she says. Hazen is in Vanderbilt School of Nursing’s prespecialty… Read More

Courtesy Merrily Talbott It was while interviewing travelers for a tourist publication in Breckenridge, Colorado, that high school psychology teacher and writer Merrily Van Norstrand Talbott came up with a fresh idea. A woman who thought she was suffering from altitude sickness told Talbott that she found relief after… Read More

Courtesy of Kim Le After spending nearly two decades as a storyboard artist for Hollywood film and television production companies, Kim Le is guided by a singular imperative: “I want to tell a good story, entertain people, and hopefully make them laugh.” As creative types go, storyboard artists… Read More

Photo by John Russell Reading, and a child’s access to books, is a precursor to success by all yardsticks. But the lack of reading materials in many neighborhoods across America—regions known as “book deserts”—threatens the educational achievements of countless students. English teacher Jarred Amato decided to do… Read More

Everett H. Erlick, a distinguished veteran of the broadcast industry and longtime public servant, died March 8, 2019, at his home in Stuart, Florida. He was 97. As executive vice president, general counsel and director of the American Broadcasting Cos. Inc. for 25 years, his expansive portfolio… Read More

Photo by Daniel Dubois Barbara Tsakirgis, a noted scholar on ancient Greek domestic architecture as well as a strong community advocate for Nashville’s Parthenon, died Jan. 16. Tsakirgis, 64, had been diagnosed with ALS three years ago and died at her home. She was a professor of classical… Read More

Bradley in 1961. Photo by Joe Rudis/THE TENNESSEAN Harold Bradley, member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, famed guitarist, and cog in the family that led the ascent of country music in Nashville, died Jan. 31. He was 93. Bradley grew up in Nashville and took up… Read More

Karen White, BA’11, was born to be an advocate. Her first experience in advocacy was for herself at the age of 15, when she left a volatile home life and struggled to support herself through periods of homelessness. “I remember sleeping on the couch in the tattoo parlor… Read More

“Y.Y.” Clark at thebeginning of her groundbreaking career. Photo courtesy Society of Women Engineers Yvonne Young Clark, the first woman to earn a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Howard University, the first woman to earn a master’s degree in engineering management from the Vanderbilt University School… Read More

Gastronomic Judaism as Culinary Midrash (2018, Lexington/Rowman & Littlefield) by Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, MA’86, PhD’91 This book is about who and how one makes food Jewish. Brumberg-Kraus questions Jewish identity in particular, and identity generally as something fixed, stable, singular and unintentional and Jewish food choices as situational, often temporary, expressions… Read More

Encounters at the Edge of the Muslim World: A Political Memoir of Kyrgyzstan (2018, Rowman & Littlefield) by Eugene Huskey, BA’74 Holder of the William R. Kenan Jr. Chair in Political Science at Stetson University, Huskey’s research first took him to Kyrgyzstan in 1992, six months after Kyrgyzstan’s emergence as… Read More

“Untitled” by Alicia Henry, mixed media, 2 feet by 3 feet Paper dolls have long been used to emphasize cultural norms regarding femininity and beauty. As often happens, childhood play subtly reinforces society’s notions of the “ideal.” Once these playthings are cast off and one enters adulthood, these romanticized… Read More

Photo by Anne Rayner Douglas Shadle, assistant professor of musicology, was presented with the American Musicological Society’s inaugural H. Robert Cohen/RIPM Award at this year’s annual meeting in San Antonio for his book Orchestrating the Nation: The Nineteenth-Century American Symphonic Enterprise (2015, Oxford University Press). The award honors… Read More

Junior Nicholas Heilborn conducts his commissioned piece with chatterbird musicians. Photo by Susan Urmy The composer Michael Slayton can’t remember the first time an ensemble performed one of his pieces. That’s perhaps not surprising, since Slayton’s works, especially his chamber music, are now frequently commissioned and performed… Read More

James Threalkill, BS’79, poses with the portraits he has painted for the Legacy Pioneers series. (Joe Howell) Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos unveiled four portraits during Reunion weekend in October that are part of a new Vanderbilt Trailblazers portrait series honoring members of the Vanderbilt community who broke barriers at… Read More

Sarah D’Amico, BS’16, takes a moment to put up her feet after a rewarding day of teaching. A classroom of elementary school students in New York City is receiving a well-rounded education thanks to their teacher, Sarah D’Amico, BS’16, who returned to her neighborhood after graduation to pass the… Read More

Nicole Feliciano’s Momtrends blog helps “busy, style-starved women keep in touch with what’s hip and cool.” The website attracts almost 100,000 unique visitors each month. As a working mother of two daughters, Nicole Feliciano, like countless other moms, would love to have an extra hour in the day. Read More

Entertaining a continent as populous as Asia is no small feat. Todd Miller, CEO of Hong Kong–based Celestial Tiger Entertainment, is doing it with aplomb. “You can think of Celestial as the HBO of Chinese movies,” he says. “We operate six core channels, all of… Read More

Dan Lovinger Few times in my life has this concept been more evident than while I was a student at Vanderbilt. With access to a broad range of ideas and perspectives, I quickly understood the importance of engaging individuals whose lives and stories could impact my own. At… Read More

Judge Escobar outside the Justice A.A. Birch courthouse in Nashville. (John Russell) There were no road maps for Ana Escobar to follow when she was elected Nashville’s first Latina judge in August. Further, the self-described introvert had to step outside her comfort zone to run for the elective post… Read More