Seventeen retiring faculty members will be recognized during Vanderbilt’s May 14 commencement ceremony when the university honors their years of service and bestows on them the title of emeritus or emerita faculty.
Anne L. Corn , professor of special education, emerita
Corn earned a bachelor of science from Syracuse University in 1972 with a major in special education. She earned a master of arts in visual disabilities in 1973 from California State University at San Francisco and a master of education in 1978 and doctor of education in 1980 in visual disabilities from Columbia University. She taught at the University of Texas at Austin before joining the Peabody College faculty in 1992.
Corn’s areas of expertise include preparing teachers for students who are blind or visually impaired, literacy instruction and access to print for individuals with low vision, and gifted education. She co-authored a widely used text, Foundations of Low Vision: Clinical and Functional Perspectives , published by the American Foundation for the Blind, and her 1998 text, Report to the Nation , set an agenda for the education of children and youth with visual impairments and blindness. She was the principal investigator on multiple grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Eye Institute and has received numerous awards from national organizations that advocate for the blind and visually impaired.
Ernest William Ewers , clinical professor of medicine, emeritus
Ewers earned his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt in 1946 and his medical degree from Vanderbilt School of Medicine in 1948. After completing his internship and a year of internal medicine residency in Michigan, he returned to Vanderbilt to complete his residency in 1954.
Ewers has practiced internal medicine in Nashville at the Green Hills Medical Clinic since 1954 and joined Vanderbilt’s clinical faculty that same year. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Gastroenterology and the American College of Forensics Examiners. He is a member of the Nashville Academy of Medicine, the Davidson County Medical Society, the Nashville Society of Internal Medicine, and the Tennessee Society of Internal Medicine. He was named clinical professor of medicine in 1993. He has served as a member of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Board and its Executive Committee and is a longstanding member of the Canby Robinson Society.
Gerald M. Fenichel , professor of neurology, emeritus
Fenichel graduated cum laude from Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor of arts in 1955 and earned his doctor of medicine from Yale University School of Medicine in 1959. He completed his internship in surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester, a residency in neurology at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and a fellowship in neurology at Yale University School of Medicine. In 1969 Fenichel became founding chair of the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt, a position he has held for 32 years. The position of assistant vice chancellor of medical affairs was created following the recommendation of a governance committee chaired by Fenichel.
Fenichel’s textbook, Clinical Pediatric Neurology: A Signs and Symptoms Approach , is now in its fifth edition. He has continued with an active publication record, publishing 98 peer-reviewed journal articles and 80 books and invited reviews.
Fenichel has been active on several editorial boards, as well as government and other advisory committees. He has held membership in numerous professional societies, including the American Neurological Association, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Medical Association. He was a founding member of the Child Neurology Society and served as its president. He is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Hower Award from the Child Neurology Society, the Zimmerman Award from the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital Pediatric Housestaff. In 2008 the Gerald M. Fenichel Chair was established by the Department of Neurology in his honor.
James W. Guthrie , professor of public policy and education, emeritus
Guthrie attended Stanford University, earning a bachelor of arts in 1958, a master of arts in 1960 and a doctor of philosophy in 1968. He arrived at Vanderbilt in 1994 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he had served on the faculty of the School of Education since 1967 and as dean from 1982 to 1983. From 1997 to 1999, he was director of the Tennessee Governor’s Council on Excellence in Higher Education and director of the Consortium on Renewing Education.
Among Guthrie’s many accomplishments during his tenure at Vanderbilt are establishing the Peabody Center for Education Policy; chairing the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations (1999 to 2009); serving as editor of the Peabody Journal of Education (2000 to 2009); partnering with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and the Nashville Public Education Foundation; founding the Principals Leadership Academy of Nashville to train current and prospective principals; establishing the Leadership Development Center, which provided professional development to more than 800 superintendents and district personnel across Tennessee; and securing $10 million in funding to establish the National Center on Performance Incentives.
In 2006 Guthrie received the Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor Award and in May 2009 was named Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy. Also in 2009, he was presented the Distinguished Service Award from the American Education Finance Association.
James H. Hogge , professor of psychology, emeritus
Hogge has the distinction of having been a Peabody College faculty member for 43 years, longer than anyone else in recent times. He earned his bachelor of arts in 1964 and his doctor of philosophy in educational psychology in 1966 from the University of Texas at Austin. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford, he joined the Peabody faculty as an assistant professor in 1967. In 1978 he was promoted to professor and appointed chair of the Department of Psychology and Human Development, serving during the first year following the merger between Peabody and Vanderbilt.
In 1980 Hogge was appointed associate dean for administrative affairs. He was appointed associate dean for academic affairs in 1987, serving in that role until 1990. In 1999, he stepped back into administration as associate dean for faculty and programs.
Hogge helped establish the human development counseling and human and organizational development programs. He also was instrumental in establishing Peabody’s information technology services and was founding director of the Peabody Computer Center.
Lynda L. LaMontagne , professor of nursing, emerita
LaMontagne earned her doctor of nursing science from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1982. She was awarded a prestigious two-year Robert Wood Johnson Post Doctoral Clinical Research Fellowship (1987 to 1989) at the University of Rochester, then joined the Vanderbilt faculty as an assistant professor of nursing in the fall of 1989. She was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1992 and to professor in 1999.
LaMontagne is nationally and internationally recognized in the field of children’s stress and coping with illness and surgery. While at Vanderbilt, LaMontagne had a sustained record of achievements, including NIH funding of her longitudinal studies, recognition by Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research for the impact of her research on the nation’s health, induction into the Sigma Xi research society and service as an eminent scholar at the National Defense Medical Center in Taiwan.
LaMontagne served on several university committees and completed three terms as a member of the Faculty Senate. She taught in both the master’s and doctoral programs in the School of Nursing and was core faculty in the Ph.D. in Nursing Science program for more than 15 years. In 2009, LaMontagne received the Ingeborg Grosser Mauksch Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring within the School of Nursing.
David A. Lowe , professor of Slavic languages and literatures, emeritus
Lowe is a scholar of broad interests and deep knowledge not only in his own academic field, 19th-century Russian literature, but also in many other areas of contemporary culture. He has served the Vanderbilt community since 1979 when he joined the faculty as an assistant professor. He has also assumed numerous responsibilities in the greater academic community.
Lowe wrote the first detailed study of Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons and translated and edited the letters of Dostoevsky. In addition to writing extensively about 19th-century Russian authors, he has studied and translated many works of contemporary Russian literature into English. He has also written about opera, examining its representation in Russian literature, and compiling and editing the letters of Maria Callas for publication.
Lowe served on most of the College of Arts and Science committees, as well as on the Faculty Senate and Senate committees. He has been recognized for outstanding freshman advising at Vanderbilt and continues to be a highly regarded and sought-out authority on Russian literature.
E. Paul Nance Jr. , associate professor of radiology and radiological sciences, emeritus
Nance earned his bachelor of science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1973 and his doctor of medicine from the UNC School of Medicine in 1976. He came to Vanderbilt as a resident in diagnostic radiology in 1976 and served as chief resident in radiology during the 1979-1980 academic year.
Following his residency and fellowship, he directed the curriculum in musculoskeletal and emergency radiology for the residents in the Department of Radiology until 2000. He was also the course director for the required radiology course for second-year students at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine from 1983 until 1991, and he participated in the training programs for the residents and fellows in orthopaedic surgery, rheumatology and emergency medicine.
In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Nance participated in original research in radiology, orthopaedics and rheumatology, resulting in 45 journal articles, 21 scientific exhibits and well over 100 presentations at national and international scientific meetings and courses. He is an active member of local, national and international radiology societies. He has served as a reviewer and on the editorial boards of several scientific journals and as a guest examiner for the American Board of Radiology since 1995.
Victoria J. Risko , professor of education, emerita
Risko joined the Peabody College faculty as an associate professor in 1975. During her 35 years at Vanderbilt, Risko has played a pivotal role in creating and leading the doctoral program in reading education.
Risko began her career as a classroom and remedial reading teacher, working with adolescents who had behavioral and academic problems. She earned her Ed.D. from West Virginia University and completed post-doctoral studies in reading and learning disabilities at Maria Grey College of the University of London.
At Vanderbilt, in collaboration with a colleague, she helped create award-winning multimedia case studies designed to teach pre-service teachers how to teach reading. Later, she was part of a major effort by the International Reading Association to identify critical features of instruction for prospective reading teachers.
Risko has written more than 100 publications and has delivered more than 250 professional talks. She has received numerous awards including a Distinguished Service and Leadership Award (1995), the A. B. Herr Award for Distinguished Contributions to Reading (2002) and the Laureate Award (2008), all from the College Reading Association. She was recently elected by her colleagues in the field as president of the International Reading Association.
Howard B. Roback , professor of psychiatry, emeritus
Roback joined the Department of Psychiatry faculty in 1972 after receiving his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from York University. In his years at Vanderbilt, Roback has excelled in teaching and mentoring trainees, clinical care and academic scholarship. He received Excellence in Teaching awards from trainees in both psychiatry and psychology. He was also recognized with a Five Star Award in a national patient satisfaction survey.
Roback published two books, Group Psychotherapy Research and Helping Patients and Their Families Cope with Medical Problems: A Guide to Therapeutic Group Work in Clinical Settings , and approximately 80 articles. He has delivered presentations at numerous professional conferences and served as a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy.
Roback served on the Mentoring Committee, Promotions Committee and as an internship training coordinator for the Vanderbilt-Veterans Administration Medical Center Psychology Internship program. His collaborative research on group interventions with impaired physicians was funded by the American Medical Association.
Robert J. Roselli , professor of biomedical engineering, emeritus, and professor of chemical engineering, emeritus
Roselli attended the University of California at Berkeley, earning a bachelor of science in 1969, a master of science in 1972 in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in bioengineering in 1975. After a two-year post-doctoral appointment in pulmonary medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, he joined the School of Engineering faculty in 1978 as a research assistant professor of biomedical engineering. In 1980, he was appointed assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering and, in 1984, was promoted to associate professor and awarded tenure. He was promoted to professor in 1990. Roselli has twice served as interim chair and has been director of graduate studies since1996.
Roselli co-authored a textbook on biotransport and has published more than 195 papers, chapters, proceedings and abstracts on the application of engineering principles of transport phenomena to problems of medical and physiological significance and the development of innovative methods in engineering education. His recent research interests focus on the development of new methods in engineering education.
In 2007 he was honored with the William Elgin Wickenden Award by the American Society of Engineering Education. He has served on various university committees, including the University Conflicts Committee and the M.D./Ph.D. Committee.
Elaine Sanders-Bush , professor of pharmacology, emerita
Sanders-Bush graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1962 and earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Vanderbilt in 1967. After postdoctoral training, she joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1969 and was promoted to professor of pharmacology in 1980. In 2002 she was appointed the first director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.
Sanders-Bush’s research accomplishments have brought her wide recognition, including uninterrupted funding from NIH throughout her career. Other awards include the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Neuroscience Research and a MERIT Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2006 she was named the Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt and, that same year, was elected president of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
Sanders-Bush spearheaded the creation in 1997 of a new doctoral degree program in neuroscience of which she served as director until 2008. The Elaine Sanders-Bush Award for Mentoring Graduate and/or Medical Students in the Research Setting was created in 2006 in recognition of her impact in graduate education. Sanders-Bush has worked to enhance minority training programs at Tennessee State University, Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt. In recognition of her commitment and accomplishments, she was the first recipient of Vanderbilt’s Levi Watkins Jr. Award for Leadership Diversity in 2002, and, in 2009, she received the Dr. Dolores C. Shockley Lecture and Partnership Award.
Stephen R. Schach , professor of computer science, emeritus, and professor of computer engineering, emeritus
Schach attended the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where, in 1966, he received a bachelor of science with a triple major in applied mathematics, mathematics, and mathematical statistics. In 1967, he obtained a bachelor of science with honors in theoretical physics and a master of science in theoretical physics in 1969. In 1972 he earned a master of science in physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, before returning to Cape Town to work on his Ph.D. in applied mathematics, which he earned in 1973.
In 1983 Schach joined the Vanderbilt faculty as an associate professor of computer science. In 1993, he received a secondary appointment as an associate professor of computer engineering.
Schach’s special interest is the maintainability of the Linux operating system, and his research in this area has been supported by the National Science Foundation and Microsoft Corporation. He has published more than 100 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings. He has written 16 books: two Judaica monographs and 14 software engineering textbooks, including Object-Oriented and Classical Software Engineerin g. Schach has served as a worldwide consultant in software engineering and has been called upon to be an expert witness in both federal and state court cases.
John J. Siegfried , professor of economics, emeritus
Siegfried earned a bachelor of science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1967 and a master of arts from Penn State in 1968. He received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin. During his tenure at Vanderbilt, he has taught more than 20 courses at the law school and in the Executive MBA program at Owen Graduate School of Management.
From 1980 to 1986, Siegfried served as chair of the economics department. In 1975, he initiated a course on the economics of sports that is still taught and in 1990 he revitalized the economics honors program, which he directed for 15 years.
Siegfried’s research has focused on industrial organization, antitrust economics, economics of higher education, economics of sports and the teaching of economics. In 1991 he co-authored Economic Challenges in Higher Education and, more recently, edited the textbook Better Living Through Economics .
Siegfried served on the senior staff for President Gerald Ford’s Council of Economic Advisers for which he wrote the section on economic regulation in the 1977 Economic Report of the President. He is a member of numerous regional and national economic organizations, including the American Economic Association, for which he has served as secretary-treasurer since 1997. In 2001 he received the Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor Award and in 1989 he was awarded the Chancellor’s Cup.
Jo Ann W. Staples , senior lecturer in mathematics, emerita
Staples received her bachelor of arts in mathematics and physics from Western Kentucky University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Vanderbilt in 1975. Staples joined the Vanderbilt faculty as a lecturer in 1975 and became a senior lecturer in 1997. In 2000 she was appointed director of teaching of mathematics.
Staples’ primary focus at Vanderbilt has been on teaching and administration. She has taught a wide variety of courses ranging from calculus and differential equations to abstract algebra. She has coordinated the development of courses with additional applications for engineering students in linear algebra, differential equations and statistics. Throughout her tenure Staples served on numerous groups and committees including the University Library Committee and the Math Club and was a faculty co-facilitator for Vanderbilt Visions.
Staples is an active supporter of the Friends of the Library, the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society. She collects rare books and first editions, with a focus on 18th and 19th century British women writers and is the regional co-coordinator of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America.
Håkan W. Sundell , professor of pediatrics, emeritus
Sundell obtained his doctor of medicine from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and came to Vanderbilt in 1966 to serve as a neonatology fellow with Mildred Stahlman. Sundell remained at Vanderbilt for his entire academic career, serving for 40 years on the faculty of the School of Medicine, where he has been a professor in the Department of Pediatrics since 1989.
Throughout his long and distinguished career, Sundell’s scholarly focus has been on elucidating the physiology of the developing human fetus and premature human infant. His research has been continuously supported with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the March of Dimes and the American Lung Association.
Sundell served Vanderbilt as a practicing neonatologist and a passionate teacher. As one of the earliest neonatologists in Stahlman’s first neonatal intensive care unit, Sundell demonstrated a level of service and commitment in research, clinical care and teaching that directly resulted in Vanderbilt’s extraordinary reputation in the field of neonatology.
Daulat Ram P. Tulsiani , professor of obstetrics and gynecology, emeritus
Tulsiani received a bachelor of science from Ewing Christian College in Allahabad, India, in 1962. He received a master of science in 1964 and a Ph.D. in 1968 in organic chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Allahabad. In 1972 he was appointed as a research associate in molecular biology at Vanderbilt and joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1988. He was promoted to professor in 1996.
Tulsiani is a member of the Center for Reproductive Biology Research, serving as director of the Reproductive Biology Center Seminar series from 1991 to 1992. He has also served as an ad hoc reviewer for the National Science Foundation since 1991 and in 1996 he became a member of the Reproductive Biology Study Section. He is currently a member of the NIH Reviewer’s Reserve Committee.
Tulsiani’s research interests include identification and characterization of complementary molecules present on the surface of male and female gametes. He has published his work in more than 100 peer-reviewed journals, reviews and book chapters, and edited a textbook Introduction to Mammalian Fertilization in 2003. He has been a guest speaker at numerous international conferences including the International Conference on Reproductive Health in Jaipur, India, and has worked with colleagues at the University of Paris, France, as an invited senior professor.
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