Missy Pankake

Consider inviting a student into your home to spend a holiday with you. It may seem daunting, but it’s not difficult. And it’s well worth the effort. You’ll certainly make a difference in the student’s life—as well as your own. Read More

Emison, a retired lawyer, is investigating an unsolved murder that took place more than 75 years ago. The murdered man, Elbert Williams, was a member of the NAACP who organized meetings of African Americans in West Tennessee’s Haywood County. He was found in a river and buried without autopsy in an unmarked grave. Read More

About two dozen Vanderbilt students and faculty from across the university have worked with a leading inter­national malnutrition research organization to produce Mani+, a nutritionally fortified peanut butter, to help combat childhood hunger in Guatemala. (MODESIGNS58/ISTOCK) Malnutrition is defined as a lack of food and calories. But really, it’s… Read More

Vanderbilt enjoyed a rare snow day Jan. 22 as Nashville got hit with 8 inches of the white stuff—the most snow that had fallen in the city since 2003. Read More

Each issue, Vanderbilt Magazine prints a handful of social media posts from alumni, students, faculty, staff and Commodore fans that include #Vandygram. Read More

Picasso continually pushed against prevailing artistic conventions, even his own previous work, to forge new creative paths that somehow remained unmistakably his own. That same idea of building upon the past to push further into the future runs deeply through this issue of Vanderbilt Magazine. Read More

The P.O.V. essay written by Mallory McDuff, BS’88, about her experience in Professor Vereen Bell’s freshman writing class resonated deeply within the Vanderbilt alumni community and beyond. A Facebook post about the piece generated more than 35,000 page views of the story online. It also sparked plenty of memories that people shared on social media. Read More

Charley, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, and the cousin of former Vanderbilt football player Damien Charley, BS’99, came to Vanderbilt on a soccer scholarship but is even more accomplished in the triple-jump. She finished fourth in the nation at the Indoor NCAA Championships last March and, three months later, followed up with a third-place finish at the Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Read More

Vanderbilt announces nine additions to its Athletic Hall of Fame for 2015, representing the best of Vanderbilt’s athletic history. Read More

In 1897 two Vanderbilt students summering just south of Nashville on the Cumberland Plateau made an accidental discovery that eventually would draw millions of Americans to a vast subterranean world during much of the 20th century. Read More

Kornet nearly escaped notice by college recruiters nationwide in 2013. Today he is a top player in the SEC and a likely NBA pick. Read More

When a serious disease strikes—from Ebola in Africa to MRSA at a local high school—you’re quite likely to hear a calm, clear explanation on the news from Dr. William Schaffner. A Vanderbilt professor of preventive medicine, he is one of the most-often-quoted infectious disease experts in the English-speaking world, with regular appearances on every major news outlet. Read More

Megan Barry was elected as Nashville’s first woman mayor this fall in a hotly contested race that drew national media attention. Vanderbilt Magazine sat down with the new mayor to talk about the election process, her connection with Vanderbilt, and what she hopes to accomplish. Read More

Actress Reese Witherspoon recently spoke with students at Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management about opening her new retail store—Draper James—in Nashville. Read More

Runners are a group Graeflin knows well. He ran track at Vanderbilt, and is the longtime owner of The Athlete’s House in Nashville, the first store in Tennessee devoted to running apparel and gear. Read More

Situated 20 miles southwest of Denver, and nestled between two state parks that offer stunning views of the Rocky Mountains, Sterling Ranch doesn’t look like much now. But during the next 20 years, the five-square-mile, $4.3 billion planned community will take shape as a futuristic city. Read More

Vanderbilt has always sent a handful of players to the major leagues, but in recent years there’s been a noticeable trend of more Commodores making it to the pros. Read More

Vanderbilt Alumni Association chapters currently exist in 37 U.S. cities and five international locations—the newest one in Japan—and offer a range of activities to help keep Vanderbilt’s 135,000 alumni connected to each other and to the university. Read More

Pregnancy doesn’t necessarily require hospital care. That simple premise is what led Cara Osborne, MSN’01, to co-author a landmark study demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of giving birth outside a traditional medical setting. It’s also an idea that she’s put into practice as the founder of Baby+Company, a group of five freestanding birth centers across the U.S. Read More

Vanderbilt physician Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve and a combat veteran, has made news more than once by advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues. Read More