Jim Patterson

Actress Kirsten Dunst, left, and co-star Théodore Pellerin film a scene for On Becoming a God in Central Florida, a quirky Showtime comedy created by alumnus Robert Funke about a cultish, Amway-like marketing scheme. Courtesy of SHOWTIME On Becoming a God in Central Florida is an oddly academic-sounding title for… Read More

Clara Morera, The Preboste Juan (King Juan), 2017, mixed media on canvas, 72 x 48 inches (courtesy of the artist and Dorfsman Fine Arts, Miami) Artists from the United States, Cuba and Haiti envision social change through reinterpretation of a lost work Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom brings together… Read More

Photo by Susan Urmy As director of the Center for STEM Education for Girls at Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, retired Navy Capt. Barbara Bell wants to give girls the confidence and knowledge to excel in technical careers long dominated by men. A 28-year veteran and one of the first… Read More

Duc Pham often speaks about how lucky he has been, despite a difficult childhood during the Vietnam War after which his father, a police captain in South Vietnam, was sentenced without trial by the North Vietnamese to seven and a half years of hard labor in a prison camp. “When… Read More

Jasmine Greer, photo by John Russell Jasmine Greer, BE’16, applied to only one MBA program: Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. She wanted to stay at Vanderbilt and chose Owen not only for its top-flight academic program but also its collaborative environment. At Owen, Greer has immersed herself in several… Read More

Photo by Tom Williams/Getty Images Fred P. Graham, whose career as a legal affairs reporter, television anchor and author spanned more than four decades, died Dec. 28 at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 88. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Graham earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University and… Read More

Photo by Joe Howell Luke Gregory, CEO of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and senior vice president for business development, died Oct. 18, 2019, after a courageous battle with lymphoma. He was 63. The embodiment of a servant leader, Gregory joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2007… Read More

Photo by John Russell M. Fräncille Bergquist, a beloved professor of Spanish, emerita, and retired College of Arts and Science administrator who devoted much of her life to advising and mentoring thousands of undergraduate students, died Nov. 17 in Nashville. She was 74. “Fräncille had a wonderful talent for believing… Read More

Photo by John Rosenthal Elizabeth Spencer, a celebrated author whose irony-laced novels and short stories explored family strife and buried histories, died Dec. 22 at her home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She was 98. Spencer’s seven-decade career, beginning with the 1948 novel Fire in the Morning, was one of… Read More

Like many people her age, Lauren Mandel developed her funny bone to the antics of comedians like Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph on "Saturday Night Live." Read More

Photo by Pamela Lepold Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in June 1919, and the amendment became law Aug. 26, 1920, giving American women the right to vote after a decades-long fight. This year, the centennial of women gaining the right to vote, a record number of… Read More

Webb—with his dogs, Daisy (as in Buchanan, from The Great Gatsby) and Zelda (as in Fitzgerald)—at Longshore, the Connecticut estate that inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald. Photo by Jim Swaffield As a boy in Westport, Connecticut, Richard Webb, BA’85, was haunted by the ghosts of artists. His affluent waterfront town, about… Read More

Chin, shown creating in his workshop, is known for his large-scale art installations. Photo courtesy of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Visionary artist Mel Chin, BA’75, was named Sept. 25 among the class of 26 MacArthur Fellows for 2019. Given by the John D. and Catherine T. Read More

Sophomores Amber Yun and Jared Schmidt, and junior Joe Pehrson of Vanderbilt University Theatre scream as they perform a scene from Catharsis, by sophomore Natalie Martinez-White, during the August Spotlight Showcase for first-year students. Photo by Anne Rayner During their first week at Vanderbilt, first-year students are met with an… Read More

Photo by John Russell Dr. John Oates, an internationally known physician at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a founder of the discipline of clinical pharmacology, died July 30 in Nashville after a short illness. He was 87. The Thomas F. Frist Sr. Professor of Medicine, he founded the Division… Read More

Charles Brau and Virginia Shepherd, photo by Susan Urmy Virginia Shepherd knew in eighth grade that she wanted to become a scientist. Her education and training eventually led to a tenured research scientist position at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Nashville’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Shepherd’s passion for science education… Read More

It wasn’t the unfamiliarity of a new city or the intimidation of a new faculty position that stood out to Fräncille Bergquist when she first came to Vanderbilt in 1977. The new professor of Spanish was taken aback by the rolling hills and green trees of Middle Tennessee—a stark contrast… Read More

Michael Alec Rose, associate professor of composition, had the premiere of his musical drama, Lolly Willowes, based on the novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner, in April at the MATCH–Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston. In July he was interviewed about the work and his life as a composer by Nashville… Read More

Vanderbilt University Special Collections and Photo Archives Martin Katahn, a retired psychology professor and best-selling author who wrote The Rotation Diet and other books promoting healthy weight loss and lifestyle, died Sept. 17. He was 90. Katahn, who was known to his family and friends as Dick, was born in… Read More

Photo by John Russell A communications leader and champion for STEM research at Vanderbilt, Heidi Nieland Hall died Sept. 25 in Nashville from metastatic colorectal cancer. She was 49. Hall, an honored reporter and editor for decades, left The Tennessean to join the Vanderbilt School of Engineering communications team in… Read More