Profiles
Ana Escobar, BA’92, Advocate for the Underrepresented
Feb. 19, 2019—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 in Davidson County’s General Sessions Court. “I really had to step things up,” says Escobar, who in her...
Dana Kelley, BMus’12, Music from Within
Feb. 19, 2019—Being a student at the Blair School of Music kept Dana Kelley busy, but being a professional musician in New York City adds a whole new meaning to the word. Kelley is violist with the Argus Quartet, the Juilliard School’s quartet-in-residence, which played on the Blair Concert Series last September. She also recently joined the...
Transforming Community: Nyree Ramsey, BS’97, MEd’00, and Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes, BS’96
Nov. 19, 2018—When Nyree Ramsey visited New Orleans in 1995, three words came to mind: “This is home.” “I loved the culture, the food, the sense of community—all things intergenerational,” she says. “My father was a musician, an immigrant from Jamaica, and my mom comes from a close-knit artistic family in New York. I understand that sense...
Bailey Spaulding, JD’09, Something’s Brewing
Nov. 19, 2018—Shortly after graduating from law school, Bailey Spaulding got a harebrained idea: She’d open a brewery and name it the Jackalope Brewing Co., after the mythical rabbit–antelope hybrid that she believed in as a kid. Seven years after the business was launched in Nashville’s Gulch neighborhood, Jackalope makes 6,500 barrels of suds, including the flagship...
Jack Wei-chieh Lin, BA’89, Asia Pacific Asset Manager
Nov. 19, 2018—Jack Wei-chieh Lin is making an impact on global investors. In May he was appointed managing director and head of Asia Pacific client coverage for MSCI Inc., a leading provider of indexes and portfolio construction as well as risk-management tools and services for global investors. MSCI’s clients rely on its offerings for deeper insights into...
Garrett Spiegel, BE’10, Systems-Level Thinker
Nov. 19, 2018—Garrett Spiegel long intended to make the design of custom-fabricated orthotics and prosthetics easier and quicker, especially in parts of the world with limited medical resources and high need. His company, Standard Cyborg, which he co-founded in 2015 with Jeffrey Huber, now has a growing customer base for its orthotics and prosthetics software, currently used...
Sarah Byrn Evans Rickman, BA’58, Ferrying History
Sep. 6, 2018—During World War II the Women Airforce Service Pilots—known as the WASP—flew and delivered aircraft across the U.S. to docks for shipment to the war zone. Sarah Byrn Evans Rickman is making sure these flyers’ contributions aren’t forgotten. She’s written eight books about them, most recently BJ Erickson: WASP Pilot (2018, Filter Press), a young...
Dominic McCarthy, BA’90, Bonded Spirits
Sep. 6, 2018—From a 65-acre dairy farm in Cooraclare, Ireland, Dominic McCarthy is courting clover. He’s the newest player in the booming international market for Irish whiskey, helping to found the Chapel Gate Irish Whiskey Co. in 2015 with wife Louise McGuane, the company’s CEO, and a group of Vanderbilt alumni. The couple’s first release, J.J. Corry...
Mimi Franke Marziani, BA’04, Serving the Vulnerable
Sep. 6, 2018—It was mid-May when Mimi Franke Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, noticed a troubling trend along the Texas–Mexico border: Central American migrants seeking asylum were being separated from their children and subsequently charged with illegal entry into the country. “We sprang into action,” says Marziani, who has led the Austin-based organization since...