Summer 2008

Illustration by Ellen Russell Sadler.   Joe B. Wyatt had been chancellor for four years when I came to work at Vanderbilt in 1986, and he had a reputation as an excellent steward of Vanderbilt’s finances. The Texas native didn’t look the part of the academic, with his athletic… Read More

Michael Lee Woodard Michael Lee Woodard, BS’90, came to Vanderbilt in 1978 on a football scholarship. In 1982 he left college to enter military flight training, later returning to complete his education. Woodard has spent his adult life involved in military flying all over the world and has also… Read More

Lane Denson, foreground, and Larry Taylor of the Monday Night Jazz Band. Photo by Steve Green When Lane Denson–Episcopal clergyman by day, cornet and flugelhorn player by night–started playing with the Monday Night Jazz Band, he hardly could have predicted how long it would last. “We’re… Read More

Top: Dr. Milton Ochieng’, left, celebrates with his brother, Fred, at Fred’s white coat ceremony in August 2006. Right: The movie poster for Sons of Lwala Photo by Dana Johnson. One rainy evening 10 years ago, Patricia Opiyo, a pregnant woman from the remote village of Lwala, Kenya,… Read More

Photo by Daniel Dubois. Dunkin’ Donuts. Cornell. The American Frozen Food Institute. Georgia Tech. The Snack Food Association. University of Michigan. The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute. The University of Texas and University of California systems. The American Peanut Council. University of North Carolina. These are but a few of the… Read More

Corruption in the former Soviet Union threatens the European Union’s attempts to standardize university degrees, warns Stephen P. Heyneman.Photo by Daniel Dubois. Graduates of universities in the former Soviet Republic may find their degrees losing value as corruption among higher education programs continues to rise, two Vanderbilt professors… Read More

Nicolas P.B. Bollen’s research suggests the purposeful avoidance of reporting hedge-fund losses. Photo by Steve Green. Significant numbers of hedge-fund managers purposefully and routinely avoid reporting losses by marking up the value of their portfolios, according to research from the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. Read More

New technology could help pilots, fighters and commanders to communicate seamlessly. getty images/CHECK SIX A computer freeze-up in the office is a hassle. In a fighter jet peppered with enemy fire, it’s a matter of life and death. Getting the increasingly large and complex… Read More

istockphoto.COM Basic lifestyle changes could save children with obesity-related diabetes from a lifetime of complications. But making changes in areas such as diet and exercise is more difficult than adjusting to medical management of the disease, a Vanderbilt study shows. “Type 2 diabetes in children is such a new… Read More

Staph bacteria, shown here growing on a culture dish in Professor Eric Skaar’s laboratory, is the leading cause of deadly infections acquired in hospitals. Photo by Neil Brake Antibiotic-resistant forms of Staphylococcus aureus (staph) have made staph the leading cause of infectious heart disease, the No. 1 cause of… Read More

Shattered Diplomac Think your job is tough? Try working with an angry mob of thousands right outside your office. While James Sasser, BA'58, JD'61, was U.S. ambassador to China, American-led NATO forces bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Chinese citizens reacted by violently protesting outside the U.S. Read More

In April the first international “Vanderbilt and You” reception took place in Shanghai, hosted by A.J. Spaudie, BS’97, and Nancy Wang, MBA’05.   Heartfelt Thanks The Offices of Undergraduate Admissions and Alumni Relations owe a special thanks to alumni who have assisted with the student recruitment process by volunteering their… Read More

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Office of Alumni Relations teamed up a number of years ago to form the Alumni Recruitment Committee (ARC), an effort to involve alumni in the process of recruiting students for Vanderbilt. Over time the ARC’s success has led to expansion of the program,… Read More

Dr. Levi Watkins Jr., MD’70, associate dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and professor of cardiac surgery, is this year’s recipient of the highest honor bestowed upon an alumnus of the university: the Vanderbilt Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. First presented in 1996, the award recognizes an… Read More

Becca Stevens, MDiv’90Photo by Daniel Dubois On Sunday mornings, former prostitutes and drug addicts fill the pews alongside Vanderbilt faculty, staff and students for services at St. Augustine’s Chapel. They share their stories and take communion together, finding commonalities in what some would think are very different worlds. Read More

Sam McCleskey, BE’51 Photo by John Russell It’s a fact of life: For some people, earning a living means dealing with death. Sam McCleskey has spent most of his career as the country’s premier builder of mausoleums. The earliest mausoleum was built between 353 and 350… Read More

A Rhodes Scholar and senior minister for the historic Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore at age 26, Brad Braxton applies lessons he learned along the way as associate professor of New Testament and homiletics. He continues to guest preach as many as 25 sermons each semester. Photo… Read More

“As academics we can try to find ways to decrease the conflict instead of exacerbating it.” ~Diana Orces, graduate student from Ecuador Photo by Daniel Dubois. America’s political scholars keep a close eye not only on our own democratic process, but on attitudes about democracy worldwide. And… Read More

COURTESY OF MICHAEL WOODARD. When the Black Hawk helicopter I was flying landed at the American base near Al Qayyarah in early October 2005, ending my role in Operation Iraqi Freedom, it came as welcome relief from the maddening pace of the previous 12 months. Naively, I… Read More

Al Gore Lamar Alexander Fred Thompson Ross Perot In four of the six most recent presidential campaigns, Vanderbilt alumni have watched one of their own vie for his party’s nomination. Al Gore was a front-runner in the 1988 Democratic race, winning on Super Tuesday. Gore… Read More