Summer 2020

The VBI recently marked its 20th anniversary, a span that has seen the institute’s wide-ranging missions—including administering the university’s Neuroscience Graduate Program, as well as postdoctoral training and community outreach—steadily coalesce under a single umbrella. Read More

The past decade in particular has been marked by a dramatic increase in music cognition inquiry, as about 100 laboratory groups around the world, including at Vanderbilt, are working across disciplines to understand music’s relationship to the brain, behavior and health, and to develop effective intervention strategies. Read More

Because of continuing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, Reunion 2020 General Chairs Karen Fesmire, BS’80, and Bill Fesmire, BA’80, have announced the postponement of Reunion 2020 until the fall of 2021. Read More

Kenneth Epps, rear admiral and deputy chief of staff for fleet ordnance and supply in the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, understands the importance of logistics in today’s military. Read More

Even at 104 years old, Helen Sterling, BA’36, MA’38, handled aging with optimism and grace. Her affection for her alma mater motivated her to include the university in her estate plans. Thanks to her $1.6 million bequest for unrestricted support at Peabody College and the College of Arts and Science, her legacy at Vanderbilt endures. Read More

Michael Ainslie has a knack for seeking out—and solving—difficult problems, as he writes in his new book A Nose for Trouble: Sotheby’s, Lehman Brothers, and My Life of Redefining Adversity. Read More

Sara Lissa Hutchison Hampshire died May 2, 2020, in Nashville after a brief battle with cancer. She was 71. Read More

William F. “Bill” Malone, a public administrator who took part in one of Florida’s biggest Everglades restoration efforts, oversaw the construction and remodeling of dozens of schools, and came out of retirement to lead Palm Beach County’s schools as superintendent, died May 3, 2020, at age 77. Read More

Martha Nann Priddy Patterson, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who specialized in benefit and tax issues for large firms and wrote an influential book on financial planning for working women, died April 23, 2020, in Rockville, Maryland. She was 71. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, her father, Thomas “Cotton” Priddy, was a… Read More

Watching his aunt struggle with bipolar disorder, Asa Briggs traded in his legal aspirations to pursue a career in mental health care. Read More

The Vanderbilt Alumni Association Board of Directors announces its 2020 alumni award recipients. Read More

Dr. David Patterson, BA’81, MD’85, is proof the Vanderbilt experience doesn’t have to end after graduation. Patterson has served Vanderbilt as a trustee since 2013. He also is a member of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Board of Directors, and past president of the Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association. Read More

The Vanderbilt University Alumni Association Board of Directors announces new leadership and the addition of six new members. Read More

Tremendous engagement and volunteer opportunities are available for alumni. Please check into them at vuconnect.com. Read More

Under Jack Elder, EdS’73, the Tennessee Special Olympics program became recognized as one of the strongest and best managed. For athletes then and now, after five decades, Special Olympics is a chance to prove what they can do when given the opportunity. Read More

For television writer and producer Saladin Patterson, MA’96, an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from MIT was not the start of his career—at least not as he’d initially planned. Thanks to his on-campus job in tech support at Wilson Hall, Patterson plotted a career that led straight to Hollywood. Read More

The term “vinyl enthusiast” doesn’t do justice to Alapatt’s work. He has released dozens of new and almost-lost-to-history singles and albums through Now Again Records, launched in 2002 while he was general manager for the influential independent hip-hop label Stones Throw Records. Read More

The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron soar directly above Vanderbilt Stadium on May 14 during a series of nationwide flyovers, which included Nashville. Read More

The symbolism of frayed, worn flags in "Flag Exchange" by Mel Ziegler, Paul E. Schwab Professor of Fine Arts, raises questions about the capacity of the American experiment to be sustained through national triumphs and shortcomings, including our own time of divisiveness. Read More

Racial injustice is a different sort of virus infecting our country and requires a comprehensive treatment, writes Dr. André L. Churchwell, BS’75, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for Vanderbilt University. Read More