Alumni Profiles
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Suzanne Rich Miller, BA’80, and Anne Miller Morris, BS’06: Family Recipe
Many families have beloved recipes they pass down from generation to generation. Suzanne Rich Miller, BA'80, and Anne Miller Morris, BS'06, have parlayed a simple salad dressing created by matriarch Anne Arnold Rich (mother to Suzanne and grandmother of Anne) into a growing, woman-owned business. Read MoreNov 28, 2023
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Aisha Francis, MA’99, PhD’04, takes the nontraditional route in academia
Aisha Francis, president and CEO of Boston’s Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology in 2021, is among the Boston Globe’s 50 Tech Power Players for 2023. With graduate degrees from Vanderbilt in English, she sought a path that was “both optimistic and realistic,” that could lead to nontraditional academic roles. Read MoreNov 20, 2023
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Aaron Feng, BA’18, champions the environment within finance, oil and gas industries
See how Yalun Aaron Feng, BA’18, is using his optimism and passion for the environment to build bridges between business and environmental advocacy. Read MoreOct 27, 2023
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Scott Johnson, BE’87: Getting to the Point
After long careers designing power generation plants and acute care medical facilities, Scott Johnson, BE'87, made a career leap two years ago to take the top job at the nation’s largest pencil maker, Musgrave Pencil Company. Read MoreOct 17, 2023
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Olatunde Osinaike, BS’15: The Algorithm of Poetry
School of Engineering alumnus Olatunde Osinaike is one of five winners of the 2022 National Poetry Series. His debut collection, 'Tender Headed,' is being published by Akashic Press in December. He will be on campus for an alumni reading event Oct. 24, co-sponsored by the Vanderbilt Creative Writing Program and the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center. He returns to Nashville Jan. 25, 2024, for a reading with The Porch, a literary nonprofit. Read MoreOct 3, 2023
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WATCH: Chemistry major pursues passions in poetry, dance through Immersion Vanderbilt
JaHyne “JJ” Johnson, BA’23, came to Vanderbilt as a QuestBridge Scholar, ready to “do the work” and come out with a solid career path. What the chemistry major didn’t realize then was that the opportunities he pursued through classes, activities and Immersion Vanderbilt would allow him to write poetry, conduct research, dance in a ballet, launch a podcast and more. Read MoreAug 23, 2023
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Derrick R. Spires, MA’05, PhD’12: Citizenship Across Space and Time
Derrick R. Spires, an associate professor of literatures in English at Cornell University, has a talent for making 19th-century newspapers and pamphlets feel as accessible as the latest social media feed. He explores the culture of the early 19th-century Black press in his 2019 book 'The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States' (University of Pennsylvania Press), which was recently released in paperback. Read MoreApr 26, 2023
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Dawn Bennett, MDiv’18: A Call to The Table
Dawn Bennett has found paths to servant leadership throughout her life, but it was decades before she made a leap of faith and enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School. In January 2020, she was ordained by Bishop Kevin Strickland to remain in Nashville and build The Table, a faith collective centered on LGBTQIA+ people and vulnerable identities. Read MoreApr 11, 2023
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Michael Quillen, BA’72: At the Wheel for Ukraine
Michael Quillen, BA'72, took the wheel, literally and figuratively, to deliver ambulances to the front line of the war in Ukraine. The undertaking was launched in spring 2022 when Rotary International raised $15 million in relief funds for Ukraine. Longtime Rotary member Quillen worked with two Rotary districts in Virginia to apply for a $50,000 grant to buy three ambulances. Read MoreMar 27, 2023
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Stephanie DeVane-Johnson, MSN’97: Nurturing Black Maternal Health
As she teaches the next generation of nurse-midwives, Vanderbilt School of Nursing faculty member and alumna Stephanie DeVane-Johnson looks at ways to increase the number of Black doulas, who provide emotional and physical support to women in pregnancy, during birth and throughout the postpartum period. Read MoreMar 24, 2023
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Digital wellness activist Larissa May, BA’16, empowers teens on their social media journey
A mental health battle with internet addiction and the ruinous effects of unfiltered social media nearly ravaged a talented entrepreneur while she was a student at Vanderbilt. But Larissa May, BA’16, has turned her healing journey into an influential, youth-based digital advocacy and empowerment platform, #HalfTheStory. May returned to Vanderbilt March 4 to speak as part of the Clinton Global Initiative University annual meeting. Read MoreMar 6, 2023
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Somtochukwu Dimobi Okoye, BE’19, creates allyships to help others realize their potential
When Somto Dimobi Okoye, BE’19, was growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, her mother would open their home to people who needed help—instilling a philosophy of building strength and community through a tightly woven support system. Okoye continues that philosophy by creating ways to help colleagues and Vanderbilt students realize and exercise their full potential. Read MoreFeb 24, 2023
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Extracurricular experiences shaped alumnus from Syria’s career in interfaith diversity
When Syrian native Musbah Shaheen, BA’17, traveled to the U.S. for the first time to attend Vanderbilt, he had no idea how the university’s cornerstone philosophies of equity, diversity and belonging would stretch him personally or shape his professional future and Ph.D. research. Read MoreDec 12, 2022
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Krystal Grant Folkestad, BMus’05: More Than Music
Blair alumna Krystal Grant Folkestad uses her musical skills to serve multiple audiences while focusing on how life affects art and art influences activism. Read MoreDec 5, 2022
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Compassionate care drives alumna Anana Upton to pursue pediatric nursing career
Growing up, Anana Upton, BS’21, spent endless hours in hospitals as her younger brother underwent care. That experience spurred a passionate drive in her to elevate the quality of health care available to underserved communities while also educating them about their medical choices and affording them the dignity they deserve. Read MoreNov 18, 2022
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Jennifer Janes, BMus’02: Veterinary Pathologist
When Jennifer Janes arrived at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music in 1998, she had two career paths in mind—veterinary medicine and teaching piano at the college level. Her abiding interest in horses and veterinary medicine eventually won out. Today, Dr. Janes is an associate professor of veterinary anatomic pathology at the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Read MoreOct 31, 2022
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A call to serve through law, public service and music spurs Anighya Crocker
Anighya Crocker, BMus’21, came to Vanderbilt as a multiracial, first-generation college student with big dreams to serve the community through public office and music. His Vanderbilt experience as a double major in Law, History and Society and music performance has helped him to hone both of those dreams. Read MoreOct 24, 2022
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Alexis Garcia, BA’99: Film Endeavor
Alexis Garcia, BA'99, is executive vice president for the film group at Fifth Season, formerly Endeavor Content, the production company behind movies such as Cha Cha Real Smooth, Ambulance, The Peanut Butter Falcon and the Academy Award-recognized The Lost Daughter. Read MoreOct 12, 2022
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Building community at Vanderbilt paves the way for career in New York City
Tommy Oswalt, BA’20, did not come to Vanderbilt with a mapped-out plan for his major. That initially made him nervous, but the first-generation college student jumped in with an open mind and a passion for building community—paving the way for a successful career. Read MoreSep 30, 2022
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A Hive for Entrepreneurs: Michael Berolzheimer, BS’00, and Kira Noodleman, BA’08
San Francisco-based venture capital firm Bee Partners now boasts two Vanderbilt graduates among its leadership: Founder Michael Berolzheimer, BS'00, and Kira Noodleman, BA'08, who recently was promoted to partner and now leads the Denver office. Read MoreSep 22, 2022