Q & A

  • Vanderbilt University

    Global Ambassa’Dore: Q&A with Patti White, BA’76, on raising Vanderbilt’s profile abroad

    Patti Early White, BA’76, and her husband, George White, have established the Early–White International Scholarship to provide need-based support to undergraduate international students who are from the U.K. or European Union member countries and enrolled in the College of Arts and Science. Read More

    Sep 6, 2018

  • Vanderbilt University

    Constant Content: Q&A with Kelly Campbell, BS’00

    Hulu’s chief marketing officer looks for heart at the intersection of entertainment and tech DANIEL BAXTER   Campbell As the ways we consume media continue to change, viewers have more choices than ever before. In 2012, Disney, NBC Universal (now Comcast) and 21st Century Fox banded together to… Read More

    Jun 8, 2018

  • Vanderbilt University

    Domestic Bliss: Family linens business thrives by investing in sustainable U.S. manufacturing

    George Matouk, BA'91, talks about his family's business, John Matouk & Co., which has emerged as one of the premier luxury brands in bed and bath linens. Read More

    Feb 26, 2018

  • Vanderbilt University

    The Rule of 10: Zakiya Smith, BS’06, is exploring new models to help students fund their higher education

    PHOTO BY AARON CLAMAGE, PHOTOGRAPHER IN WASHINGTON, D.C.   This year’s recipient of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Professional Achievement Award, Zakiya Smith, BS’06, has dedicated her career to easing the complications and financial burden associated with paying for a college education—first as a senior… Read More

    Nov 21, 2017

  • Vanderbilt University

    Constitutional Crisis: Q&A with Professor Ganesh Sitaraman

    Professor of Law Ganesh Sitaraman believes the United States is facing a stark choice: Either continue along the current path of rising economic inequality and risk oligarchy, or rebuild the middle class and reclaim the republic that the Founding Fathers originally envisioned. Read More

    Sep 7, 2017

  • Vanderbilt University

    A Sign from God: Q&A with Karen Graham, BA’87

    Guided by little more than a desire to learn sign language and perhaps some divine intervention, longtime Atlanta television news personality Karen Graham, BA’87, has launched a digital news network for the deaf community. Read More

    May 29, 2017

  • Vanderbilt University

    Back to Basics: Q&A with Dean Lawrence Marnett

    In April, when the fiscal separation of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center was completed, Larry Marnett—the University Professor of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Pharmacology and Mary Geddes Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research—assumed a new role as the School of Medicine’s first dean of basic sciences, reporting directly to the provost. Read More

    Nov 20, 2016

  • Vanderbilt University

    Pastry Protection: Q&A with Candice Cook Simmons, JD’03, about Trademarking Intellectual Property

    Sure, you’ve heard of the Cronut®. It’s the half-croissant, half-doughnut that took the world by storm a few years ago. But have you ever wondered why you’ve heard of it? It’s because of innovative attorneys like Candice Cook Simmons, who received her law degree from Vanderbilt in 2003. Read More

    Aug 10, 2016

  • Vanderbilt University

    ’Dore of Opportunity: Parents’ Example Sparks a Major Commitment to Students’ Financial Needs

    Hoping to ensure that the door to a Vanderbilt education is open to every talented student inspired Board of Trust member Dr. Robert Schiff Jr., BS’77, a Cincinnati pediatrician, to make a transformative $10,000,000 commitment to Opportunity Vanderbilt. Read More

    May 12, 2016

  • Vanderbilt University

    Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Megan Barry, MBA’93, Takes Reins as Nashville’s First Woman Mayor

    Megan Barry was elected as Nashville’s first woman mayor this fall in a hotly contested race that drew national media attention. Vanderbilt Magazine sat down with the new mayor to talk about the election process, her connection with Vanderbilt, and what she hopes to accomplish. Read More

    Dec 4, 2015

  • Vanderbilt University

    Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld: Proud to Serve

    Vanderbilt physician Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve and a combat veteran, has made news more than once by advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues. Read More

    Oct 23, 2015

  • Vanderbilt University

    Q&A with Clay Hensley, BA’94

    Clay Hensley, BA’94. senior director of international strategy and outreach for the College Board, is helping American universities like Vanderbilt navigate the growing demand from students abroad. Read More

    Jul 31, 2015

  • Vanderbilt University

    Q&A with Meg Pirkle, BE’89

    Previously director of GDOT’s Permits and Operations Division, Pirkle spent part of last year implementing task force recommendations after the January 2014 Atlanta “Snowpocalypse” that stranded thousands of commuters for eight hours or more on iced-over interstates—roads that are notorious for traffic snarls even in the best of times. Read More

    Mar 23, 2015

  • Vanderbilt University

    An Interview with Provost Susan Wente

    Last April, Susan Wente, a cell biologist who most recently served as associate vice chancellor for research and senior associate dean for biomedical sciences at Vanderbilt, was named university provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. Read More

    Dec 23, 2014

  • Vanderbilt University

    Metzl on Mental Illness and Gun Violence

    After the horrific mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2011, a conservative commentator claimed that “guns don’t kill people—the mentally ill do.” Metzl believes this attitude is based on misconceptions about mental illness and violence that obscure larger issues about gun violence in America. Read More

    Sep 26, 2014

  • Vanderbilt University

    Star-Spangled Brass

    In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the poem “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key, Steven Smartt, BME’71, MME’72, aims to play the national anthem 100 times at public events this year. Read More

    Jun 18, 2014

  • Vanderbilt University

    Need to Know: Q&A with Jon Meacham

    Jon Meacham, executive editor and executive vice president at Random House and author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, joined the Vanderbilt faculty last summer with a three-year appointment as Distinguished Visiting Professor. Read More

    Mar 7, 2014

  • Vanderbilt University

    Teach, Pray, Lead

    Credit: Daniel Dubois Divinity students, faculty and staff will welcome new leadership when the Rev. Emilie M. Townes is installed in August as the school’s 16th dean. She is also the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair and professor of womanist ethics and society. Read More

    Aug 12, 2013

  • Vanderbilt University

    Ear for Language

    Credit: Joe Howell Few faculty lives intersect with as many Vanderbilt students as that of Fräncille Bergquist, associate professor of Spanish and associate dean of the College of Arts and Science. Bergquist, who helped establish McTyeire International House, retires this spring… Read More

    May 7, 2013

  • Vanderbilt University

    Stassun on Producing Minority Ph.D. Recipients

    Not long after he arrived at Vanderbilt nine years ago, Keivan Stassun, professor of astronomy, began building on a newly forged alliance with Fisk University, a historically black college just two miles from the Vanderbilt campus, in an effort to increase the number of African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and other minorities earning Ph.D. degrees in science. Read More

    Jan 14, 2013