Spring 2012

In a suite of laboratories atop a gleaming glass-walled tower, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are designing radical new treatments for Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and an inherited form of autism. A block away in a steel-shielded basement, children read aloud while their brains are being scanned in a doughnut-shaped… Read More

Bass guitarist and keyboardist Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts poses with young fans Emma Watson (left) and Gracelyn Mansfield before a sold-out 2007 Rascal Flatts concert at Nashville’s downtown arena. With all proceeds from the show benefiting Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, it was the largest single fundraising… Read More

Experience, so they say, is the best teacher. But when it comes to cutting-edge laboratory-based research, hands-on work often is the exclusive purview of graduate students and faculty. So how does an undergraduate student interested in research go about obtaining the experience and exposure that can help launch a career?… Read More

While the Vanderbilt Alumni Association doesn’t hold caucuses, primaries or candidate debates, we do engage annually in the very important task of selecting new volunteer leadership and recognizing outstanding alumni. That said, I would like to call your attention to three nomination processes that are currently under way and to… Read More

The Vanderbilt Alumni Association now offers podcasts for alumni in career transition. Featuring several different career experts, these videos offer tips and other advice on best practices to help with your job search. Access them at vanderbilt.edu/alumni/career. Remember that the Alumni Association is a great source… Read More

The Vanderbilt Alumni Association seeks to expand its shared interest groups, which bring together alumni with a common interest or connection, such as undergraduate student organizations, sports, clubs, social/ethnic groups and more. These groups can come together for educational and social events, networking, and connecting with on-campus groups—essentially functioning as… Read More

“Flulapalooza,” a drill of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s mass vaccination plan, broke the Guinness world record for most vaccinations given in an eight-hour period. Free flu vaccines were given to 12,850 Vanderbilt faculty, staff, students and volunteers during the October event—more than doubling the previous record. Forty-four nurses at a… Read More

Helen Hudson Helen Hudson, MEd’94, has enjoyed a varied career: high school English teacher, songwriter, recording artist, actress, therapist, speaker and author. Her memoir, Kissing Tomatoes, which details the 13 years she and her husband cared for her grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease, was profiled recently in Counseling Today, and… Read More

COVER: Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital patient Ansley McLaurin gets a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry House from Rascal Flatts members Jay DeMarcus, Joe Don Rooney and Gary LeVox. Rascal Flatts, who recently became the newest members of the Opry, personifies the growing trend of Nashville entertainers who… Read More

With the official end of the U.S. war in Iraq and the return home of thousands of service members, Vanderbilt researchers are working with the Department of Defense to ensure mental health concerns associated with deployments are not overlooked. Faculty and staff of Vanderbilt School of Medicine are conducting workshops… Read More

A report released by the Institute of Medicine last September confirms the safety of eight vaccines studied by a committee of experts convened in 2009 to review epidemiological, clinical and biological evidence regarding adverse health events. The committee—chaired by Vanderbilt’s Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, the Craig–Weaver Chair in Pediatrics, professor… Read More

One factor will go a long way toward determining whether President Obama—or any incumbent president—is re-elected, claims a Vanderbilt political scientist. Here it is: If the real disposable incomes of voters are growing—even modestly—in the six months before Election Day, Obama is likely to win. If they aren’t, he is… Read More

Easy Money, Hard Lessons This is the best article [“Missteps to Mayhem,” Summer 2011] I have read concerning our current financial situation and the hard choices that must be made. Human nature ignores the truth when it involves hard decisions and sacrifice, but Dr. Burry… Read More

Vanderbilt Magazine's first cover after the last redesign in 2002. This issue of Vanderbilt Magazine represents the last of its kind—but by no means signals the end of Vanderbilt’s flagship publication. This year we are rethinking and redesigning the magazine, an undertaking I find both thrilling and humbling. The current… Read More

As the first class to have begun its Vanderbilt education experience at The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons, the Class of 2012 has grown accustomed to having the spotlight on it. Now, as members of that class prepare to receive their diplomas in May, they already are demonstrating leadership and innovation… Read More

Irène Mathieu received a Canby Robinson Society scholarship. As a Fulbright scholar in the Dominican Republic, Irène Mathieu developed a passion for global health. But she knew attending medical school would likely leave her with substantial debt. A native of Virginia and graduate of The College of William & Mary,… Read More

Dr. W. Bedford Waters celebrates with his mother, Irene Georgia Bedford Waters, on her 90th birthday. Dr. W. Bedford Waters, BA’70, MD’74, established the Irene Georgia Bedford Waters Scholarship in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine to honor his mother, whose compassion and encouragement brightened the world around her. Irene… Read More

Santisteban in his Franklin, Tenn., studio Jose Santisteban—beads of perspiration glistening on his brow—rotates a long, thin metal tube tipped with a bubble of honey-colored molten glass inside a furnace that’s been heated to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. As African jazz plays in the background, Santisteban removes the pipe from the… Read More

The year 2011 was a very good one for writer Kevin Wilson, BA’00. His first novel, The Family Fang, was published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, in August to glowing reviews, and he was the subject of an admiring profile in The New York Times. He did a 12-city… Read More

Not Here, Not Now, Not That! Protest over Art and Culture in America by Steven Tepper, associate professor of sociology and associate director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy (2011, University of Chicago Press) Tepper’s book suggests that artists who simply cite the First Amendment,… Read More