Vanderbilt Magazine

Bill Ivey, a guitar-playing folklorist who founded and was the first director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt, as well as former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts and longtime director of the Country Music Foundation, died Nov. 7, 2025, at his home in Nashville. He was 81. Read More

George Eric Core, scholar, editor and writer, died Oct. 14, 2023. He was 84. Read More

Annette Schaffer Eskind, a civic leader and philanthropist who, with her late husband, Irwin Eskind, MD’48, made transformational contributions to Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and throughout the city of Nashville, died July 13, 2025. She was 97. Read More

The Elizabeth Olson and Robert Lee Brown Scholarship gives future generations of Vanderbilt engineering students an opportunity to pursue their dreams. Read More

Avery Dickins de Girón bridges academic work with the wider Vanderbilt and Nashville communities, ensuring that cultural learning is shared and carried forward. Read More

College sweethearts Mary and Patrick Mudge facilitate connection among Atlanta-based Commodores. Read More

Roy Kramer, who was athletic director at Vanderbilt from 1978 to 1990 and then turned the Southeastern Conference into a lucrative national power as commissioner, died Dec. 4, 2025, in Maryville, Tenn. He was 96. Read More

NATHAN FISK CLASS OF 2026 Majors: Economics, Business, HOD Hometown: Franklin, Tennessee “I’m a big skier, so I got Vail, Keystone and Sugar Mountain. I’m a big outdoorsy guy, too, so I have camping stickers and whatnot.”   LYDIA TAYLOR CLASS OF 2029 Majors:… Read More

Dear fellow alumni, As I prepare to transition from my honored role as president of Vanderbilt Alumni Association Board, I take great pride in the incredible, inspiring momentum we have built together. This journey has proven that we are truly stronger when we stand as one global community—One Vanderbilt. … Read More

Carl Manalo The distance from Carl Vincent Manalo’s high school in the Bronx to Vanderbilt’s campus was greater than the miles separating the two. “I was prepared with the grit and the persistence, and I was prepared enough to get into Vanderbilt, but there were certain things I didn’t know,”… Read More

Chancellor Daniel Diermeier (Elias Hassos) Vanderbilt was created in the wake of the Civil War to help heal the wounds of a divided nation—in the words of Cornelius Vanderbilt, to “contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country.” Now, as then, dialogue and… Read More

Renée Galá Growing up on a farm in Missouri, Renée Galá knew one thing for certain: She would go to college. Her parents prioritized education and ensured that Galá and her sister became the first in their immediate family to pursue higher education. Galá’s initial path led to a state… Read More

Olivia Miller Smith One of Olivia Miller Smith’s most thought-provoking undergraduate courses was called Prison Life. “We toured the Tennessee State Prison, a stark experience. All I could think about was the lost potential for those incarcerated,” she says.  Decades later, after working as a registered nurse at Vanderbilt… Read More

Alex Astrella, left, with the cast of his thesis film, “Free Play” When Alex Astrella was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age 2, his parents were told that he had little chance of graduating high school or becoming financially independent. Today, he is a behavior therapist, a leader in… Read More

When Markus Schreyer joined Vanderbilt University as CEO of Vanderbilt Enterprises, he brought a world of experience—literally. His decades-long career in global hospitality took him from Tokyo to Marrakesh, Jaipur and Mexico City as he helped shape some of the most recognized luxury brands in the world. “What… Read More

Jack, a 9-year-old yellow Labrador retriever who joined Vanderbilt in 2018, was the university’s first community K-9 patrol partner to Sgt. Shaneithia Lewis, who has been a member of the VUPD team since 2014. Max, a 4-year-old beagle-basset hound, joined Vanderbilt in 2022 as a K-9 patrol partner to… Read More

Athletic Director and Vice Chancellor for Athletics Candice Story Lee sets on her on sights on what she wants Vanderbilt sports to be. Read More

Daniel Huddleston, BA’94 has translated eight Japanese science fiction novels. Read More

Mr. C’s current look blends tradition with game-day energy. (Vanderbilt) Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose $1 million gift established the university in 1873, earned the nickname “the Commodore” while building a vast transportation empire that included ships and railroads. The university’s athletes were nicknamed the Commodores as early as 1898 by… Read More

Late in 2025, Jennifer and Marc Lipschultz committed a landmark collection of nearly 5,000 photographs to the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art. Read More