Vanderbilt Magazine

The first Black woman to receive an athletic scholarship from Vanderbilt, Bender was a member of the nascent women’s basketball program. Today she is the co-chairperson of the Black and Gold Club, Vanderbilt’s alumni association for former student-athletes. Read More

Alumna Alyssa Weinberg, cofounder of new music and contemporary dance collective Duende, creates new forms of expression as a composer inspired by artists in other disciplines. She also has written music for some of the country’s premier chamber ensembles, including Eighth Blackbird, So Percussion and Aizuri Quartet. Read More

Vanderbilt Blair School of Music, which offered online-only streamed concerts for most of the 2020–21 academic year, hosted two outdoor in-person performances on Wilson Lawn in April, including a production of Benjamin Britten's 'Albert Herring' by Vanderbilt Opera Theatre. Read More

Raver, an esteemed developmental psychologist who began her tenure as Vanderbilt’s provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs on July 1, 2021, talks with Vanderbilt Magazine about her path into higher education leadership and her aspirations to leverage the university's strengths to help solve the major challenges of today and those facing future generations. Read More

Cathy Bender (Nora Canfield) When she graduated from Vanderbilt, Cathy Bender vowed she would never again set foot on campus. Yet as the current co-chairperson of the Black and Gold Club, Vanderbilt’s alumni association for former student-athletes, she walks that ground quite often these days. For a… Read More

Vanderbilt’s partnership with the National Museum of African American Music has moved forward with the university’s acquisition of a rich collection of photos, scrapbooks and more from the life and career of jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie. Read More

With the help of a Vanderbilt Strong grant and Vanderbilt’s Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy, two Vanderbilt University instructors came together to create a boisterous country western musical comedy. The play, "Sloppy Bonnie," will run May 20–June 5 in the parking lot of Oz Arts Nashville. Read More

Martin, the first female rookie to complete the American Ninja Warrior course, will be competing in her eighth season of the popular NBC show this summer. Read More

Afro-Cuban American artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons and the Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice, a trans-institutional partnership that she founded at Vanderbilt University, have received prestigious awards this spring. Read More

Communication is at the heart of the partnership between NMAAM and Vanderbilt. The museum officially opened this year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the doors now are open to ideas for acquisitions, guest lecturers, panel discussions, classes and performances. Read More

A poem by Carlina Duan, MFA'19, the author of 'I Wore My Blackest Hair' (Little A, 2017) and the upcoming 'Alien Miss' (University of Wisconsin Press, 2021). Read More

As alumni, we can help graduating Commodores prepare for the new chapter in their lives by encouraging and supporting them with mentorship and internship and job opportunities. Let’s show the Class of 2021 what it means to be Vanderbilt for Life. Read More

Melvyn Ivan Semmel of Santa Barbara, Calif., a researcher, educator and 2007 Peabody Distinguished Alumnus, who helped shape the nation’s understanding and policies relating to students with disabilities, died Feb. 25. Read More

Cathy Bender (Nora Canfield) When she graduated from Vanderbilt, Cathy Bender vowed she would never again set foot on campus. Yet as the current co-chairperson of the Black and Gold Club, Vanderbilt’s alumni association for former student-athletes, she walks that ground quite often these days. For a… Read More

Patricia Gail “Trish” Champion Frist, BA’61, of Nashville, who had a great impact as a philanthropist and business advocate, died Jan. 5. Read More

Abby and Jon became involved in the Parents Leadership Committee, later serving as co-chairs for the 2011–2012 Vanderbilt Parents Campaign. Jon, now a Vanderbilt trustee who is co-CEO of TPG Capital and the former co-president of Goldman Sachs, joined the Board of Trust in 2012. Read More

Last November, alumnus Gene Back’s growing list of accomplishments caught the attention of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The organization, which promotes the art of motion pictures on both sides of the Atlantic, selected him as a Breakthrough Talent. Read More

Alumnus Christopher Tuff, author of bestseller 'The Millennial Whisperer,' says this generation wants to matter to their employers, and they want their work to matter too. Understanding this dynamic results in business tactics that cost zero dollars and provide big paybacks. Read More

It started as a Yorkshireman’s attempt to bring something of home to Nashville. More than 50 years later, the Vanderbilt University Rugby Football Club has roots of its own. Read More

Thomas Peterffy of Interactive Brokers, whose philanthropic support endowed the Financial Markets Research Center in 2003, recently renamed it the Hans Stoll Financial Markets Research Center in memory of its founder. Stoll, a pioneer in the field and longtime director of the center who passed away in 2020, was emeritus professor of finance and former holder of the Anne Marie and Thomas B. Walker Jr. Chair of Finance at Owen. Read More