Winter 2019

At Vanderbilt, there is no shortage of exploration. Every day our talented faculty, students and staff are driven to make discoveries—not just for the recognition, but for the chance to move the dial, to permeate the boundaries, to affect our society at large and for the better. Read More

During the past 11 years, NASA has awarded the Vanderbilt rocket team eight payload design awards and five national championships. The team has won a total of 30 national and international awards and 16 regional awards. In addition, the Vanderbilt Aerospace Design Lab has launched an impressive number of graduates into roles at companies such as SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Rolls Royce, NASA and Northrop. Read More

The Frist Center for Autism and Innovation seeks to transform workplaces by developing new technologies based on the specific skills and talents of people with autism, effectively inspiring advances that can lead to meaningful employment and a fuller life. Read More

Three graduates and one current student have taken their passions to extreme levels—visiting every country on the planet, flying solo around the world, biking across the country, and walking the length of California. Read More

Last year 13 former Commodores played in the big leagues. Of those 13 players, eight were pitchers, including David Price and Walker Buehler, who both pitched in the 2018 World Series. Read More

As the global initiatives director for Human Rights Watch, Worden curates and implements international outreach and advocacy campaigns and is now mobilizing the world of sport to tackle global abuses. Read More

Tthe Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2018, is taking a look at its origins through an oral history project and a documentary exhibit. Read More

“Untitled” by Alicia Henry, mixed media, 2 feet by 3 feet Paper dolls have long been used to emphasize cultural norms regarding femininity and beauty. As often happens, childhood play subtly reinforces society’s notions of the “ideal.” Once these playthings are cast off and one enters adulthood, these romanticized… Read More

Junior Nicholas Heilborn conducts his commissioned piece with chatterbird musicians. Photo by Susan Urmy The composer Michael Slayton can’t remember the first time an ensemble performed one of his pieces. That’s perhaps not surprising, since Slayton’s works, especially his chamber music, are now frequently commissioned and performed… Read More

Photo by Anne Rayner Douglas Shadle, assistant professor of musicology, was presented with the American Musicological Society’s inaugural H. Robert Cohen/RIPM Award at this year’s annual meeting in San Antonio for his book Orchestrating the Nation: The Nineteenth-Century American Symphonic Enterprise (2015, Oxford University Press). The award honors… Read More

James Threalkill, BS’79, poses with the portraits he has painted for the Legacy Pioneers series. (Joe Howell) Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos unveiled four portraits during Reunion weekend in October that are part of a new Vanderbilt Trailblazers portrait series honoring members of the Vanderbilt community who broke barriers at… Read More

Sarah D’Amico, BS’16, takes a moment to put up her feet after a rewarding day of teaching. A classroom of elementary school students in New York City is receiving a well-rounded education thanks to their teacher, Sarah D’Amico, BS’16, who returned to her neighborhood after graduation to pass the… Read More

Entertaining a continent as populous as Asia is no small feat. Todd Miller, CEO of Hong Kong–based Celestial Tiger Entertainment, is doing it with aplomb. “You can think of Celestial as the HBO of Chinese movies,” he says. “We operate six core channels, all of… Read More

Judge Escobar outside the Justice A.A. Birch courthouse in Nashville. (John Russell) There were no road maps for Ana Escobar to follow when she was elected Nashville’s first Latina judge in August. Further, the self-described introvert had to step outside her comfort zone to run for the elective post… Read More

Xiaoyan Jiang, MBA’01, is helping to ensure that Owen Students can expand their educations by traveling abroad. (Chad Driver) Xiaoyan Jiang, MBA’01, is a strong believer in the transformative power of international travel. While working in global business, she logged addresses in Nashville, Cleveland, Tokyo, Hong Kong and… Read More

Alumni gather for November’s Vanderbilt University Networking Night in Beijing. Vanderbilt’s impressive worldwide community of more than 140,000 alumni was on display in November with the Alumni Association’s fifth annual Networking Night. More than 1,100 alumni representing a wide range of professions, ages and Vanderbilt degrees gathered on… Read More

Dan Lovinger Few times in my life has this concept been more evident than while I was a student at Vanderbilt. With access to a broad range of ideas and perspectives, I quickly understood the importance of engaging individuals whose lives and stories could impact my own. At… Read More

Nicole Feliciano’s Momtrends blog helps “busy, style-starved women keep in touch with what’s hip and cool.” The website attracts almost 100,000 unique visitors each month. As a working mother of two daughters, Nicole Feliciano, like countless other moms, would love to have an extra hour in the day. Read More

Alan Hicks, BA’66, left, speaks with Strong Inside author Andrew Maraniss, BA’92, at the San Francisco Commodore Classroom event. The New York Times best-selling book Strong Inside shares the trailblazing Vanderbilt experience of Perry Wallace, BE’70. The story has resonated with alumni everywhere, and Commodore Classrooms events have provided… Read More

Photo by Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee Being a student at the Blair School of Music kept Dana Kelley busy, but being a professional musician in New York City adds a whole new meaning to the word. Kelley is violist with the Argus Quartet, the Juilliard School’s quartet-in-residence, which played on the… Read More