Alumni

Although Crystal Finley, BS’13, entered Vanderbilt with a clear plan for success, her life mission would soon change when she became a volunteer mentor with Next Steps at Vanderbilt, a postsecondary program for students with intellectual or other disabilities. Read More

MULTIPLATINUM RECORDING ARTIST AMY GRANT, ’82, HIGH-FIVES CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL PATIENT GIGI PASLEY AFTER RECORDING PASLEY’S SONG “WHAT IS NORMAL” FOR THE EVERYBODY HAS A STORY ALBUM. NOW 15 AND IN REMISSION, PASLEY HAS SPENT HER CHILDHOOD FIGHTING LEUKEMIA AND BONE CANCER. A compilation of songs written in… Read More

Attorney Chris Frohlich, BS’06, has parlayed a lifelong love of fishing into a thriving charter company based in Punta Gorda, Fla. When he’s not catch-and-release tarpon fishing for his own pleasure, he’s taking others out on the water or overseeing his staff of eight fishing guides. Read More

Vanderbilt alumni Tim Moses, BS’92, Thomas Conner, BA’88, and Bill Butler, BE’91, brought the Internet to Nashville in 1993. Enjoy the story of Telalink, Nashville’s first Internet service provider, as told by Nashville Public Radio’s Blake Farmer. Read More

Vanderbilt has created two new alumni awards—the Reunion Attendance Cup for the Reunion class with the highest percentage of alumni in attendance at Reunion and the Reunion Participation Cup for the class with the highest giving participation percentage. The awards will be presented during Vanderbilt’s Homecoming football game on October… Read More

Richard S. (Dick) Aldrich Jr. ’75 is a citizen of the world, but he found a home when he came to Vanderbilt Law School. The renowned international capital markets lawyer was born in New York, raised in New York, Rhode Island and Brazil, and then majored in Latin at Brown. Read More

Frustrated with school options for her son with autism, Helen Leonard, BS’91, created a school of her own. The light-filled classrooms of The Paragon School in Orlando, Fla., provide everything that this mother ever hoped for in an academic environment for her son. That’s because she created it. Read More

Nearly 50 years ago Robert J. Moore watched the countryside pass by his window during a long bus ride from Richmond, Va., to Nashville. As he traveled west, Moore wondered how he would be received as one of the first African American students to attend Vanderbilt University’s undergraduate schools. What… Read More

Nelson Andrews III, BA’89, EMBA’95, grew up around the automobile business, but he didn’t see himself making it his career. Read More

Clerkships offer benefits throughout a legal career. When Misty Johnson ’09 and her partner, Weslynn Reed ’09, won Vanderbilt’s 2008 Moot Court Competition, Johnson did not realize their victory would help her land a clerkship two years later with a pioneering African American federal judge she had long admired, Chief… Read More

The man the crowd knows as Deacon from the popular television show Nashville takes the stage at the Grand Ole Opry to screams of recognition. He starts with a sensitive ballad, and women of all ages stream past the lip of the stage and take his photo before being urged by ushers… Read More

You never know where a blind ad will lead you. It led Tim Murray from Knoxville, Tenn., to the Kingdom of Bahrain in the Middle East. Murray is CEO of Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the world’s top 10 aluminium producers. He joined Alba in 2007 as general manager of finance after… Read More

Tim Murray, EMBA’03, proves his mettle at Aluminium Bahrain You never know where a blind ad will lead you. It led Tim Murray from Knoxville, Tenn., to the Kingdom of Bahrain in the Middle East. Murray is CEO of Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the world’s top 10 aluminium producers. Read More

Deena Dill is probably one in a million—a busy actress and producer who’d rather work light-hearted sitcoms and game shows than become the next Meryl Streep. “Game shows are certainly not a niche most people in the industry gravitate toward, but it’s what I like,” she says. “I don’t know… Read More

Campaign finance expert Matt Sanderson ’08 serves on the Colbert Super PAC legal team. Matt Sanderson, Class of 2008, appeared before the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on June 30, 2011, with his boss, former FEC Chairman Trevor Potter, now a member of Caplin & Drysdale, and their client, comedian Stephen… Read More

During a 1997 summer internship, Vanderbilt mechanical engineering student Kofi Dadzie had a brilliant idea: Enormous opportunities awaited someone who could bring a combination of business principles and information technology to his homeland, Ghana. Read More

Thirty years ago John Elkington stood near the Mississippi River and looked east down historic Beale Street. The legendary jazz district, where blues pioneers W.C. Handy, Muddy Waters and B.B. King once played uniquely American music, resembled a war zone. The iconic area had become a wasteland of abandoned and… Read More

Lu Zeph believes people with disabilities have both a civil and a human right to develop their abilities in an inclusive community. “The disability rights movement is rooted in the Civil Rights Movement,” she states. Both faced similar opposition, she says, and both have advanced society. Read More

Fardon’s nomination was announced by the White House on May 23. “Today, I am honored to nominate this highly respected legal professional as a United States Attorney,” President Obama said in the White House release. “Zachary Fardon will be unwavering in his commitment to justice, and I am confident he will… Read More

A team of computer engineers from Vanderbilt University’s Institute of Software Integrated Systems has developed an inexpensive hardware module and related software that can transform an Android smartphone into a simple shooter location system. Read More