Alumni

Charles J. Melichar, a senior communications officer at Colgate University, has been selected as associate vice chancellor for communications in the Division of Development and Alumni Relations at Vanderbilt University. Read More

David James, Class of '48, School of Medicine Class of '51 Website offers audio interviews and transcripts World War II memories that include historic battles, hide-outs from the Nazis and campus war relief projects have been preserved through the Vandy Goes to War oral history project,… Read More

Left to right: J.P. Day (BE’07), Grafton Day (BA’09), Jeff Day (BA’81) and Liz Day at the new home they helped to furnish. On each episode of ABC’s popular Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the show’s designers and a cast of hundreds of volunteers race against time to transform—and often rebuild—the… Read More

Wirth “Welcome to Germany. Just three weeks until you’ll be in Bosnia,” I was told by my battalion’s personnel sergeant upon my 1993 arrival in Frankfurt. I never imagined then how my longing to experience the adventures of transformational Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) would lead me through the dense… Read More

Mark Loomis, BA’89 “When I was making my 3,000th copy on the second day of my first job, I realized the one course they didn’t teach at Vanderbilt was how to fix the copier,” says Mark Loomis. That first job, with ABC Sports, saw Loomis running errands, making lots of… Read More

Jasbina Ahluwalia, BA’91, MA’92 Making time for personal relationships while juggling the demands of a busy professional life led attorney Jasbina Ahluwalia down a new career path several years ago. The second-generation Indian American is founder of Intersections Matchmaking, which caters to single South Asian professionals nationwide. “Finding time for… Read More

Paul Manners, BA’42, and Joy Manners One teacher’s interest made all the difference in the life of Paul Manners. A native of Dover, Tenn., Manners grew up during the Great Depression and was the top student in his high school class. A high school English teacher, Lillian Bayer, encouraged… Read More

Ellen Pearson, second from right, and her family hang themselves out to dry. “Gripes, kudos, inspired ideas for future stories? Put ’em here,” read the Vanderbilt Magazine voluntary subscription card I received in the mail last year. Having long fancied myself an enlightened environmentalist with a throbbing social consciousness, I… Read More

Ben Hindman, BS’07, and Brody Davis, BA’07 “The best things in life are free … tours.” That’s the favorite quote of Brody Davis and Ben Hindman, entrepreneurs and founders of DC by Foot Tours. Their 90-minute “More than Monuments” tour is entirely tip-based. Former Vanderbilt fraternity brothers Davis, a… Read More

“You must be Catholic.” It’s the most common reaction I hear when someone finds out I’m the youngest of 12 children. (And they’re right—we’re Catholic, raised by the Sisters of Mercy.) The next most common reactions: “Your parents did know what causes pregnancy, didn’t they?” (I guess so—but, really, I… Read More

Toward the end of high school in Margate, Fla., a small strip of suburbia just north of Fort Lauderdale, Daniel Bernard Roumain managed to land two internships that prefigured his future musical career crossbreeding hip-hop and classical music. For a couple of summers in the late 1980s, he worked… Read More

Dr. Levi Watkins Jr., MD’70, associate dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and professor of cardiac surgery, is this year’s recipient of the highest honor bestowed upon an alumnus of the university: the Vanderbilt Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. First presented in 1996, the award recognizes an… Read More

Becca Stevens, MDiv’90Photo by Daniel Dubois On Sunday mornings, former prostitutes and drug addicts fill the pews alongside Vanderbilt faculty, staff and students for services at St. Augustine’s Chapel. They share their stories and take communion together, finding commonalities in what some would think are very different worlds. Read More

Sam McCleskey, BE’51 Photo by John Russell It’s a fact of life: For some people, earning a living means dealing with death. Sam McCleskey has spent most of his career as the country’s premier builder of mausoleums. The earliest mausoleum was built between 353 and 350… Read More

COURTESY OF MICHAEL WOODARD. When the Black Hawk helicopter I was flying landed at the American base near Al Qayyarah in early October 2005, ending my role in Operation Iraqi Freedom, it came as welcome relief from the maddening pace of the previous 12 months. Naively, I… Read More

Outfitters to Wookiees and Warlocks: Paul Bielaczyc, BS’02, MS’04 (standing), and his brother, Michael, only use their special powers for good, helping solve the age-old problem of what to wear to your next Renaissance festival or science fiction convention. The brothers create ogre masks, elf ears, faun pants, fangs,… Read More

“Never believe the landlord when he says that living next to the ‘el’ train is an ‘urban experience.'” Life After Vanderbilt is a new guide written for new graduates by recent graduates–a collection of advice that the Alumni Association will present as a graduation gift to each member of the… Read More

Katrina Markoff, BA’95 Alumni who are part of the 37 Vanderbilt Chapters nationwide are staying connected by planning dozens of events each year, from simple get-togethers for ballgames and happy hours to elaborate wine tastings and educational lectures. Here’s just a sampling: The New York and Chicago chapters each… Read More

“Opening Dores allows students to get real-world advice about what they can do with their Vanderbilt degree. And it’s fun for the alumni, who chat about their old classes and professors, sports, and what it means to be a Vanderbilt alum.” ~Kate Stuart “Should I take Italian or Spanish? And… Read More

Billy O’Steen, BA’89 (left), Betsy Macdonald, BS’90, and Kirk Williams, BA’89 “Kids seem to be the admission ticket for making new friends in strange places,” says Kirk Williams, who figured he was the only Vanderbilt alumnus living in the small coastal village of Sumner, New Zealand, until one day… Read More