Arts And Science Profiles
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CLASS OF 2024: Call to nature helps Danait Issac build community and cultural bonds
WATCH: See how Danait Issac is sharing her love of her Eritrean heritage and the great outdoors to empower and connect Vanderbilt students. Read MoreFeb 23, 2024
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Suzanne Rich Miller, BA’80, and Anne Miller Morris, BS’06: Family Recipe
Many families have beloved recipes they pass down from generation to generation. Suzanne Rich Miller, BA'80, and Anne Miller Morris, BS'06, have parlayed a simple salad dressing created by matriarch Anne Arnold Rich (mother to Suzanne and grandmother of Anne) into a growing, woman-owned business. Read MoreNov 28, 2023
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María Magdalena Campos-Pons wins 2023 MacArthur Fellowship
María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Art, has been awarded a 2023 MacArthur Fellowship for her work exploring personal and collective histories across the Caribbean. Read MoreOct 9, 2023
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Digital wellness activist Larissa May, BA’16, empowers teens on their social media journey
A mental health battle with internet addiction and the ruinous effects of unfiltered social media nearly ravaged a talented entrepreneur while she was a student at Vanderbilt. But Larissa May, BA’16, has turned her healing journey into an influential, youth-based digital advocacy and empowerment platform, #HalfTheStory. May returned to Vanderbilt March 4 to speak as part of the Clinton Global Initiative University annual meeting. Read MoreMar 6, 2023
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Mabel Cummins strikes balance as bowling team captain, Undergraduate Honor Council president
Between academics, training and competition, collegiate student-athletes must juggle a lot. Mabel Cummins, captain of the Vanderbilt bowling team, added to her multitasking over the past year by also serving as president of the university’s Undergraduate Honor Council. Read MoreJan 9, 2023
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Extracurricular experiences shaped alumnus from Syria’s career in interfaith diversity
When Syrian native Musbah Shaheen, BA’17, traveled to the U.S. for the first time to attend Vanderbilt, he had no idea how the university’s cornerstone philosophies of equity, diversity and belonging would stretch him personally or shape his professional future and Ph.D. research. Read MoreDec 12, 2022
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Five from Vanderbilt participate in SEC Emerging Scholars Program
Five Vanderbilt graduate students recently participated in the SEC Networking and Career Fair hosted by the University of Missouri, part of the SEC Emerging Scholars Program for doctoral and postdoctoral scholars announced earlier this year. Read MoreNov 2, 2022
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A call to serve through law, public service and music spurs Anighya Crocker
Anighya Crocker, BMus’21, came to Vanderbilt as a multiracial, first-generation college student with big dreams to serve the community through public office and music. His Vanderbilt experience as a double major in Law, History and Society and music performance has helped him to hone both of those dreams. Read MoreOct 24, 2022
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Building community at Vanderbilt paves the way for career in New York City
Tommy Oswalt, BA’20, did not come to Vanderbilt with a mapped-out plan for his major. That initially made him nervous, but the first-generation college student jumped in with an open mind and a passion for building community—paving the way for a successful career. Read MoreSep 30, 2022
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The Vanderbilt Ventriloquist: Alumna Megan Piphus Peace finds her voice as the first Black female puppeteer on ‘Sesame Street’
Megan Piphus Peace, BA’14, MSF’15, is an accomplished ventriloquist and puppeteer who has performed in front of audiences across the nation, including on The Tonight Show and America’s Got Talent. In 2021, she made history as the first Black female puppeteer to work on the long-running children’s television show Sesame Street. Read MoreAug 2, 2022
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A Life’s Work: Kate Daniels has built a writing and teaching career by combining a focus on healing and artistic expression
Kate Daniels has long been captivated by the connection between writing and the healing process. After earning her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, Daniels worked as a nurse’s aide at UVA Medical Center while she was in the process of applying to graduate school. The job was grueling,… Read MoreApr 11, 2022
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Kelly Holley-Bockelmann receives Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science for contributions to science and society
Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, Stevenson Professor of Astrophysics, has received the 2022 Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The award is for individuals who have mentored significant numbers of underrepresented students who are working toward doctorates in STEM. Read MoreFeb 9, 2022
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The Science of Poetry: Scientist and writer Jenny Qi finds meaning in the loss of her mother
Photography by Marc Olivier Le Blanc The opening poem in Focal Point, the debut collection by Jenny Qi, BA’11, navigates the fraught emotional space between a loving daughter’s grief over her mother’s death and a scientist’s clear-eyed inquiry into the disease-cancer-that caused it. Qi writes of “nights at a microscope in… Read MoreJan 27, 2022
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How to Shoot Great Video with Your Phone: Expert advice from cinematographer Alicia Robbins
Photos by Richard CartwrightIllustrations by Michelle Pereira Cinematographer Alicia Robbins, BS’01, never planned on working behind the scenes. At Vanderbilt, she aspired to a career in broadcast journalism, appearing in spots for Vanderbilt Television and taking every class related to television and film she could find. Everything changed when her… Read MoreJan 26, 2022
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Trent Shores, BA’00: In Service to His Heritage
Trent Shores, BA'00, who closed out his public career with a 2017 presidential appointment as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma--the country’s only Native American in such a role--has been nationally recognized for his efforts to develop and implement strategic responses to Native American policy. Read MoreDec 17, 2021
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Be Our Guest: Vanderbilt alumni Camille Obering and Ben Musser turn Jackson Hole into a destination for contemporary art
The husband-and-wife team of Camille Obering, BA’00, and Ben Musser, BS’01, are the founders of Guesthouse, an exhibition space and residence that functions as a laboratory for adventurous art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Read MoreNov 18, 2021
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Global Vanderbilt: Karan Jani
Astrophysicist Karan Jani shares how Vanderbilt has shaped his research career as an international faculty member. Read MoreSep 21, 2021
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Steady Hand: Gov. Andy Beshear, BA’00, seeks the ‘why’ in governing as he guides Kentucky through the pandemic and political divide
Beshear, the first-term Democratic governor of Kentucky, was elected last November by a margin as thin as a surgical mask, just in time to steer his largely Republican state through a runaway pandemic, the resulting economic damage, and America’s most consequential reckoning with racial injustice since the 1960s. Read MoreOct 27, 2020
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Words in Common: Mother-daughter duo and writers-in-residence Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams share a deep creative calling
Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams are both writers-in-residence at Vanderbilt—Randall in the Department of African American and Diaspora Studies and Williams in the Department of Medicine, Health and Society. And neither is afraid to shine a light on complicated questions around race. Read MoreOct 2, 2020
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Trailblazing alumna Dorothy Phillips discusses her career as a chemist, importance of diversity in the physical sciences
Dorothy J. Wingfield Phillips, BA’67, the first African American woman to receive an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt and a member of the inaugural class of Vanderbilt Trailblazers, recently was interviewed by the American Chemical Society about her career as a chemist and the importance of making the physical sciences more inclusive for women and underrepresented minorities. Read MoreOct 2, 2020