Peabody Alumni
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It Takes a Posse: an excerpt from ‘Disrupt Everything—and Win: Take Control of Your Future’
The success of the Posse Foundation and its partnership with Vanderbilt is highlighted in 'Disrupt Everything—and Win: Take Control of Your Future' (Hatchette Book Group/Little, Brown and Company, 2025) by James Patterson, MA’70, and Patrick Leddin, associate professor at Owen Graduate School of Management. Read an excerpt of the book here. Read MoreNov 7, 2025
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Where No Two Minutes Are the Same
Peabody College of education and human development has long had a partnership with the Murrell School, an East Nashville school for students with extreme emotional and learning disabilities. Vanderbilt now supplies more than 90 percent of student teachers to the school, which is led by principal Susan Siegel, BS’78, and assistant principal Tyisha Walker, PhD’25, and counts numerous Vanderbilt alums on the teaching staff. Read MoreNov 6, 2025
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Miller Morris, BS’16, MS’17, MPH’19: Disrupt and Redirect
Miller Morris, BS’16, MS’17, MPH’19, is the founder and CEO of Comma, a company that aims to improve reproductive health through menstrual care products, sustainability, clinical research and technology. She describes herself as a “women’s health researcher turned social entrepreneur.” Read MoreNov 6, 2025
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The Gift of Connection
Sarah Catherine “SC” Perot, BS'13, has many roles, but they all work to expand and enhance alumni engagement, which benefits the entire Commodore community. Read MoreMay 13, 2025
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Nashville Jazz Connections at Blair
Jazz has a long history in Music City. As long as Nashville has been a center for recording and education, it has drawn musicians of all types who found places to play—as well as to teach. Many have had connections to Vanderbilt Blair School of Music Read MoreMay 12, 2025
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Joyce Searcy, MS’78: Making Libraries Accessible
Joyce Searcy grew up in segregated Yazoo City, Mississippi, where going to the public library would have meant entering through its back door. Today she is the first Black person to serve as chair of the Nashville Public Library board. Read MoreApr 22, 2022
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Michael Brasseur, BS’97: From Vandy Commodore to Actual Commodore
In his long U.S. Navy career, Michael Brasseur, BS'97, has had numerous command postings, including his latest as a full commodore. Based in Bahrain, he commands Task Force 59, the Navy’s first unmanned task force dedicated to securing the waters around the Arabian Peninsula. He directs a team dedicated to rapidly harnessing the power of unmanned and artificial intelligence integration to promote the free flow of commerce in the area. Read MoreApr 19, 2022
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Aaron Berndtson, BS’06 and Zach Blitz, BS’06: They’ve Got Game
The success of Aaron Berndtson and Zach Blitz contradicts every parent who has warned their teenager that they can’t make a living playing video games. The 2006 graduates, whose friendship was forged over Madden NFL and NCAA Football, now hold leadership positions on the cutting edge of the video-game industry. Read MoreAug 19, 2021
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Bea Martin, MA’62, Lifelong Educator
Annie Beatrice “Bea” Martin, a retired teacher and administrator who was committed to education, outreach and social justice, died Oct. 11, 2020. She was 87. Read MoreFeb 25, 2021
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Janie Kaiser, BS’15, Education Entrepreneur
Education Concern Center Nepal, or ECC, was cofounded in 2017 by Janie Kaiser, BS'15, who serves as its managing director. The center uses a four-part program—teacher training, classroom materials, improved infrastructure and teacher support—to expand educational resources in Nepal's remote schools. Read MoreFeb 25, 2021
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‘Something Bigger Than Myself’
A tradition of giving in her first year at Vanderbilt has led Julie Babbage to continue giving back to her alma mater in a myriad of ways. Read MoreNov 3, 2020
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Monique Nelson-Nwachuku, BS’96: A Different Path
A profile of Monique Nelson-Nwachuku, winner of Vanderbilt’s 2020 Alumni Professional Achievement Award, who is chairman and CEO of UniWorld Group, the country’s longest-standing multicultural marketing agency. Read MoreNov 3, 2020
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Ben Schecter, BS’18, and Allie Golden, BS’18
Last spring, as thousands of health care employees worked tirelessly to do good in the wake of COVID-19, Houston native Ben Schecter and several Vanderbilt friends, including fellow Class of '18 alumna Allie Golden, decided on a model that would help struggling local restaurants and serve health care workers at the same time. Read MoreNov 3, 2020
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Recent Books by Peabody Alumni
Qualitative Data Collection Tools: Design, Development, and Applications, (2020, Sage Publishers) by Felice D. Billups, EdD’91 This new and unique supplementary text that will guide students and new researchers to design, develop, pilot and employ qualitative tools in order to collect qualitative data. Templates of interview protocols, focus group moderator… Read MoreMay 15, 2020