Peabody

Jim Schifman, BS'90, and his wife, Melissa, launched Project Hive Pet Company last year, selling dog toys and treats that directly contribute to rebuilding bee habitats. Their beehive-themed dog toys are sustainably manufactured in the United States and the company donates 1 percent of gross sales to the Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund, which works with private, public and corporate partners to help establish and manage pollinator habitats on their lands. Read More

World champion axe thrower Mark Mirasol, MEd’17, aims for success as he builds a business around the up-and-coming sport. Read More

Marice Wolfe, of Nashville, the first woman to serve as Vanderbilt’s university archivist, died Jan. 3. She was 86. Read More

Joseph “Yusef” Fontaine Harris III, founder and owner of Alkebu-Lan Images, Nashville’s only independent, Black-owned bookstore and a cornerstone of the North Nashville community for more than 35 years, died Jan. 3. Read More

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 More

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 More

"U.S. News & World Report" released its 2023 Best Graduate Schools rankings on March 29, and Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development again achieved a top five ranking among graduate schools of education. The college retained its fifth-place position (this year tied with the University of Wisconsin-Madison). Read More

Professor Chezare Warren This fall, Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development is pleased to welcome Chezare A. Warren as associate professor of educational equity and inclusion in educational policy. Professor Warren’s appointment is in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations. Professor Warren is a scholar of… Read More

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 More

Vanderbilt Divinity School will host the third part of a series exploring the realities of the Asian and Asian American diaspora on May 12 the with a 6 p.m. CT film screening and talkback about the documentary film "Far East Deep South." Read More

Melvyn Ivan Semmel of Santa Barbara, Calif., a researcher, educator and 2007 Peabody Distinguished Alumnus, who helped shape the nation’s understanding and policies relating to students with disabilities, died Feb. 25. Read More

Alumnus Christopher Tuff, author of bestseller 'The Millennial Whisperer,' says this generation wants to matter to their employers, and they want their work to matter too. Understanding this dynamic results in business tactics that cost zero dollars and provide big paybacks. Read More

Betsega Bekele, MEd'14, helps lead American Portrait, a multiplatform, national storytelling project tied to PBS’ 50th anniversary celebration. The digital-first initiative that launched online in January 2020 is centered on this question: What does it really mean to be an American today? Read More

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 More

The Independent School Leadership master’s program, launched six years ago, includes instruction from Peabody faculty and industry experts to advance independent school leaders and their schools. Read More

In recent years a cadre of energetic, productive faculty members have joined Peabody's special education department, building on the legacy of high-caliber research and teaching that began in the 1950s with Lloyd Dunn and developmental psychologists Nicholas Hobbs and Susan Gray. Read More

Bethany Rittle-Johnson’s 20 years of investigating how to improve learning outcomes for students, particularly in mathematics, has launched a new generation of scholars pursuing similar lines of inquiry. Read More