Vanderbilt Magazine

Years before Vanderbilt basketball head coach Shea Ralph’s generation helped set a standard for women who aspire and act to change the world through sports, her mother, Marsha Lake, traveled to the Soviet Union as part of a team that represented the United States on the world stage for the first time in the Title IX era.   Read More

Reid Hoffman, an accomplished entrepreneur, executive, investor and philanthropist who has played an integral role in building many of today’s leading consumer technology businesses, will receive Vanderbilt University’s prestigious Nichols-Chancellor’s Medal when he delivers the Graduates Day address to the Class of 2022 on May 12. Read More

Author and "New York Times" columnist Margaret Renkl joined Vanderbilt University Press authors Rachel Martin and Steve Haruch and former Nashville mayor and Vanderbilt adjunct professor Bill Purcell on Nov. 9 to discuss the evolution of Nashville and the American South. Read More

Vanderbilt University, which already has taken significant steps in its commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, has joined the Race to Zero—Universities and Colleges coalition. At the same time, Assistant Professor Leah Dundon and 14 students are participating in international climate change negotiations. Read More

As head of the Metro Nashville Coronavirus Task Force, Jahangir has helped coordinate local health systems and community groups, addressed the city at daily media briefings, set up COVID test sites and advised policymakers on combatting the virus, all while maintaining his normal duties at Vanderbilt. Read More

Students and professors from Middle Tennessee State and Vanderbilt universities are working together to uncover new archaeological details about a largely forgotten African American neighborhood that was an important part of Nashville’s post-Civil War history. Read More

Moments after Vanderbilt defeated Alabama to reach the final of the 2021 SEC Men’s Golf Championship at Sea Island Golf Club in Georgia, Scott Limbaugh served up a seemingly innocuous answer to a question posed in a television interview. “We liked our matchups a lot,” Vanderbilt’s head coach told the… Read More

Alumnus and Vanderbilt University Board of Trust member Justin Ishbia, JD’04, has donated $10 million to Vanderbilt Law School to support key strategic priorities within the school and to strengthen its position as one of the nation’s premier institutions for legal scholarship. Read More

A listing of recent books published by Vanderbilt alumni from the latter part of 2020 to fall 2021. Read More

Chronic illness prevented Jens Herman from earning his degree from Peabody more than a decade ago. The pandemic gave him a second chance. Read More

Last fall, five Buchanan Fellows at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries began a project to research Vanderbilt University’s first decade, from 1875 to 1885, and curate an online exhibit about what they discovered. In the process, the fellows learned how to find supporting materials, interpret historical objects, examine historically significant documents from Special Collections, and place all of them in the context of the university’s—and the nation’s—history. Read More

Lisa Dordal teaches in the Department of English at Vanderbilt and is the author of Mosaic of the Dark (Black Lawrence Press, 2018), which was a finalist for the 2019 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry, and Water Lessons (forthcoming in April 2022). Read More

Zoe Antell and Jessica Kaplan, who launched the clothing company ready dress go as students, offer several tips for dressing for business success. Read More

The 2020–21 academic year in many ways was defined by urgency and imminent priorities—from the rapid implementation of COVID-19 safety protocols and weekly testing to the procurement of technology required for hybrid teaching and the herculean planning behind the two in-person Commencement ceremonies we hosted this spring, to name just a few. I remain inspired by the way our community responded to these challenges with such profound resilience and innovative problem-solving. Read More

Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and Cybele Raver, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, helped lead the procession of first-year, transfer and Next Steps students during Founders Walk on Aug. 22. Read More

Former Vanderbilt University University Designer and book designer, Gary Giel Gore, of Nashville died March 28. He was 89. Read More

Andrew Howard Nichols, senior director of higher education research and data analytics at education nonprofit The Education Trust, died Jan. 26 of brain cancer. His studies of educational gaps and financial aid regularly revealed inequities affecting low-income and minority students. Read More

Vanderbilt Medical School Class of 1956 alumna Alice Hackney Altstatt of Finksburg, Maryland, died Jan. 10. She was 95. Read More

Vanessa K. Valdés and Nathan H. Dize, Vanderbilt graduates in Spanish and Portuguese and French and Italian, respectively, teamed up on a project in the field of Afro-Latinx studies--a translation of Makenzy Orcel’s heartbreaking novel set in Haiti, Les Immortelles, published by SUNY Press. 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