STUDENT MEDIA AT VANDERBILT
HALL OF FAME
The Student Media at Vanderbilt Hall of Fame was established in 2009 to honor Vanderbilt University alumni who have achieved outstanding personal or professional accomplishments and/or made distinguished and lasting contributions to their field and/or to society in general. Induction into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor Vanderbilt Student Communications can bestow on its former student journalists.
To be considered for induction in the Hall of Fame, candidates must meet the following criteria:
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Last worked with Vanderbilt student media as a student staff member at least 10 years prior to their potential Hall of Fame induction date;
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Contributed in a significant way as a staff member to one or more of Vanderbilt’s print or electronic student media organizations;
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Distinguished themselves through their work and acts at a level that merits recognition of the highest honor bestowed by Student Media at Vanderbilt.
Questions about the Hall of Fame or the nomination process can be emailed to chris.carroll@vanderbilt.edu
INDUCTEES BY YEAR
2009 Inductees
2010 Inductees
2011 Inductees
2012 Inductees
2014 Inductees
2015 Inductees
2016 Inductees
2017 Inductees
2018 Inductees
2019 Inductees
2020 Inductees
2021 Inductees
2022 Inductees
2023 Inductees
LAMAR ALEXANDER
Class of 1962
Sen. Alexander, who earned his bachelor’s degree in 1962, majored in Latin American Studies. He was a reporter and news editor of The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper. The Maryville, Tenn., native is a former two-term governor of Tennessee, U.S. secretary of education, University of Tennessee president and professor at Harvard’s School of Government. He earned his J.D. at New York University Law School. In private life, he helped found the nation’s largest provider of worksite day care, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc.
SKIP BAYLESS
Class of 1974
Bayless, who grew up in Oklahoma City, Okla., attended Vanderbilt on the prestigious Grantland Rice Scholarship. The 1974 graduate covered sports for The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper and majored in English and history. Bayless developed a national reputation as a sports writer for the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times. He wrote three books chronicling different eras of the Dallas Cowboys and was a prominent sports columnist in Dallas, Chicago and San Jose before being hired full time as a commentator by ESPN for programs like 1st and 10 and SportsCenter.
ROY BLOUNT, JR.
Class of 1963
Blount, a Grantland Rice Scholarship recipient, came to Vanderbilt from Decatur, Ga., where he was editor of his high school newspaper. He majored in English and began working for The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper after becoming friends with Lamar Alexander and other student journalists. Blount became editor before graduating in 1963. He is a prolific writer and humorist who has authored 21 books. He’s a columnist for The Oxford American, contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly, and panelist for NPR’s Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me.
MARY ELSON
Class of 1974
Elson, a native of Oak Ridge, Tenn., majored in English at Vanderbilt. She was elected the first post-World War II woman editor of The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper. She worked at the Nashville Banner the spring of her senior year in 1974 before graduating magna cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa. She reported for the two Dallas newspapers before moving to the Chicago Tribune, where she held a variety of positions, including associate managing editor/features. At the Tribune, she edited a series about the Human Genome Project that won a Pulitzer Prize for exploratory journalism. Elson became managing editor of Tribune Media Services, the syndication and licensing division of Tribune Co., in 2004.
SAM FEIST
Class of 1991
Feist, who majored in political science at Vanderbilt, began volunteering for The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper his first day on campus. Feist, who was born in Trinidad, hosted Viewpoint, a campus public affairs/talk program that aired on Nashville cable. He graduated magna cum laude and joined CNN full-time in 1991. He was founding executive producer of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Feist was named political director and senior executive producer of political coverage during the 2008 presidential election. In January 2009 he became CNN’s vice president of Washington-based programming. Feist earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
2009 STUDENT MEDIA HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
DON BENSON
Class of 1974
Benson grew up in Nashville, loved Vanderbilt and developed a keen interest in radio during his teens. He found his way to campus and WRVU, where he began reporting news on a fill-in basis. WRVU became a large part of Benson’s college life. After graduating in 1974 with a B.A. in history, “D.B,” as he was called, began his radio career with Jefferson-Pilot at WQXI AM/FM in Atlanta. Now, with more than 30 years of radio industry experience, he is president and CEO of Lincoln Financial Media Co., whose parent acquired Jefferson-Pilot. Benson has overall responsibility for the operations of 14 radio stations in Atlanta, Miami, San Diego and Denver. Benson has been named to Radio Ink magazine’s list of “The 40 Most Powerful People in Radio.”
ALEX HEARD
Class of 1980
Heard, a native of Jackson, Miss., enjoyed writing for The Hustler and later Versus. He earned his B.A. in English in 1980. After graduation, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he began working at magazines, and he’s been doing that ever since. Now he is the editorial director of Outside magazine. He also has worked as an editor and writer at Wired, The New York Times Magazine, New Republic and other publications. Heard’s new book, The Eyes of Willie McGee, tells the story of a young African American man from Laurel, Miss., who was executed in 1951 for allegedly raping a white housewife. To tell the story, Heard relied on exhaustive documentary research, including FBI documents, interview transcripts and the recollections of family members whose parents or spouses were involved in the case.
RALPH McGILL
Vanderbilt student 1917
McGill, who was born in 1898 in Igou’s Ferry, Tenn., enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1917. He wrote a column called “Censored” for The Hustler and contributed to Jade, a student humor magazine. McGill also wrote poetry and became friends with some of the famed Fugitive writers. During his senior year, he was suspended for writing a Hustler column in which he criticized the administration for not using the $20,000 that was bequeathed by a former professor for a student lounge. He left the College of Arts and Science, although he later enrolled in Vanderbilt Law School. McGill never completed any degrees at Vanderbilt. He worked at the Nashville Banner newspaper, and in 1929, he joined the Atlanta Constitution, where he worked his way up to syndicated columnist, editor and publisher of the morning newspaper. McGill was a staunch supporter of civil rights and opposed social and educational segregation at a time when few around him spoke out on the issue. In 1959, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorials condemning hate crimes by the Ku Klux Klan. McGill died from a heart attack in 1969.
BUSTER OLNEY
Class of 1988
Olney, who grew up on a farm in Vermont, came to Vanderbilt to study history, but said “my major was working at the newspaper and at Versus.” By age 15 he knew that he wanted to be a sportswriter, in particular, one who covered baseball. He does this now as a senior writer and analyst for all ESPN entities, appearing on programs such as “Baseball Tonight” and “Sports Center.” After graduating with a B.A. in history in 1988, Olney became the Nashville Banner beat reporter for the Nashville Sounds. He moved to the San Diego Union-Tribune and Baltimore Sun before joining The New York Times. He has been at ESPN since 2003. Olney is the author of The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness and of the forthcoming book How Lucky You Can Be, which is about basketball coach Don Meyer.
DR. RAPHAEL SMITH
Class of 1955
According to the 1953 Commodore, Smith was among those who began work on a campus radio station, then called WVU. He served as the station’s first technical director and engineer. Smith earned his B.A. in chemistry in 1955 and then went to Harvard, where he received his M.D. He did tours of active naval duty during Vietnam and Desert Storm, where he was deployed to the Middle East. He joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1969 and directed the Coronary Care Unit and Heart Station. He also became chief of cardiology at the Nashville Veterans Medical Center. Smith was in charge of a series of experiments involving the effect of weightlessness on astronauts’ heart function during the three Skylab missions. The cardiology unit at the Nashville VA Medical Center is named after him.
TRACY WILKINSON
Class of 1980
Wilkinson grew up in Atlanta, Ga., and worked as a reporter and news editor for The Hustler. She earned her B.A. in English literature in 1980. After working for United Press International in Peru and Nicaragua, Wilkinson joined the LA Times in 1987. She has covered wars, crises and daily life in more than 50 countries. She now is based in Mexico City, where she is the Times’ bureau chief and a contributor to its La Plaza blog. Among her awards, Wilkinson received the George Polk Award for coverage of the Balkans and Kosovo and the Overseas Press Club Award twice. She also wrote the lead story in the Times’ Pulitzer-award-winning package on racially motivated riots. Her book The Vatican’s Exorcists: Driving Out the Devil in the 21st Century has been translated into half a dozen languages.
2010 STUDENT MEDIA HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
TYLER KEPNER
Class of 1997
Tyler Kepner published his own baseball magazine in high school and in his first year of college. He received the prestigious Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Scholarship and became editor-in-chief of the Hustler. Kepner wrote about the Anaheim Angels for the Riverside Press-Enterprise and the Seattle Mariners for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before heading to The New York Times. Starting in 2000 he covered the Mets and then moved to the Yankees beat in 2002. In 2010, Kepner was named a national baseball writer for The New York Times.
FRED BUC
Class of 1979
Fred Buc was a high school senior when he signed up for a class at Vanderbilt so he could work at WRVU. Buc later became general manager at WRVU and worked a part-time job at WKDA-AM and WKDF-FM while attending Vanderbilt. After college, he went to work full-time at WKDA-KDF. In the late ’80s Buc became part of the original “Rebel 100” staff of WRLT-FM. Buc then worked for Jefferson-Pilot Communications and KCFX-FM. He co-founded a national advertising agency before returning to WRLT, now known as Lightning 100. Buc was named general manager in 1998.
NEIL SKENE
Class of 1973
Neil Skene was editor of the Hustler his senior year. After graduation, he joined the Tampa Times. Then he enrolled at Mercer University’s School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1977. Skene served as capital bureau chief at the St. Petersburg Times. He became editor of the St. Petersburg Evening Independent in 1984. He then led Congressional Quarterly as president from 1987 to 1997. Skene is vice chairman and legal counsel for software provider MedAffinity Corp. and president of Holly Lake Investments. He has been writing a series on the history of the Florida Supreme Court.
TERRY EASTLAND
Class of 1971
Terry Eastland covered sports for the Hustler. He later held editorial positions at the Greensboro Record, San Diego Union and Virginia-Pilot. In 1983, Eastland was named chief speech writer for U.S. Attorney General William French Smith. He later became director of public affairs for the Justice Department. Eastland has written several books, and his articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Commentary and New Republic. He was a correspondent on documentaries for PBS examining how the media covered a particular story, such as Gulf War Syndrome. He became publisher of The Weekly Standard in 2001.
FRYE GAILLARD
Class of 1968
Frye Gaillard worked on the Hustler and the high-profile speaker series Impact Symposium, for which he helped bring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy to campus. He worked for the Mobile Register before returning to Nashville to write for the Race Relations Reporter newsletter. He eventually became Southern editor at the Charlotte Observer, where he covered the city’s landmark school desegregation case. Gaillard has written or co-authored more than 20 books, including Cradle of Freedom, The Dream Long Deferred and Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music.
2011 STUDENT MEDIA HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
LEE JENKINS
Class of 1999
Lee Jenkins grew up in San Diego and was awarded the Russell- Rice Sportswriting Scholarship in 1993. He started his work at the Hustler covering sports. “Tyler Kepner assigned me my first story for the Hustler on Vanderbilt baseball player Josh Paul, who later went pro, before I had finished moving into my dorm,” Jenkins said. Jenkins served as Hustler editor-inchief, which he calls “the best job I ever had.” After graduation, Jenkins, an American Studies major, covered UCLA basketball and football for the Orange County Register and the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets for The Colorado Springs Gazette. In 2003 he joined The New York Times, where his assignments included being the beat reporter for the New York Mets. Jenkins’ numerous honors include first place in the New York Press Association (Sports Reporting) category and the Football Writers Association of America (Best Game Story). In 2007 he was named senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the NBA finals, with an emphasis on feature writing. Jenkins lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Vanderbilt alumna Elizabeth Cook Jenkins (’99), and their two children.
WILLIE GEIST
Class of 1997
Geist Willie Geist recently was named co-host of the 9 a.m. hour of the Today show. He has hosted MSNBC’s “Way Too Early With Willie Geist” and co-hosts political show “Morning Joe.” He has a video blog on MSNBC.com called Zeitgeist. Geist grew up in Ridgewood, N.J., and when he joined the Hustler staff, he first worked as a staff sports writer and then an associate sports editor. “I had never covered sports because I’d been playing them my whole life,” Geist said. “Sports writing kept me close to the games in college.” Geist was named a contributing editor of the Hustler his senior year. Meanwhile, his interest in American, and particularly Southern, politics deepened with classes from political scientists like John Greer, Bruce Oppenheimer and John Kuzenski. Geist earned his bachelor’s degree in political science in 1997. He jumped into sports television as an editor and producer for CNN/Sports Illustrated, a 24- hour sports network based in Atlanta. In 2005 Geist joined MSNBC as a senior producer for “The Situation with Tucker Carlson.” His newsroom banter with Carlson became a regular feature of the program where Geist would report and offer his unique spin on the day’s news. Geist’s big break came in 2007 when he was named co-host of “Morning Joe,” which has grown to become arguably television’s most influential political show. Geist lives in New York City with his wife, Vanderbilt alumna Christina Sharkey Geist (’97), and their two children.
CLAY HARRIS
Class of 1972
Harris, who grew up in Tampa, Fla., came to Vanderbilt as a national merit scholar. The university’s lack of a journalism school actually attracted him to campus, as he preferred to focus on the liberal arts. “In a remarkable way we were self-taught. None of us was a journalism major,” said Harris, who was editor-in-chief of the Hustler his senior year. He majored in history and economics. After his junior year, Harris competed with some 1,200 applicants for a Washington Post internship and won a coveted slot with the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service. Harris was hired by the Tampa Times after graduation. In 1973, the Washington Post offered him a position in London, where he would select and edit stories for their syndication clients. “This was long before the Internet and email so we were dealing with satellite windows, ticker tapes and telex operators,” Harris said. During that time, Harris met the man of his dreams and they have been together for more than 38 years. That relationship was a deciding factor in Harris’ decision to settle in London and build his career there. In 1979 Harris became a news editor at the Financial Times, which was launching its first international edition. He stayed at the Financial Times for nearly 30 years in a variety of reporting and editing positions and created Mudlark, a financial diary column, before retiring in 2007. Harris now is a freelance columnist for Securities & Investment Review.
BRIDGET KELLEY
Class of 1988
Kelley, of Bethesda, Maryland, is a New Jersey native. She worked for The Hustler all four years at Vanderbilt (1984-88) and served as editor-in-chief. She majored in English and history. She worked as a freelance reporter and producer in London and later in Washington, D.C. Kelley joined NPR in 1994 as an editorial assistant for Morning Edition, and she advanced to the helm of Weekend Edition. Along the way, she has helped shape NPR coverage of major stories, including Hurricane Katrina, terrorist attacks, U.S. presidential elections and more. She is now the senior supervising editor of All Things Considered.
CHUCK OFFENBURGER
Class of 1969
Offenburger, an Iowa native, launched his journalism career at the age of 13 as sports editor for his hometown newspaper. At Vanderbilt, he majored in political science and reported for The Hustler, covering speakers and programs, including those related to civil rights and the Vietnam War. Offenburger served as editor-in-chief of The Hustler. Highlights of his career included writing more than 4,000 columns for the Des Moines Register. Offenburger left the paper in 1998 but continues to write on a freelance basis. He and his wife, Carla Offenburger, co-manage Offenburger.com, a news and opinion website.
JEFF ROTHSCHILD
Class of 1977
Rothschild, of Los Altos, California, grew up in New Jersey. At Vanderbilt, he worked at WRVU throughout his undergraduate and graduate school years and served as station manager. Rothschild majored in psychology and received his bachelor’s degree in 1977. He then studied computer science at Vanderbilt and earned a master’s degree in 1979. Career milestones include co-founding Veritas Software in 1988 and gaming company Mpath Interactive in 1995. Rothschild now is vice president of infrastructure engineering at Facebook and a consulting partner with Accel Partners. He serves on the Vanderbilt Board of Trust and the university’s Technology Transfer Advisory Committee.
ALISON SCHOLLY
Class of 1990
Scholly, of Chicago, grew up in nearby Glenview, Illinois, and joined WRVU during her freshman year at Vanderbilt. At WRVU, she worked as a disc jockey, assistant music director, general manager and business manager. Scholly majored in anthropology and earned her bachelor’s degree in 1990. After earning a master’s in journalism at Northwestern in 1994, she was hired into the nascent field of online media, eventually serving as vice president of interactive for the Chicago Tribune Media Group, overseeing all of Chicago Tribune’s web and mobile products. Since 2010, Scholly has been chief operating officer for Chicago Public Media.
DAVE SHEININ
Class of 1991
Sheinin, of Baltimore, Maryland, grew up in Carrollton, Georgia, where he learned about the Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Scholarship. He received the scholarship when he came to Vanderbilt in 1987. As a first-year student, Sheinin broadcast news updates for WRVU and wrote for The Hustler. He also wrote for Versus magazine. Sheinin earned his bachelor’s degree in 1991, majoring in English and music. Sheinin has been covering baseball and writing features and enterprise stories for The Washington Post since 1999. His books include RG3: The Promise (Penguin, 2013), which is about Heisman Trophy winner and Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III.
2014 STUDENT MEDIA HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
AMY BUCKNER CHOWDHRY
Class of 1995
Chowdhry, an entrepreneur and native of Knoxville, Tennessee, majored in English and minored in East Asian Studies while working on the Commodore yearbook and The Vanderbilt Review. She rose to editor-in-chief of both publications. Chowdhry co-founded AnswerLab, a consulting firm whose clients include Facebook, FedEx, Nissan and Google. For the past three years, AnswerLab has made Fortune’s list of “Top 25 Companies to Work For.” Last year, Chowdhry was named one of Fortune’s 10 Most Promising Women Entreprenuers.
ERIC ETHERIDGE
Class of 1979
Etheridge grew up in the Mississippi cities of Carthage and Jackson. As a Vanderbilt freshman in 1975, he began working for Versus, then a monthly feature magazine. Etheridge majored in English and served as Versus editor his senior year. After earning his BA in 1979, Etheridge moved to New York City and spent four years at The Nation. He went on to become associate editor at Harper’s Magazine and then editor at Rolling Stone and George. In 2008, Etheridge published Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, which features the mugshots of all the 328 riders arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, as well as new portraits and excepts of interviews with 80 of those riders. He is now a freelance photographer and also works with his wife, Kate Browne, documenting her public-sculpture series around the world.
ROY NEEL
Class of 1972
Neel enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1963 and worked at the Vanderbilt Hustler for three years. He was drafted into the military after his junior year and was a Navy journalist from 1966-1970. Neel returned and graduated with a major in fine arts in 1972. Three years later he wrote Dynamite! 75 Years of Vanderbilt Basketball. He became legislative director for then-U.S. Rep. Al Gore and later chief of staff for Gore’s Senate office. Neel also worked in the White House as Vice President Gore’s chief of staff and President Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff. Neel is currently teaching adjunct in the Vanderbilt Department of Political Science and working on a political novel to be published later this year.
GEORGIA STITT
Class of 1994
Stitt came to Vanderbilt in 1990 from Covington, Tennessee. She worked on the Hustler’s Perpectives section while majoring in theory and composition at the Blair School of Music. Stitt earned her bachelor of music degree in 1994 and moved to New York where she pursued her career in music and earned an MFA from New York University in 1997. Stitt is currently working on the original musicals Snow Child and Ajax. Her other shows include The Danger Year, Big Red Sun and Samantha Spade: Ace Detective. Her choral piece with hope and virtue was featured on NPR. Her most recent orchestral piece, Waiting for Wings, co-written by her husband Jason Robert Brown, was commissioned by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and premiered there in 2013.
WENDELL (SONNY) RAWLS JR.
Class of 1970
Rawls, an accomplished investigative reporter, New York Times bureau chief, screenwriter, and professor, enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1959, working on the Commodore yearbook, and learning the importance of accuracy from editor John Hemphill. After a break for military service, he returned to finish his degree, becoming the tennis and bowling editor for The Tennessean, where he investigated the abuse of Tennessee Walking Horses, earning a Pulitzer nomination. In 1972, he became the first national correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer, winning a Pulitzer in 1977 for uncovering illegal activities at a Pennsylvania hospital for the criminally insane. He later joined The New York Times, serving as Southern bureau chief, and directed news operations at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where the staff won multiple Pulitzers. As a screenwriter, Rawls contributed to several notable television projects and taught at Middle Tennessee State University from 2000 to 2015. He also taught a Vanderbilt course on investigative reporting. He is married to Kathryn Stark Rawls, and they have two children and two granddaughters.
PAT NOLAN
Class of 1973
Nolan, a lifelong Nashvillian, began his broadcast career at WRVU, first as a volunteer disc jockey and later covering stories, honing his skills in live reporting. After earning his political science degree in 1973, Nolan worked at various radio stations, including WPLN FM and WDCN-TV. He spent a decade at WTVF-TV covering Metro Government and briefly served as press secretary to former Nashville Mayor Richard Fulton. He later returned to WTVF as a political analyst and worked in public relations. Since 1991, Nolan has been a senior vice president at DVL Seigenthaler Public Relations and hosts “Inside Politics” on NewsChannel5 Network. He and his wife, Betty Lee Love Nolan, have two daughters, a granddaughter, and a grandson.
ANDREW MARANISS
Class of 1992
As a high school student journalist in 1988, Maraniss was awarded a life-changing opportunity: The Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Scholarship. Through that scholarship, Maraniss was introduced to student media at Vanderbilt and also connected with legendary sports journalist Fred Russell and others, including Vanderbilt basketball player Perry Wallace, the first African American basketball player in the SEC. Maraniss wrote about Wallace for a black history class and for The Hustler — setting the course for his award-winning book nearly 20 years later.
Maraniss’ career has included jobs with the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays and Nashville’s McNeely Pigott and Fox Public Relations and Vanderbilt University. His interest in race, sports and the story of Perry Wallace deepened and in 2014, Maraniss published his first book, Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South. He lives in Nashville with his wife Alison and their two children.
VANESSA B. BEASLEY
Class of 1988
Beasley, dean of The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons and an associate professor of communication studies, came to Vanderbilt as a first-year student in 1984. Interested in media and music, she joined the news team at WRVU and added her name to the wait list to be a disc jockey. Beasley earned her bachelor of arts in speech communication and theatre arts in 1988 and went on to the University of Texas, where she received a doctorate in speech communication. She taught at Texas A&M University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Georgia before coming “home” to Vanderbilt’s Department of Communication Studies in 2007. She is the author of Who Belongs in America? Presidents, Rhetoric and Immigration and You, the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric: 1885-2000. Beasley is joined in the Dean’s Residence on campus by her husband, Trey, who is assistant vice chancellor for treasury and university treasurer, and their two sons.
JOHN HAILE
Class of 1967
Haile grew up in Cleveland, Tennessee. As a freshman, he joined WRVU and served as station manager his junior and senior years. He went to Boston University for graduate school, where he earned a master of science in communication. Haile also continued working at The Tennessean, as a state and national political reporter. Not long after completing a journalism fellowship at Stanford University, Haile moved to the Orlando Sentinel, where he became editor in 1985. As a new media pioneer, he built one of the world's first fully-integrated multimedia newsrooms with print, the Internet, and a 24-hour cable news channel all operating from a central news desk. The paper earned three Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership. At age 55, Haile chose to step away from daily leadership of a newspaper to devote what he called “a second half” to public service. He has served on a number of health care, environmental and arts boards. He lives in the Denver area, where he also “works at” his pastel and oil painting.
ZHUBIN PARANG
Class of 2003
At Vanderbilt, Knoxville-native Parang quickly joined “Tongue ‘N Cheek,” the university’s then-fledgling improv organization, where he made some of his best friends. Parang also wrote for The Hustler and opinion and humor pieces for Orbis, the latter of a bi-weekly publication for liberal and progressive views. He earned a bachelor of arts in 2003, with a double major in political science and sociology. Parang enrolled at Georgetown University Law Center but also became a house player at the Washington Improv Theatre. He left the law in 2010 and within a year he was a writer for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” In 2015, he was promoted to head writer for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” Parang is among the “Daily Show” writers whose work has been recognized twice with an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. His writing has been featured in McSweeney’s, The Onion, and The Morning News.
WALTER BROWN POTTER JR.
Class of 1972
A third-generation newspaper journalist, Potter spent several summers as a reporter and copy editor in high school and college at his family’s paper. At Vanderbilt, he was a reporter and sports editor at The Hustler, editing the copy of future Hall of Fame inductees Skip Bayless and Terry Eastland. Potter earned a bachelor of arts in 1972 and his masters at the University of Missouri. His career includes stints at The Star-Exponent, the Virginian Pilot, the Nashville Banner, and the Kansas City Times. He later returned to his family journalism roots, taking over the Independent-Messenger, a paper his grandfather had helped found in Emporia, Virginia. Potter was dedicated to helping community newspapers remain sustainable during an increasingly challenging financial environment. With the help of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Potter created the Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism.
CARYL PRIVETT
Class of 1970
Birmingham native Privett worked at The Hustler during the late 1960s, which calls an “incredible time to be a college journalist.” After graduating from law school, she became a civil rights attorney, practicing at Alabama firms and joining the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. She lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment and joined the Alabama Women’s Political Caucus. In 1995, she was appointed the first female U.S. Attorney in Alabama. In 2003, she became a circuit judge for the 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama. Privett retired from the bench in 2015. She continues to live in Birmingham.
ELAINE SHANNON
Class of 1968
Georgia native Shannon came to Vanderbilt in 1964 because of its academic freedom in a time when issues like the Vietnam War, civil rights, drugs and poverty were beginning to generate intense debate on college campuses. She began writing for The Hustler and worked for The Tennessean her senior year, where she continued her career writing about civil rights, police violence and abuses in the prison system. In 1970, she became The Tennessean’s Washington, D.C., correspondent, where she covered Watergate, presidential campaigns and Tennessee political leaders who included Howard Baker and Albert Gore Sr. Her career has included a Nieman fellowship at Harvard, reporting at Newsday, Newsweek and Time Magazine, and publishing three books, one of which was made into a television mini-series. Shannon lives in Washington, D.C., where she is a contributing editor for Cipher Brief, an online news organization devoted to national security issues.
BRUCE HEYMAN
Class of 1979, 1980
Ohioan Heyman enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1975, beginning work at WRVU as part of the news team. The skills he learned at WRVU proved tremendously helpful many years later when he served as U.S. ambassador to Canada. As Ambassador, he did a national radio tour, his first time with live radio since WRVU. At Vanderbilt, Heyman completed a double major in business and economics, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1979 and his MBA in 1980. He then began working in Chicago as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs, where he eventually became managing director of private wealth management. Heyman served as ambassador from 2013- 2017. He recently established an office focused on the Canada-U.S. relationship, and serves on an advisory board of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. He’s also appearing frequently on national and international news programs in his role as a freelance advocate for U.S.-Canadian relations.
JOHN HINDLE
Class of 1968, 1981
Hindle, a Rhode Island native, arrived at Vanderbilt in 1964 and joined the editorial staff of Spectrum, a magazine created in the early 1960s for Vanderbilt students to publish their honors work. Hindle, who majored in English and fine arts, received his Bachelor of Arts in 1968 and his doctorate in English after serving as an army officer. Hindle and Larry Stein, a fellow graduate student, spent six weeks co-writing the book Elvis: The Army Years 1958-1960, published under the pseudonym Nick Corvino. Hindle worked at Peabody College and Northern Telecom. After relocating to London, England, as an adjunct faculty member in Human and Organizational Development and started the Greater London Vanderbilt Club, the first Vanderbilt alumni chapter outside of the United States. Hindle is a former director and president of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association and served a four-year term on the Vanderbilt Board of Trust.
SCOTT HUBBARD
Class of 1970
With a deep interest in public speaking, Hubbard, who grew up in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, began working at WRVU, then in a tiny studio on an upper floor of Neely Auditorium. One of his most memorable interviews was with Impact speaker Stokely Carmichael. Hubbard completed a double major in physics and astronomy and worked as a research assistant in Physics and Astronomy while playing music at night in clubs like Red Dog Saloon and Black Diamond Lounge. During a 20 year career at NASA, Hubbard was director of the Ames Research Center and also served as NASA’s first Mars program director and restructured the program successfully in the wake of mission failures. He is the author of Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery. Hubbard is a recipient of NASA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal. In 2007 Hubbard became an adjunct professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University.
PAUL KURTZ
Class of 1968, 1972
New York native Kurtz calls The Hustler a home away from home during his years at Vanderbilt in the mid 1960s. A sports reporter and editor, Kurtz says one of his most vivid memories was the late Perry Wallace breaking the color barrier as the first African American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference. He served as president of the Alpha Epsilon Pi social fraternity and on the board of directors for the Impact Symposium, whose speakers during that time include Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr., Alexander Kerensky and Barry Goldwater. Kurtz received his Bachelor of Arts in 1968, his Juris Doctorate (also from Vanderbilt) in 1972 and a masters of laws at Harvard. Kurtz joined the law faculty at the University of Georgia in 1975, receiving the President’s Medal for distinguished service in academic work and community service. Kurtz is now an emeritus professor and represents Georgia as a commissioner on Uniform State Laws and has chaired a number of accreditation visits of law schools for the American Bar Association.
RICHARD McCORD
Class of 1964
McCord, who grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1960, four years before the first eight African American undergraduate students were admitted. He was editor of The Hustler during this pivotal period of the civil rights movement, and he wrote about racial issues on campus, including a female student who was criticized by the administration for dating a black man from another university. McCord also wrote about Congressman John Lewis, then a Fisk University student activist organizing sit-ins at segregated lunch counters and risking his life as a Freedom Rider. McCord earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1964 and served in active duty for the Air Force during the escalation of the Vietnam War. Later he founded and served as the longtime editor and publisher of the Santa Fe Reporter, which received more than 200 awards for excellence, including the top prize by Investigative Reporters and Editors for an in-depth examination of the state’s mental hospital. McCord is the author of four books, which include The Chain Gang: One Newspaper Versus the Gannett Empire, a finalist for the National Book Award.
MARY MARGARET OLIVER
Class of 1969
At Vanderbilt, Oliver was a news reporter at The Hustler and was involved in the start-up phase of Versus. Writing for the paper brought her closer to the national political turbulence across the nation. After working at an Atlanta magazine, she enrolled in law school and would go on to enter politics. Oliver was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1987, serving five years before moving to the George State Senate, where she was appointed chair of the Judiciary Committee. This marked the first time in 40 years a woman had been named chair of a standing senate committee. Oliver served three terms before running statewide for lieutenant governor. She then took a short break from politics, practicing law and teaching at the Barton Center for Child Advocacy at Emory University. In 2003, she rejoined the Georgia House. Georgia’s anti-stalking law and legislation to protect neighborhood activists from intimidation are among her many legislative accomplishments.
GARY O. COHEN
Class of 1959
Cohen wrote for The Vanderbilt Hustler all four of his undergraduate years and served as editor-in-chief his senior year, writing what he describes as “crusading editorials” that criticized the university administration for actions taken without student input. He majored in economics and business administration, graduating magna cum laude in 1959. He then served in the Air Force and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. Cohen went to work at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he became assistant chief counsel of the Division of Investment Management. He was there when the U.S. Supreme Court held that variable annuities were subject to SEC regulation, and he participated in the development of the SEC’s regulatory regime during his five years on the staff.
MICHELLE COTTLE
Class of 1992
Cottle enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1988 but didn’t start writing for The Vanderbilt Hustler until her sophomore year. “I absolutely loved writing the column for three years, and I think the experience helps me keep my perspective on all the divisiveness and polarization inside the Beltway these days,” she said. Cottle majored in English and minored in European studies. After graduation and a fellowship with Mother Jones magazine, she became editor of the Washington Monthly. She also worked at the New Republic as a senior editor and Newsweek and Daily Beast as a Washington correspondent. She was a senior writer at the National Journal and a contributing editor at The Atlantic before being named lead editorial writer for national politics at The New York Times in 2018.
BILL LIVINGSTON
Class of 1970
Livingston was a Grantland Rice Scholar when he enrolled in 1966. He served as sports editor at The Vanderbilt Hustler and especially enjoyed writing columns, including some political-themed ones. He majored in English and graduated cum laude in 1970. Livingston began his career at the Dallas Morning News and then worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer for 10 years before becoming senior sports columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1984. He spent 34 years there and will be inducted into the Cleveland Press Club Hall of Fame in November 2019. The Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer has covered the Olympics, Super Bowl, World Series, NCAA Final Four, and all major college bowl games. His most recent book is George Steinbrenner’s Pipe Dream: The ABL Champion Cleveland Pipers.
DAVID RAPP
Class of 1973
Rapp came to Vanderbilt in 1969 as a Grantland Rice Scholar. At The Vanderbilt Hustler, he wrote both news and sports stories before serving as the arts and entertainment editor. He devised his own major—Theory of Communications. After graduation in 1973, he was briefly a poet and bartender before working for the Memphis Press-Scimitar, Cincinnati Post and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He moved to D.C. in 1985, starting a nearly quarter-century career at Congressional Quarterly, which produces a number of high-profile publications about Congress. Since 2014, he has worked independently as a journalist and publishing consultant. His book, Tinker to Evers to Chance: The Chicago Cubs and the Dawn of Modern America was published by University of Chicago Press in 2018.
DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN
Class of 1993
Roumain, widely known by the moniker DBR, enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1989. He covered arts and entertainment stories for The Vanderbilt Hustler and an arts magazine within the paper called Ripple. After receiving his bachelor of music in 1993, he earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan. Roumain has won an Emmy for outstanding musical composition for his collaborations with ESPN; created works for Carnegie Hall, Boston Pops and Library of Congress; and led the creation of the chamber opera “We Shall Not Be Moved,” which was cited by The New York Times as one of the best classical musical performances of 2017. He has collaborated with Lady Gaga, DJ Spooky and Philip Glass, among others. Roumain, who has been a visiting composition professor at the Blair School, teaches at Arizona State University.
EUGENE H. VAUGHAN
Class of 1955
Serving as The Hustler student newspaper sports editor helped Vaughan develop the entrepreneurial and leadership skills to build a regional investment management firm, chair a global association of investment professionals and improve the quality of life in Houston, Texas. After earning an MBA from Harvard and serving in the Navy, Vaughan founded Vaughan Nelson Investment Management in Houston. He also played a key role in merging professional organizations to create CFA Institute. After stepping down as CEO in 2000, he focused on community service, founding the Center for Houston’s Future. Vaughan served as a Vanderbilt Board of Trust member from 1972 to 2004.
JOHN BLOOM
Class of 1975
John Bloom, known as Joe Bob Briggs, began his journalism career as a sportswriter at age 13. He attended Vanderbilt on the Grantland Rice scholarship and majored in English. While at Vanderbilt, he joined The Hustler staff, later serving as sports editor and managing editor. Bloom became a satirist, investigative reporter, and film host, championing independent cinema. His notable works include Evidence of Love and Eccentric Orbits. He also hosted popular shows like Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater and continues to influence genre films through The Last Drive-In on AMC’s Shudder. Over the course of his movie-hosting career, Bloom has executive-produced 20,000 hours of television and become the leading authority on exploitation and genre films.
KATHLEEN SMITH BARRY
Class of 1980
Kathleen Smith Barry, known as “Kats,” aspired to be a photographer since fifth grade. She transferred to Vanderbilt, where she thrived in the Sarratt darkroom, covering events for The Hustler and the Commodore yearbook. Barry became the first female photographer at the Nashville Banner and later joined The Tennessean, covering major political figures and events including photographing Fidel Castro in Cuba, President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office, and Gov. Bill Clinton in Little Rock. Her photos from the 1991 Soviet coup d’état attempt in Moscow were exhibited at the Russian Tea Room in New York City. She has also worked as a food photographer and currently manages the United Methodist Communications News Service’s digital media library.
MARK BECHTEL
Class of 1993
Bechtel, from Cleveland and Huntsville, Alabama, covered sports for The Hustler, eventually becoming the editor of the Perspectives section. After college, Bechtel joined Sports Illustrated, where he has covered major sports events and served as deputy editor. In his 25 years at the magazine, Bechtel has covered Super Bowls, World Series, NBA finals, Olympics, World Cups and—his favorite—the 2003 North Dakota state curling championship. He authored He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back and led Sports Illustrated Kids magazine as managing editor. Bechtel lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughters.
PATRICK TAYLOR
Class of 1998
Taylor credits his 12 continuous years of working in student media with helping launch his career at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center in Huntsville, Alabama. While studying electrical engineering, he worked on the early days of Vanderbilt Television, setting up the first fiber optic link from Barnscomb to the gym to broadcast games not being carried by the major networks. As head of the electrical engineering group at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, he also produces videos for community outreach initiatives. He encourages students to explore educational experiences beyond their majors, believing they can shape career paths in unexpected ways.
EILEEN A. CARPENTER
Class of 1969
Now an accomplished attorney in Baltimore, Carpenter experienced the earliest days of racial integration in Vanderbilt’s undergraduate program in the 1960s. Studying physics, she also wrote for The Hustler and for Rap, a publication started by Black students, which gave her and other Black students an opportunity to express their frustrations and feelings of isolation. At The Hustler, she found camaraderie but also interesting insight into the distinctly different points of views and life experiences of her and her white student media colleagues, especially when one of her articles was rejected because “it might offend some people.” In her law studies and private practice, Carpenter focused on real estate law after learning about restrictive covenants, redlining, predatory lending, blockbusting, and reverse mortgages. She spent 18 years in Baltimore's Law Department before retiring to focus on her private practice full time. Carpenter has more than 30 years of experience handling various real estate matters. She has represented clients ranging from banking institutions and investors to individual buyers and sellers.
HENRY HECHT
Class of 1969
Hecht, a lifelong sportswriter, joined The Hustler upon arriving at Vanderbilt. After graduating, he worked at the New York Post, where he became a Yankees beat writer and later a national baseball writer for Sports Illustrated. He freelanced for various major publications including the New York Times and Washington Post before joining The National and Newsday. Now a writing coach and tutor, Hecht cherishes his dual careers in journalism and education.
ANN MARIE DEER OWENS
Class of 1976
Deer Owens has shared Vanderbilt's stories for 29 years through its Communications and Marketing. As a student, she majored in English and worked with The Hustler and WRVU radio. After graduating, Owens worked at WMAK Radio and WKDA-KDF radio in Nashville, where she would stay for 13 years and serve as news director. In 1990, The Tennessee Associated Press Broadcasters Association named her Broadcaster of the Year. She transitioned to public affairs at Vanderbilt, creating the award-winning “That’s Vanderbilt” feature. Owens is also involved with local nonprofits and has documented many important narratives at the university.
JAY GRAVES
Class of 1993
Graves co-founded, grew, and sold successful data-driven businesses before stepping into his current position as chief operating officer of Nashville-based marketing firm Blueprint.Inc. His experiences at The Hustler, particularly the shift to digital photography, shaped his career. After founding SmartDM, which grew significantly and sold for $22 million, he later co-founded another successful platform and played a significant role in the growth of the nonprofit, Hands On Nashville. Graves currently manages operations for his wife’s digital magazine, StyleBlueprint.com.
PETE MADDEN
Class of 2009
Pete Madden is an award-winning reporter and editor at ABC News Investigative Unit. His time at Vanderbilt shaped his interest in both sports writing and investigative reporting. His career has included positions at Sports Illustrated and Los Angeles Times. At ABC, Madden led the groundbreaking investigation of the NFL’s use of “race-norming” to determine eligibility for compensation to former players suffering from the lingering effects of head injuries, resulting in the league’s abandonment of the controversial practice. Madden has twice been nominated for Emmy Awards, and his work has been cited by The Best American Sports Writing series.
FRANCESCA AMIKER
Class of 2012
Francesca Amiker is a four-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and correspondent for E! News. At Vanderbilt, she was a leader in video production with Vanderbilt Television, gaining the skills to report and produce stories in a fast-paced environment. After graduation, she worked in the Jacksonville, Florida, and Lansing, Michigan, TV markets before landing a national news position in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. As the morning entertainment anchor at NBC Atlanta's 11 Alive News, Amiker created the station’s first entertainment franchise, The A-Scene, a 30-minute entertainment show.
HAYES FERGUSON
Class of 1984
Ferguson served for a decade as a newspaper reporter, including five years as a foreign correspondent. Now she directs Northwestern University’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and acts as a clinical associate professor in the university’s McCormick School of Engineering. A photographer for the Commodore yearbook and a DJ for WRVU, her experience led her to a journalism career of hosting music and news shows as well as reporting, including covering Latin America for The Times-Picayune and working with digital media startups. She was part of the founding management team of Legacy.com, among the 50 most visited websites. After the company was sold, she held leadership roles at multiple digital media startups before joining Northwestern.
CHAD GERVICH
Class of 1996
Chad Gervich is a television producer, bestselling author, and educator. He began his media career at WRVU and Vanderbilt Television. He has written, developed, and produced shows for HBO Max, Paramount+, ABC, FOX, Warner Brothers, Amazon, VH1, MTV, Endemol, CBS Studios, YouTube, TruTV, and Food Network. Gervich is also the author of four books including Small Screen, Big Picture, a commonly considered the go-to-bible for the TV industry. Gervich teaches all of UCLA’s undergraduate TV-writing courses, and he has taught and designed courses for NYU, Emerson, Warner Bros., Fox, Nike, and the Singapore Media Academy. He co-founded Vandy-in-Hollywood, a professional organization to help students secure internships.
KATHERINE MILLER
Class of 2010
Katherine Miller is a writer and editor who focuses her work on some of the most pressing issues of our time: elections and challenges and threats to democracy. Miller recently joined The New York Times as a writer/editor in Opinion, and she previously served as a political editor at BuzzFeed News, where she oversaw coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign. Before joining BuzzFeed, she worked in conservative media, including at the Washington Free Beacon where she was an editor.
At Vanderbilt, she led the website version of The Hustler, then called InsideVandy.com. She also led the Torch, a conservative and libertarian monthly, and she served as a member of the VSC Board of Directors.
STUART WATSON
Class of 1983
Watson, an award-winning journalist with 10 Emmys and three Peabody Awards, started his journalism career at Vanderbilt as a contributor to Versus literary magazine and WRVU. A Neiman Fellow at Harvard in 2008, Watson served three terms on the board of directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE).
After losing both his mother and father to Alzheimer’s, Watson founded Voice Locket to capture life stories of loved ones. He later launched the media brand In Her Words, and the podcast by the same name to elevate the stories of a diverse group of strong women who bounce back. In 2020, he published his related book What She Said & What I Heard: How One Man Shut Up and Started Listening.
IMANI ELLIS
Class of 2012
Ellis is the CEO and founder of CultureCon and The Creative Collective, an organization dedicated to providing community and resources to more than 100,000 diverse creatives. The Creative Collective’s marquee event is CultureCon, a conference dedicated to creatives of color. Ellis served as a fashion writer for The Hustler and hosted “It’s Imani,” a show she produced at Vanderbilt Television. Before founding CultureCon, Ellis was vice president of communications at NBCUniversal, where she started as an NBC Page and went on to hold communications leadership positions for Bravo, E!, and Oxygen. Ellis was named a “Breakthrough Creative” by Ebony and a “Diversity Champion” by Adweek. She also has been recognized by Forbes as a “Visionary” and “One To Watch” by Black Enterprise.
MEREDITH BERGER
Class of 2004
Berger serves as the assistant secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations, and Environment, appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2021. In this role, she oversees Navy and Marine Corps energy, climate resilience, and environmental stewardship. She has held roles in both federal and state government and in the private sector. At Vanderbilt, Berger held multiple roles at The Hustler, including editor-in-chief, and co-hosted a radio show on WRVU. After earning her degree in American Studies and Spanish, she obtained a master’s in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and a law degree from Nova Southeastern University.
JUSTIN SMITH
Class of 2003
Justin Smith is senior vice president of production at All3Media. At Vanderbilt, Smith served as station manager at Vanderbilt Television and interned at Nashville Public Television. His television career includes many high-profile, award-winning projects, including United Shades of America (CNN) and Undercover Boss (CBS), both of which earned two Emmy wins under his leadership. Early in his career, Smith produced with Al Gore for his 2007 Live Earth climate change event. He remains engaged in youth and student development through Young Life, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Vandy-in-Hollywood and VSC.
NEIL VIGDOR
Class of 1999
Vigdor is an award-winning journalist who has covered politics throughout his career, interviewing, among others, Donald Trump, Michelle Obama, Mitt Romney, and Jesse Jackson, at publications including The New York Times, the Stamford Advocate, Greenwich Times, Hearst Connecticut Media Group and The Hartford Courant. At Vanderbilt, he contributed to The Vanderbilt Review literary and arts journal and worked as assistant sports editor, opinion editor, managing editor, and editor-in-chief at The Hustler. He was part of The Times’ Democracy Project, and his reporting focuses on voting, election laws, and disinformation. In his spare time, he is a yogi and an avid amateur photographer who captures stunning images from nature, urban life, and travel.
STACY GOLDATE
Class of 1984
Goldate is an award-winning editor, producer and director of documentaries and series. Her work includes “Our Father” (Netflix), award-winning documentary “InHospitable,” acclaimed series for CNN (The Nineties, The 2000s, 1968), the Emmy-winning “Out of Iraq,” “Hillbilly” (Hulu), the GLAAD Media Award-winning and Peabody-nominated documentary “Disclosure” (Netflix), and award-winning Push Girls. Goldate ran a weekly newsmagazine program on WRVU and served as a music DJ. Goldate also was a guest columnist for The Hustler. Goldate is currently editing a documentary series for Paramount+ and Funmeter about Lollapalooza and is committed to mentoring, serving as a Karen Schmeer Fellowship Mentor.