Prologue

In January 2020, Bernard Nomberg, BA'90, launched the 'Conversations with Commodores' podcast, along with a Facebook group specifically for Vanderbilt football alumni and others close to the program—coaches, trainers, cheerleaders, etc. Today, the community has grown to around 500 members. For all who played, the stories that emerge on the podcast are their shared history. Read More

A mural by local artist Elisheba Israel Mrozik was unveiled at a Juneteenth celebration on June 19. Inspired by the stories of Black country music artists featured in Vanderbilt professor and award-winning songwriter Alice Randall’s latest book, 'My Black Country,' the work features likenesses of five Black artists pivotal to country music. Read More

An aerial view of FirstBank Stadium in the Frist Athletics Village highlights the Vandy United campaign’s ongoing commitment to reimagining the footprint of Vanderbilt Athletics. Launched in 2021, Vandy United is an ambitious investment in the university’s student-athletes and athletics programs through major facility and operational enhancements. Read More

With Portland, Oregon, as his base, second-generation Vanderbilt alum Jacob Grier, BA'04, consults in the spirits industry and writes books on topics from tobacco policy to mixology. His latest book on cocktails is 'Raising the Bar: A Bottle-by-Bottle Guide to Mixing Up Masterful Cocktails at Home' (Chronicle Books, 2022) cowritten with Brett Adams, bartender and curator of the selection at the Multnomah Whiskey Library. Read More

Elizabeth “Betsy” Sanner Ayala, BA’99, is the executive in charge behind many popular TV shows across the Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio of networks. After joining HGTV in 2016 and advancing her career to head Food Network in 2022, she now oversees the creation, production and release of all Food Network programming and operations. Read More

Whether on a Zoom call with adults regaining their ability to enjoy music through assistive technology like cochlear implants, or working with preschoolers with no music experience at the Neighborhood Music School in Los Angeles, community music facilitator Chrysa Kovach, BMus'13, helps make music accessible for all. Read More

Two-time Olympian and Vanderbilt cross country and track and field alumna Lily Williams and Team USA took home a gold medal in the women’s track cycling team pursuit final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Read More

Blair senior jazz performance major / guitarist Patrick Kenny has released his debut album, 'Water Damage,' a six-song project that includes guest performances by Blair professors Jeff Coffin and Marc Widenhofer, as well as other Blair student musicians. Kenny composed all six of the jazz fusion-styled pieces for the project. Read More

The Nashville Innovation Alliance seeks to bring together public, private, civic and education institutions to collaborate on improving the region’s ecosystem for innovation and to research, develop and deploy technology and analytically based solutions to challenges facing Nashville and Davidson County. Read More

The 160,000-square-foot Oliver C. Carmichael College will join E. Bronson Ingram, Nicholas S. Zeppos and Rothschild as the final residential college in the West End Neighborhood, concluding 12 years of construction. The transformation of the West End Neighborhood is part of FutureVU, a framework for campus planning that embodies the university’s core values and holistic approach to its mission of teaching, research and service, while prioritizing inclusivity and sustainability. Read More

The semiannual, statewide Vanderbilt Poll showed in its most recent survey that slightly more than half of the state’s voters support a woman’s right to an abortion, that there is significant bipartisan support of IVF procedures as well as modest gun control legislation, and that views about many state and national issues differ significantly by gender.  Read More

WATCH: Acclaimed journalist and best-selling author David Brooks gives advice to the Class of 2024 and students and families celebrate at an all new party during Graduates Day celebration. Read More

In a time-honored tradition, Vanderbilt celebrated its Founder’s Medalists for the Class of 2024 at the Graduates Day event on May 9. Since 1877, the university has awarded a gold medal to the student graduating with top honors from each of the university’s 10 schools and colleges. The award… Read More

Vanderbilt University is proud to announce the launch of the Institute of National Security. The founding director and leader of the institute will be retired General Paul M. Nakasone, who has served as commander of U.S. Cyber Command, director of the National Security Agency, and chief of the Central Security Service. Read More

A multidisciplinary artist from Cuba, María Magdalena Campos-Pons creates installations that showcase her personal experiences as a Cuban woman as well as document displacement and inequality in the Caribbean. She was awarded a 2023 MacArthur Fellowship last October from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Read More

The new scholarship program, Nashville Vanderbilt Scholars, aims to get more students from Nashville high schools into Vanderbilt classrooms. Read More

Americans saw an uptick in unity for the first time in over a year, with widespread agreement that the U.S. political system needs to be more responsive and an overall distrust of social media influencers, according to the most recent Vanderbilt Unity Poll measuring Americans' views of national unity and the democratic process. Read More

Reese Animashaun, Maddy Bowser, Taryn DeWese, Hailee Mack, Giovanna Mason and Rachel Ogunleye are the first new volleyball Commodores. Head coach Anders Nelson and assistant coaches Lauren Plum and Russell Corbelli worked together to recruit Vanderbilt’s first class for volleyball since the program was paused in 1980. Read More

An upcoming motion picture, 'Cabrini,' features a score composed by Blair School of Music alumnus Gene Back, BMus’06. Coming to theatres on March 8, International Women’s Day, 'Cabrini' was directed by the award-winning Alejandro Monteverde. Read More

Vanderbilt University Press has launched a new trade series, Global Black Writers in Translation, which will publish a variety of texts by authors of African descent translated from their source languages into English. The goal is to amplify a body of writing that introduces anglophone readers to the range and complexity of Black literary and cultural production, history and political thought. Read More