Lipscomb Now Fall 2017

The Magazine for Alumni and Friends

fall 2017

LIPSCOMB MAKES MARK ON

Vol. 13 No.1

DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE

Cover: Lipscomb University officially opened its Spark facility in downtown Nashville on Sept. 19. Read more on page 11.

Left: The Lipscomb community had a unique start to the fall semester as the first total solar eclipse to appear over the Nashville skies since the 1400s happened on the first day of classes on Aug. 21. Thousands of students, faculty, staff and neighbors gathered on campus to celebrate and witness this unique occurrence. In Nashville, the eclipse began at 11:58 a.m. and ended at 2:54 p.m., with totality hitting from 1:27-1:29 p.m. CST.

The Magazine for Alumni and Friends

fall 2017

Vol. 13 No.1

Departments 3........ A Letter from the President 8........ Lipscomb News 50...... Class Notes

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Lipscomb’s Largest Gift George Shinn turns his fondness for Lipscomb into a $15 million gift to elevate the College of Entertainment & the Arts into a national leader.

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Lipscomb makes mark on downtown Nashville Lipscomb University is now part of Nashville’s bustling downtown district with the opening of its latest Spark location.

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Imagining a More Prosperous Future Lipscomb celebrated Nashville’s prosperous future at the 2017 Imagine event featuring the personal stories of generosity and entrepreneurship of Magic Johnson and Cookie Johnson.

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Scobey leads board through time of institutional growth When David Scobey was a young boy, he enjoyed tinkering with things around his house to see how they work. For the last six

years, the Lipscomb board chair’s “tinkering” has led to continued institutional growth

Senior Vice President of Strategy Susan Galbreath Editor Kim Chaudoin Senior Managing Editor Janel Shoun-Smith Writers Lacey Klotz Jeff Siptak

Designers Emily Ashby Zach Bowen Will Mason Photography Jamie Gilliam Kristi Jones Web Content Kyle Gregory Josh Shaw

Produced by University Communication & Marketing Lipscomb Now is published two times a year by Lipscomb University®. Go to lipscombnow.com to read more.

Postmaster: Send changes of address to Lipscomb Now, Alumni Office Lipscomb University One University Park Drive Nashville, Tennessee 37204-3951 ©2017 Lipscomb University.

All Rights Reserved.

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Corey follows calling to serve others to Lipscomb’s School of Nursing Health care veteran Ruth Corey says the field of nursing has not

failed her in the more than 35 years since she felt called to pursue nursing and embarked on a journey that has led her to Lipscomb.

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A Letter from the President

Lipscomb emerges from the past 125 years emboldened With the beginning of the new academic year we concluded a yearlong celebration of the university’s 125th anniversary. It has been a great experience to reflect on the history of the institution, define who we are today and to envision our bright future.

Among the graduates of the Class of 2017 was a Fulbright Scholar who is now studying and teaching in Spain through the program, and a biology major whose MCAT score was in the top 1 percent in the nation. The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ biology program was ranked No. 1 in the nation in the “Top 10 Christian Colleges Biological Degree Programs 2017” ranking by Christian Universities Online.

At the President’s Convocation in August, Chairman of the Board David Scobey launched the new academic year by affirming our mission as an intentionally Christian community of diverse leaders and learners. A community that proclaims a Biblical worldview and our place in the story of God. He directly proclaimed the Lipscomb community to be one that is respectful, free of hate and full of grace. Very important in the context of Scobey’s message was that as a Christian university, we walk this out every day.

The School of Music joined the nation’s most prestigious institutions on this year’s SuccessfulStudent.org list of the top 25 programs in the country. This is the latest honor for the college, which recently received the largest gift in the university’s history and was renamed the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts. Shinn’s $15 million donation includes the historic Sound Emporium, one of Nashville’s vibrant recording studios for nearly 50 years, which will also serve as a music studio practicum for students. Earlier this summer, Mike Fernandez, dean of the college, was selected as one of 49 industry leaders from across the country for Leadership Music’s 29th class.

With confidence in who we are in the body of Christ, we embark on the next 125 years emboldened by recent recognition of the good work our faculty and staff have been doing.

Lipscomb University has recently been ranked as a national university in the annual U.S. News & World Report’s “2018 America’s Guide to Colleges,” and is one of 7 percent of schools in the nation classified as a Carnegie Foundation doctoral university. For the third year in a row, Lipscomb was named to the Kiplinger Personal Finance list of 100 best values in private universities, and Lipscomb is one of 65 institutions nationwide—the only Tennessee institution— named to the 2017 Phi Theta Kappa Transfer Honor Roll for community college students.

These numbers and accolades illustrate Lipscomb’s growth, but at the end of the day, our task is to educate and guide students for personal growth that prepares them for the journey God has set for them. I invite you to read this publication and learn more about events and happenings with students, academic programs, campus construction, partnerships and outreach.

The future of Lipscomb may surprise you, again.

L. Randolph Lowry President

Scobey’s Comments At President’s Convocation on August 29, 2017, Chairman David Scoby shared the following comments to an audience of faculty, staff and students from Lipscomb University and Lipscomb Academy.

“What does it mean to be part of the Lipscomb community? When I look around I see a collection of people of differences. How do we take all of these differences and make them into something powerful, something special, something holy that honors God? “The early church was an amalgam of differences, but in Galatians 3 we read, ‘for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ... for you are all one in Christ.’ In other words, Christians are to discard all of the feelings they might have of superiority. A sense of superiority is in the root of racism, hate and bigotry, and it has no place in our community. The only name among us worthy of the title ‘superior’ is God and God alone.

“What can we do? What must we be?

A community that models for the world the difference God makes when we are bound together by love. A community that doesn’t allow our differences to divide us with the seeds of discord, but rather a community that loves in ways that only God’s people can love. All praise and glory to God for the uniqueness and the love of the Lipscomb community.”

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ON THE FUTURE

George Shinn (right), former owner of the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, signs his gift agreement to give the largest gift in Lipscomb’s history, $15 million, to the university, and hands it over to President L. Randolph Lowry (left).

$15 MILLION GIFT HAS LIPSCOMB PLAYING THAT NASHVILLE SOUND Just a few short years ago, George Shinn had not heard of Lipscomb University. But on April 3, during the university’s annual Imagine event, he announced plans to give $15 million to Lipscomb’s College of Entertainment & the Arts — the largest gift he says he has ever given and the largest gift to Lipscomb in its history.

At a later event this spring, Shinn celebrated a unique portion of that history-making gift: transferring ownership of the Sound Emporium, one

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of Nashville’s vibrant recording studios for nearly 50 years, over to Lipscomb (See details on page 6).

Shinn was introduced to Lipscomb in 2011 when he came to campus to hear legendary Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski speak at the annual Don Meyer Evening of Excellence. As he learned more about Lipscomb, he became interested in the mission and values of the university and a relationship with the institution grew and blossomed over the next six years.

What moved Shinn, former owner of the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, to make this gift is Lipscomb’s Christian

mission and its reputation.

“I think it’s a wonderful institution.

I was looking for a faith-based institution to be a part of and I found it,” said Shinn.

“After visiting campus a few times and seeing what was going on, I had the feeling that Lipscomb has a great future ahead of it. I like what they’re doing, and I think it’s important for us to invest in the future of our young people and particularly young people who love the Lord.”

Shinn’s gift is an investment in the College of Entertainment & the Arts and will fund a new on-campus events center among other initiatives. In recognition of this gift, the college is now named the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts.

Donor George Shinn (far left) was honored at Lipscomb’s Imagine event in April. (l to r) John Lowry, vice president for development and external affairs, and Jeff Fincher, assistant dean, and Mike Fernandez, dean, both of the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts, presented a Kopio Award to Shinn.

“This gift is a way to elevate the image of the College of Entertainment & the Arts as a leader in arts and entertainment education in Nashville and in the nation,” said L. Randolph Lowry, Lipscomb University president.

“His generosity will also serve the greater Nashville community through the new events center that will be developed as a result.”

The George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts is one of the fastest-growing in the university, with undergraduate degrees in cinematic arts, fashion and design, music, theater and dance, and visual arts and graduate programs in cinematic arts.

Leaders in the college’s contemporary music program will oversee day-to-day interactions between the Sound Emporium and the university and will look for ways the studio can serve as a real-world learning laboratory for Lipscomb’s music students.

“The college is to be a Christcentered, innovative, entrepreneurial arts community, committed to rigorous artistic training, creative collaboration

and professional growth, and seeking to train the next generation of believer artists who plan to uplift, challenge and enhance culture through their art,” said Mike Fernandez, dean of the college.

“We are very grateful for George Shinn’s passion for Lipscomb’s program and for his generosity that will enable us to impact the lives of students for generations to come.”

Shinn, a resident of Franklin, Tennessee, is founder of the George Shinn Foundation, which is dedicated to helping people in need. It is committed to building God’s kingdom and reflecting its founder’s deep Christian faith by furthering the work of churches, ministries, missionaries and nonprofit organizations.

“I think we all have to understand that God grants us gifts, and everything I have is a gift from God,” Shinn said.

“I feel that people who are given much should in turn give as much as they can. I think it’s important. My whole life is based on the principle of the more I give, the more I get in return.”

As a child, Shinn faced challenges that drive his passion for giving to others today.

“We survived on a welfare check after my father died. I know what it’s like to struggle, to have hurts, to have needs.

“One of my goals in life is to help young people the best way I can. They need to know they can overcome these struggles. I know that’ll happen at Lipscomb. I think so much of that is tied to faith. Faith in God can help you overcome anything.”

For more information about the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts, visit cea.lipscomb.edu.

I want my days to be filled with adventure. That’s what creativity is about, showing up and being fully present. How exciting that our students can come be a part of that!

Amy Grant Recording artist and recent Nashville Walk of Fame inductee speaking at the Sound Emporium celebration.

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ON THE FUTURE

Juanita Copeland, vice president of the Sound Emporium, where she has been a fixture for 22 years, oversees the studio’s operations and staff.

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LIPSCOMB STUDENTS WILL LEARN WHERE LEGENDS HAVE PLAYED Located about a mile from the university campus on Belmont Boulevard is the Sound Emporium, a long-time Nashville studio where music legends from Johnny Cash to Alison Kraus to Taylor Swift have produced their albums.

On May 15, outside the studio, Lipscomb leaders and Music City icons celebrated the transfer of ownership of the Sound Emporium to Lipscomb.

George Shinn, who has owned the Sound Emporium since 2011, announced his plans to give ownership of the studio to Lipscomb while retaining Juanita Copeland, vice president of the Sound Emporium, to oversee the studio’s operations and manage its staff as she has done since 2005.

“I think it’s time for us to move on, to turn the operation over but to keep and preserve the history of this great facility. There is nobody better to do that than Lipscomb University,” Shinn said. “I feel confident that with Juanita and her team still here, and with the university and what they’re trying to do—it’s going to be all positive. I am so excited.”

The Sound Emporium, where charttopping hits are still produced today, such as songs for CMT’s Nashville produced by the show’s music director Tim Lauer, will be a model and inspiration for Lipscomb students looking to move into the professional music business, said Mike Fernandez, dean of the newly named George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts.

Under Lipscomb’s ownership, leaders of the music program will oversee

the day-to-day interactions between the studio and the university, working to preserve the professional production capacity of the studio while looking for ways for it to serve as a real-world learning lab for music students.

The Sound Emporium will provide valuable experiences and resources for students in Lipscomb’s George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts, said Fernandez.

“With the studio located near the campus, the Sound Emporium will provide students the opportunity to learn from industry leaders and artists at one of the nation’s top recording studios through internships, hands-on experience and other initiatives,” he said. “The Sound Emporium has played a key role in the development of the music industry in Nashville, and we are thrilled that Lipscomb will now get to play a role in preserving this icon in the industry.”

Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry said the university relishes its new role to preserve the studio, which has been a vital part of the Nashville music industry for decades.

“We want to be stewards of its history…the reality is that history is something that is ours to maintain, to protect and to honor. We want to be guardians of something that has had a tremendous reputation in the recording industry. We want to be good stewards of the clients and…of the Sound Emporium’s place in Nashville,” said Lowry. “So we want to…take the Sound Emporium into the future in a way that multiplies its impact and multiplies its opportunity.”

Tim Lauer, music producer for the television show Nashville, is a Sound Emporium fixture and serves on the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts advisory board.

SOUND EMPORIUM MAKING MUSICAL HISTORY For nearly 50 years, the Sound Emporium has been a vital part of Nashville’s international claim to fame as Music City, U.S.A., and has been the place that numerous music legends have entrusted with their recording projects. In 1969, “Cowboy Jack” Clement, who produced artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich and Johnny Cash at Memphis’ famed Sun Records, built Jack Clement Recording Studios in Nashville, the first of its kind in the city.

In 1979, Clement sold the studio and the name changed to the Sound Emporium. Producer Garth Fundis purchased the studio in 1992, and in 2011 sold it to Shinn.

One of Nashville’s most iconic recording studios, numerous artists have produced music within the Sound Emporium’s walls, including Kenny Rogers, Johnny Cash, John Denver, Keith Whitley, New Grass Revival, REM, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, Taylor Swift, Willie Nelson, Keith Urban, Merle Haggard, Jimmy Buffett and numerous others. In addition, film soundtracks such as O’ Brother Where Art Thou, Cold Mountain and Walk the Line have been recorded at the Sound Emporium under the guidance of Grammy-winning producer T-Bone Burnett.

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ON THE FUTURE

VISION

GEORGE SHINN EVENTS CENTER WILL BRING NEW ARTS VENUE TO NASHVILLE

Lipscomb is breaking ground this fall on NN EVENT CENTER

the two-story, 33,000-square-foot George Shinn Events Center, a new facility located adjacent to the existing Ezell Center that will provide new performance, education and community engagement opportunities for the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts.

The center is funded as part of the $15 million gift given to the university by George Shinn, the former owner of the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, this spring.

“The George Shinn Events Center is going to be a multi-use venue, that not only enhances the academic offerings of our college, but will also provide arts entertainment attractive to all Nashville residents,” said Mike Fernandez, dean of the college. “This will be a venue for use by the city as a whole, allowing us to live out Lipscomb’s mission of community engagement on a new level.”

The new facility is designed to house a grand, two-story lobby, a large patio

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area that may also be used for a variety of events, and a state-of-the-art event hall that can seat up to 1,000 people and be used for a variety of functions including receptions, class lectures, corporate events, dinners and a performance venue among other functions.

The cost of the project, designed by Tuck-Hinton Architects, is estimated to be $10 to $11 million. Booking for the George Shinn Events Center has already begun, with an anticipated opening in the fall of 2018.

“The George Shinn Events Center SHINN EVENT CENTER will serve university audiences as well as the larger Nashville community with a variety of outstanding programming and entertainment,” said L. Randolph Lowry, Lipscomb president. “We eagerly anticipate the impact this facility will also have on our students particularly in the entertainment and arts programs as they will have additional state-of-theart resources to enhance what they are learning in the classroom.”

Among those state-of-the-art resources is collaborative classroom and studio space, a SHINN EVENT CENTER graphic design and print-making); an executive cinematic editing and viewing studio and the screening room for the Department of Cinematic main offices of the college.

Arts; and an entertainment innovation lab, “a space to The event center will house the primary bring together industry executives and students and classrooms and lab spaces for the School put our entrepreneurial hats on and dream about the of Art and Design (labs and studios for future of the entertainment industry,” said Fernandez. animation, visual effects, painting, sculpture,

REN

RE

RE

LIPSCOMB NEWS Neil Duffin, (right) ExxonMobil Production Company president, and Lipscomb Board Chair David Scobey (left) learn about robotics programs for young students during the dedication event.

VISION

EXXONMOBIL PRESIDENT JOINS LIPSCOMB TO CELEBRATE NEW ENGINEERING BUILDING

ExxonMobil Production Company President Neil Duffin, and more than 300 engineers, business leaders, faculty, students and guests gathered in May to officially dedicate the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering’s new home—the Fields Engineering Center.

Duffin was a longtime co-worker and friend of retired ExxonMobil executive Charles Fields and his wife, Margaret, who made a significant financial contribution to the project and for whom the new building is named.

“During his career, Charles distinguished himself as a brilliant engineer and as a generous leader. That generosity is on display here today with this impressive new building where young students will begin their engineering journey and hopefully follow in Charles’ footsteps to a long and fulfilling career,” Duffin said.

“One of the keys to developing energy is developing a high-quality workforce,” he said. “It takes thousands of engineers to discover the energy that we will require every day to light our homes, gas our cars and fuel our businesses.”

Construction began on the 26,800-square-foot project in December 2015. The Fields Engineering Center opened its doors for the spring semester on Jan, 9, uniting engineering faculty and students under one roof for the first time.

The Fields Engineering Center

houses collaborative learning spaces, flexible teaching areas and labs among other features. The building is also a learning tool in itself with its exposed and color-coded MPE ductwork, piping and conduit in lab and learning spaces; central monitoring of mechanical systems and rooftop access for solar experimentation.

The sustainability features also provide valuable real-world learning opportunities for students. Features include: a white roof, energy-efficient lighting, mechanical and plumbing systems designed at a LEED silver level, storm water management through planting and infiltrations, climateappropriate materials for site landscaping and concrete structure that includes recycled content.

Following the dedication ceremony, guests had the opportunity to experience a variety of demonstrations in the labs including a flume test in the thermal fluids lab, an earthquake simulator in the soils lab, a weather instrumentation project in the main lobby, a 3-D printer in the Scobey Innovation Lab and a robotics competition in the Robert A. and Mary Doris Adair Flex Classroom.

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LIPSCOMB NEWS

CAMPUS UPDATES

BISON HALL BRINGS UNIQUE LIVING OPTION TO STUDENTS, FULL-SERVICE HOTEL FOR ALUMNI

Lipscomb’s newest residence hall, Bison Hall, featuring private bathrooms and multiple community spaces, is bringing a new mindset and culture to the 148 upper classmen who have made it their home this fall. It also features the new Bison Inn, a hotel space on the lower level with nine guest rooms.

“Bison Hall communicates loud and clear that we want our upper-classmen to live on campus,” said Sam Smith, dean of student life. “We believe the on-campus living experience is much richer when our upperclassmen live on campus and exemplify the life of a scholar in the midst of our Christian community.

“The 55,000-square-foot housing facility, completed in August, is more like a hotel than a traditional dormitory and has been designed specifically with our upperclassmen students in mind,” Smith said.

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“Residents have convenience to all class locations and access to all campus resources, allowing them to study late at night and wake up 10 minutes before class, as students often do, and get to class without the hassle of finding a parking space.”

As Lipscomb’s enrollment has increased, the demand among students for housing providing the privacy of off-campus living with the convenience of on-campus life has become stronger, Smith said. The $15 million, 172-bed Bison Hall also includes other amenities such as multiple study rooms, a classroom, an outdoor terrace and a common kitchen.

The more private design of Bison Hall also allows it to be used throughout the summer for oncampus guests, said Walt Leaver, vice president of university relations, who oversees event management.

The entire facility will be open for guests of Lipscomb events and programs during the summer.

Nine rooms will be operated exclusively throughout the entire year as an on-campus hotel,

Bison Inn, and will be available for use by alumni, visiting professors and parents.

Amenities will include free breakfast, wi-fi, reserved parking, televisions, refrigerators and microwaves in each room, access to the campus fitness facilities and daily housekeeping services. Four of the rooms include adjoining doors, allowing them to be used as suites.

“The Bison Inn will have the amenities of any three-star hotel, and more, plus the convenience of being on campus,” said Leaver. “We are excited to provide this valuable year-round service to Lipscomb’s growing extended family.”

Since 2011, the university has renovated or completely rebuilt every existing residence hall on campus except Sewell Hall, which is slated for future renovation.

Lipscomb makes mark on downtown with opening of Spark Lipscomb University is now part of Nashville’s bustling downtown district with the opening of its latest Spark location at the corner of 4th Avenue North and Commerce Street.

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry along with Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry and a gathering of business and community leaders were on hand to officially celebrate the opening of Spark, which will offer graduate classes, leadership development programs and event space conveniently located for those who live and work in downtown Nashville.

Lowry said opening a location in downtown is yet another way the university is serving Nashville.

“I’ve said many times in my tenure at Lipscomb that the city is our campus and the world is our classroom,” said Lowry. “Downtown is part of our campus.

Through our Spark facility we are bringing our education to the heart of downtown, and we plan to fully engage in the downtown community through service, by being involved and by being a good neighbor. We look forward to being a part of this thriving sector of our city.”

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry said she is excited that part of that service will be to gather community members in the Spark space for important and difficult conversation needed to help Nashville advance into the future.

“It is wonderful to be in this space this morning because I do remember standing across the street a year and a half ago and looking at this building, and listening to the dreamers and thinking, ‘okay…I can’t wait to see where this is going to go,’” said Barry. “And today

we walk into this beautiful space and I am once again reminded that the dreamers are what make things possible. So Dr. Lowry, to you and to your team and to the dreamers that are at Lipscomb, we appreciate you and we appreciate all the hands that came together to make this a beautiful space.”

The 20,100-square-feet of office space is located on the ground floor of Nashville’s 4th and Commerce garage, 147B 4th Avenue N. The transformation of that space, which previously sat empty for a decade, began in May 2016.

John Lowry, vice president for development and external affairs, said he is pleased with the transformation process.

“This space that has been unused for so long has been transformed into a state-of-the-art learning community that will serve those working and living in the downtown area in new and unique ways,” said John Lowry. “The space is inviting, the programs that will be offered here will be life-changing and the university’s presence downtown will be yet another way Lipscomb is serving this city and providing access to education in innovative ways.”

Lipscomb University signage adorns the top of the parking structure and is a visible part of the Nashville skyline day and night.

The facility is patterned after the universityoperated Spark located in the Cool Springs area in Franklin. This fall in the downtown Spark facility, Lipscomb is offering leadership development initiatives such as its Driving Sales Performance certificate program and its new CEO Connect program, in addition to a full slate of graduate courses.

The Well Coffeehouse also opened its third Nashville location in the new Spark facility.

In 2012, Lipscomb launched its first Spark in Cool Springs. Spark integrates people with architecture, technology and expertise for the purpose of inspiring creativity, fostering dialog and enhancing collaboration.

Want to know more? Visit spark.lipscomb.edu.

LIPSCOMB NEWS

Summer Celebration’s Bison Block Party with music and fireworks drew a crowd of thousands.

EVENTS

INSIGHTS FROM SUMMER CELEBRATION 2017 AVAILABLE TO CHURCHES YEAR-ROUND Summer Celebration, the annual three-day lectureship and festival of faith, returned to old favorites this year with beloved speakers Randy Harris and Jeff Walling taking the stage for keynote sessions, and George Pendergrass coordinating a night of musical entertainment devoted to “Unity in Diversity.”

But 2017 was also the year that new faces showed up at the event, attended annually by thousands of Christians nationwide. Many in the Nashville community who were new to Summer Celebration attended the annual finale picnic and concert, re-named the Bison Block Party, and featuring the musicians of the Tokens radio show, a popular variety show in

Nashville hosted by Lipscomb’s Lee Camp, professor of theology and ethics.

The theme for 2017 was “A Unifying Core: The Message of Romans,” fueling diverse topics in hundreds of classes. For the fifth consecutive year, Lipscomb’s Office of Church Services developed a free video series and small group study guide based on the theme of that year’s Summer Celebration and made it available to churches and faith groups through their website lipscomb.edu/ servingchurches.

The study guides help local churches focus on how people of faith can address difficult issues in today’s culture, with insights from the life of David and the Biblical books of Joshua, Revelation, Romans and the Sermon on the Mount. Study guides and the videos of Summer Celebration keynote speakers on these topics are available by contacting Jenna Schrader at 615.966.5211.

Summer Celebration keynote speakers included on the free video series include Harris and Walling, Buddy Bell, Dave Clayton, Kent Brantly, Don McLaughlin, Landon Saunders, Joseph Shulam and Alan Robertson.

Annually, all keynote speeches are available free on Lipscomb University’s YouTube website, and audio of all Summer Celebration keynotes and class sessions are available to order from faithmediaonline.com.

“Our goal each year at Summer Celebration is to strengthen our fellow Christians through practical and pertinent teaching from Scripture,” said Scott Sager, vice president for church services. “That goal doesn’t end when Summer Celebration concludes. We have found our online study guides and our annual resource publication Intersections to be of great value to Christians and faith leaders exploring how to navigate today’s tough issues.”

At the 2017 Summer Celebration, a pre-seminar session on Christian apologetics led by Rubel Shelley and Texas lawyer Mark Lanier (’81) proved popular.

During the event, Shirley and Sam Stansbury were awarded a Kopio Award, for their life-long and tireless service to God through Shirley’s work at Lipscomb. Retiring this year, Shirley is a long-time Lipscomb employee and former coordinator of Summer Celebration. Most recently, she served as the administrator for Lipscomb’s Center for Spiritual Renewal at Longview.

In addition, the Summer Celebration attendees donated almost $26,000 to support Lipscomb’s short-term missions programs for students and alumni.

4 82% 283

Consecutive ASUN Academic Championships Of student-athletes with a 3.0 or higher GPA

Student-athletes on ASUN honor roll

ATHLETICS

MEN’S GOLF COMPETES IN FIRST NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP, ARMSTRONG HAS TOP 20 FINISH

ATHLETICS

The Lipscomb men’s golf team made history this spring as it advanced further in NCAA Division I post-season competition than any Lipscomb team in any sport has ever gone before.

For the first time in its history, the men’s golf team earned a spot in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship, held at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois, in May. After playing three rounds in the tournament, the Bisons tied for 24th overall with Penn State behind a +27, 891 (300-291-300). Lipscomb played in the field of 30 teams alongside teams such as Vanderbilt, Baylor, Florida State, Arizona, Alabama and North Carolina.

Although the Bisons didn’t make the cut to the fourth round of competition, senior Dawson Armstrong advanced as one of the top nine individuals on a team that did not make the cut to 15. He finished that round in a tie for 16th place.

The accomplishment marks backto-back trips to the NCAA postseason for the Bisons after making it to regional play for the first time in school history in the 2015-16 season and finishing eighth in the Tuscaloosa Regional.

The numbers are in and for the fourth consecutive year the Lipscomb Bisons have claimed the Atlantic Sun Conference Academic Champion Trophy presented to the school in the league with the highest percentage of studentathletes who have earned a 3.0 gradepoint average or higher.

“After four years in a row, it still doesn’t get old winning this award,” said Lipscomb Director of Athletics Philip Hutcheson. “Every year we promote that we have students and athletes, and awards like this helps validate that.”

Lipscomb led the way with 82.27 percent of student athletes eclipsing the mark as the Bisons claimed the league’s top academic honor for the fifth time in school history. North Florida was the closest school in the race to Lipscomb as the Ospreys finished with a distant 67.78 percent.

“Just like in past years, the credit goes to our student-athletes who are doing the work in the classroom along with the field of competition,” said Hutcheson.

LIPSCOMB EARNS 4TH-CONSECUTIVE ASUN ACADEMIC CHAMPIONSHIP

“Congratulations to each of them for putting in the long hours to earn this achievement again. Our coaches deserve a big share as well as they promote the culture of

strong academics all the way from recruiting through graduation.”

The Purple and Gold had a schoolrecord 283 honorees on the list, 100 more than any other school in the conference, bringing the all-time total to 2,505. Lipscomb has won the top conference academic honor in 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

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LIPSCOMB NEWS

ACADEMICS

STATE, NATIONAL ACCOLADES RECOGNIZE UNIVERSITY’S EXCELLENCE, INNOVATION On the heels of its designation as a Carnegie Foundation doctoral

university and its inclusion among

the U.S. News & World Report’s

national tier university listing last

year, Lipscomb has received numerous awards and honors in 2017 that

recognize its leadership, innovation and excellence in higher education. Among

the university’s recent recognitions:

Education collects state and national honors The College of Education has received two honors this year, as the 2016 Teacher Preparation Report Card released in December by the Tennessee State Board of Education recognized the college for the sixth consecutive year as one of the most effective teacher preparation programs in the state, and the National Council on Teacher Quality ranked Lipscomb as one of only 16 programs in the nation to be named a “Top Tier” institution.

In the NCTQ report, Lipscomb’s undergraduate secondary teacher program (which prepares high school teachers) was one of only six programs in the nation to rank in the 99th percentile of the 717 such programs in the U.S. In the state’s Teacher Preparation Report Card, Lipscomb received the highest score in the state. The Teach for AmericaNashville program, which has a longstanding partnership with Lipscomb’s College of Education, received the second-highest score on the report card.

Health care informatics master’s ranks No. 11 100 Best Values by Kiplinger For the third consecutive year, Lipscomb has been named to the Kiplinger Personal Finance list of 100 best values in private universities. The ranking includes four-year colleges that combine exceptional academic quality and affordability.

Among other universities included on the list are Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Yale, Vanderbilt, Brown, Stanford and Dartmouth.

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Lipscomb University’s Master of Science in health care informatics has been ranked No. 11 in the nation

by Top Master’s in Healthcare Administration.

Lipscomb ranked above the University of Kansas, Harvard University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Missouri and Duke University among others. It was the only university in Tennessee and the only one affiliated with the Churches of Christ on the list.

Lipscomb’s Master of Science degree in health care informatics is housed in the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences and is designed to equip students and create change agents for careers that integrate information technology, cognitive computing, business analytics and health sciences.

Accounting program No. 2 in nation Lipscomb University’s accounting program, housed in the College of Business, was recently named the top in Tennessee and No. 2 in the nation by Christian Universities Online in its “Top 10 Accounting Colleges & Universities” ranking.

Lipscomb ranked above Calvin College, Azusa Pacific University, Biola University, Oklahoma Christian University and Union University, among others.

School of Music among top 25 in nation Lipscomb University’s School of Music has been recognized as one of the top in the country by SuccessfulStudent.org, which recently released its list of the top 25 programs in the country.

In addition to Lipscomb’s School of Music, housed in the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts, other institutions on the top 25 list include The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music, Berklee College of Music, the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music among others.

Lipscomb is the only institution affiliated with the Churches of Christ on the list.

Information technology degree top in Tennessee The College of Computing & Technology’s information technology degree has been named the best in Tennessee and the 31st best in the nation by College Choice.

Rankings were based on tuition cost and the “College Choice Score,” which is computed based on each school’s reputation in the field and its return on investment.

NEW HIRES

NEW OFFICE FOCUSES ON COMMUNITY, NEIGHBORHOOD AND GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

Brent Culberson, former director of charitable solicitations, fantasy sports and gaming in the Tennessee secretary of state’s office, has been appointed director of community neighborhood and government relations at Lipscomb University.

In this role, Culberson will develop and manage the university’s strategy for strengthening its relationships with community, neighborhood and governmental leaders.

As a member of the secretary of state’s senior management team, Culberson collaborated with members and staff of the Tennessee State General Assembly; cultivated relationships with nonprofits, foundations and government agencies; and oversaw the annual charitable solicitation registration process for nearly 14,000 organizations.

Prior to his state appointment, Culberson was a special assistant to Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry and was an instructor in the university’s Institute for Law, Justice & Society and its Institute for Conflict Management.

Health Simulation Lab Director Tamara Baird (right) helps donor Linda Allen check the heartbeat of one of the new preemie baby patient simulators

ACADEMICS

CUTTING-EDGE HEALTH LAB FEATURES NEW PREEMIE SIMULATORS

The College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences’ Health Simulation Laboratory now has three new computerized mannequin patient simulators for premature babies and a second cardiopulmonary patient simulator due to one of the largest individual donations ever gifted to the health sciences programs.

Last fall, Lab Director Tamara Baird showed Linda Allen, wife of Lipscomb board member Jim Allen, the 19 patient simulators available at that time in the Health Simulation Lab in the Nursing and Health Sciences Center.

Allen was so inspired that she began discussions with Roger Davis, dean of the college, about funding some new simulators.

With Allen’s $100,000 gift, college officials decided to order three Premature Anne simulators, which represent 25-week old preemies, and one updated Harvey cardio-pulmonary simulator, with 50 additional teaching scenarios. The new version of Harvey is

sophisticated enough to be used to train heart surgeons, Baird said.

The preemie simulators allow students to draw umbilical cord blood; to do CPR; to treat respiratory problems, pneumonia or heart murmurs; and to even simulate a preemie birth, with a computerized link to the “mom” simulator, among other procedures.

The college plans to create a neonatal intensive care unit within the lab, valuable because it will give health science students a head start on the special training many states require for health care professionals to work in the NICU. Lipscomb’s health science programs can now provide simulations of various health concerns covering the entire lifespan, from 25 weeks old to the elderly, said Davis. The new additions are also the first major step toward fully equipping the lab for the forthcoming physician assistant studies program, he said.

“It is very important to me that we have the best of the best equipment at Lipscomb for the students,” said Allen, who developed very close relationships with Lipscomb students when her husband, Jim, worked as vice president for business affairs.

“We are still in contact with students and they are all so passionate.”

LIPSCOMB NEWS

ACADEMICS

NASHVILLE TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL AWARDS GARDINER TOP STUDENT HONORS

Lipscomb’s first data science major, Lauren Gardiner, was honored by the Nashville Technology Council.

The Nashville Technology Council named Lauren Gardiner (’17), a data science major, as Technology Student of the Year at the eighth annual NTC Awards in January.

One of 14 categories, the Technology Student of the Year Award is presented to the top tech student in the Middle Tennessee region who demonstrates academic excellence in a technology-related field of study.

As the inaugural student in Lipscomb’s data science program, housed in the College of Computing & Technology, Gardiner has helped to pioneer the program that was established in 2013 and focuses on the relationship between data, technology and people.

During her freshman year, she represented Lipscomb in the Deloitte Challenge, a competition in which

university students are given three weeks to design, develop and present a working mobile application that solves a particular business problem.

She has also participated in Lipscomb’s Women in Technology of Tennessee program, a mentorship initiative that has paired students with women in the professional technology industry since 2015.

Gardiner also interned with Chegg Inc. out of Santa Clara, California, and with Juice Analytics in Nashville.

Gardiner was an Honors College Scholar and a Presidential Scholarship recipient. She was a member of the Alpha Chi National Honor Society, the Presidential Ambassadors Council as well as the Student Government Association’s academic advising council.

Mayor Megan Barry presented the keynote address at the awards ceremony, where the audience represented more than 137 Nashville technology companies and cross-industry tech departments.

ACADEMICS

NEW FRED D. GRAY INSTITUTE HONORS CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY, HOSTS CONGRESSMAN

Lipscomb University’s Institute for Law, Justice & Society, re-named in honor of history-making civil rights attorney Fred D. Gray this past fall, will host civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis in December at its first annual fundraising event since its renaming.

Held at Woolworth’s on 5th, a new venue designed to honor and preserve one of the primary sites of the Nashville Sit-In Movement, the Dec. 4 event will take place on the same ground where Lewis was once arrested, as depicted in his biography March: Book One. The Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society recognizes Gray’s stated lifelong commitment to “eradicate racism” through the law, beginning with his work at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

Gray began his legal career as a sole practitioner and less than a year out of law school, at age 24, he represented Rosa Parks after she refused to give up her seat on a city bus, which began the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Gray was also Martin Luther King Jr.’s first civil rights lawyer, represented the Freedom Riders and filed the lawsuits that desegregated Alabama schools.

NEW HIRES

GALBREATH APPOINTED SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGY

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

COLLEGE OF PHARMACY FIRST IN NATION TO PARTNER WITH IBM WATSON ANALYTICS

The College of Pharmacy became the first pharmacy college in the nation to incorporate into its curriculum IBM Watson Analytics, a business analytics and insight-derived, decision-making software developed from the same artificial intelligence technology that made “Watson” the all-time champ on the game show “Jeopardy!”.

Through this partnership, Lipscomb is providing student pharmacists with an in-depth understanding of data and business analytics before they enter the health care workforce. At a time when health care companies expect individuals at all levels of an organization to act on data-driven insights, future pharmacists need to analyze and understand data to help deliver more informed answers in

patient care, said Roger Davis, dean of the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.

Watson Analytics allows users to analyze their research data in minutes, on their own, without downloading complex software such as SPSS. Students are able to upload their data in raw form and Watson Analytics provides easy-todecipher, visual graphics illustrating the trends in the data.

Susan Coomer Galbreath has been appointed senior vice president of strategy in the newly launched Office of University Strategy. Galbreath previously served as vice provost for academic and financial affairs and special assistant to the president at the university.

In her new role, Galbreath implements university goals; identifies issues in higher education and in the marketplace with potential impact on the institution; and focuses on strategic initiatives in academics, technology, human resources, organizational design, process improvement and financial efficiencies.

“Dr. Galbreath has made significant contributions to Lipscomb University through her work in the provost’s office and as a faculty member that have had a tremendous positive impact on the institution,” said Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry. “Beyond her impact on students in the classroom, her strong leadership, vision and skill at identifying issues and implementing solutions will ensure that Lipscomb continues to be an innovative institution that changes the lives of its students for generations to come.”

A veteran educator, Galbreath was on the faculty at Tennessee Technological University and East Carolina University prior to coming to Lipscomb. She served as an in-charge auditor at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Nashville for two years. She was a member of the Leadership Middle Tennessee Class of 2015. She is a recipient of the Outstanding Accounting Educator Award from the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants and has been named a

Nashville Woman of Influence by the Nashville Business Journal.

An intentional focus on strategy is an emerging practice among organizations, particularly among colleges and universities.

“Changes in the higher education and business landscapes are coming fast and furiously creating a more complex organizational structure, increasing globalization issues, numerous new regulations and the need for innovative results and initiatives on a more frequent and sustainable basis,” said Galbreath.

“Being able to act quickly to changes in market needs and the business environment and to know how those changes fit within a cohesive strategy is more crucial now than ever. This new position exists to provide continuous focus on strategy development.”

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ACADEMICS

TPAC PARTNERS WITH LIPSCOMB TO PROMOTE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL THEATER

The Nashville High School Musical Awards, called the Spotlight Awards, founded in 2014 by Lipscomb’s George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts, expanded its reach and influence in local high schools this year through a partnership with the nonprofit Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville.

The Spotlight Awards recognize excellence and creativity in local high school musical theater through an annual competition culminating in an awards ceremony and day-long workshop held at Lipscomb.

The ceremony was held in TPAC’s largest venue, Andrew Jackson Hall, in May. In addition, the top male and female performer awardees received scholarships to attend the National High School Musical Theatre Awards in New York City.

Hatty King, Spotlight Award winner for Best Actres, Lipscomb Academy graduate and freshman at Lipscomb, was honored as one of the top four female musical theater performers at the national awards program.

King turned down a spot in a prestigious theater program in Illinois to come to Lipscomb for her college career.

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STUDENT LIFE

STUDENTS GIVE TIME, COLLECT ITEMS FOR EAST TENNESSEE WILDFIRE VICTIMS AND HOMELESS Last fall, students opened their hearts and their wallets for victims of wildfires and homelessness in two projects launched and coordinated solely by students.

Within days of the November 2016 wildfire that destroyed much of the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area, Hailey Bryant Eason, a Kingston, Tennessee, graduate student in the clinical mental health counseling program, and Allissa Leudemann, a sophomore psychology major from Tellico Plains, Tennessee, teamed up to launch a collection drive.

The team collected two pick-up truck loads full of relief items and $400 from students in less than 24 hours.

Earlier in November, Nashville native Macy Cottrell, a molecular biology and vocational ministry major at the time, gathered a team of students to launch the second season of Lipscomb’s student-run branch of the Room In the Inn program, a winter shelter program for Nashville’s homeless population.

Cottrell and her team first established the winter shelter in the Student Activities Center in 2016. Students volunteered one night a week for six weeks at the winter shelter, which housed 10 men.

This season, from November 2016 to March 2017, the Room In the Inn volunteer students provided occupants with transportation, two home-cooked meals and a sack lunch, a comfortable bed as well as opportunities to shower, do laundry and fellowship.

Top: The November wildfires in Gatlinburg killed 14 people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

Above: Lipscomb students prepare beds for the oncampus Room In the Inn shelter to house Nashville’s homeless during the winter months.

Courtney Stewart

ACADEMICS

LIPSCOMB TAKES LEAD ON PROVIDING PATHWAY FOR TENNESSEE PROMISE STUDENTS

Through a partnership with the Tennessee Board of Regents and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Lipscomb has established the Lipscomb Promise initiative to increase the number of adults with college degrees in Tennessee by offering scholarships and a smooth transition process for qualified students from Tennessee community colleges.

Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry; Mike Krause, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission; and Flora Tydings, newly appointed Tennessee Board of Regents chancellor; announced the new initiative in March.

“Today represents not only the next step for Lipscomb and for the state, but most importantly for our students,” said Krause. “In fall 2015 we enrolled 1,000 students in community colleges who

were going to attend tuition-free under Tennessee Promise. We hoped to tell some of those students who didn’t see themselves in higher education, ‘you can do college. You can succeed. And in fact you can succeed and transfer to one of our universities in the state.’

“That’s why we are here today, because Lipscomb, under Dr. Lowry’s leadership, has stepped up to say, ‘we’re going to make sure you transition from the community colleges and there is going to be a place for you at Lipscomb.’”

Among the benefits Lipscomb Promise offers are: waiver of the $50 application fee; full-credit transfer for hours taken at a state community college in more than 25 Tennessee Transfer Pathway degree tracks; and up to $12,500 in scholarships per school year.

Today, 33,000 students are enrolled in community colleges using the Tennessee Promise scholarship, according to Krause.

For more information on the Lipscomb Promise pathway, log on to lipscomb.edu/lipscombpromise.

Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Flora Tydings.

ACADEMICS

STEWART IS SIXTH FULBRIGHT IN LAST 11 YEARS

Courtney Stewart (’17) learned she was selected as a Fulbright Scholar while she was in Guatemala serving on a Lipscomb spring break medical mission trip.

Fitting, as she is well traveled in Latin America, has studied abroad in Lipscomb’s program in Santiago, Chile, and has served on three Lipscomb mission teams to Guatemala.

These experiences inspired her to apply for a Fulbright Scholar position in Spain. Her assignment, beginning this fall, is a one-year English teaching assistant position at a school in the La Rioja region in northern Spain.

For the research component of her appointment, Stewart, a senior Bible and Spanish double major from Houston who is also a student in Lipscomb’s Honors College, will examine liberation theology (a Christian theology which emphasizes a concern for the liberation of the oppressed) and the role it plays in Spain.

Stewart is Lipscomb’s sixth Fulbright Scholar in the last 11 years, and the second consecutive year that an Honors College student has been selected. The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, was established in 1946 and is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”

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LIPSCOMB NEWS

New faces meet the

on campus

Other New Additions Marcy Binkley, an instructor in accounting with a Master of Accounting from Vanderbilt University.

Highly credentialed faculty join university to develop and enhance academic programs Each academic year at Lipscomb University dawns with a new infusion of expertise and specialized knowledge as new faculty enter the classrooms.

The 2017-18 academic year launched with 18 additions to the faculty, including several professors bearing degrees from such prestigious institutions as the University of Arkansas, University of San Diego, New York University, Case Western Reserve University and Vanderbilt University.

Bringing five new faculty members to the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences is the forthcoming physician assistant studies master’s program, expected to enroll students in fall 2018. The newly established School of Physician Assistant Studies has hired scholars who hold the highest degrees in their field and have experience in the Nashville health care market.

Stephen Heffington, MD, (who arrived in 2016) is the new program director of the School of Physician Assistant Studies and assistant professor of medicine.

He holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Tennessee and completed six years of post-graduate residency and fellowship in Urologic Surgery and Renal Transplantation at the University of Missouri. He came to Lipscomb after 18 years in surgical practice and health care administration.

He served as medical director for the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences before transitioning to the program director role for the school. He also serves as faculty and course coordinator in both the College of Pharmacy and the School of Nursing.

C. Marie Patterson, assistant professor of physician assistant studies, holds a Doctor of Health Science from Nova Southeastern University, and has been a physician assistant for 13 years with experience in emergency medicine, occupational medicine, primary care and urgent care. The last 10 years she has spent at Middle Tennessee State University in the Student Health Clinic.

Jenny Robinson (’09), assistant professor of physician assistant studies and director of clinical education and quality assurance, holds a Master of Science in Medicine from Trevecca Nazarene University. Robinson worked as a physician assistant in orthopedics for two years and then transitioned to PA education. She has extensive experience with developing, contracting and providing quality improvement for experiential education sites.

Kelly M. Smart, assistant professor of physician assistant studies, holds a Master of Science in Medicine from Trevecca Nazarene University. Smart worked in orthopedics for 10 years before moving on to pain management and finally coming here to Lipscomb to pass on 14 years of clinical medical knowledge and educational experience.

Matthew Steidl (’00), assistant professor of physician assistant studies, holds a Master in Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Steidl has eight years of experience as a software engineer for Lockheed Martin and seven years as a physician assistant working in urology. Most recently, he has been doing inpatient work with Urology Associates in Nashville.

V. Ruth Corey, the School of Nursing’s new executive director and professor of nursing, holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice, from Nova Southeastern University. (See page 42 for a profile.)

Lance Forman, assistant professor of education and director of the education leadership program, holds a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in education from Trevecca Nazarene University.

Melissa Forte, chair and visiting professor of cinematic arts, holds a bachelor’s, master’s and a Master of Fine Arts from Ohio University.

Chelsia Harris, associate professor of nursing and associate director of nursing for degree development, holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Vanderbilt University and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Case Western Reserve University.

Jill Kirby, assistant professor of biology, who holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy from Belmont University.

Kara Krinks (’97), assistant professor of education, holds a Master of Arts in Teaching, a Master of Science and a Ph. D. from Vanderbilt University.

Josh Link (’04, MFA ’16), assistant professor of film, holds a bachelor’s and Master of Fine Arts from Lipscomb.

Nat McIntyre, assistant professor of theatre, holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of San Diego, the top classical theater training program in the U.S. Nathan Mickle, visiting professor of music, holds a bachelor’s and a Master of Music from Oklahoma City University.

Matt Milligan, assistant professor of conflict management and associate director of legal outreach, holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas.

Whitney Narramore (Pharm. D. ’14), assistant professor of pharmacy practice, completed her first-year residency in pharmacy practice at Blount Memorial Hospital in Maryville, Tennessee, and completed an ambulatory care residency through Lipscomb.

Andrea Pewitt, instructor in education and the IDEAL (Igniting the Dream of Education and Access at Lipscomb) program director, holds a bachelor’s, Master of Arts in Education and Education Specialist degree from Austin Peay State University.

Cecelia M. Ramsey (’14), lecturer in English and modern languages, holds a Master in Literary Translation: FrenchEnglish from New York University. ­lipscombnow.com

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The Lipscomb Scene 01 Three of the almost 400 undergraduates who received their degrees at May’s Commencement.

More than 500 graduate students also completed their college degrees.

02 Students in the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering had a hands-on experience with a Russian SA-7, a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile, when Mark Clark, director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center, spoke to students.

03 Sixty-three high school students came to Lipscomb’s campus this summer to earn college credit through the Summer Scholars program. These students participated in the engineering track of the program.

04 Lipscomb marks the beginning of the academic year with various traditions, including Initium, a formal ceremony to welcome freshman into the college academic experience.

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05 Lipscomb alumnus Michael Shane Neal (middle left) talks with John and Susan Hainsworth (far right and center) at the closing reception of the Hutcheson Gallery exhibition of their art collection.

06 Predators mania hit Nashville this spring as the team advanced to the Stanley Cup finals.

07 DewFest is Lipscomb’s completely informal celebration of the start of a new school year, with students slipping and sliding across the Quad and enjoying free Mountain Dew. 08 Student Carrie Cowart greets special chapel speaker Mama Maggie, an eight-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

09 Lipscomb welcomed a new friend in September: Coca Cola products will now be sold on campus. The campus celebrated with the Coke polar bear at the Gathering.

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10 During WOW Week events, students learned about other cultures by sampling a variety of international teas at a reception.

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imagine 2017 CELEBRATES STORY OF REDEMPTION

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O

ne is a dreamer, and one is a cheerleader. They make a great team.

And Lipscomb University called on the nationally known, innovative team of Magic and Cookie Johnson this past April to join them in imagining a more prosperous future for Nashville and beyond.

Lipscomb’s annual event, Imagine, an evening of donor appreciation that serves as the launch of an important community conversation each year, featured Los Angeles Lakers President of Basketball Operations Magic Johnson and his wife, Cookie, who shared their story of faith, redemption, entrepreneurship and community transformation.

The Imagine 2017 theme was “Nashville: Prosperity for All Corners of the City.”

More than 2,000 Lipscomb Associates gathered for the second annual event.

The evening was focused on Magic and Cookie, whose life and business endeavors reflect key areas the Imagine initiative is examining in 2017.

“Together Magic and Cookie Johnson have changed communities and changed lives, and they bring a wealth of experience and ideas to us as we look to be a driving force for positive collaboration and change in Nashville,” said John Lowry, vice president for development and external affairs.

“While many people think they know the story of Magic and Cookie from Magic Johnson (right), and Cookie Johnson (left).

The power couple were the featured guests at Imagine 2017, to lead the community in imagining a more prosperous future for Nashville.

Imagine

stories of his career in the NBA, there is also a narrative that most people don’t know,” Lowry continued. “It was powerful to hear how their story aligns closely with our institution, which is a place of faith, redemption innovative solutions and entrepreneurship.”

Magic Johnson played as a point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers for 13 seasons in the 1980s and 1990s and helped take the team to four NBA Championships. Twenty-five years ago he was diagnosed with HIV and toggled between retirement and continuing to play for the Lakers until 1996.

Since his NBA career, Magic and Cookie together have formed the Magic Johnson Foundation to spread information on HIV. Cookie has worked with the foundation to reduce HIV infections in the African American community; launched her premium denim line, CJ by Cookie Johnson; and wrote a memoir titled Believing in Magic: My Story of Love, Overcoming Adversity, and Keeping the Faith.

Magic said that even though he grew up poor, he “didn’t have poor dreams.”

“Just because you don’t have everything you want or would like to have, you can still dream outside your neighborhood, outside your community and your financial means. I was a big dreamer,” said Magic. “I dreamed that I would play in the NBA and buy my parents a house. I used to dream that I would be a businessman… And that’s what I did.”

Since retiring from the NBA more than 20 years ago, the former Los Angeles Laker star has morphed into one of the most powerful African American businessmen in the world, and he uses that business acumen to transform communities.

He is credited with kickstarting the revitalization of Nashville’s Gulch area by investing more than $20 million a decade ago into the Terrazzo condo project. He is chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises, an investment conglomerate which focused primarily on ethnically diverse and underserved urban communities.

He is known for forging unprecedented partnerships. In 1998, he teamed with Starbucks in a venture that served as a catalyst for redevelopment in urban communities and is widely recognized as the corporate blueprint for engagement and success with urban consumers across America. He is also one of the leading investors in a number of minority-owned tech companies.

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Imagine

Magic Johnson becomes an honorary Bison with his own pair of uniform shorts.

“But when you have dreams, you also need someone who can be your cheerleader and tell you that you can do it.

And Cookie has been that for me,” said Magic.

Last fall, Cookie Johnson released her memoir, published by Howard Books, about her marriage, motherhood, faith and how an HIV diagnosis 25 years ago changed the course of their lives forever.

“When I look back over those 25 years, I think, ‘Wow, we’ve overcome a lot,’” she said. “God has brought us through so much, and that is why we wanted to write this story.”

Learning about her husband’s diagnosis was not easy.

She recalled the conversation with her husband 25 years ago when he told her he was HIV positive.

“I thought that my whole world had crashed,” said Cookie. “In that moment I realized that I had the choice that I could leave and let him die or I could stay and help him live. And I loved him, so I decided to stay and help him live.”

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Cookie said she decided to “fight this thing” by getting on her knees and praying.

“Every day I would find a new scripture and I would put it in my mind or put it on my mirror,” she recalled. “Whenever I would have those bad thoughts about death, I would think on those scriptures…

That’s how I made it through. If you put God first in your life, you can make it through anything.”

Cookie and Magic learned as much as they could about the disease and formed the Magic Johnson Foundation, which is committed to transforming urban America through HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention programs, Community Empowerment Centers and scholarship. Cookie is secretary of the board of directors.

As the spokesperson for the National Medical Association’s Immunization Public Service Announcement, she educated parents and caregivers on the importance of immunizing children in urban areas against the 10 vaccine-preventable diseases. Cookie was also instrumental in establishing the BREATHE Program, a national asthma awareness initiative for children and parents in urban environments.

Also a businesswoman at heart, Cookie recently launched CJ by Cookie Johnson, her premium denim line currently sold at Nordstrom, SAKS Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

On Feb. 21, Magic was named president of the Los Angeles Lakers. He said in the weeks before the announcement, he was “…asking God, ‘What do you have in store for me? I wanted a new journey. I wanted a new path.”

Just days after expressing these sentiments, he received a call from Jeannie Buss, controlling owner of the Lakers who was also serving as president of that time.

“

You can still dream outside your neighborhood, outside your community and your financial means.

I was a big dreamer.

“

“I figured she wanted to lean on my shoulder and tell me that the Lakers aren’t doing well again,” he said. “…she said, ‘Stop. I want to make you president of the Lakers. We need a change, and I want you to lead us.’ I went home and I told Cookie that it’s amazing how God works.

“I got drafted by the Lakers. I played for the Lakers. I coached the Lakers. I was the owner of the Lakers. And now I’m the president of the Lakers,” said Magic.

He credits Cookie with bringing him “back to the church and to his own personal relationship with the Lord.”

“That day, 25 years ago, we went to the pastor and he prayed over us and with us,” he said. “That day really changed my life and got me back into the church… It’s a blessing to have someone else help you be a better man… a better person.”

Imagine is an invitation-only event for Lipscomb Associates, donors of $1,000 or more annually. To become an Associate visit www. lipscomb.edu/giving/associates or call 615.966.6232.

To see the full version of this story, log on to http://bit.ly/LipscombImagine2017.

Left: Christian artist Michael Tait performed at the event.

Bottom: Nicole C. Mullen performed her signature song “Redeemer.”

Below: Magic and Cookie Johnson shared time with George Shinn, former owner of the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, who was honored during the event for donating the largest gift in Lipscomb history: $15 million. See page 4 for details.

Athletics

If we have a guy leaving here who isn’t self-sufficient, dependable, responsible and ready for the world, then we haven’t done our job.

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Athletics

Bison basketball program surges to 20-win season as Alexander embarks on fifth season The old adage “before you can shoot, you must f irst have a goal” is particularly apropos for any basketball program.

Casey Alexander, men’s head basketball coach, has goals.

Winning is def initely one of them.

But he has other goals for the program such as recruiting players who are a good fit for Lipscomb and making the program one of which the fans will be proud.

Since Alexander was named the 18th head coach of the Bison basketball program in May 2013, he has infused everything he has learned in a lifetime of playing and coaching basketball to lead the team to its first 20-win season for the first time in 11 years.

What Alexander sees is much more than a team that has achieved a 20-win season.

He sees a program that is building its players to be successful not only on the court, but into young men who are being shaped to be successful husbands, business professionals, community leaders and church leaders and who will “make Lipscomb proud.”

For those who may have forgotten, Alexander was a stand-out player at Belmont University from 1992-1995, where he served under Bruin head coach Rick Byrd for 16 seasons, learning from a coach who has taken that midmajor college program through the NAIA to NCAA transition and has reached the Big Dance seven of the last 12 years. In 2011, Alexander’s longtime dream of becoming a head coach was realized when he was named head coach at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. After two seasons there, he came to Lipscomb.

Lipscomb Now caught up with Alexander to learn more about the factors contributing to the program’s recent success, his coaching philosophy and his perspective as he enters his fifth season as head coach of the Bisons this fall.

LN: You’ve completed four seasons at Lipscomb. How has this experience gone for you so far?

Alexander: I wish we had won more games and that our success had been accelerated a little bit! But being at Lipscomb has been a joy and privilege every single day. There’s not been one moment where I haven’t been reassured that this is the best place for me to be.

That makes it easy for me to do my job.

When I measure our first four years at Lipscomb, I’m mostly concerned about how we’ve performed in conference play.

Our overall record hasn’t been as good as it needs to be moving forward, but we’ve still found a way to be .500 or better in the league every year. Last year’s 11-3 conference record was the best ASUN winning percentage (.786) in our division 1 (D-I) history. We’ve also won an ASUN tournament game three straight years now and played in the ASUN semifinals each of those years. We hadn’t won a tournament game in five years before this little run. There’s nothing substantial about playing in a tournament semi-final game, but it is an indication that things are going in the right direction.

LN: To what do you contribute the program’s forward momentum?

Alexander: I think the “secret sauce” is having a collective group of players who more closely embody what Lipscomb is.

It is our mission to build a roster of kids who would have considered Lipscomb as a place to go to school even if they weren’t basketball players.

We are looking for guys who relate well to the student body, who believe in what Lipscomb is all about. It has taken some time to accumulate a roster that looks like that. I love that Lipscomb has such high standards at a time when it’s much easier to compromise beliefs. We want our program to reflect those same values.

The best part about last year’s 20-win season was how we finished. Learning how to win is extremely difficult at any level and in any sport. For us to get off to another poor start last season, yet find a way to play so well and win in conference play, that’s the best part about the 20 wins to me. Now the challenge is to go win championships and play in the NCAA tournament.

LN: Before the 2016-17 season began, the team went on a mission trip. Did that have an impact on the team?

Alexander: It started out as a basketball trip that I thought would be nice for recruiting. It evolved into a mission trip because we thought the experience would better reflect to our players what Lipscomb is all about and how our team can play a role in that.

Mission trips are often life changing regardless of age, location or the work you’re doing. Without a doubt it had a huge impact in that we were doing

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Athletics

things that didn’t have anything to do with basketball. The carryover of doing that as a team, with people we already love and care about, proved beneficial throughout the year.

It got us off to a good start relationally.

We are in a different place spiritually than where we were. We’re having conversations that we didn’t have when we first got here. Our players are having conversations amongst themselves that they didn’t have when we got here.

LN: Are things growing from an academic standpoint as well.

Alexander: We desperately needed academic performance to improve and better reflect what the rest of our athletics programs were already doing in the classroom. Last year our team was one of only 27 of the 351 NCAA D-I schools to finish the season with a 3.0 GPA or higher and this past August we earned a Team Academic Excellence Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches for the first time in program history. We should be on track for our team GPA to be 3.0 for this academic year as well.

LN: There’s more going on than just winning more games.

Alexander: As a staff we are really excited about our program in all directions. For 98 percent of people, success is measured by wins and losses. For us, it’s those conversations that we’re having on a Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. when a player drops by the office to hang out for a few minutes, or when they call you because they need something and they know they can count on you, or because all of the sudden a B is more important than a C. Those are real wins for coaches and programs. Quite honestly, it’s the everyday life occurrences that influence winning and losing as much as anything else we do. Doing things the right way and doing them well, that’s the only way to have sustained success.

LN: Doesn’t a successful program begin with recruiting?

Alexander: We always want to build our roster with local kids when we can. We’ve had a lot of good fortune with that so far. It’s important that we have recognizable names that those in the community are familiar

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with already. So we’ll keep doing that. But there’s no quota we want to meet. Our job as coaches is to get good players, and it makes sense to get them locally if we can.

I tell our recruits that there are so many factors they have to prioritize when making a college choice… All of these factors will be prioritized differently by each recruit. In my mind, the top factors should always be who they are playing with and who they are playing for? Because when it’s all said and done, when mom and dad drop them off for college their daily life and quality of life is all that’s going to matter. Their experience and happiness is going to be determined by who they live with, who they practice with, who they have class with, who they’re travelling with, winning with, losing with.

So, we try really hard on the front end to emphasize those factors with our recruits. I think you eliminate a lot of risk with that approach. We don’t want a cookie-cutter program where everyone has to look and act the same. But we also don’t want high-risk high-reward kind of guys. We want players who would have gone to college, would have graduated and would have been interested in Lipscomb anyway. That’s just our philosophy.

LN: So, what is your coaching philosophy exactly?

Alexander: It all relates to recruiting. I’m an extremely direct coach. Not so much in the take-it-or-leave-it aspect, but I don’t appreciate false motivation. I just like to tell guys what I think and to be honest because I think that gives them the best chance to fulfill what we’re asking them to do. It starts there.

As far as on-the-floor philosophy—we recruit with a 90 percent offensive mindset. Our coaching philosophy as far as building the team is from the offensive perspective. As a coach you have to decide what kind of game you’re going to play so you know that you’re looking for players who can do a specific task. The other approach is to go get the best players I can and figure out how to use them.

Both have proven successful for programs.

But at Lipscomb, we’ve determined that this is who we are and how we play. So we know what kind of player we are going to look for.

Then it’s our job to try to get the most out of them, and see how it works out.

LU: What does the fan support mean to you?

Alexander: There is no substitute for winning, so it’s our job to win and generate fan support. There hasn’t been a day since I’ve been here that I have felt the people in this athletic office are not doing their dead-level best to help our program to be successful. The minimal success we had last season illustrates how winning can accelerate the process. We have a lot of competition in Nashville for fan interest. The more we win, the more we’re talked about.

The more significant things we do, the more exposure we get and the more people will care about how our program is doing. I love that our basketball program has such an opportunity to bring the university some attention it rightfully deserves.

Last year was very rewarding for me personally getting to see some joy brought back to people who really care about our program. One of the things I love about Lipscomb is that there are people who have been around for a long time who genuinely care about how our team does.

I love the people who surround our program enough that it’s personally burdensome whether we win or lose. I think that’s a great thing. That’s exactly what you want, to be at a place where people care.

LN: When a player leaves the locker room for the last time, how do you measure their success?

Alexander: First of all, if a player graduates and wouldn’t sign up to do it all over again, we haven’t done our jobs as coaches! I want players to walk away from here thinking that they made the right decision to be here and that they would do it all again. We work really hard to give them a first-class experience.

In addition, we try really hard to integrate them into the student body as much as we can. If we have a guy leaving here who isn’t self-sufficient, dependable, responsible and ready for the world, then we haven’t done our jobs either. We spend our time preparing to win games. But we also want our players to leave Lipscomb to become successful husbands, fathers, businesspeople, engaged in their communities and church leaders. That’s success to us.

To see the complete version of this article, log on to http://bit.ly/BisonAlexander.

Alumni

Honored Alumni Their lives tell the story of God and sing the song of faith In 1891, David Lipscomb and James A. Harding envisioned an institution that would bring together professional and spiritual life into one all-round man or woman, ready to bring their faith into the world.

In 2016, Lipscomb University established a new honor to annually recognize the profound impact of two of the 42,000 living missional professionals Lipscomb has launched into their designated fields throughout its 125-year history.

On Nov. 4, 2016, the very first Lipscomb Honors were presented to two outstanding alumni: Lori Bumpas (’86) executive director of Shiloh NYC, a Church of Christ-based nonprofit organization, and Mark Lanier (’81) an attorney, author, teacher and philanthropist.

Both were recognized for their inspiring impact in the world as part of Lipscomb’s inaugural “Lipscomb Honors: An Evening of Story and Song” event at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame.

Nearly 300 guests attended the event that launched on Homecoming Weekend 2016 and has been named the highest honor conferred upon Lipscomb alumni. As part of the musical theme and complementing the honorees’ stories of positive impact, award-winning songwriters Tim Nichols (“Live Like You Were Dying” and “Heads Carolina Tails California”) and Mike Reid (“I Can’t Make You Love Me” and “Stranger in My House”) shared the stories behind a few of their hit songs. In addition, world renowned Irish Tenor, Dr. Ronan Tynan, delighted the crowd with his signature rendition of “God Bless America.”

“We gather tonight as a community to recognize that there are folks who were formed at this university in a particular moment in time and are doing exactly what David Lipscomb would’ve imagined,” said President L. Randolph Lowry. “In their fields they

have excelled, and they’ve taken with them a sense of faith as they have done that.”

Bumpas, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in accounting, embarked on a 10-year corporate career with CUC International before becoming executive director of Shiloh NYC in 1997.

Founded in 1951, Shiloh NYC has served more than 10,000 at-risk children from New York City’s most difficult communities. It operates Camp Shiloh—a Christian summer camp, offers school-based programs in the South Bronx and works with three inner city schools to help students focus on new ways of learning through tutoring and mentoring.

Lanier, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible, is no stranger to the public platform. Since founding The Lanier Law Firm in 1990, Lanier has earned international recognition as one of the country’s top trial lawyers based on courtroom battles involving some of the world’s largest companies.

Lanier is the founder of the Lanier Theological Library, one of the nation’s largest private theological collections, and of the Christian Trial Lawyers Association, a nonprofit organization that seeks to create a network of principled attorneys to minister to others through civic-minded endeavors.

The 2017 Lipscomb Honors ceremony will be held Nov. 9 again at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. As audiences experienced last year, award-winning songwriters will be performing and sharing their well-known stories in song, as an accompaniment to the inspiring stories of the 2017 honorees worthy of Lipscomb’s top alumni honor, said Phil Ellenburg, vice president of alumni relations.

To get more information about attending the Lipscomb Honors event, go to lipscomb.edu/alumni.

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writing the next chapter English professor Willie Steele publishes official biography of iconic baseball author

THE WEEK OF SEPT. 11, 2016, WAS A WEIRD ONE FOR ENGLISH PROFESSOR WILLIE STEELE (’95).

He knew his friend Bill was suffering the long-term effects of diabetes and not likely to recover, but he never expected to get an e-mail from Bill’s daughter letting him know that that Friday would be his last day on earth.

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Bill was taking advantage of a new Canadian law allowing him to undergo assisted suicide on Sept. 16. The notice would be a sad message for anyone, but it was made all the more shocking for Steele as he was Bill’s biographer.

Steele’s week started with general concern and ended with phone calls from the Wall Street Journal about the death of W.P. Kinsella, the author of Shoeless Joe (adapted into the 1989 film Field of Dreams) and various other works of baseball fiction.

Kinsella had tapped Steele in 2012 to be his biographer because he had seen a copy of Steele’s 2011 book, A Member of the Local Nine: Baseball Identity in the Fiction of W.P. Kinsella, the most comprehensive work on Kinsella’s writings to be published to date.

At the time, Kinsella, known for being something of a curmudgeon, emailed Steele to tell him, in Steele’s words: “I didn’t mess it up too bad.” That was high praise coming from Kinsella, who spent five years teaching at a university and walked away with a

lifelong hatred of academia. “You didn’t jump to absurd conclusions like so many academics tend to do,” Kinsella wrote Steele.

The two began a four-year relationship that included Kinsella turning over his diaries spanning 34 years to Steele, an endless stream of interviews with business colleagues, friends and family members, two visits to Kinsella’s homes in British Columbia and countless emails with follow-up questions. The author gave Steele more access to his personal life than any other non-family member alive.

This past summer, Steele completed the first and most comprehensive work on Kinsella’s life ever.

Steele’s literary agent, who previously represented Kinsella himself, has secured a contract with Canadian publisher Douglas and McIntyre and the book is expected to hit bookstands in fall 2018.

Steele had no idea when he chose father/son relationships in the novel Shoeless Joe and the film Field of Dreams as the topic for his 1998 master’s thesis that he was setting his academic career on a course that would make him today’s most knowledgeable expert on W.P. Kinsella.

Steele had always been a big fan of baseball, and he wanted to do his master’s thesis on a topic he would enjoy throughout the process, he said. “I was not that good of a player, so I thought, ‘If I can’t play baseball, I can at least write about it.’”

“Through baseball, you can see many of the substantive changes in our society through the years—religion, gender, race, class and politics.

It’s really an interesting way to be able to explore American identity through its national pastime.”

After earning his master’s degree, Steele taught writing and literature at Cascade College and Oklahoma Christian University, all the while publishing papers and making presentations, more often than not on baseball literature. His 2006 dissertation on Kinsella’s four baseball novels became the 2011 book that Kinsella liked, and Steele has presented

numerous times at the Annual Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, the nation’s premier academic conference on baseball literature, held at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Despite his ornery reputation, Kinsella was quite an agreeable interview subject, Steele said. “He never said no to any question.” His personality had many facets, from cantankerous to generous, said Steele. “His agent called (Kinsella) one of the most complex friends she’s ever had,” he said.

Steele says he didn’t quite know what he was getting into when he agreed to write the biography. The process has been long and more consuming than he ever imagined. Steele has researched all of Kinsella’s writing and his presentations, visited the Canadian National Archives twice and organized boxes and boxes full of Kinsella’s old papers and notes, even old junk mail. He has interviewed Phil Alden Robinson, the director of Field of Dreams; Dwier Brown, who played Ray Kinsella’s father in the movie; and Lawrence Kessenich, Kinsella’s editor for Shoeless Joe.

I was not that good of a player, so I thought, ‘If I can’t play baseball, I can at least write about it!’

“Every interview leads to four others, which leads to seven others,” he said. Steele was grateful to be awarded a 2016 Lipscomb Faculty Summer Grant that allowed him to get the bulk of the biography down on paper, an extra blessing considering Kinsella’s death in September.

Throughout Kinsella’s career he published almost 30 books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, which were translated into many languages around the world.

After Kinsella’s death, in September, Steele found himself as a sought-after expert when Kinsella’s literary agent referred media to his biographer for comments on his death. Steele’s name appeared in media throughout Canada and the United States including the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Kinsella’s death also resulted in a fitting anecdote for Steele’s biography: Kinsella’s short story “The Last Pennant Before Armageddon,” involved a prediction that the Chicago Cubs would win the pennant just before the end of the world. The story became a joke between Steele and Kinsella as the Cubs began their winning streak in 2016.

Then ironically, Kinsella passed away the last day before the famously long-denied Chicago Cubs clinched their spot in the National League playoffs, and they did go on to win the 2016 pennant and World Series.

Fortunately, we’re all still here to watch more baseball games and learn a little more about an author who brought us closer to America’s national pastime.

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Leadership

Scobey leads Lipscomb board through time of institutional growth

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When David Scobey was a young boy growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, he enjoyed tinkering with things around his house—taking them apart and putting them back together to see how they work.

“I just loved to explore things, take them apart and ask ‘why does it do that’ and ‘how does that work,’” he recalls. “It’s probably in my genetics and probably the influence of my father.”

He followed his boyhood passion, and the footsteps of his father, into a career in engineering, beginning as a network engineer at AT&T/BellSouth and eventually moving into product development, marketing and sales during his 30-year career with the company culminating with his term as president and CEO of AT&T Southeastern Region.

“The interesting thing about an engineering degree is that it’s all about critical thinking skills and problem solving,” says Scobey, who holds an engineering degree from Auburn University. “The discipline of how you go about solving a problem and looking for solutions is so applicable in management.”

In his career, Scobey developed a reputation in leadership as a fix-it artist known for his team building, customer and front-line employee focus and people development. Even as an adult, he was taking things—or systems or products or processes—apart and putting them back together again.

For the last decade, Scobey has shared that expertise with the Lipscomb community as a member of the Lipscomb University Board of Trustees. This November, Scobey completes his six-year tenure as chair of the board.

Since Scobey was officially installed as 13th chairman of the Lipscomb University Board of Trustees in November 2011, the university enrollment broke 4,600 for the first time; the diversity of the student body grew to 22 percent; freshman retention rates set institutional records; numerous academic programs were added and six colleges were launched or reorganized. In addition, the university raised more than $125 million in its Lipscomb:Next campaign.

Randy and Rhonda Lowry (left) joined Debbie and David Scobey (right) at the opening of the McFarland Science Center addition.

The campus grew significantly during his tenure with the construction of eight new buildings and the Spark facilities in Franklin, Tennessee, and Downtown Nashville. Elam, Fanning, Johnson and High Rise residence halls; Bennett Campus Center, Bison Square and Swang Business Administration Center underwent major renovations.

“Lipscomb is a unique place with a unique mission, and I have greatly enjoyed watching how it blesses the lives of its students, faculty, staff, alumni and community,” says Scobey, who resides in Atlanta with his wife, Debbie.

“She has been a constant help and has given me a great deal of support and encouragement,” Scobey says of his wife.

“She is a consistent advocate of and recruiter for Lipscomb and is engaged with students, faculty, staff and administrators. She is very much a partner in this work.”

With all of the forward institutional momentum, Scobey says he is most proud of the work that has been done “to acknowledge and repent of our segregated past and working to improve the Lipscomb community’s racial competency.” He is also pleased with the institutional commitment to become “even more intentionally Christian,” the expanded donor base, the number of improved teaching and living spaces on campus, the improved quality of Lipscomb Academy, the university’s

national recognition, the growth in undergraduate and graduate programs, and the “spiritual commitment of our students to serve the world.”

“David Scobey has brought great perspective and leadership to Lipscomb,” says Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry. “His vision, his leadership and his encouragement have been key components to the university’s continued success. I am grateful to both David and Debbie Scobey for their passion for Lipscomb and for their tireless service to this institution.”

As Scobey is set to complete his tenure next month, he says he hasn’t yet completed his service with the board. As he has “tinkered” with the institution and learned at an intimate level “how it works,” he has a few more goals for the institution —to continue to grow the endowment, especially for scholarships; to “claim and exercise our national leadership role” in Christian higher education and to build on “the most committed Christian faculty anywhere.”

David Solomon (’81) has been nominated to succeed Scobey. At the November board meeting, Solomon is expected to be confirmed as the 14th chair of the Lipscomb Board of Trustees.

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Alumni

Class of 2017 bound for success Two Vanderbilt Medical School enrollees among prestigious class Commencement truly is a new beginning.

Each May at Lipscomb comes with fresh stories of new life journeys begun, new careers started and new accomplishments made for the hundreds of students graduating.

Members of the Class of 2017 embarked on prestigious new beginnings, with a number of students taking on impressive new challenges at some of the nation’s top institutions including studying and researching at Oxford University, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Yale University and in foreign lands to pursue their individual missions to better serve the world before them.

Macy Cottrell, of Nashville, is attending a one-year master’s program at Oxford

University in England as a first step before attending medical school and pursuing a career in medicine incorporating medical missions.

Her Lipscomb college career was designed to prepare her for medical missions as she double majored in biology and theology and at the same time completed a master’s in biomolecular science in May through Lipscomb’s 3+1 program. The program required her to conduct immunology research with Jon Lowrance, professor of biology.

Cottrell has already experienced plenty of travel for educational and health missions purposes. She studied at Oxford for a summer, studied abroad in the Lipscomb in Vienna program, has been to Israel and Greece with the College of Bible and led a medical mission team to Guatemala.

On the theology side, Cottrell has interned in youth ministry at a church in Memphis, started a Room In the Inn homeless shelter on the Lipscomb campus and worked with a group of students to establish a for-profit social enterprise benefitting women’s education.

Two 2017 graduates are now studying to become physicians at Vanderbilt University, an unusual occurrence as historically Vanderbilt enrolls a geographically diverse medical school class, according to Lipscomb’s Chair of Biology Kent Gallaher.

This fall Mark Naguib and Chandler Montgomery are both first-year students at Vanderbilt Medical School, which generally considers applicants that have MCAT scores in the 97th percentile or above, Gallaher said.

In fact, Naguib, a Nashville resident who earned a B.S. in molecular biology, received a full-tuition scholarship as his MCAT Chandler Montgomery and Mark Naguib beginning their post-Lipscomb journey at Vanderbilt Medical School.

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Alumni

score ranked within the top 1 percent of the nation. Naguib has done research with Nate Daniels, assistant professor of pharmacy, for three years, working to develop new medicine for Parkinson’s disease and treatments for obesity. He also participated in a Lipscombsponsored medical mission trip to Nicaragua and has been exploring his own spiritual life in a monastery in Texas.

Chandler Montgomery, also a Nashville resident with a B.S. in molecular biology, participated in Lipscomb’s medical mission trip to Guatemala every spring during his undergraduate years. He also worked on lung cancer detection research for two summers at Vanderbilt with Dr. Eric Grogan (’95), a lung surgeon. These experiences spurred an interest in pursuing medical missions and academic

Her research in Ohio involves the hyperbaric chambers at the WrightPatterson Air Force Base and involves U2 pilots as research participants. She will study the neurologic abnormalities (i.e. decompression sickness) leading to white brain matter hyper-intensities.

While at Lipscomb, Alder was already working at Vanderbilt with Dr. Beth Malow as a clinical researcher in the autism field.

Finally, the U.S. State Department is supporting the service mission of Courtney Stewart, a double major in Spanish and theology from Houston, who is beginning her appointment as a Fulbright Scholar this fall in the La Rioja region of Spain.

Macy Cottrell

Class of 2017 graduates are moving on to Yale, Oxford, Vanderbilt, Ohio State and more. medicine during his career. He was also actively involved in Lipscomb’s music ensembles, social clubs and in community service.

Montgomery was drawn to Vanderbilt because its curriculum allows for clinical experience earlier in the academic process and requires students to spend three months conducting research.

Megan Alder, who graduated from Lipscomb Academy and received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in May, is now working on her Ph.D. in nursing neuroscience at Case Western Reserve University with mentor Michael Decker. Her research is supported by the Legacy Research Fellowship Award, a National Research Service Awards Pre-doctoral Training Grant from the National Institute of Health, which provides a full-tuition stipend, a living stipend, travel stipend and an additional educational stipend to study neuroscience.

Stewart is well traveled in Latin America, she has studied abroad in Lipscomb’s program in Santiago, Chile, and has served on three Lipscomb mission teams to Guatemala.

Megan Alder

During her college career, she also developed an interest in liberation theology, a concept among Latin American Catholics that emphasizes liberation from social, economic and political oppression. The Fulbright grant includes support of her research into the role that liberation theology plays in Spain.

Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 370,000 participants with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

Stewart is Lipscomb’s sixth Fulbright Scholar in the last 11 years.

Courtney Stewart

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Alumni

a

full of hope BUSINESS AND LIBERAL ARTS STUDENTS TEAM UP TO CREATE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

WHEN MANY YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WITH A BRIGHT IDEA WANT TO LAUNCH A COMPANY, THEY ASSEMBLE A TEAM OF SHARP BUSINESSPEOPLE.

and philosophy, now a graduate student at Yale University, and Macy Cottrell (’17), a biology and theology major now a graduate student at Oxford University; all studied abroad together in Vienna, Austria. During the experience, they got to talking about women’s education and how it could be a major factor in solving poverty around the world, said Ford.

Not Luke Benda (’17), however. The entrepreneurship and financial markets graduate didn’t go to the best business students he knew to launch his social enterprise Ed Pack Global. In fall 2015 he assembled a team of three liberal arts students with more passion than business skills, and now underprivileged women in Nashville and Honduras are reaping the benefits.

In the summer of 2015, Benda was reading two books: Love Does by Bob Goff and Good to Great

by Jim Collins. The Chicago native has been starting business ventures since he was young, he said, but reading these two books at the same time inspired him to start a business venture that could also make a positive impact on the world.

Benda and two of his entrepreneurial teammates, Kayla Ford (’17), then a senior majoring in English

He came up with the idea for Ed Pack Global, a forprofit social enterprise that is selling backpacks

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and donating 15 percent of the profits to benefit women’s education in Honduras and in Nashville.

Following the advice of Collins in Good to Great, Benda set about to gather a team with, not the best business skills he could find, but with passion, the ability to dream and commitment to the goal.

He recruited Ford, who took on marketing tasks; Cottrell, who established the partnerships with the benefitting nonprofits; and Ben Siebold, a 2016 graduate who majored in applied mathematics and took on product design and manufacturing tasks.

“I’ve been around a lot of start-ups, and if they don’t have the heart, the business fails,” said Benda.

In spring 2015 the group won Lipscomb’s Kittrell Pitch Competition, which provided $10,000 toward development of Ed Pack Global. As a result of that, they participated in Launch TN’s

Alumni

Statewide Venture Challenge and won the ability to participate in the Statewide Venture Challenge annual conference.

The group launched their Kickstarter campaign for pre-orders on Jan. 17. They met their goal of $10,000 in support within three hours. Local media coverage of their venture spurred continued pre-orders until the group raised more than 200 percent of their original goal, said Benda.

A portion of the profits from each backpack sale benefits Mi Esperanza, a Honduran nonprofit providing job skills training and microloans for women, and Thistle Farms, a Nashville nonprofit providing job and life skills training for women healing from prostitution, trafficking or addiction.

“We are a company that certainly started with our ‘why,’” said Benda, referring to Simon Sinek’s model for inspirational leadership.

“This venture is a catalyst for social change, which is something I have always liked and wanted to explore, and this is a really practical way to do it,” said Ford. “In 20 years, I think every company will be giving back to something. We are riding that wave.”

Ford wrote web copy, email campaigns, and the script for the Kickstarter video and helped develop branding for the company.

The group has had plenty of learning opportunities and challenges along the way. They designed a few prototypes before developing one that met all their specifications. They used a local Nashville bag designer to design the sturdy and functional backpack, made of heavyweight water-resistant canvas and including pockets in the top flap and a padded laptop sleeve inside.

Finding a manufacturer, a job which fell to Siebold, proved particularly challenging as backpacks are actually a very difficult product to create, Benda said. It must be strong enough to carry a heavy load over a long period of time, so special sewing machines are required to manufacture the product.

“It has taught me how to be firm when dealing with opposition,” said Siebold, whose future plans include graduate school and teaching math. “Because we’re so young, we had a couple of manufacturers who thought they could take advantage of us. Fortunately, we had great advisors who helped us through that.”

Cottrell’s job was to find nonprofits to partner with, and she started immediately with Mi Esperanza, a group she knew from past mission trips to Honduras. She had heard about the work of Thistle Farms several times growing up in Nashville, so she contacted them as well and both organizations turned out to be a great fit for their company.

“We picked organizations that were humble in their actions and really in tune with the needs of those they serve,” said Cottrell, who plans to go to medical school after Oxford and possibly pursue medical missions someday. Both organizations have already received a check, and Cottrell traveled to Honduras personally to present the funds to Mi Esperanza.

In April, the founding students were honored with Lipscomb’s annual Mary Morris Award for Exemplary Service to Society.

Today, Ed Pack Global has fulfilled all the preorders made during the Kickstarter campaign and is continuing to sell backpacks through its online store (www.edpackglobal.com), said Benda. The company has added a new backpack design option and Benda is pursuing partnerships with retailers. He continues to involve Lipscomb alumni in the venture, such as Ansley Waller (’13), who works with social media marketing for the company.

It’s meant a lot of early mornings and late nights for Benda, as he keeps Ed Pack Global filling orders while also working full-time at Satchel Health.

Cottrell and Ford have elected to continue their involvement with the venture after their graduate studies, Benda said.

“We spent so much time working on it, so it could be something bigger than us and impactful beyond our efforts,” said Cottrell.

(l to r) Luke Benda, Kayla Ford, Macy Cottrell and Ben Siebold.

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LIVING OUT THEIR HIGH HOPES WHEN TAEGAN MARTIN WALKS THROUGH THE DOOR OF THE HIGH HOPES DEVELOPMENT CENTER IN FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE, SHE ISN’T MERELY ENTERING HER WORKPLACE TO WORK A SHIFT AT ITS PRESCHOOL, WHICH SERVES CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES. What she is doing symbolizes something much greater. It symbolizes hope… and a dream come true.

Martin, 28, is a 2016 completer of Lipscomb’s IDEAL (Igniting the Dream of Education and Access) program, a two-year certificate program that provides education and workplace training to students with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.

IDEAL STUDENTS TAKE THEIR SKILLS, PASSION TO THE WORKFORCE

Launched in January 2014 by Lipscomb’s College of Education, the IDEAL program includes academic and skill-building classes, exercise sessions, daily internships, leisure time and a daily study period that prepares students like Martin for the work world. As IDEAL’s third cohort completed its career exploration studies certificate on May 5, these alumni are already making an impact on the community through the jobs they have secured following their studies at Lipscomb.

Working at High Hopes is a homecoming for Martin, who was a student there as a toddler.

Now, Martin is giving back to the place that nurtured her. For the past year, Martin has worked as a floater, assigned to one classroom but offering an extra set of hands to teachers in other rooms.

“God’s hands are all over this. I love working here. I love to see how it has changed since I went here,” says Martin. “I want the kids to see me and to know that they can do it to.”

High Hopes serves nearly 120 children aged six-weeks through pre-K each year by providing

inclusive education, allowing students with special needs to learn alongside typically developing peers.

“Taegan is the first student we have had come back. It has been a wonderful experience for everyone,” said Melanie Anderson, director of educational services at High Hopes. “It’s not just about the fact that Taegan has a job. It’s also about giving back because Taegan knows what High Hopes did for her.“It’s also encouraging for families here to see what Taegan has accomplished and that people with disabilities can have jobs and make an impact on others.”

Being part of the IDEAL program is what prepared Martin for her job, she says.

“IDEAL helped me. I got to take classes for credit, and I took IDEAL classes. I am using those skills I learned,” she says.

Joanna Wagner, IDEAL program manager for off-campus job development, says Martin’s job at High Hopes is an example of the outcome program administrators want for all of their

Taegen Martin, a 2016 IDEAL completer, works at High Hopes Development Center, where she spent much of her early childhood.

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students. Wagner meets with Nashvillearea organizations to find internship and job opportunities for IDEAL students while also working with students to prepare them for the workplace.

Conner Mirt, also a 2016 IDEAL completer, enjoys getting to know the regulars at The Well Coffeehouse, a nonprofit business located in Brentwood.

“The world is changing, and we are seeing more inclusive environments,” said Wagner.

“When I approach companies about opportunities to work with our students as they develop their work skills and enter the workforce, I get the immediate reaction of ‘I think that would be a great fit.’ Our students have a great desire to contribute to the world around them, and they want to show others that they can do this.”

Once Wagner identifies an organization that may be a good fit, she goes on a site visit to familiarize herself with the daily operations and to look for tasks that the student can perform to contribute to its daily operation.

She has a keen eye for “job carving” as she calls it—“taking bits and pieces of things around the office that these students can do to make everyone’s lives easier.”

The IDEAL program now has three cohorts of students who have completed their certificates in career exploration studies and are entering the workforce.

Conner Mirt, 25, who also completed his studies at Lipscomb in May 2016, brings an infectious smile to customers who visit The Well Coffeehouse in Brentwood, Tennessee. Mirt works two days a week stocking the coffee cart among other responsibilities.

“I really like working at The Well,” says Mirt.

“I have gotten much better in my work since I started working there. I like my manager, and I feel comfortable asking her questions. There are some customers who I see all the time and that makes me happy.”

Maddie Nooner (’15), manager of The Well’s Brentwood location, says Mirt has had a positive impact on business.

“Having him here fits with our mission to make a difference in people’s lives,” she says.

“People love Conner. He has helped us reach out to Nashville, and our community here has really taken to him.”

Zach Sutton, a member of the third IDEAL cohort who graduated in May, has

worked three days a week in the bindery at Fidelity Offset Inc., a commercial printer in Nashville, since December. Sutton, who has lives independently in an apartment at Friendship House since October, wanted to find a job close to his home and to Lipscomb.

“You can really tell the application of what Zach has learned within the IDEAL program is being put into action on a daily basis,” says Audrey Zebley, client relations at Fidelity Offset. “From the first time he came to the interview to now, the questions that he has been prepared to ask really helped educate him on what to expect, and it’s been a seamless transition to get Zach here and trained and into production.”

Mirt’s mother says her son’s confidence has grown tremendously through the IDEAL program and on the job.

“The program has helped him grow in confidence and in exposure to the college experience and job development,” says Deb Mirt. “It’s great to see all of that come together and to see him in the workplace.”

As of press time other IDEAL graduates are employed by various Nashville-area organizations including Lipscomb University, and Fleet Feet.

For more information about the IDEAL program, visit lipscomb.edu/ideal. If you would like additional information about how businesses can partner with the IDEAL program, email joanna.wagner@lipscomb.edu.

To read the complete version of this story, log on to http://bit.ly/LipscombIDEAL.

­lipscombnow.com

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Academics

Corey follows calling to serve others in Lipscomb’s School of Nursing “Nursing never fails you. It’s always there.” — Ruth Corey

If there is anyone who knows nursing it’s Ruth Corey.

Every rank. Every possible academic degree.

And it hasn’t failed her in the more than 35 years since she felt called to pursue nursing as not just a profession but as a vocation.

Corey’s pursuit of the calling has led her on a journey that prepared her opportunity-byopportunity for the latest stop—Lipscomb

University. In June, she was appointed executive director of the School of Nursing, housed in the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.

“Dr. Corey’s breadth of experience, knowledge of the local nursing community and her faithbased approach to education will augment the strong foundation laid by the School of Nursing faculty and interim administrators during the last year and a half,” said Roger L. Davis, dean of the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.

Program enhancements implemented in 2015 and 2016 at the School of Nursing resulted in record high scores in the nursing licensing exam first-time pass rate.

“Corey’s vision for Lipscomb’s nursing program will undoubtedly have an impact not only on our campus but in the Nashville community and beyond,” said Davis.

Corey says she felt “the call of God” when she was a stay-at-home mother of two in Sanford, Florida.

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“I started out as an LPN, then I got my two-year RN (registered nurse). Then I had to get an associate degree because that was required for the RN to BSN. Then I got my BSN; then I got my master’s and my nurse practitioner’s license; and then I got my doctorate,” said Corey. “So, yes, I’ve got it all. I worked in between all of that.

“That gave me a real understanding of what every level of nursing education looks like. I truly feel very confident that when a student comes to me with a question or a desire to reach a certain level, I know exactly what they are talking about. I feel like that’s an advantage that I have. It’s been a lifelong process for me.”

Corey worked as an RN at Central Florida Regional Hospital for 11 years. She completed her Master of Science in Nursing degree at the University of Central Florida, and worked as a family nurse practitioner for six years before joining the faculty at Daytona State College as professor of nursing. She next was appointed department chair and professor of nursing at Seminole State University.

“The thought of becoming a nurse just seemed to be brought to my attention over and over,” she says. “I kept thinking this is how you can help people and really make a difference.

Once I realized that was my calling, I went to school. My son and I started school on the same day. He started pre-K and I started nursing school!”

Corey then had a unique opportunity to be a nursing research scientist at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Florida. She says she quickly fell in love with the research aspect of nursing. During this time, she earned her Doctorate in Nursing Practice from Nova Southeastern University.

In 1981, Corey enrolled in the Licensed Practical Nursing diploma program at Seminole State College, beginning a journey that led to an unusually broad experience in the nursing field.

“I became very excited about research. It gave me an opportunity to look at the gaps in health care. As a practitioner I saw a lot of gaps, and it troubled me,” she said.

By this time, one of Corey’s children had moved to Nashville. So Corey and her husband moved to be near them.

Nursing was there for Corey in her new hometown when, in 2015, she was appointed director of nursing and academics at Marian University at Saint Thomas Health.

“When I learned of the opportunity at Lipscomb, I felt that it was time for me to develop a relationship with a university on a more permanent basis where I could really grow and give back what I have learned all of these years,” says Corey.

She has big plans for Lipscomb’s program.

In the future she would like to build a nursing research program, to encourage faculty to publish and to apply for grants.

“Those are the pieces that will take us to the next level,” she says. “My goal for this school is to be the gold standard of nursing in Middle Tennessee. We have everything going for us, and there is no reason we can’t be an example for others.”

Graduates of the School of Nursing enjoy a 100 percent job placement rate, as reported to the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing.

“Lipscomb nurses are very highly sought after.

They have a great reputation, so we are going to build on that,” Corey said.

And, as is her mantra, nursing never fails you.

“The lovely thing about nursing is that you’re never too old to be a nurse,” she says. “I tell students nursing always gives back…There are so many avenues that nursing touches these days: online, through the government, through all types of systems. So, nursing is a career that always gives back. It never fails you.

“Nursing is a culture of giving. I’m very excited to be a part of Lipscomb, to be a part of that here.”

To read the full story, log on to http://bit.ly/LipscombCorey.

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Academics

“It is sometimes said that education trains the head. But Christian education has a larger task—it cannot stop with head training alone. It must aim at the production of an allround man, and all-round woman. There must be a complete citizen—physically, mentally, socially, morally, spiritually.”

1926 David Lipscomb College Catalog

The College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences is 10 years old!

In January 2007, Dean Roger L. Davis and a handful of Lipscomb administrators came together to establish Lipscomb’s College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.

Today Lipscomb’s student pharmacists administer immunizations through their clinical practice experiences; they participate in events like (Vanderbilt University’s) Flulapalooza—where they give thousands of immunizations to faculty and staff; they organize their own drive-up flu clinic for community members; and they go off-campus to local companies for immunization events.

Ten years and more than 57,000 flu shots, 250,000 clinical nursing hours, 23 mission trips and almost $1 million in research grants later, the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences is changing the face of health care in the local community and the nation.

Those numbers are boosted even more by the participation of Lipscomb student nurses. Together, these health science students have raised the flu shot total for the decade to more than 57,000.

It all adds up to a healthier populace with almost 1,000 new Lipscomb-trained health care professionals providing compassionate patient care in the health care marketplace.

They won’t ever let you forget that flu shot.

Health science students have traveled on 23 mission trips to Africa, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and disadvantaged areas of the United States to provide medications and patient care. Manning clinics in struggling areas around the globe has provided students experience in overcoming language barriers, economic obstacles and geographic challenges.

In 2008, Lipscomb’s chapter of the American Pharmacist Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists started administering about 250 flu shots per year in the flex space of Burton Health Sciences Center. In 2016, the student pharmacists provided more than 10,000 flu shots in that one year.

In Malawi, Africa, student nurses learned to work with limited supplies and to be creative with resources. In Destin, Florida, they learned how to use telehealth and informatics to benefit vulnerable populations. Student pharmacists have worked in medical clinics in Haiti, Honduras and other

So to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, here are 10 ways Lipscomb alumni are making you healthier every day.

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They can communicate with patients from different cultures.

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countries, filling almost 20,000 prescriptions over the past decade.

They know how to work one-on-one.

Unlike clinical rotations at other nursing schools that provide group instruction, Lipscomb student nurses have a senior practicum, which provides 72 to 80 hours of one-on-one mentorship and instruction.

Beyond that, they have as many as 20 opportunities each year to experience on-theground health care in the Nashville community, as well as opportunities to go on medical mission trips.

Student pharmacists also participate in 24 clinical practice experiences with faculty, including rotations in ambulatory care at a clinic that serves vulnerable populations, a rotation in patient assistance at a clinic for uninsured individuals, a rotation at the state’s poison control center and one in education preparing local high school students to take the pharmacy technician licensing exam.

They know how to work in a team.

Many health care leaders believe the most significant trend to produce positive long-term effects in today’s marketplace is the use of interdisciplinary teams in patient care.

So at Lipscomb, every pharmacy, nursing, kinesiology and nutrition student and dietetics intern are involved in interdisciplinary education ranging from a semester-long course where teams take on case studies to opportunities to care for patients at Vanderbilt Medical Center clinics in interprofessional teams. Medical, dental and social work students from other universities have joined Lipscomb students in these programs.

They can recognize the effects of a poison and know how to react.

Lipscomb student pharmacists have benefitted from the teaching and mentorship of not one, but two American Board of Applied Toxicology-certified Pharm.D. holders on the Lipscomb faculty.

Kim Barker (’89) served as managing director of the Tennessee Poison Control Center and on the Lipscomb faculty until her

death in 2014, and Barker’s former student Nena Bowman (’14), has served as the state’s poison control center managing director and on the Lipscomb faculty since 2016.

“Pharmacists often serve as the first-line defender when it comes to medication safety.

They will likely be the first one to see the effects of a harmful drug, so they must know what happens biologically when the one thing they work every day to avoid, comes to pass,” said Bowman.

They understand the importance of safe sterile drug compounding.

The importance of sterile compounding of drugs was brought home to Nashvillians harder than most in 2012 when a fungal meningitis outbreak caused by contaminated drugs was uncovered by Nashville doctors.

Bowman oversees Lipscomb students in clinical rotations at the poison control center and working on medication education projects for other health care providers.

Lipscomb student pharmacists learn how to safely and effectively compound drugs in a 1,000-square-foot, on-campus sterile lab, large enough to train 14 students at a time. The lab, stocked with the latest equipment and designed for groups to be able to observe the process, means students graduate practiceready with sterile compounding skills.

They know how to manage an efficient pharmacy.

They know how to apply the latest research to your illness.

Not only do student pharmacists take classes on management methods, but they also have the opportunity to earn an additional master’s degree in management while they are still at Lipscomb.

Kinesiology students learn about a lot more than jumping jacks these days. Lipscomb’s undergraduate students and exercise and nutrition science graduate students are all required to conduct scientific research projects.

Students can use the Human Performance Laboratory, with equipment to assess cardiovascular endurance, pulmonary function, body composition and flexibility to carry out their studies.

The dual Doctorate of Pharmacy and Master of Management program provides students with additional management course work, directed work experiences in local health care companies and an international work experience.

“Whether officially working as a manager or not, as a pharmacist, from day one you are seen as a manager,” said Daniel Bentz (’14) a Rite Aid pharmacy manager in Rochester, New York. “You have to make the same decisions that any manager would make.”

This isn’t their first time with a needle.

It’s a scary thing to insert a needle into another person’s arm for the first time, but Lipscomb nurses enter their first-time jobs with confidence because they have already spent countless hours practicing on Ted, Jimmy and Linda, computerized patient simulators housed in the Health Simulation Lab. The 23 high-fidelity mannequins, including three mannequins that simulate heart problems and two that simulate preemie babies, allow health sciences students in all disciplines to practice procedures and treatments that cover the entire lifespan from 25-weeks-old to the elderly.

In the College of Pharmacy, more than 70 students have participated in the Summer Research Program, a 10-week research internship engaging students and faculty in scientific inquiry.

They know how to eat well.

As interest in proper nutrition has expanded from hospitals out to sports fields, corporations, schools, gyms and special health care clinics, Lipscomb’s dietetic internship program has expanded its range to cover medical nutrition therapy and sports nutrition, while the undergraduate nutrition program has incorporated ServSafe food protection and management standards.

As demand for holistic health information has grown among consumers, Lipscomb responded with an exercise and nutrition science degree that prepares fitness experts with relevant nutrition knowledge and provides nutritionists with expertise in human performance.

­lipscombnow.com

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Academy

Academy students get a taste of College Now by earning credit on university campus On a typical day, most high school students attend classes in the halls of their own school building. Some students across the country may take dual enrollment courses online or in partnership with two-year and four-year institutions.

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But few high school students have the “As a college preparatory school, one opportunity to walk out of a high school of the fundamental goals is to prepare students to excel when they step off the classroom, walk a few hundred yards Lipscomb Academy campus and into onto a university campus to attend a their undergraduate training,” said Greg college class and then return by the time the bell rings for the next period to begin. J. Glenn, head of school. “Although our students and faculty benefit in At Lipscomb Academy, students have numerous ways by our being located on a unique opportunity to earn college a university campus, one of the greatest credit by attending classes at Lipscomb is that they have an opportunity to earn University, located on the same campus, college credit from one of the nation’s while at the same time making academic best universities.” progress toward their high school diploma.

Lipscomb’s College Now program is one of the rarest learning opportunities Lipscomb Academy’s dual enrollment in Tennessee and across the country, program, College Now, offers high school allowing the academy to offer juniors and seniors the opportunity to get traditional AP courses and duala taste of college life by sitting side-byenrollment in more than 40 courses on side with college students in Lipscomb the university campus.

University classrooms.

Academy

To enroll in these courses, high school students must have taken the ACT and meet the same admission standards as incoming freshman. Tuition is covered by grants from the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation.

“Our College Now program introduces our students to the college process as well as providing a level of comfort in the classroom so the college experience won’t be unfamiliar to them,” said Lanny Witt, high school principal.

“These students gain confidence and are more self-assured and college ready.”

This May, nearly 80 percent of the academy’s 139 graduating seniors had earned at least three college credit hours, with 108 students having taken a class at Lipscomb.

Thirty students earned more than 15 credit hours and three of those earned 30 college credit hours, which is the equivalent of a full year of college credit at most universities.

In total, 145 academy students enrolled in dual credit courses at the university during the 2016-17 academic year. The average grade point average in those classes was 3.503, with 63 percent of those students making an A and 27 percent making a B. Although these courses are taken at Lipscomb, these credits are accepted at most four-year institutions across the country, said Witt.

semester early… even in what is often a four-and-a-half year degree.”

“I also feel the dual enrollment classes helped in preparing me for the ACT because they familiarize you with similar testing methods,” he continued.

He plans to use the extra semester to add a creative media minor to his civil engineering major.

Paul Swindell, a 2017 academy graduate, entered Lipscomb University this fall as a sophomore, as he earned 31 hours through AP and dual enrollment courses. He took chemistry, college algebra, calculus and statistics.

“

“The professors treated me just like other students in the class,” Swindell said. “These classes helped me to get ahead of the incoming freshmen and allowed me to take fewer hours this year as I get acclimated to college life.”

“But entering college with at least 20 credit hours is a requirement,” she said. “As a result, as long as I maintain a 3.5 GPA though this year, I will be able to graduate with my master’s of engineering degree in summer 2020 for just a few hundred dollars extra and a little extra time.”

“The feedback from the professors is overwhelmingly positive,” said Witt. “It

By taking dual enrollment courses, it put me on pace to graduate a semester early.

Swindell said his existing college credit will allow him to double major in four years’ time while also playing for the golf team.

“It takes a lot of stress about college away because you know what to expect your first semester,” he said.

before entering the University of Alabama two years ago. He entered classified as a sophomore. He had 18 hours of Advanced Placement credit and 14 hours of dual enrollment credit, including calculus and Bible when he graduated from Lipscomb Academy.

Megan Bobo, now in her second year studying electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University, graduated from Lipscomb Academy in May 2016 with 38 college credit hours. She said that benefitted her by getting to bypass “weed-out” classes such as chemistry and calculus “that are purposefully very difficult,” she said.

“The math courses allowed me to really get ahead in my major and the Bible courses both transferred as general electives—even to a state school,” said Duncan. “By taking dual enrollment courses, it put me on pace to graduate a

“These classes are also usually gigantic classes in large lecture halls, so there is limited access to a professor,” she continued. “Already having completed these classes through my dual enrollment gave me a much higher GPA, I’m sure.”

Davis Duncan earned 32 college credits

Bobo said she was able to enter an accelerated master’s program that allows students to have both their bachelor’s of engineering and master’s of engineering degrees in four years plus one summer for a minimal additional cost.

”

is extremely good for us to know that our students are academically prepared for this level of study as well as socially ready for this interaction.”

In addition to the College Now program, academy students of all ages are able to take advantage of Lipscomb University facilities and learning programs throughout the course of their academic year, Glenn said.

“Students are regularly exposed to international speakers, scholars and classroom lectures. Many will have the advantage of accessing comprehensive

libraries, science laboratories and computer facilities found only in higher learning facilities,” he said. “This strong tie between Lipscomb Academy and Lipscomb University provides for a distinct educational advantage.”

For more information about Lipscomb Academy’s College Now program, visit lipscombacademy.org.

­lipscombnow.com

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In Memorium

Lipscomb community mourns the loss of three former board members.

The Lipscomb University community has lost three ardent supporters and former board of trustee members in recent months.

Miles Ezell Jr., Lee Marsh and Tom Batey were all

long-time members of the Lipscomb University Board of Trustees, all serving as officers during their tenure.

Ezell died Sept. 15,

2016, at age 89 following a short illness.

For more than

50 years, Ezell helped

found in Allen Arena supporting our athletics programs

Marsh was often found in Allen Arena or at Dugan

was of import to the university at a given time. He

was inducted into the Lipscomb Athletics Hall of Fame

special events to support whatever initiative or program gave of his time as he served on the board and various

committees. And he found time to encourage employees

the Lipscomb board

Board of Trustees.

that Ezell and his family have played a crucial role in the physical growth of Lipscomb’s campus including

financial contributions to the Ezell Center, the Village

and numerous other projects and initiatives. Today, the Ezell Center hosts thousands of visitors each year for

numerous meetings, conferences, workshops and classes.

“But Miles and his family did not just give

generously to this institution financially,” said Lowry.

“He was also a supporter of Lipscomb. He could often be

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Marsh, Lipscomb

University Board of

Trustees secretary from 1983-1997 and board

member from 1978-2002,

died Jan. 6, at the age of 91 following a short illness.

Church of Christ for decades.

Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry said

served as chair from

sons, Stan and Mark, have also served on Lipscomb’s

his generosity to the city. He also served as elder at Una

as board member from 1980-2002.

from 1992 to 2005 and

Lipscomb Academy and Lipscomb University, and

a leader among Nashville’s business community and for

also served as chair of Lipscomb’s board from 1991-97 and

He was a member of

Generations of the Ezell family have attended

Dairy. He was known as

to pursue his bachelor’s degree in dairy technology. He

Batey died March

them a coupon for a free gallon of Purity ice cream.”

job they did on a particular project or by quietly slipping

father in 1925 as Ezell’s

in 1947 and 1948 before heading to Ohio State University

in 1998 for “meritorious service.”

28, at the age of 85.

company founded by his

He was an integral part of the fabric of the Lipscomb

Field supporting numerous athletic programs and he

by sending a note, telling them personally what a good

lead Purity Dairies, a

community. He attended then-David Lipscomb College

Arguably one of Lipscomb’s biggest athletics fans,

as a fan. He attended numerous dinners, lectures and

Lipscomb was an

important part of Marsh’s life. Marsh graduated from Lipscomb in 1950, and since that time, was an ardent supporter of the institution. After an initial career in

education, Marsh entered the banking profession in his

hometown of Dickson, Tennessee, where he also owned several car dealerships. Following retirement, Marsh

and his wife, Ann, made their home in Nashville. The Marshes sent three children to Lipscomb—Stephen,

1998 to 2003.

A native of

Smyrna, Tennessee, Batey attended Lipscomb and

earned an architecture degree from Georgia Tech before serving in the U.S. Corps of Engineers. He joined

Hospital Corporation of America in 1969, beginning a 20-year career that included living with his family abroad both in Saudi Arabia and Australia.

“Tom’s becoming chairman of the Lipscomb board

coincided with the beginning of my presidency,” said

Stephen F. Flatt, president of Lipscomb University from July 1997-May 2005. “For six years we worked hand-inhand in planning the university’s future. He possessed

great wisdom, and he was the consummate gentleman.

It would be hard to overstate the significance of his

influence on Lipscomb’s growth and success. Tom was an outstanding board chair.”

During Batey’s tenure as board chair, university

Gwendolyn and Cynthia.

enrollment increased significantly, the Master of

life. The first contribution he made to Lipscomb was a

Arena was built, a study abroad program in London was

Giving back was a very important part of Marsh’s

year after his graduation. He donated $50. In the nearly 70 years since that time, Marsh helped fund the Stephen L. Marsh Stadium, home of Ken Dugan Field, in memory of his late son; the Huston-Marsh-Griffith Tennis

Center; and numerous other initiatives and projects.

Business Administration program was launched, Allen started, the university began competing in the NCAA Division I, the then—Raymond B. Jones School of

Engineering was founded and the university embarked on a $150 million Lighting the Way fundraising campaign among other milestones.

Alumni

e t h e D a te v a !

S

2017 November 9-11

More than a campus: It’s a home Moving into a new home is exciting, isn’t it?

Everything is new and clean and ready for you to put your own stamp on it. Some of you—like me—may have even moved your child into a residence hall this August. (Yes, hard to believe, but my youngest became a Bison this year!)

A home is more than a roof over your head or a place to store your stuff: It’s the place that helps us grow into the person God intends for us to be.

For all of us who are alumni, Lipscomb was, for a time, our home.

There is always something nostalgic and heartwarming about returning to campus to see those familiar halls where we lived and learned. Thankfully for our current students, all of our dorms have been upgraded extensively in recent years and this year has brought a new home for many of our students.

At the end of the summer, construction and design crews put the finishing touches on Bison Hall, a new home for 148 of our students this school year. Bison Hall is our most modern residence hall constructed yet as it is designed to provide more comfort, privacy and convenience for upperclassmen who have come to crave a place of their own. Or in other words, it’s meant to be more like a home.

And the good news for you, is that the Bison Hall also has a guest room prepped and waiting for our visiting alumni. The new hall includes nine rooms to be used as an on-campus hotel. So now you will have the option to stay right on campus with free breakfast, wifi, reserved parking, access to fitness facilities and housekeeping services.

So all you need now is a reason to visit, and we have the perfect suggestion for you. Why not join us Nov. 9-11 for Homecoming?

We’d love to see you! We have a full weekend of great events and activities planned: a men’s Bison basketball game, the Homecoming musical She Loves Me, class and college reunions and our second annual Lipscomb Honors event showcasing some of our brightest alumni stars.

At Homecoming 2017, not only will you experience all of the new, but you’ll also enjoy some of those old familiar sights, re-connect with classmates and faculty and spend time in a place that once was —and still is—your home. While the places where students live and learn may have changed, our purpose and our commitment have not.

Lipscomb faculty and staff remain as committed to our students and the university’s Christian mission as ever.

It’s my hope that when you think of Lipscomb University, you think of home. And this year, I hope that you will not only think of us, but that you will join us as we celebrate Homecoming 2017! We are waiting with open arms to welcome you back for a visit.

See you soon.

Phil Ellenburg Vice President for Alumni Relations LipscombAlumni

­lipscombnow.com

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Bisonnotes Class Notes

At lipscomb.edu/classnotes see the latest, post an update, share a photo—especially if it’s your reunion year. For Bisons who’ve joined Golden Circle—that’s 50+ years since graduation—every year is a reunion year.

1984

1960

1985

Kyo “Paul” Jhin of Malibu, Calif., was one of four outstanding alumni recognized by the Auburn University College of Education at its 36th Annual Awards Recognition Ceremony in April. Jhin is CEO of the eBook/ eLibrary Initiative which sends laptops, tablets and smart phones to schools in developing nations in Africa and South America.

1962

Andy Flatt of Nashville was promoted to senior vice president and chief information officer at National Healthcare Corporation. ¶ Brad Martin of Franklin, N.C., is senior vice president of Nantahala Bank and Trust Company.

Donna Orr Hargrove was elected president of the Conference of Tennessee District Public Defenders.

1987

David F. “Buddy” Bacon Jr. of Brentwood, Tenn., recently was named senior vice president and chief operating officer of American Physician Partners.

Joel Dobson of Greensboro, N.C., has published the second of his books, The Goldsboro Broken Arrow, a nonfiction work about a 1961 incident in which two hydrogen bombs fell on North Carolina when a USAF B-52 disintegrated in mid-air.

1988

1963

1990

Joyce Blaylock Wood (LA ’59) of Nashville published her historical fiction book Adelicia in January.

1972

Tom Lawrence of Franklin, Tenn., recently was named to the Nashville Business Journal’s 2016 list of Williamson County Impact Award honorees.

1973 1974

Glena Stillinger Morris of Winter Park, Fla., is principal of MEI Civil LLC.

Your Killin’ Heart by Peggy O’Neal Peden was released by Thomas Dunne Books on May 2. The novel won the Malice Domestic Best Traditional First Mystery Novel award for 2016 and was a finalist in both Killer Nashville and the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Writing Competition for the same year.

1978

John David Cofield is the author of Kings, Queens and Halflings: A Historian Looks at Middle-Earth, published by Oloris Publishing in March. The book is a series of historical essays on J.R.R. Tolkien’s world. ¶ Vinson B. Huegele of Huntsville, Ala., retired from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center with 35 years of service as an aeronautical engineer.

He was re-elected to serve on the National Association of Rocketry’s board of trustees.

1981

Tammy Jerkins of Fruitland Park, Fla., was recently named “Teacher of the Year” in Lake County, Fla. ¶ David Tudor of Springfield, Mo., is CEO and general manager of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.

1982

Robert Gay of Burke, Va., retired in January 2016 as supervisory special agent after 20 years with the Federal Bureau

50

of Investigation. He currently teaches economics as a professor at the National Intelligence University, Bethesda, Md.

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Steve Johnson completed a throughhike of the 2,189.1-mile Appalachian Trail in September 2016. He chronicles this adventure in his debut novel Sir Fob W. Pot’s Journey to Katahdin. ¶ David Overstreet of Mount Vernon, Ill., was named Appellate Justice by the Illinois Supreme Court.

New students enroll in classes at this summer’s Resources.

Advance Glenn McGehee Jr. of Franklin, sessions.

Tenn., was elected to serve as an officer of the 2017-2019 Transportation Management Association Board of Directors of Nashville. ¶ Ginny Allen Moore and her husband Kevin have recently moved to Douglasville, Ga. Both are employed with the Douglas County School District.

1991

Mike Mansfield of McMinnville, Tenn., is a principal in the Warren County Public School system.

1992 Park Center.

Dana Mitchell of Lebanon, Tenn., is an intensive outpatient coordinator with the

1993

Gina Davis Boyd of Lafayette, Ind., received the 2016 John Morton Excellence in Teaching Award during the Financial Literacy and Economic Education Conference in October in Phoenix, Ariz. Boyd teaches at Mayflower Mill Elementary School. ¶ Shelby McCreary of Nashville is a service dispatch coordinator with Affinity Technology Partners. ¶ Emily Duncan of Hermitage, Tenn., and Trevor Siprelle of Guntersville, Ala., were married on Oct. 21. The couple lives in Guntersville.

1994

Brian M. Shake (MS ’17) of Olney, Ill., has been named Senior Enterprise Account Manager of Fortinet, Sunnyvale, CA. Brian and Ashley (Herald) (LA ’96) live in Spring Hill, Tenn., and have three sons, Rayce, Tanner and Burton.

1998

Anna White Berry of Littleton, Colo., is the corporate relations manager for MOPS International. ¶ Derrick Free of Brentwood, Tenn., received the Ralph Spiritual Aims Award from the Kiwanis Club of Nashville.

1999

Jason Holt of Goodlettsville, Tenn., is senior vice president of Apricity

2002

Eric and Susan (Woodard) Marvin of Nashville announce the Oct. 3, 2016, birth of daughter Elizabeth Caroline. ¶ Former Bison baseball player Jeremy George and former track and field athlete Hannah (Joiner) George (’10) announce the July 3 birth of Maven Jane George.

2003

Owen Grimenstein of Nashville published the book Under Water: A National Disaster Memoir about his harrowing experience during the Nashville flood in 2010. ¶ Brian and Kristin Peck Ryman (MED ‘08) of Nashville announce the Aug. 16 birth of son Porter Douglas. ¶ Eric Gambill of Mount Juliet, Tenn., was named Teacher of the Year at Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.

2004

Chelsey Riemann of Knoxville, Tenn., is public relations manager for HGTV and DIY Network. ¶ Adam Taylor of Franklin, Tenn., was named Educator of the Week

by Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN in November 2016. Taylor is a physical science teacher at Independence High School in Thompson’s Station, Tenn.

2005

Daniel and Jennifer (Boyette) Johnson of Franklin, Tenn., announce the Dec. 5, 2016, birth of their son Graysen Andrew. ¶ Kari (Moore) Luecke (M.Ed. ’09) of Brentwood, Tenn., became a National Board Certified Teacher (middle childhood generalist) in November. She has worked for Nashville Public Schools for 12 years, and currently works as a technology lead educator. ¶ Derek Smith and his wife, Kristine, of Brentwood, Tenn., announce the birth of daughter, Amelia Dianna, born March 6. ¶ Kristen Chambers was named resource director for United Way of West Tennessee in August 2016.

ALUMNI

HOMECOMING 2017 BRINGS BACK TRADITION OF BASKETBALL AND TOP STUDENTS’ HONORED In keeping with our 125th anniversary celebration in 2016, Lipscomb’s Office of Alumni Relations revived Homecoming, offering the return of the Homecoming musical along with reunions, gatherings and family events.

The revival continues in 2017 with Homecoming scheduled for Nov. 9-11 and expanding to involve men’s Bison basketball games, a special performance of the Tau Phi Cowboy Show as well as the honoring of Miss Lipscomb and the Bachelor of Ugliness. Homecoming weekend will also continue to include last year’s new addition, the Lipscomb Honors awards ceremony, on Thursday, Nov. 9, celebrating the highest honor conferred upon a Lipscomb alumnus.

“In 2017 we have added more of the signature events alumni have held dear over the years to provide a variety of options for alumni to participate in and enjoy,” said Phil Ellenburg, vice president for alumni relations. “We are also planning events for students, in order to bring our entire Lipscomb community together for a great Homecoming weekend.”

Homecoming 2017 will feature a Bison basketball game against Emory University on Friday, Nov. 10, at 6:30 p.m. in Allen Arena. For those who can’t get enough, the Bisons will play again on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 12, against Morehead State University.

In recent years, students have voted on the Miss Lipscomb and Bachelor of Ugliness honors later in the school year, but this year voting will take place earlier in the academic year to allow alumni to join in honoring these two worthy students during the Nov. 10 basketball game, Ellenburg said.

Throughout Homecoming weekend, Lipscomb Theatre will present the hit romantic comedy musical She Loves Me, telling the story of Amalia and Georg, shop clerks in the 1930s

who are carrying on a romantic correspondence with secret admirers. The musical is based on the same story as the movie You’ve Got Mail.

The performance will be staged in Willard Collins Alumni Auditorium, Nov. 10-12, and tickets are available at lipscomb.edu/theatre.

For alumni who are ready to put on their boots and kick up their heels, the ever popular Tau Phi Cowboy Show will stage a special encore performance of 2017’s Cowboy Show featuring Tau Phi alumni performers and a very special musical guest (whom alumni will surely recognize, Ellenburg said) on Saturday, Nov. 11, in front of the Allen Bell Tower.

In addition to these signature events, Homecoming 2017 will offer an entire weekend of milestone reunions (including 25th and 50th class reunions), college and department reunions and receptions, and social club reunions, including several 50th anniversary reunions.

For more information or to register for events, log on to lipscomb.edu/alumni.

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Bisonnotes 2006

Allen Burgess of Littleton, Colo., is a supply revenue analyst for Parallon Supply Chain Solutions-Denver. ¶ Benjamin Holder of Madison, Tenn., is a dispatcher with Metro Nashville Department of Emergency Communications.

2007

Jeff and Ashley (Wilhite) Glass of Hendersonville, Tenn., announce the April 13, 2016, birth of son Jordan Jeffrey. ¶ Stephen Keene of Chandler, Ariz., is an account manager for Pregis LLC. ¶ Rachel Sisco Goode (MED ’16) of Nashville was appointed as the new Upper School Principal of EzellHarding Christian School in Nashville.

2008

Tim McNutt Jr. of Nolensville, Tenn., is the general dentist and owner of Richland Creek Family Dentistry in Nashville.

2009

Denton Gillen of Guntersville, Ala., is a logistics engineer with Ferrellgas. ¶ Miriam McAlister Seidl of Nolensville, Tenn., is the internal sales director for Hayes Advisory. ¶ Derek and Megan Dickerson Wilson of Duluth, Ga., announce the Jan. 23 births of triplets Oliver Martin, Shepherd Samuel and Lucy Lin. ¶ Former Bison baseball player Charles Williams and former Bison softball player Mackenzie Tucker Williams (’11) of Franklin, Tenn., welcomed their daughter Kennedy Mattis Williams on March 23. ¶ Caroline and Ronald Sparrow of Nashville announce the June 7 birth of Lola Ann Sparrow.

2010

Joshua and Leslie Hilburn Britt (’09 and MATELL ’11) of Nashville announce the Feb. 1 birth of daughter Cooper Grace. ¶ Trevor Garrett of Nashville received the Diamond Award from the Greater Nashville Realtors. ¶ Justin and Tiffany (Uram)James of Chicago, Ill., announce the Aug. 19 birth of son Avery Burton. ¶ Justin McClain of Hermitage, Tenn., and Jessica Wright of Christiana, Tenn., were married Oct. 1. ¶ Alex Renfro will complete seven years of active duty military service in the U.S. Air Force this fall. He has recently been accepted into Lipscomb’s full time MBA-Leadership program to begin in January 2018.

2011

Students and parents learn about college life at this summer’s Advance sessions.

Jackson Sprayberry of Nashville

has been named a Ryan Fellow at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business and will serve as the founding high school principal at Valor Collegiate Academy High School in Nashville in that capacity.

2012

Sydney Ball (MBA ’14) of Brentwood, Tenn., has been named business development and public relations representative for First Citizen National Bank’s Middle Tennessee market. ¶ Danielle Boyd of Madison, Tenn., is a marketing coordinator with Morris Marketing. ¶ Brian Covington of Gallatin, Tenn., is an accounting supervisor with Nashville Electric Service. ¶ Alé Dalton is as a health care associate with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Nashville. ¶ Elizabeth Keevil (EXNS ’15) of Sea Cliff, N.Y., is a registered dietitian nutritionist with Nutrition in Motion PC. ¶ Jessica Richardson of Nashville and Tyler Conger (’12) of Smithville, Tenn., were married Sept. 27. ¶ Savannah Roberts Clary of Antioch, Tenn., is the pharmacy clinical liaison for FreseniusRX.

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2013

Bailey and Taylor Bowman announce the Aug. 23, 2016, birth of their daughter, Willa Taylor Bowman. ¶ Bradley EldridgeSmith (MBA) of Antioch, Tenn., is a senior product manager for Apricity Resources in Nashville.

2014

Emily Dunn Bernasconi of Nashville is a youth education specialist with National International Center for Empowerment. ¶ Adrienne and David Christensen announce the Aug. 18, 2016, birth of their son, Ivan Laird Christensen. ¶ Katie Walker DeSandis of Glen Cove, N.Y., is the assistant field hockey coach at Hofstra University. ¶ O’Neisha Smith of Douglasville, Ga., is a social worker with A-Supreme Nursing and Homecare in Atlanta. She also coaches high jump at Chapel Hill High School. ¶ Katherine Short Forsthoff of Nashville was named General Education Teacher of the Year by Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. ¶ Chloe Tywater of Franklin, Tenn., is an electrical engineer with Cogito Automation.

She and Cogito recently were recognized by ThemeParkInsider.com with its 2017 “Best New Theme Park” and “Best New Roller Coaster” awards for their Volcano Bay projects at Universal Orlando.

2015

Rod Bugawan and wife, Juri Korekata, announce the March 27, 2016, birth of their son, Brayden Jace Bugawan. Bugawan works for PRC Clinical managing clinical trials for drugs and medical devices. ¶ Christian Graham is a social worker with Small World Adoption. ¶ Jenette Spurbeck of Clarksville, Tenn., is assistant principal at Clarksville High School. ¶ April Terry (MM ’16) of Nashville is the

talent acquisition and onboarding specialist for LeanKit. ¶ Sam Moran of Nashville is a financial advisor for Wunderlich Securities.

2016

Spencer Savage of Louisville, Ky., is a pharmacist with Andrew’s Pharmacy. ¶ Lorena Djuknic of Nashville works in omni-channel marketing and projects with Tractor Supply in Nashville.

We want your notes!

Please send news of weddings, births, deaths; new jobs and promotions; academics and professional degrees; church and community service activities; awards and achievements; and changes of address to Class Notes Editor, Lipscomb University, One University Park Drive, Nashville, TN 37204.

Email: classnotes@lipscomb.edu; Online: lipscomb.edu/classnotes .

In Memoriam

We publish news of the passing of Bisons as we learn of it. Find obituaries published in their entirety at lipscomb.edu/classnotes.

Family members may also submit obituaries and photos for possible publication online and in print.

1934

Sara Woodward Whitten of Nashville died March 1 at age 102. Whitten was a long-time French and English professor at Lipscomb and one of Lipscomb’s oldest living alumni.

1935 1940

Verna Collins Thompson of Oklahoma City, Okla., died Dec. 15, 2016.

Marjorie Garrett Smithson of Tullahoma, Tenn., died Sept. 23, 2016. ¶ Anna Jackson Williams of Mobile, Ala., died Oct. 5, 2016.

1941 1942

Etha Pearl Green of Nashville died Aug. 7, 2016.

Harry Robert Fox of Orem, Utah, died Jan. 1. ¶ Rebecca Watson Stubblefield of Birmingham, Ala., died Feb. 5.

1943 1944

Toy B. Dooley of Ridgely, Tenn., died Aug. 1, 2016.

Ruth Wiseman Lamb of Knoxville, Tenn., died Aug. 26, 2016. ¶ Lassie Johnson Draper of Nashville, Tenn., died Oct. 3, 2016. ¶ Mildred Daniel Rhodes of Louisville, Ky., died Dec. 13, 2016.

1946

Sammie Kilgore Burden of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., died in December 2011. ¶ Jane Walls Shaub of Nashville died Sept. 25, 2016.

Tenn., died Nov. 22, 2016.

1952

Kirby Foster of Nashville died in January 2016. ¶ Artie Pate Jr. of Nashville died Jan. 31. ¶ Betty Hardeman Brooks of Franklin, Tenn., died Oct. 17, 2016. ¶ Edwin B.R. Sanders of Nashville died Oct. 11, 2016. ¶

1953

Joe Gray of Altamont, Tenn., died Dec. 27, 2015. He was a longtime Bible faculty member at Lipscomb. ¶ Martha Lenoir Hogue of Westlake, Ohio, died Oct. 3, 2016. ¶ Guy B. Nerren of Franklin, Tenn., died Sept. 3, 2016.

1954

Vernon Boyd of Southfield, Mich., died Oct. 3, 2016. ¶ Mary Ruth Faust Jarvis of Brentwood, Tenn., died Aug. 17, 2016. ¶ Roy Jesse Sims of Savannah, Ga., died Nov. 25, 2016.

1955

Dora Cundall Gill of Joelton, Tenn., died Jan. 13. ¶ Walter C. Williams of Hermitage, Tenn., died Jan. 5.

1956

John Frost of Murfreesboro, Tenn., died Jan. 25, 2015. ¶ Bob Curfman of Nashville, Tenn., died Feb. 6. ¶ Van Kreh of Estill Springs, Tenn., died Dec. 23, 2016. ¶ John Barnette Shelton Jr. of Anna, Ill., died Nov. 8, 2016.

1958 1959

1960

Carolyn Fanning of Clanton, Ala., died in 2012. ¶ Julia Bobbitt Bloomingburg of Lexington, Tenn., died Jan. 10. ¶ Bill Brooks of North Wales, Pa., died Aug. 15, 2016. ¶ Howard G. Sawyer of Chattanooga died June 28.

1948

1949

1962

1950

1963 1964 1965

Jean Underwood Brown of Madison, Tenn., died Sept. 23, 2016. ¶ Ruth Walker Culbertson of Antioch, Tenn., died, Aug. 7, 2016. ¶ Buford Dye of Brentwood, Tenn., died Oct. 4, 2016.

Alwilda Gilbreath Shepherd of Rocky Face, Ga., died Dec. 5, 2016.

She is survived by her husband James; children Jan McTee, Judy Hoffpauir and Jeff Shepherd (’81); and grandchildren Bethany McTee Nix (’02) and Eli McTee (’06). ¶ Oliver Jennings Davis Jr. of Oak Park, Calif., died Nov. 30, 2016.

1951

Ann Ferguson Burton of Nashville died July 2, 2016. ¶ Frankie Golden of McMinnville, Tenn., died Sept. 6, 2016. ¶ Lorraine Isom Maddux of Cookeville, Tenn., died Oct. 7, 2016. ¶ Edna Claudine McWhorter Yates of Nashville,

Walter Aiken Sr. of Brentwood, Tenn., died Feb. 10.

Harold D. Mitchell of Nashville, Tenn., died Dec. 16, 2016. ¶ Janet Maddux Sloan of Nashville, Tenn., died Aug. 9, 2016.

1961

Donald E. Perry, of Beamsville, Ontario, Canada, died May 3, 2017.

He was the 1948 Bachelor of Ugliness. ¶ Fred A. Mosley of Murfreesboro, Tenn., died Oct. 10, 2016.

Children of alumni enjoyed visiting with princes and princesses at the special brunch before the Homecoming 2016 musical, Beauty and the Beast.

David Whitefield, president of the Class of 1961, died Sept. 23, 2016, in Lebanon, Tenn. ¶ Jon Anthony Wells of Lafayette, Tenn., died Aug. 25, 2016.

John M. McCord Jr. of Franklin, Tenn., died Oct. 6, 2016. ¶ William Askew of McMinnville, Tenn., died Nov. 8, 2016.

Marilyn Smoak Mason of Lake Placid, Fla., died Aug. 23, 2016.

Frances Ann Weeks ofHendersonville, Tenn., died Aug. 4, 2016.

Stanley C. Wright of Marietta, Ga., died Oct. 26, 2016. ¶ Wilma (Sims) Strickland of Huntsville, Ala., died Nov. 4, 2016. ¶ Stanley Chester Wright of Jasper, Ga., died Oct. 10, 2016.

1966

Roberta Hill of Fort Myers, Fla., died Jan. 29. ¶ Richard L. Harris of Macon, Ga., died Aug. 30, 2016.

1967 1968 1969

Timothy Killom of Nashville died Dec. 19, 2016.

James Daniel of Nashville died Aug. 29, 2016.

Ray Vetter of Nashville died Aug. 12, 2016. ¶ Andrea Prickett Henderson of Franklin, Tenn., died Aug. 23, 2016. ¶ Richard Randolph Sanders of Nashville died Oct. 26, 2016.

1970

Donnie Barnes of Lafayette, Tenn., died Sept. 22, 2013. ¶ Rita Hunley Carr of Brentwood, Tenn., died Jan. 15. ¶ Cathy Crowder Graf of Nashville, Tenn., died Dec. 12, 2016.

1972 1973

Rachel Church Ray of Smyrna, Tenn., died Jan. 12.

Beth Boring Wayman of Nashville died Aug. 19, 2016. ¶ Stephen Dizmon of Murfreesboro, Tenn., died Dec. 23, 2016.

1976 1980 1988 1991 1998

Helen Baker of Columbia, Tenn., died Sept. 14, 2016.

Col. Jeffery R. Denton (USAF) of Alexandria, Va., died Oct. 6, 2016.

Jeff Dukehart of Nashville died Sept.

12, 2016.

Raymond Harvey of Murfreesboro, Tenn., died Sept. 27, 2016.

Franklin Graham Locke of Nashville died Nov. 5, 2016.

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