Lipscomb Now Winter 2024

The Magazine for Alumni and Friends

SPARKLING SUCCESS

Winter 2024

Lipscomb’s Dolly Parton Exhibition Shines on Global Stage Page 14

FROM PAST TO PRESENT:

Student Journalism

In 1923, the first issue of the student newspaper, The Babbler, was published on Oct. 5, the birthday of Lipscomb University’s founding, beginning 100 years of continuous student journalism at Lipscomb through The Ark, The Zenith, The Babbler and The Backlog in print, and Lumination Network and HERD Media online.

This November, the School of Communication hosted a 100-year celebration at Bisons Weekend with special exhibits and reunions.

Alumni from decades since the 1950s attended

as well as Lipscomb Legend Dennis Loyd (LA ’54, BA ’58), 1958 Backlog editor and later advisor for The Babbler.

Plenty of past editors were on hand to share memories, identify historic photos and flip through the Backlogs and Babblers they created. They watched this year’s Edward R. Murrow Award winning documentary created by journalism students and toured the modern broadcasting studio, radio studio and digital newsroom, learning how Lipscomb does journalism today from the students themselves.

Historic Photo: In a photo from the 1994 Backlog, Babbler editor Sonya Newman Morris (BA ’94) and assistant editor Erik Tryggestad (BA ’94) work on the latest issue of the Babbler. (See more on alumni student journalists on page 44.)

Above: Lipscomb alums Linda Meador (LA ’61, BA ’65), 1964 Backlog editor; Amy Kroehnke Allison (BA ’88), 1986 co-editor and 1987 editor of the Backlog; and Ernie Hyne (BS ’73), 1973 Backlog editor, look through historic photos from the Beaman Library’s Robert E. Hooper Archives.

The Magazine for Alumni and Friends winter 2024 Vol. 18 No.2

2........ In the Now: Latest News 6........ Lipscomb Bisons: Athletics 40...... Bison Notes 46...... Alumni News 49...... Reflections from the President

Features 14 Dolly Parton and the Makers —

Dolly Parton shared her life in rhinestones with the public on Lipscomb’s campus, and Bison faculty and students came together to host thousands drawn to the one-of-a-kind exhibition.

28 —

From legends to lunatics Bison super-fans are seeing a resurgence with the new Lippy Lunatics leading the charge. They’ve got their own style, but today’s students are building on a long legacy of Bison fanatics.

Alumni 22 Engineering: — The hands and feet of Jesus This year marks a milestone anniversary since the first engineering mission

trip. A lone water tank in Honduras has led to almost 90 projects impacting tens of thousands around the globe.

34 —

Life as an open book Nationally known authors and thought leaders David and Nancy French

wield the power of the pen as they intertwine their personal experiences into

Editor Kim Chaudoin (BA ’90)

Produced by the Office of Public Relations & Communications.

Senior Managing Editor Janel Shoun-Smith (LA ’89)

Lipscomb Now is published by Lipscomb University®. Go to lipscomb.edu/now to read more.

Writers Kim Chaudoin (BA ’90) Janel Shoun-Smith (LA ’89) Keely Hagan

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

Photography Kristi Jones (LA ’84, BA ’88) Madisyn Rentz (senior) Sean Worth (junior) Lipscomb Athletics

©2024 Lipscomb University.

All Rights Reserved.

Design Will Mason (BA ’05)

Degree abbreviations follow standard academic abbreviations except for: (LA), alumni of Lipscomb Academy; (GC), alumni who have completed a graduate certificate; and (A), for non-degreed alumni or those whose degree is unknown.

their influential work.

We Are Lipscomb 9........ Two Bisons score major league wins 21....... Behind the seams brought center stage 33...... This lunatic is crazy for LU Athletics 41....... Disney launches alumnus to new heights 43...... A kid in a music candy store 45...... Adventure on the high seas

Bisons Weekend features first-time talks by national leaders November’s Bisons Weekend featured two new events: the Don R. Elliott Distinguished Presidential Lecture and Bison Talks.

The Elliott lecture annually features a person of national influence in an issue of contemporary debate and was made available to Bisons Weekend attendees for the first time in 2023. The Bison Talks are newly developed lectures featuring prestigious Lipscomb faculty sharing their expertise and personal life journeys.

David French (BA ’91), a Harvard graduate and New York Times columnist who

BISON TALK

is serving as a distinguished visiting

professor of public policy in the College

of Leadership & Public Service, spoke on

the current state of religious freedom in

America and quoted Micah 4:4 and 6:8 as

a “beautiful vision of America”. (Read more about David French on page 34.)

“I believe that God calls us, even artists, to be able to speak into, to be a light in dark places… We all know there is a darkness to Hollywood… why wouldn’t you want the next generation working to bring the light of the world, the light of Jesus Christ to a dark place.”

ELLIOTT LECTURE

Daniel Pink, an internationally renowned motivational speaker, business mind and New York

Times bestselling author, spoke to students about sales and

persuasion, using talking points

he labeled, “Four Lessons for the

Rest of Your Life.”

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“What is the object of our politics?

So that every man shall live under his own vine and own fig tree and not one shall make him afraid. And how do we do it? By acting justly, loving kindness and walking humbly.”

John Pomeroy, a former Disney animator who worked on Pocahontas and a producer of The Secret of

NIHM who is now an artist in

residence in the animation program, spoke about his own career and spiritual journey while drawing

some of his most famous characters.

“If you want to sell and influence people, you don’t need to try to be more extroverted. You want to be an ambivert.

They listen. They know when to speak up and when to shut up. They know when to push and when to hold back. So, if you want to be effective, learn to be more attuned to others.”

BISON TALK

now IN THE

SCENE & HEARD

First cohort of TN National Guardsmen graduated in December

Assistant Professor Josh A. Owens will lead a three-university initiative to investigate and address college students’ perception that Christianity is inherently at odds with scientific principles.

National grant funds research into students’ faith and science perceptions Josh A. Owens (BS ’16), assistant professor and undergraduate research coordinator in the biology department, was awarded a grant by the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities to lead a threecollege initiative addressing the perception among college students that Christianity is inherently at odds with scientific principles.

The grant funds Owens’ proposed project that begins with a workshop for those involved in the sciences, theology and administration from Lipscomb, Samford

Kentucky residents can earn graduate education degree with state certification from home Educators in Kentucky now have the ability to earn the Kentucky Principal Certification and a graduate certificate, master’s or education specialist degree in educational leadership through Lipscomb’s College of Education, recognized as one of the most effective educator preparation programs in the nation.

University and Belmont University to create a survey to analyze students’ views on faith and science.

Modules will then be designed to aid and advance coursework to better discuss the relationship of science, Christian faith and biblical truth.

“As college professors and administrators at faith-based institutions, we are committed to helping our students learn how to remain rooted in their faith while pursuing highlevel academics,” says Owens. “We want to remove any perceived stumbling blocks for students who are capable of making an impact in their fields but fear they must abandon their faith in order to engage in relevant academic discussions.”

Lipscomb’s first cohort of Tennessee National Guardsmen graduated this December from the Master of Arts in Leadership and Public Service program in the College of Leadership & Public Service.

Aimed at enhancing leadership skills among seasoned professionals in the Tennessee Army or Air National Guard, this practitioner-oriented degree program was first offered in a special cohort for only Tennessee Guard members in 2022. This innovative partnership was nominated for the 2023 Army Community Partnership Award.

Through the leadership of Lipscomb and Guard officials, Tennessee’s STRONG ACT, which provides Guardsmen tuition assistance for higher education, was extended to apply to master’s degrees as well as bachelor’s degrees. That change allows eligible Guardsmen to receive an essentially costfree master’s degree.

Lipscomb’s first cohort attended classes one evening a week for six semesters at the Tennessee National Guard Base in Nashville. This past fall the program extended to East Tennessee and more than doubled in size, welcoming 27 National Guard members in both Nashville and Knoxville.

Beginning this spring, Lipscomb’s educational leadership program will offer Kentucky educators graduate programs that prepare them for principal certification and Kentucky Rank I and II educator statuses.

The programs are designed for working practitioners and are offered online in synchronous and asynchronous formats. All courses are taught by current practitioners at the school, district or state level and are grounded in national leadership standards.

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now IN THE

Getting to know today’s Lipscomb Bison Herd Eighteen-year-olds enrolled as freshmen

Pandora and Spotify, they do indulge

student members than ever before. The

Pandora and YouTube were launched.

podcasts more than past youth, and

from prospective students than ever

this year were born in the same year that

They have always had iPhones and highspeed Wi-Fi in their lives. They have

never used VHS tapes or DVDs and have never known a life without Facebook and

in long-form content like books and

they know they will be the generation to grapple with the effects of artificial intelligence and climate change.

This is the mindset that Lipscomb’s

Instagram.

711 freshmen brought to campus this

music from various decades thanks to

first-time traditional and online

But today’s Class of 2027 does relish

past fall. The Class of 2027 has more

university also received more interest

before with 4,910 students applying to be part of the 2027 Herd.

These first-time students joined a

total student body already shaped by 407 military-connected students (the most

ever enrolled), 181 transfer students and 129 international students.

Incoming first-yea r students Legacy Stu dents

13.8%

Female/Male Breakdown

st

37.4% 62.6%

38.2%

out of state

Diversity

Generation Students

22.9%

61.8% in state

Breakdown of all racial cate gories

0.29% orAAmerlaicskan Indian a Native 1.6% unRackneowann d ethnicity 3.2% Asian 8.72% ABlamckericor African 3.92% Two or more races an 16.28% Hispanic/Latino 65.99% White

Pharmacy professor presents research findings to the world In August, Dr. Zachary Cox, Lipscomb professor of pharmacy and inpatient clinical pharmacist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, presented the results of a drug trial that could “have the potential to impact patient care on an international level” at the largest cardiology congress in the world, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress held in Amsterdam Cox’s study, a $1.8 million clinical trial funded by AstraZeneca, demonstrated “the efficacy and safety of the drug dapagliflozin in acute heart failure,” said Cox. The “practice-changing” significance of the trial results were underscored by the fact that pharmacists have rarely been selected to present at the ECS Congress, an annual gathering of more than 30,000 active participants, mainly cardiologists.

In addition, Cox’s presentation was chosen as one of only nine special “hotline” sessions generally reserved for late-breaking results worthy of sharing with the world.

“This study is important in that it can embolden physicians to safely initiate key medication early in the hospital stay and then continue that chronically for patients with heart failure,” said Cox at the Sunday press conference after his ESC Congress presentation.

Tennessee Believes Grant funds new Advanced Certificate for IDEAL students The Igniting the Dream of Education and Access at Lipscomb (IDEAL) program started the 2023-24 school year by marking its 10th anniversary and providing more support and services to its participants than ever before.

Thanks to a three-year, $300,000 Tennessee Believes Grant from the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD), IDEAL is now enrolling students in an optional Advanced Certificate program, providing services for another two years after they have completed the existing twoyear Certificate of Career Exploration. This fall, 22 IDEAL students enrolled in the two certificate programs.

The two-year IDEAL certificate is designed to encourage and support students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to experience college as their peers do. The program incorporates academic and skill-building classes, exercise sessions, daily internships, leisure time and a daily study period.

In the Advanced Certificate program, students have the choice to live independently on- or off-campus, they continue to attend classes on campus, and they also work a paid job on- or off-campus. In the fourth year, students are primarily working off-campus, but are still provided support.

“Everything about the third and fourth year in the Advanced Program is working towards independence as much as possible, so that when they leave us at the end of the fourth year, they are ready to live however independently they want to live,” said Misty Parsley, professor and executive director of the Office of Accessibility and Learning Supports.

Record-setting School of Nursing

100%

Licensing exam firsttime pass rate for the Class of 2023.

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LIPSCOMB bisons Women’s cross country makes historic No. 11 finish in first NCAA appearance Lipscomb women’s cross country capped off its historic 2023 season with an incredible performance at the NCAA Division 1 Women’s Cross Country Championships in November 2023.

The Bisons recorded incredible times to finish 11th overall out of 31 teams in competition in their first team appearance on the national stage. Lydia Miller led the Herd across the line with her 38th overall finish, earning her the program’s first ever NCAA D1 Cross Country All-American title.

The Bisons’ Miller, Mackenzie Barnett, Colbi Borland, Kiara Carter, Harley Kletz, Liza Corso and Ellie Brewer combined for 353 points to finish 11th overall out of 31 teams competing

(just 18 points behind 10th-place finishing Oregon) in the team’s first showing at the national championships.

With their strong showing, the Bisons made their mark in ASUN history as the best finish and the lowest score by a women’s cross country team at the national championships, surpassing both former records set by Liberty University in spring 2021.

“It was an incredible team performance for the women,” said Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Nick Polk (MBA ’23). “The ladies exceeded our expectations and executed the plan really well. We’re very thankful to have had the opportunity to compete amongst the best in the NCAA.” Lipscomb’s appearance in the NCAA was also history-making, as it was the team’s first at-large bid to the NCAA D1 cross

country championships in program history.

The team earned its spot through its fifthplace finish at the NCAA South Region Cross Country Championships.

“This has been a goal of this program for many years. This is a long time coming and was made possible not only by these women, but many who have come before them,” said Polk.

The Bisons were on a roll in the 2023 season, finding big finishes at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational, Angel Mounds Invite and Nuttycombe Invite on their way to claim their 10th ASUN cross country championship title at the end of October.

The women claimed the ASUN crown for the second-straight season and by the largest margin of victory in ASUN history.

In addition, Lipscomb’s squad dominated the ASUN postseason awards, claiming the ASUN women’s cross-country Runner of the Year (Carter), Freshman of the Year (Kletz) and Coach of the Year (Polk) titles. The Bisons saw all ten of their runners in the meet claiming spots on ASUN AllConference Teams, including earning six of the seven spots available on the First Team All-Conference.

The Bisons recorded incredible times to finish 11th overall out of 31 teams in competition in their first team appearance at the 2023 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Cross Country Championships.

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Five student-athletes named as 2023 ASUN Players of the Year Lipscomb Athletics rounded out 2023 with five student-athletes chosen as ASUN Players of the Year. Athletes in women’s golf, soccer, volleyball and women’s cross country were all honored, tying the university’s 2018 record.

Mary Kate Smith, BBA ’23, MAAC ‘24 Women’s ASUN Golfer of the Year Shot the program’s lowest-ever round in a recordbreaking season for the team which competed in the NCAA Regionals. Named a Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar.

Meg Mersman

Tyrese Spicer, Junior Men’s Soccer ASUN Player of the Year His first ASUN Player of the Year honor and third All-ASUN honor. He scored a Lipscomb single-season program record 14 goals and added three assists for an ASUN-leading 31 points. (See page 9 for more on Spicer’s No. 1 pick in the MLS.)

Kelli Beiler, BS ’22, GC ‘23 Women’s Soccer ASUN Player of the Year Adds this year’s honor to her 2022 ASUN Player of the Year and ASUN Scholar Athlete of the Year awards. Was also named a 2023 United Soccer Coaches Second Team Scholar AllAmerican and United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-Region.

Meg Mersman, senior Volleyball ASUN Player of the Year Named First Team All-ASUN after a dominant senior campaign as a middle blocker. Also named Volleyball Magazine and American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American Honorable Mention and AVCA All-South Region.

Kiara Carter, senior Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Year Led the squad to a perfect score to earn the team’s tenth ASUN championship title. Put up a personal best time of 18:54.4 at the NCAA Division I South Region Cross Country Championships. Also named an ASUN Fall Winners for Life.

Tyrese Spicer Mary Kate Smith

Kelli Beiler

Kiara Carter

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LIPSCOMB bisons

Three coaches earn top ASUN honors for this fall

Women’s soccer ASUN regular season champs

Soccer teams secure ASUN regular, tournament championships Lipscomb’s men’s and women’s soccer programs both enjoyed successful seasons this fall. The men’s team earned its third-consecutive ASUN championship title which took the team to the NCAA national tournament, and the women’s team won the ASUN regular season championship with a record of 10-0-1.

The men’s soccer team ended its regular season 6-1 in ASUN play for its third-straight ASUN regular season title.

Later in November, the team secured the 2023 ASUN championship with a win over Bellarmine. Javanne Smith was named the championship MVP. Daniel Stampatori, Nick Dang and George Macready were also named to the All-Tournament Team.

In the NCAA tournament, the men’s soccer team fell to Indiana in Bloomington in November to end its season 10-4-4.

Men’s soccer ASUN champs and NCAA competitors

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In the postseason, the men’s team landed four players on United Soccer Coaches All-Region Teams. Malachi Jones, Tyrese Spicer and Dang earned First Team All-Region nods while Ploutarchos Alonefti landed on the Third Team AllRegion. Spicer was named a United Soccer Coaches First Team All American and Mac Hermann Trophy Semifinalist.

The women’s team set a new program high for wins in the regular season with their 14 wins across their non-conference and conference schedules, including a 2-1 win over SEC opponent Ole Miss. The 2023 season came to a close in the postseason ASUN tournament semi-final match against the North Alabama Lions.

Four members of the squad were named to All-South Region Teams as announced by United Soccer Coaches.

Logan McFadden earned a spot on the First Team, Kelli Beiler claimed a spot on the Second Team, and Shelby Craft and Sara Kile represented the Bisons on the Third Team All-Region.

Lipscomb continued its 2023 streak of ASUN Coach of the Year awards with coaches for men’s and women’s soccer and women’s cross country honored in the fall season.

Women’s Soccer Head Coach Kevin O’Brien was named the ASUN Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his career. O’Brien coached the Bisons to a dominant 2023 season during which the team faced three Power-5 opponents at home in their first few matches of the season.

The squad put on an incredible showing in ASUN play, recording 10 shutouts against conference opponents and allowing just one goal in conference play.

“In our program, every accolade achieved is a shared triumph and a testament to the power of teamwork,” said O’Brien.

Men’s Soccer Head Coach Charles Morrow (BS ’97) was tabbed the Coach of the Year, also for the fourth time in his career, following the Bisons’ fifth regular-season title.

He helped the Bisons earn a 10-4-4 record and a place in the United Soccer Coaches Regional Rankings all season. The team also entered the 2023 ASUN championship as the top seed and captured the program’s fifth conference crown.

Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Nick Polk (MBA ’23) earned his third ASUN women’s cross country Coach of the Year title following the squad’s dominant performance at the 2023 ASUN Cross Country Championships.

He has produced four consecutive NCAA DI cross country championship individual qualifiers before coaching the women’s cross country team to their first team appearance at the national meet in 2023. The squad earned 11th place out of 31 teams with Lydia Miller claiming the second-best finish by a women’s runner from the ASUN in conference history.

Between cross country and indoor track and field, Lipscomb earned 52 ASUN postseason honors.

WE ARE LIPSCOMB

TODAY’S BISONS

TWO BISONS SCORE MAJORLEAGUE WINS IN SOCCER DRAFT Lipscomb soccer capped off 2023 with a major-league win for two student athletes, with soccer forward Tyrese Spicer, junior, tapped as the first overall draft pick at the Major League Soccer (MLS) Super Draft in December.

He was picked up by Toronto FC, while forward Malachi Jones sophomore, of Thompson’s Station, Tennessee, was taken No. 8 overall by New York City FC. Lipscomb made history as the only school with two top-10 selections in the 2024 draft, and Spicer’s pick is the ASUN Conference’s first No. 1 draft pick and Lipscomb’s first ever MLS selection.

The dual drafting was widely reported in international media including CBS Sports, ESPN, USAToday and MSN, among many others. In a statement released to media by Toronto FC, general manager Jason Hernandez said: “Tyrese possesses a unique combination of technical and physical qualities that align with our player profile and tactical blueprint. He also has a resilient mindset and a drive to improve.”

Spicer, 23, from Trinidad and Tobago, finished his college career with 29 goals and 18 assists over 57 matches. He was named a United Soccer Coaches First Team All-American and a MAC Hermann Trophy Semifinalist.

Jones scored five goals and ranked third in the nation with 12 assists this season at Lipscomb. He led the ASUN in total assists and assists per game and earned United Soccer Coaches All-Region First Team Honors this year in addition to being named First Team All-ASUN for the second-consecutive season.

Now it may be possible one day to watch former Bisons Spicer and Jones play live locally as Toronto, New York City and Nashville soccer teams are all in the MLS Eastern Conference.

Read more about Spicer and Jones at lipscomb.edu/mlsdraft.

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03

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05

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THE LIPSCOMB SCENE 07

08

01 Throughout the school year, the Office of Spiritual Formation offers multiple meaningful opportunities for students to worship together.

02 This year’s Bisons Weekend theatrical production of Big Fish drew crowds and raves. Photo credit: Sarah Johnson 03 Lipscomb social clubs’ Rush Fair is still a go-to event for students excited about making friends and building community on campus.

04 Students who attended the university’s orientation week, called Quest Week, enjoy getting to know each other on roller skates at the annual Neon Skate Night.

05 During the Quest Week Sunset Social event, new students had the opportunity to save the memories of getting to know one another in a photo booth inside a retro camper in Bison Square.

06 New students at the Running of the Bison, an event to introduce new student fans to the Bison athletes and inspire enthusiasm for the coming fall 2023 athletic season.

07 Dodgeball, held in the courtyard of Fanning Residence Hall, has become an annual highlight of the fall semester.

08 All new freshmen this year got Lippy Lunatics T-shirts to wear to games and join the growing student fan section (see page 28).

09 Drew and Ellie Holcomb were among the performers at the 2023 Lighting of the Green held just after Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday season with music and fellowship. Special acknowledgement to our silver sponsors FirstBank and American Constructors.

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TAP INTO NEW INSIGHT AND KNOWLEDGE COMPLIMENTS OF LIPSCOMB FACULTY In our digital world today, it’s not only students who are able to benefit from the expertise and wisdom of Lipscomb’s faculty.

You, too, can enjoy the knowledge of Lipscomb’s scholars, on a variety of topics through podcasts online. Check out these selected podcasts providing insights on business, healthy living, the world of animation, spiritual life and more.

The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast Lipscomb’s own Wonder Twins of animation, Tony Bancroft, program director for animation, and Tom Bancroft, artist-in-residence, both have more than 30 years experience in the animation industry, which includes working on numerous films at Disney. And they also cohost a podcast! The brothers interview top professionals in the animation industry and talk about

SCAN TO LISTEN

current trends in the market in a fun, inspiring and educational way. They have produced more than 200 episodes and are the most popular podcast on animation on iTunes. Among those interviewed on the podcast are Ming Na Wen, the voice of Mulan; Pixar Directors Brad Bird, Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton; director Guillermo Del Toro; and original The Little Mermaid Director and Writer John Musker and the voice of Ariel, Jody Benson.

The 5 AM Miracle The 5 AM Miracle, hosted by Jeff Sanders, is co-owned by Lipscomb’s Assistant Director for the Education Doctorate Contessa Sanders (DEd ’15), who also appears on the podcast as a frequent guest.

The podcast is dedicated to helping listeners bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, create powerful lifelong habits and tackle big goals with extraordinary energy. Frequent topics include healthy habits, SCAN TO LISTEN personal development and improved productivity. Sanders works to develop content and is heard on the podcast often discussing topics related to productive parenting, time management, work-life balance, healthy habits and goal-making. The 5 AM Miracle boasts more than 13 million downloads over the last 10 years, seven award nominations and more than 500 episodes.

No Small Endeavor Lipscomb Professor of Bible Lee C. Camp (BA ’89) hosts the nationally syndicated podcast and public radio show No Small Endeavor, distributed by PRX. Grown from Camp’s radio-style, faith-focused variety show that premiered on Lipscomb’s campus 15 years ago, today the podcast asks the question: “What does it mean to live a good life?”

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To answer that question, Camp interviews best-selling authors, philosophers, scientists, artists, psychologists, theologians and even the occasional politician—courageous, impassioned people taking seriously the question of how to live a good life. Covering topics from artificial intelligence to beauty, from capitalism to happiness, among those interviewed on the podcast are Amy Grant, Malcolm Gladwell, Martin Sheen, Parker Palmer and Rainn Wilson.

The Management Minute The Management Minute, launched by Donita Brown, assistant professor in business, and produced by Davis Brown (BBA ’17, MBA ’20), instructor of marketing, engages the business community by discussing practical tips for management in fifteen minutes or less.

Brown, an author, speaker and habit coach, draws on her 20 years experience in management, SCAN TO LISTEN leading teams of two to 20, to interview local leaders including Elliott Kershaw, Daniel Alexander, Zach Evans (BS ’99), Mark Whitacre, General William B. Hickman, Mignon François and Greg Sandfort. With more than 3,000 listeners in the first 25 episodes, The Management Minute is quickly making an impact on the marketplace by sharing easy-to-consume material.

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Gladness and Hunger Gladness & Hunger, produced by Associate Professor in Business Leanne W. Smith (BA ’89, MBA ’09), explores the vocational magic of stories and soft skills.

Inspired by a quote by Frederick Buechner that indicates that the vocational sweet spot is finding “where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet,” Smith’s podcast SCAN TO LISTEN ponders how each of us comes to our career choices as we seek to satisfy both soul and bank account. Drawn to the subject matter by her own journey of becoming a writer and professor (www. leannewsmith.com), Smith interviews guests to unlock the stories of their vocational calling and practical tips to help listeners as they walk their own pathways. Guests have included Leonard Allen; Alan Griggs; Tom Bancroft; Ami McConnell (BA ’93); Lincoln Mick (BA ’14) and Isaac Horn (BM ’17) of The Arcadian Wild; Norma Burgess; and Rob Touchstone (BA ’97, MDiv ’12). This podcast offers inspiration as others seek to contribute their own God-given talents to the betterment of the world.

Awakening: Real Life Economics Explained Awakening, by Julio Rivas, associate professor and MBA director, breaks down current events to make them relatable for everyone—from market experts to the average joe-who wants to learn more about the economy.

After participating in several TV interviews and live shows, Rivas identified this need SCAN TO LISTEN for more accessible economic information. While mainstream media covers news, many people are unable to interpret the information or identify how it impacts their lives. By sharing his interpretation of economic and financial news based on his Ph.D. research, Rivas seeks to bridge that gap with a short, fun and interesting podcast.

Carol’s Last Christmas Demetria Kalodimos, award-winning journalist, 34-year TV anchor and investigative journalist in Nashville, and Lipscomb adjunct faculty, released a 14-part true-crime podcast in 2023 about a 1975 unsolved murder at Illinois State University, in the same area where she attended college.

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The podcast, which was produced by Kalodimos’ company, Genuine Human Productions, is the culmination of a two-year investigation with Alexandra Daskalopoulos, a journalist and legal researcher; George Seibel, a retired Chicago police officer who founded the Institute for Cold Case Solutions at Morton College; and audio mastering by Paul Gibson, adjunct faculty in Lipscomb’s broadcast program. Today the investigation continues with police pursuing new leads developed by the Genuine Human team.

The Bible For Kids Sarah Humphrey, author, and Mike Nawrocki (MFA ’19), visiting professor of film and creative media, have released more than 100 episodes of their podcast: The Bible for Kids. Humphrey and Nawrocki, voice of Larry the Cucumber and co-creator of

VeggieTales, host this podcast, designed to introduce parents to authors, musicians, filmmakers or anyone producing resources to help teach the Bible or Biblical values to kids. Over the life of the podcast it has featured a great range of guests including Michael W. Smith, Matthew West, Max Lucado, Ellie Holcomb and Stephen Kendrick.

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MY LIFE IN RHINESTONES

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Bedecked with butterflies and rhinestones, Lipscomb’s oneof-a-kind exhibition brought Parton’s iconic fashion and career to thousands this fall.

A

ccording to Dolly Parton, “A rhinestone shines just as good as a diamond.”

Lipscomb University took that homespun wisdom to heart and decked out the Beaman Library and its John C. Hutcheson Gallery in rhinestones for its festive opening of the one-of-a-kind fashion exhibition “Dolly Parton and the Makers: My Life in Rhinestones,” which drew 8,000 visitors to campus from Oct. 31 to Dec. 9.

The exhibition, a unique limited-time fashion event, offered a glimpse “behind the seams” at 27 of global superstar Dolly Parton’s outfits from throughout her storied career. The display was the first physical interpretation of Parton’s fashion-focused book, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, which debuted at No. 4 on the hardcover nonfiction NYT Bestseller List in November.

In a week of events leading up to the public opening of the exhibition, Lipscomb held its annual Fashion Week, with several on-campus events relating to Parton’s fashion influence, and the Rhinestone Gala that provided students a sneak peak of the lavishly decorated exhibit space.

More than 40 students from 12 majors earned valuable insights and real-life experiences in a fall practicum through the Department of Fashion and Design. They began working in June along with officials from the Parton organization to develop the exhibition, film a documentary, create a marketing campaign and merchandising items, and prepare to staff and hold the event.

In addition to the practicum teams, other students were pulled in to perform music at special events, create decor for outside Beaman Library, to report on the event for the student-run HERD Media and more.

Norah O’Donnell of CBS Evening News and Parton came to campus in October to shoot a national pre-event feature on the exhibition, and ABC News was on site for the opening ceremony. Local and national media reports of the Oct. 27 opening ceremony and the exhibition itself brought the news to more than a billion viewers all over the globe.

The Partnership “It takes a very sparkly village,” for Parton’s organization to reflect the country singer’s authentic goodwill and superstar power to the world, said Rebecca Seaver, the lead archivist for the rhinestone-loving entertainer and curator of the Behind the Seams book.

Now that “village” includes Bison students, administrators and faculty.

The alliance with Lipscomb was a good one because “we felt a passion from you guys!” said John Zarling, co-founder/partner of 615 Leverage + Strategy, a Nashville company that coordinates business partnerships for Parton.

Zarling handled the Behind the Seams book deal with Ten Speed Press/Penguin Random House. The collaboration with Lipscomb was the largest non-media partnership involved in the release of the book, he said.

Holding the show in a library, reminiscent of Parton’s Imagination Library book gifting program, and making her fashion available to the public at-large through a university, is right in line with Parton’s approach to management and life, said Kelly Ridgway, vice president of global marketing, at CTK Enterprises, another branch of the Parton organization.

“Everyone we came in contact with [from Parton’s organization] said, ‘When can we start working with the students and how can we inspire them?’” said

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Charlotte Poling (BS ’97), chair of Lipscomb’s fashion department. “We often talk about

the beauty of the people she chooses to work with. Team Dolly is a real thing and it feels authentic, like it comes from her.”

worked with Parton to tell the story of each one.

“I wanted to tell the story of a woman who

defied all odds and stayed true to herself even

when it was off-putting to some,” Seaver said.

By all accounts, all parties were happy

“She garners her strength from being who she is.”

posted on her social media accounts about how

1989 dress Parton wore to perform “He’s Alive”

with the students’ achievements. In fact, Seaver “working with Lipscomb students was a win!”

The Exhibition Seaver originally made the pitch to follow-up

Among the dresses in the display is the

at the CMA Awards. That dress, created by Tony

Chase, is one the singer singled out as her favorite during her remarks at the ribbon-cutting.

Other garments on display include a 1985

Parton’s book Songteller with a book focused

dress worn on the “Kenny and Dolly Real

industry panel discussion this fall. Seaver picked

Tzetzi Ganev); the 1989 dress she wore to the

on her iconic fashion, she told students at an

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out the 175 garments included in the book and

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Love” HBO concert special (Ann Roth and

Louisiana premiere of the movie Steel Magnolias (Tony Chase and Sylvia’s Costumes); a 2017 dress worn on a Dollywood parade float (Steve Summers and Iisha Lemming); a 2015 dress worn to the Coat of Many Colors premiere (Robért Behar and Sylvia’s Costumes); and the 2022 dress Parton wore to her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (purchased dress altered by Silvia’s Costumes).

Two documentary videos filmed by Lipscomb senior film major Brynn Abner, are featured in the exhibition: a 15-minute video highlighting the community and hard work of the designers at the Parton organization, and a 7 ½-minute video focusing on the technical aspects of designing the outfits in the gallery.

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The Gala On Friday, Oct. 27, Lipscomb hosted a special VIP opening reception and ribbon-cutting where leaders of the Parton organization, Lipscomb officials and Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, among others, gathered to see Lipscomb President Candice McQueen (BS ’96) and Parton herself cut the rhinestone be-decked ribbon to officially open the showcase.

“I’m just really proud. I’m amazed at how

much I’ve done!” quipped Parton at the opening,

describing her first impression of the display which includes shoes, jewelry and patterns as well as dresses from her concerts, movies and special events. “I just thought, ‘Whew! That’s a lot of livin’! Looking at all those clothes, I have memories of almost every outfit that I have worn: shows that I’ve been on, movies that I’ve been in, and I remember the people.

“That is why the book is something to celebrate the people behind the scenes… because it takes a team. I look around and think, ‘A lot of love, a lot of time, a lot of energy and a lot of creativity from a lot of people,’ and I can’t

take credit for all of that, just the living part,” she said.

The Rhinestone Gala (2023’s version of

the annual student gala that caps off Lipscomb Fashion Week) was held at the John C.

Hutcheson Gallery on Oct. 27. It featured

samples of student fashion designs honoring

Dolly Parton, a photo spot with face cut-outs,

a “Dolly and the Makers” neon sign festooned

with balloons in the library courtyard and trees lit up with pink lighting and butterflies, in

addition to the exhibition itself in the gallery.

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Fashion Week Various members of the Parton team passed on their expertise and advice to Lipscomb students through the preceding Lipscomb Fashion Week events, including handson workshops and an industry panel that included seven members of the Parton organization who keep the superstar fashionable each day.

Iisha Lemming, Parton’s former

head pattern maker and seamstress, who served as an artist-in-residence for the fashion and design department this fall, conducted a rhinestoning workshop for students. Hillary Adcock, Parton’s

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costumer, designer and seamstress, taught students tambour beading, a technique she learned specifically for Parton’s fashions.

In addition, five fashion design students, Youssef Nagib, Annabel Brown, Ashley Izquierdo Renteral, Kalissa Finn and Blossom Omeje, were tapped to create five outfits inspired by Dolly Parton to display at the entrance.

“In planning the design for the entrance, we wanted an attention grabbing display,” said Sissy Simmons, assistant professor in the fashion and design department. “We have very talented students and this seemed to be

the perfect way to showcase their work.”

The project resulted in a white satin dress with a rhinestone western motif neckline, a jacket and skirt with a print of a young Dolly Parton and her mother running through a field of lavender, a pink dress with a butterfly incorporated into the bodice, one piece inspired by a guitar strap with a rhinestone cowgirl look and a pink cape embroidered with Parton’s own words, among other creations.

Learn more and see more photos of the exhibition at lipscomb.edu/dolly-parton.

WE ARE LIPSCOMB

TODAY’S BISONS

BEHIND THE SEAMS BROUGHT TO CENTER STAGE “Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.” So says Dolly Parton.

Lipscomb graphic design junior Sean Worth must have been listening to the Smoky Mountains’ favorite daughter, because he spent this past fall semester as the art director within the student practicum formed to coordinate the “Dolly Parton & the Makers: My Life in Rhinestones” exhibit held on campus this fall.

Throughout the experience—from seeing an ad to finding the exit sign—exhibition visitors saw graphic designs originally created or overseen by Worth, who led a five-person student team to work with Lipscomb University Marketing and the Parton organization. They created advertisements, a logo, exhibit signage, merchandise for the gift shop, posters and a billboard, among other items.

“The student involvement,” said Worth, “is such a testament to what Lipscomb is all about and how they set you up for the future.”

Hailing from Pennsylvania, Worth created the coral pink ad design with flowers and butterflies as well as corresponding digital artwork seen throughout the promotion efforts, including wraps to decorate the columns of the Beaman Library where the exhibit is being held and a billboard on Nashville’s Interstate 65. Worth was also thrilled to see his poster in the background of a pre-event interview with Parton filmed on campus and aired nationally on CBS Mornings in October.

Visitors waiting in line to enter the main exhibit hall saw his design work in an information panel on Parton’s philanthropic and artistic ventures. He also designed a few pieces to sell in the gift shop, including a mug, keychain, tote bag and a couple of T-shirts.

Read more about Worth at

lipscomb.edu/worth.

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ENGINEERING: THE HANDS AND FEET OF JESUS 22

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This 104-foot-long metal pedestrian bridge was built in San Esteban, Honduras in 2015 to benefit students who had to cross a busy highway to get to additional school facilities. The bridge won a statewide award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Tennessee.

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20 YEARS OF LIPSCOMB ENGINEERING MISSIONS 2024 marks a milestone anniversary since the first engineering mission trip in 2004. That trip has sparked 88 projects bringing positive change to thousands and thousands of people around the globe as well as locally in Tennessee.

I

t began with a handful of students and a 300-gallon water tank.

In 2003, a handful of engineering students approached then-computer engineering faculty David Fann with an idea: an engineering-focused international mission trip.

Their suggestion was right in line with what Fann had been mulling over lately. “You don’t have to be a minister to do work for the glory of God.” Twenty years later, the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering has coordinated hundreds of students to implement up to eight international and domestic engineering projects annually including bridges, solar installations, water distribution and wastewater management systems that directly impact the lives of more than 56,000 people–and that’s a low estimate.

Their work has been praised by two national presidents, of Honduras and of Malawi, and the college counts national organizations in the U.S. and abroad among its partners.

On top of the life-changing direct impact these projects have on communities in seven nations, the college has also established an administrative hub for missions—the Peugeot Center for Engineering Service in Developing Communities; has hosted a national conference on engineering missions; and is carrying out a federally-funded research study on the impact of humanitarian missions.

But back during spring break in 2004, it was just about getting one water tank up on a tower.

Nine students, two professors and an alumnus traveled by plane, then car and then horseback to reach the rural Honduran community of Las Delicias, which serves as home base of operations for Mission Predisan, a Christian medical outreach organization.

The organization uses a site in Las Delicias as a basecamp for roving health professionals to hold clinic days in even more remote communities in the surrounding mountains.

The team brought everything they needed with them to construct—in just four days—the 20-foot water tower and tank equipped with a solar-powered pump. The tower had been designed by students and faculty in Lipscomb’s structural design course.

That first project established the basic parameters still followed by the engineering college today: 1. engineering staff identify a need through a partner organization, 2. students are involved in the design work guided by technical mentors, and 3. students have the opportunity to travel to the on-site location to support project implementation.

It’s a formula that not only brings life-changing resources to developing communities, but it also brings life-changing insight and spiritual formation to future engineers.

“The mentoring that happened on that trip was one of the highlights of my life,” said Fann. “It was life-changing for me and many of the students.”

Karla (Childress) Rodkey (BS ’05), also a participant on that original trip, summed it up succinctly in 2004: “God is, like, the best engineer.”

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In 2006, students traveled to Chicacao, Guatemala, to rebuild a 130-foot long footbridge that had been washed away in a flood.

DEVELOPING A FORMULA FOR SUCCESS After sending additional teams to Honduras the next year, 2006 brought a new partner and an opportunity that would prove to become a mainstay of Lipscomb’s engineering mission program: building bridges.

A 19-person team traveled to Chicacao, Guatemala, to rebuild a 130-foot long footbridge that had been washed away in a flood. The bridge was the only access for up to 10,000 people a year to health care at Clinica Ezell, operated by Health Talents International.

The project set another important precedent. For the first time, Lipscomb’s engineers relied on the locals to contribute work to the construction of the project.

“In every sense, this project was a partnership with them,” said Fred Gilliam, then professor and associate dean of engineering and later the founding dean of the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering. “A partnership in planning, in labor, in finances and most especially in Christian spirit.”

In 2009, the college began its most consistently long-term mission project in

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the Ulpan Valley in Guatemala. Reflecting an interest in providing sustainable improvement to one disadvantaged area, the college partnered with on-site missionaries and the non-governmental organization CAFNIMA from 2009 to 2015 to carry out various infrastructure projects in an area where 88% of the people live in poverty.

One of those on-site missionaries was Kris Hatchell (BS ’06), an engineer who was a participant on the first engineering mission trip in 2004. He and local engineer Kevin Colvett, a long-time partner of engineering missions with InFlo Design Group, guided student teams to help install solar-powered cell phone charging stations, a rainwater catchment system and water distribution systems.

THE JOY OF SEEING LIVES CHANGED Ten years after the first trek to Honduras to build a water tank tower, Lipscomb had sent more than 200 students, 12 faculty and about 30 engineering professionals to four nations to build four bridges and install 12 water projects.

The program was well-embedded,

but college leaders saw the potential to make the program bigger and better.

They wanted engineering missions to be sustainable over the long-term.

Dick Peugeot, a 17-year Lipscomb trustee and an electrical engineer retired from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and his wife Mary Ann made that goal possible by financially supporting the creation of the Peugeot Center to supervise the fundraising and strategic organization of

Work in Ulpan Valley, Guatemala, focused on sustainable change from 2009 to 2015.

“God is, like, the best engineer,” Karla (Childress) Rodkey (BS ’05).

Tennessee named the San Esteban project as the Grand Award winner in its small projects category in 2016.

“It was really cool to see the reaction of the people in that community and how many people came out to see that bridge to be set up,” said Taylor Sanders (BS ’18). “It was a really good feeling that I can only express as a God feeling.”

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service-oriented, holistic, long-term community change through engineering missions.

Dick Peugeot had been a participant in Lipscomb engineering missions several times, beginning with a 2006 trip to install a radio repeater tower in Honduras to enhance Predisan’s communication with their mountain clinics.

“I am very interested in being the hands and feet of Jesus and ways to spread the word of the Gospel,” said Dick Peugeot. “This concept of the engineering mission trip has developed legs of its own and has grown beyond what we could have imagined. It shows the power of God.” “As soon as there is a mission trip, we have all the participants over to our house to hear all the stories, which are just amazing,” said Mary Ann Peugeot. “The students’ lives change; the people’s lives change; our lives have changed, and we have the joy of seeing it all happen.”

Shortly after establishing the Peugeot Center, the college took on its largest project yet. A 104-foot-long metal pedestrian bridge was built over a highway in San Esteban, Honduras, to link two school campuses operated by Honduras Outreach International.

This project involved various government permits, work by an engineering firm in Honduras and a trial run construction project on Lipscomb’s campus. The American Council of Engineering Companies of

Work continued in Las Delicias, Honduras through 2008.

EVERYWHERE, NEAR AND FAR, IS A MISSION FIELD From that point, the Peugeot Center’s mission work has only grown and become more varied, with more partners and a broader reach, more on-site experiences and more participants from the local engineering industry.

Projects in Malawi, Ghana, Haiti and the Dominican Republic were completed, in addition to many more in Honduras and Guatemala. Projects of note include a playground for children with special needs for the Little Hands, Big Hearts ministry and a medical waste incinerator for Predisan, both in Honduras; and a solar panel installation to provide consistent power for the Blessings Hospital in Malawi.

In 2020, the engineering college was one of seven universities in the nation to receive a National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying Engineering Education Award for a project to improve water sanitation for an orphanage and school in Ghana. The technical mentor for the project

was George Garden, chief engineer, division of water resources for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

Also in 2020, Kirsten Heikkinen Dodson (BS ’12), associate professor and chair of mechanical engineering and a product of engineering missions herself, was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to explore the impact of humanitarian engineering projects and to design a model to help create more inclusive and equitable engineers.

In 2019, a long-time partner of Lipscomb's engineering missions, became the new director of the Peugeot Center. Steve Sherman had previously worked closely with Lipscomb officials on projects through Health Talents International and coordinating projects in the Ulpan Valley.

As it did for the rest of the globe, 2020 and Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions brought a shift in focus for the Peugeot Center, which pivoted to use the college’s laser cutter and other equipment to produce more than 11,000

A crane was used to place the final bridge in San Esteban, Honduras, over a busy highway.

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Engineering missions offers students an opportunity to carry out the concepts they learn in class in the real world to the glory of God.

plastic face shields to distribute to health care workers, educators and others in need.

Shifting focus away from international work allowed the Peugeot Center to open new doors for local projects, most notably installing solar panels on 15 micro-homes used as temporary housing for homeless individuals on the property of the Green Street Church of Christ in Nashville. David Elrod (BS ’77), now dean of the engineering college, oversaw student work days to install the panels, and more recently has led the effort to construct an entire micro-home alongside freshman engineering students.

Most recently, the Peugeot Center has made great strides in bringing water to rural mountain communities in Guatemala through partners Garney Construction, the largest water/wastewater contractor in the U.S., InFlo Design and Guatemalan nongovernmental organization ADICAY.

Since 2006, engineering mission projects have involved teaching science to children in the communities.

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Continuing a formula established in 2006, ADICAY provides in-country resources and coordination of community members to do preparatory work such as topographical surveys, legal contracts and initial construction, said Sherman.

Because of ADICAY’s work to educate the locals on system maintenance, the engineers estimate that the systems will provide clean water for communities for the next 20-50 years.

THE HEART OF ENGINEERING Twenty years on, one water tank in Honduras has turned into a cascading river of projects that have impacted thousands of people in underserved areas of the world.

One idea sparked by a handful of students has become sustainable improvement for those in need across the globe.

During the pandemic, missions turned local, including at Green Street Church of Christ in 2021.

“When you take these trips, you know you are doing the will of God,” said Fann.

“On these trips, you are exactly where God wants you to be, because you are doing His will, You are not distracted by life. For two weeks, you can focus on doing exactly what God wants you to do.”

For engineering graduates, that service doesn’t stop when they go home.

“What is exciting to me about being an engineer is that the heart of engineering is to be a servant,” said Hatchell. “To help communities grow, develop and to come alongside people who have problems that they are not sure how to solve.”

Read more memories of engineering missions at lipscomb.edu/20engmissions.

Children in Los Limones, Guatemala help students install pipes for a water distribution system.

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20 years of missions: Where are the pioneers now?

Engineering students who pioneered the first engineering-focused mission project at Lipscomb have gone on to lead other projects for our society as well as building their own futures and families.

David Fann Senior Principal Architect, Digital Patient Experience, HCA Healthcare Fann has continued to be involved in engineering missions over the years, with his last participation in 2019.

Kirk Pippin (BS ’07) Master’s in business

Fred Gilliam Dean Emeritus, Raymond B. Jones

Karla (Childress) Rodkey (BS ’05) Graduate

College of Engineering At the time of the trip, Gilliam was the founding associate dean of the School of Engineering. He later became the dean of the college in 2009. Today he is retired and living in Sparta, close to Burgess Falls.

Kristopher Hatchell (BS ’06) Master’s in engineering from Mississippi State University Hatchell served as Lipscomb’s on-site coordinator of projects in the Ulpan Valley, Guatemala, for two years and then as a missions coordinator at Lipscomb for three years before joining Barge Design Solutions as a project engineer in Knoxville.

Chad Jacobs (BS’04) Jacobs is a mechanical engineer at Jacobs in Manchester.

Kathryn (McDonald) Kornrumpf (BS ’05)

Kornrumpf worked as an R&D engineer at Cook Endoscopy until becoming a stay-at-home mom of three kids with husband Brian Kornrumpf (BS ’05) in Charlotte, N.C.

Amy (Gilfilen) Lucas (BS ’07) Master’s in

aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University Lucas was a data analyst for defense contractor Parsons, in Huntsville, Ala., before becoming a stayat-home mom for her five children with husband Matthew Lucas, also a member of the inaugural engineering mission trip. Amy Lucas runs the family farm in Kelso, Tennessee.

Matthew Lucas (BS ’07) Master’s in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University Lucas is the ATEC Standardization Lead at White Sands Missile Range and has worked at the U.S. Army Redstone Test Center.

administration and management from the University of Phoenix.

He is a mechanical engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority living in Decatur, Alabama. degree in aerospace engineering from Purdue University Rodkey worked with Jacobs Technology as a CFD engineer and helped analyze parts of the James Webb Space Telescope for NASA. She also worked as an application support engineer for STARCCM+ before becoming a stay-at-home mom in McGregor, Texas.

James Savage (BS ’04) Chief Engineer

Exploration Upper Stage at Boeing Savage has worked at Boeing in Madison, Alabama, since his graduation, working in the “Stages” Team of the Space Launch System to design, build and fly a Saturn V class Manned Launch Vehicle for NASA’s Exploration Mission.

Matt Sheppard (BS ’04) Shepperd is a program manager at Upwork in Nashville. He manages cross functional programs and projects for the accounting and finance department.

Lee Whitney (A ’54), deceased

Formerly of Tullahoma, Whitney was an alumnus in 2004. He had trained under experienced engineers and completed correspondence courses to teach himself the skills needed.

Whitney participated in three more engineering mission trips after the inaugural trip. Before his death in 2012, he created an engineering scholarship to support Lipscomb engineering students interested in mission opportunities.

See more memories of the 2004 team at lipscomb.edu/20firstteam.

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FROM LEGENDS TO LUNATICS

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L

ipscomb University has many iconic Bisons who have made their marks on the basketball court, but there are other leaders of the Bison Herd who never made it onto the court (at least not during game play). Those are the student fans. Known by many names—Bleacher Creatures, The Stampede, McQuiddy Maniacs, The Stomp Squad, The Zealots, The Lunatics, The Corner of Krunk—even the players will tell you that Bison fans are the secret sauce to a victorious season.

The most recent iteration of Bison super-fandom has been dubbed the Lippy Lunatics (not to be confused with the Lipscomb Lunatics dating back to the 2000s), and they have blazed their own trail at Lipscomb by bringing their current brand of fan enthusiasm to the baseball, volleyball and soccer games in addition to basketball.

While Lipscomb’s trips to the NCAA national basketball championships in 2018 and the NIT basketball tournament in 2019 packed Allen Arena with fans, the 2020 Covid pandemic squelched fan enthusiasm for a time.

So when Landon Parrish (LA ’07, BS ’11, MBA ’20), a member of the original Lunatics, saw an enthusiastic student at a 2022 basketball game “running back and forth with a huge Lipscomb flag,” he was more than excited. “I thought, I haven’t seen that passion for Bison basketball in a student for a long time!”

Parrish, now assistant to the university president, has become a mentor of sorts for the new Lippy Lunatics and even went so far as to host a cookout at his home for past Bison super-fans and the current Lippy Lunatics. “I was thinking, how can I give these guys the tools to be successful, and names started coming into my head of the greats—the legends” from his college days. So he called the event: The

Lunatics Meet the Legends. “I wanted to share the experience that my generation of Lunatics had. It was a blessing to be in the same room with two decades worth of Bison fans," he said.

The Lippy Lunatics are far from the first ones to bring unbridled enthusiasm to the stands. Bison fans through the years have been organized into marching corps, pep bands and official student fan clubs as well as any number of organically formed informal fan “sections” that packed the house at Lipscomb games through the decades.

THE 1940s-1970s Unlike the stereotypical image many may hold today, two of the early coordinated Lipscomb fan groups were made up completely of women: The Pepettes in the 1940s (pictured below left), and after that The Bisonettes (pictured below right), which performed at basketball games until 1974. Both groups would sit all together in the stands in their marching uniforms during game play.

Neika Stephens (LA ’52), now a Lipscomb trustee, remembers The Pepettes because she marched with them as what they called their “mascot” even though she was less than 10 years old.

By the 1960s, the group was called The Bisonettes, and lifelong fan Mark French (BS ’63) remembers them as being "pretty prim and proper in the stands" wearing their purple and white jumpers as well as white gloves.

On the court floor during halftime, a whistle would blow and they would march in sequence to the rhythm of a single drummer, making pinwheels, patterns and the initials DLC (for then David Lipscomb College). At the end of their routine, they would form a square, eight people across, and march

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BISON SUPER-FANS ARE SEEING A RESURGENCE WITH THE NEW LIPPY LUNATICS LEADING THE CHARGE

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in rows up the bleachers to their seats, said Pat (Moore) Wood (BS ’74) (pictured with the Bisonettes on page 29) who who teaches at Lipscomb Academy middle school and was the final captain of the Bisonettes in 1974.

It was the regular boom-two-threefour of the women’s feet stomping as hard as they could on the bleachers, marking time, and echoing throughout McQuiddy Gym, that most fans remember.

“At the end of our routine we formed an ‘L’ and everybody in the whole place would sing the alma mater,” said Wood.

“Then what everybody remembers is our marching into the stands… When we got to our spot, we all turned around and gave a shout, and it was so cool!”

The way that McQuiddy, a much smaller venue than Allen Arena,

captured and held the sound of the crowd within its walls is something that fan after fan noted as a fond memory—and a primary goal—of the various fan sections over the years.

THE 1980s By the 1980s, the Bison basketball and baseball teams were riding high on continued success in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) league, and Bison fans had become much more rowdy than the prim Bisonettes.

Making noise in the stands was a given.

The Bleacher Creatures (pictured below on page 30), one of the most infamous fan sections, spanned the 1980s including 1986 when the men’s basketball team won the national NAIA championships. Andy Lane (BA ’87), then a sports writer for student newspaper The Babbler, wrote in defense of the spirit of the raucous group. One Bleacher Creature said, he wrote, “if you cheer with your heart, the noise will come…

Anyone who has been to a Lipscomb game can testify to the noise they make.”

The group, made up of about 12 die-hard fans, coordinated outfits to wear to games on theme nights, said Shawn Everson (BS ’91) (pictured shouting from the sidelines below). Themes included gladiator night, togas, medical scrubs, bald caps (in honor of bald basketball coach Don Meyer) and Secret Service night,

inspired by former President Gerald Ford’s visit to campus. The guys dressed the part and were actually allowed to escort Coach Meyer and super-fan Chuck Ross out onto the court at the beginning of the basketball game.

Chants have always been a fan staple, and Bleacher Creature Mark Kidwell (BS ’86) said that he was told by former basketball player for then-Trevecca Nazarene College (a major cross-town rival at the time) that the two crowd chants that got under their skin the most were the countdown when a player was ejected for earning five fouls and the “Go start the bus” chant where the crowd shook their keys in the last minute of a victorious game.

Brad Fortner (A ’86) recalls fondly the years the Bleacher Creatures partnered with the cheerleaders to provide time-out entertainment. They ran out onto the court and all laid down in patterns to spell B-IS-O-... and about that time they usually began to mess up their placement, he said. “The whole crowd was wondering, are these guys going to be able to spell ‘Bisons’,” Fortner chuckled. “It was like holding the whole gym in our hands,” as they anticipated the outcome.

THE 1990s Brent High (BA ’96, MS ’11), a graduate who worked for Lipscomb Athletics in promotions as a student and twice in the years from 1996 and 2015, ushered in what could be called “the

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The Maniacs were a Lipscomb fan club that collected annual dues of $10 to support the purchase of items to take the game atmosphere “to the next level:” paper megaphones, Bison squeakers and T-shirts were among the fan equipment.

High and his fellow promoters came up with the idea to throw confetti in the air after the first basket made. “I can’t tell you how many hours I had students cutting up paper and putting confetti into plastic bags along with instructions for chants to yell during the free throws or when certain opposing players were in possession of the ball,” he said.

The confetti became so popular in the late 1990s that at one point they did a massive confetti drop from the ceiling, and the confetti was featured in the Nashville Banner newspaper in 1997.

THE 2000s-2020s In the world of sports fandom, energy comes and goes throughout the years.

Most of the super-fans who live large in the memories of alumni, as well as

the leaders of the Lippy Lunatics, say they were spurred to create a “fan section” due to lackluster crowd engagement.

The larger size of Allen Arena, today’s ubiquitous cell phone use and the proliferation of alternative social options, have made it hard for fan sections to keep the crowd enthusiasm up in some years since Lipscomb’s move to the NCAA and the Arena in 2001. But creativity thrives through limitations, and Bison fans have no lack of “college ingenuity,” as one fan described it.

High returned to work at Lipscomb Athletics from 2007 to 2015 and during that time he collaborated with students such as Luke Flener (BA ’07), Ben Pedigo (BA ’09, MACM ’13), Parrish (pictured in purple jacket upper right) and Garner Goode (BS ’08, EXNS ’11) to fuel The Lunatics student fan section, not to be confused with today’s Lippy Lunatics.

The advent of social media allowed students to see the fun, creative and motivational antics that other universities’ fans were doing, and it spurred Lipscomb fans to do the same, said Goode. Flenor began a

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tradition of breaking a plate in chapel to encourage students to turn out for games, and Pedigo began holding sing-a-longs and teaching fans specific cheers to yell at certain points in the game, Goode said.

“It was a difficult place [for competing teams] to play on the road,” said Goode. "As fans, we felt that if you can’t compete yourself, then at least you can bring a friend and cheer loud! That is what we can do to help.”

And the confetti came back too (pictured at the top of page 31), with Goode helping to create hundreds of bags of confetti during his tenure working in athletics from 2012-2017. Theme nights also became more coordinated with events such as the Adoption Rally and the Star Wars night, he said.

Around 2011, TJ Ojehomon (BA ’14) (pictured at the bottom of page 31), was selected by Lipscomb Athletics to be the Bisons’ on-court entertainer, someone to rile up the crowds during time outs, in his sophomore year. By his junior year, Ojehomon was selected to serve as a marketing assistant in athletics where he created promotional videos for YouTube, coordinated events and was generally the on-the-ground link to the students for fan initiatives.

Lipscomb’s official fan club at the time was called The Stampede (20122014) and membership dues provided amenities such as exclusive seating, 32

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group travel arrangements and photo opportunities with the teams. There were many smaller groups of friends tied together by dorm, major or social club who created fan sections, but Ojehomon “was about getting a broader group together,” he said.

In lieu of Homecoming festivities during those years, Ojehomon and others created a season-starting pep rally called HoopapaLUza and a week of events leading up to the Battle of the Boulevard.

Ojehomon, nicknamed “The LU Hype Man,” would shout through a megaphone as students were leaving chapel or in the dining hall to announce game days and encourage students to attend. “It was all about creating an energy and a sense of spirit on a fairly conservative campus,” said Ojehomon.

“We did that by being bold.”

THE LIPPY LUNATICS The spirit of the Bison super-fan legends lives on through today’s Lippy Lunatics, who use all the tools of the trade: face paint, T-shirts, coordinated cheers (including the horns-up symbol), theme nights and giveaways to pump up the crowd.

The September 2022 Battle of the Boulevard soccer match marked the first big success of the Lippy Lunatics, who spurred more than 100 students into the visitors’ stands at Belmont’s E.S. Rose

Park. The number of Lunatics continued to grow once the 2022-23 basketball season got underway, and a down-tothe-buzzer victory against longtime rivals Belmont University at the Battle of the Boulevard in Allen Arena sparked students to storm the court to celebrate the victory.

The Lippy Lunatics’ impact has helped the nationally ranked men’s soccer team to have one of the best home field advantages in the country. The Bisons have gone 16-2-1 over the last two seasons with an 86% winning percentage.

“What we’ve hit is potentially one of the best collegiate soccer atmospheres ever, already, against Belmont, and we still have years of growth to go,” said Jackson Gibree (see page 33), sophomore, one of the founders of the Lippy Lunatics.

“You don’t expect to have that many students attending games at a small school,” said Gibree, “but once you get there, everybody is invested; everybody is supporting each other; everybody is standing; everybody is chanting, yelling and screaming. It feels like a Power Five atmosphere.”

Read more about Bison super-fans through the decades at lipscomb.edu/bisonfan.

WE ARE LIPSCOMB

TODAY’S BISONS

THIS LUNATIC IS CRAZY FOR LU ATHLETICS The Lippy Lunatics began as most things involving young people in the 2020s do: with the launch of a social media page. A Group Me page posted

by Jackson Gibree, sophomore and manager for the men’s basketball team, combined with a Lippy Lunatics Instagram page sparked the latest student-led effort to organize Bison fans into a cohesive group.

The former high school athlete was drawn to Lipscomb for its small school feel that also provides big opportunities as well as a tight-knit community, he said. He is active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and intramural sports.

This fall, the Lippy Lunatics organized as an official student group, with Gibree as president. The coordination of the Lippy Lunatics fan group, “goes so much deeper than I think a lot of people would realize,” Gibree said. “What different strategies should we use to draw people in and keep people engaged the whole game? What order do we do the chants? What chant do we start with? How often do we do them?”

Gibree says he even had the Ole Miss volleyball coach compliment the student fans at one match-up. “He said, ‘I wish our students were as loud as ya’ll, because you all made a difference in the game’,” said Gibree.

“It creates an environment that people want to be a part of,” he said of the Lippy Lunatics. “The whole goal is to create a place where everybody feels welcome and everybody feels like they can be a part of something, and it’s really easy to get involved.”

Read more about Gibree at lipscomb.edu/gibree.

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ALUMNI

LIFE AS AN OPEN BOOK NATIONALLY KNOWN AUTHORS AND THOUGHT LEADERS DAVID AND NANCY FRENCH WIELD THE POWER OF THE PEN. David (BA ’91) and Nancy French (A ’97) are something of an open book.

As a pair of nationally known writers and thought leaders, the Frenches have no problem intertwining their personal experiences and insights drawn from daily life into their influential work in litigation, politics and journalism.

Nancy French began her writing career literally by writing about her daily life as a Southern-bred, politically conservative wife and mother living in a politically liberal area of the country. When David French had the realization he needed to walk the talk in regards to his views on the Iraq War, the couple co-wrote a book about how his service in the judge-advocate general officer ( JAG) corps affected both of their approaches to life.

It’s a formula that has served the couple well, as David now pens a column for the New York Times and Nancy has hit the bestseller list five times. Most recently, David joined Lipscomb as distinguished visiting professor of public policy in the College of Leadership & Public Service For the Frenches, it all began at Lipscomb, where David, as a young Harvard-trained attorney reconnected with Nancy in Bison Square when he happened to be on campus for a meeting regarding a lawsuit.

Both grew up in Church of Christ families in rural towns: Georgetown, Kentucky, for David and Paris, Tennessee, for Nancy. It was Lipscomb faculty Craig Bledsoe and Steve Prewitt who steered David toward law school in the first place, he said.

After four great years at Lipscomb, he arrived at Harvard without much of a life plan and low expectations for himself.

After some time, however, he realized, “I was academically, theologically and spiritually well-prepared.”

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ALUMNI

While she was still in high school, a Lipscomb admissions recruiter offered to connect Nancy by phone with David after she indicated she was interested in law school (something that wasn’t exactly true).

“And he was amazing,” says Nancy with a twinkle in her eye. “We had a good conversation.

I really thought he was fascinating and interesting. He was the most interesting person I had ever spoken to—still is!”

So when they ran across each other on campus years later, when she was a junior, they fell right back into conversation. Three-and-ahalf months later, they were married.

Early in their marriage, Nancy ran their household while David practiced constitutional rights litigation, fighting cases to preserve free speech rights “for people all across the country, whether they were [politically] left or right, Republican or Democrat,” he said.

Later he moved to public interest law protecting religious freedoms, challenging college speech codes, discriminatory college funding schemes, censorship of Christian students and much more at universities such as Georgia Tech, Penn State, Harvard, Columbia and Wisconsin. He also had a stint as a professor at Cornell Law School.

All the while, Nancy was submitting articles for consideration around the country, but found her most success with a one-time submission to a newspaper in their home city at the time, the Philadelphia City Paper. Her “fish out of water” approach to writing about being a Southern-bred political conservative living in a very liberal city at that time drew a severe backlash from the reading public—which the paper’s editor loved.

He signed her to write a regular column called “The Liberty Belle,” said Nancy, and it was that column that helped secure her first book deal for A Red State of Mind, published in 2009.

While that book was in the works, David began to have a crisis of conscience.

“I had read an article about how the military was having trouble recruiting for the Iraq war, and I just felt convicted that I couldn’t keep supporting the war when I wasn’t willing to deploy to it,” he said.

So in late 2005, he walked into a recruiting office in downtown Philadelphia. On Oct. 31, 2007, he was deployed to the Army JAG to serve in Diyala Province, for which he was awarded a Bronze Star. Those years turned into the couple’s only co-written book, Home and Away: A Story of Family in a Time of War, published in 2011.

“We just thought we had a unique situation because it’s very rare for two writers to go through an experience and be able to explain both sides of it,” said Nancy.

Those two books set Nancy’s writing career off and running. She was called on to be a ghostwriter for various celebrities (Bristol Palin, Shawn Johnson, Sean Lowe) as well as people with intriguing life stories (Bob Fu, Alice Marie Johnson, Kate Grosmaire).

Her work on those books has involved living in Alaska for a month, shadowing a subject on a movie set and becoming (by chance) a fly on the wall in New York City’s NBC Studios when news of one of Trump’s impeachments broke.

She tells any client she works with on a book that: “God is writing your story, we are not.

We don’t have to think about brand management.

We just have to tell the truth, because it is ultimately more glorifying to God to just be honest about our faults.”

That’s not easy for anyone privately or publicly and involves a lot of trust and transparency, but in the end she ends up with a compelling story. “I think it is a sacred honor to be a part of their lives in that way,” she says.

Back in the U.S. and practicing public interest law, around 2014, David found himself frustrated with how the media was covering constitutional issues, so he decided to write about it. Soon he was writing so much that he decided to end his 21-year career practicing law and write full-time. He began working for the National Review. He moved from there to help start The Dispatch, a conservative media organization, with occasional contributions to The Atlantic.

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ALUMNI

He also wrote another book, Divided We Fall published in 2020. The book urges readers (and leaders) to summon the courage to reconcile our political differences.

The New York Times took note, recognizing his long legal career and legal scholarship focused on protecting the constitutional rights Americans all share, no matter how they think or speak. In January 2023, the newspaper hired him as an opinion writer and described him as being “factual and [having] intellectual clarity, moral seriousness and a spirit of generosity toward others and humility toward oneself.”

“The qualities he exhibits as a writer are precisely the ones we value most. He is forthright in his views, yet open to counterargument; sincere in his ideological commitments, yet willing to call out those who normally share his beliefs when he believes they’ve wandered astray,” wrote the New York Times.

Nancy said that her faith has manifested in her writing over the past three years through investigative journalism. When

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made aware of allegations of abuse going on at Kanakuk Kamps, one of America’s largest Christian camps in Branson, Missouri, Nancy saw it as her “Christian duty, to uncover the truth about a situation.”

She found survivors and ex-employees who say unreported abuse at Kanakuk Kamps has spanned decades. Her reports have been published by The Dispatch, Springfield NewsLeader and USA Today.

While there has been no movement to close the camp or to hold those responsible accountable, her work has led to several lawsuits, and she described it as “the most important work I’ll ever do… the one thing I did accomplish was that I allowed the victims to feel seen. So I would do it all again.”

Today, Nancy is looking forward to another book release in April, and this one goes back to the style that originally launched her career: her own memoir. Ghosted: An American Story (Harper Collins, April 2024) is about her early life, her work as a ghostwriter and her personal experience as a politically conservative Christian in the post-Trump political climate.

The couple now live back near their roots in Franklin, Tennessee, and David is bringing his internationally recognized expertise in constitutional free speech issues to Lipscomb students in a course called Foundations of Free Speech, which tracks the development of the law, culture and philosophy of free speech in the United States.

David is putting out a Sunday School curriculum on Christian political theology centered on Micah 6:8, and Nancy is cowriting a book with theologian Curtis Chang based on the curriculum (The After Party, Harper Collins, April 2024).

“At this point in my career, I really wanted to invest in a place, and I could think of no better place to invest in than my alma mater that gave me so much,” David said. “My professors here really changed my horizons and then helped me get there. The ability to invest in students and to maybe change their horizons, is really meaningful.”

Read more about the Frenches at lipscomb.edu/frenches.

BEYOND THE CL ASSROOM

Alumnus shows students how to plant seeds in hearts through seeds in the ground Nathan Hale (BA ’08) is on a mission to show the world that there is much more to gardening than plants.

Gardens can be a source of food, fuel for a community and a pipeline to spiritual enrichment. That’s the message he is sharing with the Nashville community, including students in Lipscomb’s environmental science programs who have come out to his garden at Madison Church of Christ, north of downtown Nashville, each fall for two years now.

Hale, the youth minister at the church, is also a former missionary in Honduras who planted seeds in people’s hearts as well as planting seeds in a 40-acre farm designed to teach people how to alleviate hunger and need in practical and sustainable ways. Upon returning to the United States in 2012, he ended up at Madison where he oversees its community garden program.

His work is now a model for Lipscomb students taking environmental sustainability courses. Hale not only introduces students to hands-on gardening on site, but he also serves as a guest speaker in the course to discuss how agriculture can be used as positive community activism through food production.

The one-third-acre garden also includes a chicken coop and an aquaponics (closed-loop) system, where fish and plants are grown together to nourish each other as they grow. The caretakers practice organic gardening techniques and on-site composting of leftover food from the church that cannot be used in other ways, said Hale. They grow, among other things, potatoes, onions, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, basil and this fall, pumpkins.

Read more about this partnership at lipscomb.edu/madisongarden.

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WHY WE GIVE

Why we give BOBBIE SOLLEY

“With reading comes understanding, and with understanding comes change.”

To say that Bobbie Solley (BS '79) is passionate about teaching is an understatement.

The long-time education veteran has taught school-age and college-level students in multiple states, has worked in various academic roles in higher education and has even taught teachers around the globe as the international education director for Healing Hands International.

“I believe teaching is one of the most noble professions one can enter. To shape and mold the life of a child is the greatest gift one can experience,” said Solley, “And when I discovered that I could impact teachers who would then impact hundreds of children, my passion for teaching increased.”

Solley had been teaching teachers in Texas, at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, at Lipscomb and through Healing Hands since 1986. Then in 2015, she began supporting the educational needs of children in a new way—through her own nonprofit foundation.

The Bobbie Solley Foundation provides school supplies for Honduran students and educational training for families. It supports literacy programs in the schools of Peru, job

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skills programs in Nairobi, Kenya, and other educational programs.

In 2023, the Solley foundation contributed to the Lipscomb Christian Educator Program, a pipeline initiative to fill teacher shortages and preparation gaps in K-12 Christian schools.

“I wanted to be able to support a program that trains teachers in the biblical worldview and how they can draw on that worldview in the classroom,” said Solley. “That’s why I wanted to give to this particular program.”

The grant from the foundation allowed Lipscomb to designate Suze Gilbert, associate professor of education, as the program director and to oversee developing a curriculum.

Through this program, aspiring teachers are recruited from Middle Tennessee’s Christian schools to receive training leading to licensure and then return to the recruiting school to teach. Recruited teacher candidates receive a 50% tuition discount on the graduate-level courses.

In addition, interested undergraduate education majors can earn a Christian Educator Program designation through extra

class experiences, faith-based professional development, a mentor relationship with a Christian school educator and guaranteed placement in at least one Christian school for a practicum experience.

Solley, a former adjunct professor at Lipscomb, certainly saw the potential for Lipscomb to impact generations of the future.

“My goal from the very beginning has been to help teachers understand a more effective way to teach children to read,” said Solley. “I want children to read for many reasons, but my main reason is so they can come to know the Bible and understand what Jesus calls them to be.

“With reading comes understanding, and with understanding comes change.”

Read more about the Bobbie Solley at lipscomb.edu/solley.

BISON NOTES

Celebrating our shared past, looking to the future

Stay connected!

As we transition from the crisp chill of winter to the warmth of spring, I find myself reminiscing about one of my favorite places on campus— Bison Square. A certain magic envelops the square, especially on the first warm day after winter. Picture students lounging by the fountain, studying on blankets and hammocks, enjoying the swings, or savoring the flavor of food off the grill in front of Bennett Campus Center. The square, with its stories echoing through the breeze, encapsulates the essence of Lipscomb University.

In November, I had the privilege of attending Bisons Weekend and the 50th reunion for the Class of 1973, and it was a journey down memory lane. What struck me most was how the memories and stories from the 50th reunion class members still resonate today. The echoes of cheering at basketball games, the spirited Singarama performances and even the humorous anecdotes about campus security—these shared experiences weave a unique narrative that connects generations of Bisons.

Bisons Weekend welcomed over 1,500 alums back to campus and created an atmosphere filled with laughter, camaraderie and a sense of belonging. It was a testament to the enduring spirit of Lipscomb, where friendships formed decades ago continue to thrive.

The excitement during the recent fall events was palpable, showcasing the vibrant life on campus. It’s heartening to witness the rich tapestry of activities that define our alma mater and provide new memories for current students while preserving the traditions that have stood the test of time.

For those who haven’t attended Bisons Weekend in recent years, I wholeheartedly encourage you to mark your calendars for Nov. 8-9, 2024 and attend next year. The experience is a reunion of not just classmates but of memories, stories and the unique bonds that make Lipscomb University a second home.

As we celebrate our shared past and look forward to the future, let’s cherish the timeless moments that make Lipscomb more than just a university but a community that stays with us throughout our lives.

Bisons For Life,

Stephanie Carroll

Assistant Vice President for Annual Giving, Alumni and Parent Engagement LipscombAlumni

Reach out to the Herd

Lifelong Learning

You can reach out to and get involved with your fellow Bisons by contacting our office at alumni@lipscomb.edu.

Broaden your mind and your relationships through this non-credit academic program.

lipscomb.edu/lifelonglearning

Send us your Bison Notes through email at classnotes@lipscomb.edu or submit them online at lipscomb.edu/classnotes.

lipscomb.edu/alumni

LipscombAlumni

Alumni & Parent Engagement • 615.966.6212 • One University Park Drive, Nashville, TN 37204 lipscomb.edu/now

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BISON NOTES

Pat Martin, Ruth Steele Park named 2023 top alumni

Class Notes

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

Submitted Bison Notes are edited for length, clarity, cultural sensitivity, or for any reason at the discretion of the editors of Lipscomb Now. Images that do not meet the quality standards necessary for printing cannot be included.

Degree abbreviations follow standard academic abbreviations except for: (LA), alumni of Lipscomb Academy; (GC), alumni who have completed a graduate certificate; and (A), for non-degreed alumni or those whose degree is unknown.

1963 Linda Heflin Johnston (BS) of Brentwood is a real estate broker with Pilkerton Realtors.

1978 Deborah Shields Clifford (BA) of Barbecue and bridges are the specialties of 2023’s Lipscomb University Alumni of the Year.

Alumnus of the Year Pat Martin (BS ’96),

(pictured left), Nashville restaurateur, and Young Alumna of the Year Ruth Steele Park (BS ’18), (pictured right), a bridge engineer at Gresham Smith, were honored at a special luncheon during Bisons Weekend Nov. 10-11.

“The Alumni Awards are the highest honor conferred upon our alumni and recognize the inspiring ways Lipscomb alumni are making an impact in the world,” said Stephanie Carroll, assistant vice president of alumni and parent engagement at Lipscomb. “Pat and Ruth are outstanding examples of alumni who are making an impact, and it is an honor to recognize them in this way.”

Business graduate Martin, the founder of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, Hugh-Baby’s BBQ & Burger Shop and SweetMilk, was awarded as “one singularly successful individual who… epitomizes the potential of a Lipscomb education and thereby brings credit and honor to the university.” A leader in the industry, Martin has been featured in Southern Living, Bon Appétit and on the Food Channel.

Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint began as a 950-square-foot restaurant in Nolensville, Tennessee; today there are seven locations across Middle Tennessee with outposts in Birmingham, Alabama; Louisville, Kentucky; and Charleston, South Carolina.

Building upon the success of Martin’s BarB-Que Joint, Martin opened Hugh-Baby’s BBQ & Burger Shop in 2017 as a tribute to the small town barbecue and burger spots that dotted the

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mid-South of his youth. This fall he announced a new restaurant venture called SweetMilk, which will serve up a traditional Southern, madefrom-scratch breakfast and lunch every day. In 2022, Martin released his first book, Life of Fire: Mastering the Arts of Pit-Cooked Barbecue, The Grill, and The Smokehouse.

Martin lives in Nashville with his wife,

Murfreesboro is director of the St. Clair Senior Singers at the St. Clair Senior Center.

Beth Harwell (BA) of

1980

Dr. Lori Lee Barr (BA) of Austin, Texas, is a pediatric radiologist with Radiology Associates of Florida P.A.

Nashville was named a member of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association fourth class of Hall of Fame inductees. Harwell was Tennessee’s first female Speaker of the House.

Martha Ann (LA ’90, BS ’02) and their three

children: Wyatt, Daisy and Walker.

Park, a civil engineering graduate, has used her engineering expertise in bridge design, repair, load rating and inspection on projects including the design of the new LeConte Event Center pedestrian bridge in Pigeon Forge and repair and widening of Mount Juliet Road over Interstate 40.

Young alumni selected for this honor are recognized for their demonstrated leadership capability, a commitment to service of others and commitment to the mission of Lipscomb University.

While a Lipscomb student, Park participated in several project designs and mission trips to enhance challenged communities through engineering projects, including a water distribution system in rural Guatemala and a handicap accessible playground and outdoor therapy center in Trujillo, Honduras.

After graduation, Park continued to volunteer her time and expertise through Lipscomb’s Peugeot Center for Engineering Service in Developing Communities where she led assessment and construction trips to El Guano, Honduras, to build a pedestrian bridge from September 2021 through May 2023.

1981 David Tudor (BS) of Springfield, Missouri, is

CEO and general manager of Associated Electric Cooperative.

1982 Rex Templeton (BS) of Chattanooga won

the Chattanooga District Senior Olympics in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in the 65-69 age division. He qualifies to represent the Chattanooga district in the 2024 Tennessee State Senior Olympics in Nashville.

1984 John Pugh (BS) of Pegram is executive director of Legacy Village of Hendersonville.

1985 Lisa Condra Davies (BS) of Nashville is a

program director and assistant professor of school counseling in the Lipscomb University College of Education.

1988

LaGary Carter (BS) of

Valdosta, Georgia, was named dean of Troy University’s College of Health and Human Services.

Jamie Shelton (BS) of Jacksonville, Florida, was appointed to the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation Board of Governors by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

1990 Ted Burleson (BA, MDiv ’00 ) of Medon is a

professor at Amridge University in Montgomery, Alabama.

WE ARE LIPSCOMB

YOUR FELLOW ALUMNI

DISNEY LAUNCHES ALUMNUS’ FILM CAREER TO NEW HEIGHTS For Spencer Glover (MFA ’17), one stray conversation at a Nashville hibachi grill has led him to “The Happiest Place on Earth.”

The Filipino and African-American filmmaker who operates his own filmmaking company, RM108, in Los Angeles, is one of six directors whose work in the Disney Launchpad: Shorts Incubator program premiered on the Disney+ platform in September.

His film, Black Belts, tells the story of KJ, an offbeat middle schooler and martial arts movie nerd from Compton. One can draw a straight line from his Disney film premiere back to that night in Nashville when he was a master’s of fine arts student in Lipscomb’s nascent cinematography program.

Glover told the group about an African American hibachi chef he came across in Atlanta. His professor encouraged him to develop the story. Glover ended up filming a six-minute proof of concept trailer

for a martial arts spectacle called The Konichiwa Kid for his thesis project. He screened his completed trailer for enthusiastic Nashville audiences at the 2017 International Black Film Festival in Nashville.

“That project really set me up for Disney Launchpad,” Glover said of Konichiwa Kid. “I believe that once they saw that film, they said, ‘This guy is perfect for Black Belts.’”

“Working on Black Belts reminded me that anything is possible if you keep determined and resilient,” said Glover. “The budgets were definitely bigger; the crew was bigger, but the small pieces and the core components of filmmaking are the same at any level."

Read more about Glover at at lipscomb.edu/glover.

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BISON NOTES

Alumni gymnastics rock stars gathered during 2023

Michelle Adcock Moore (BS) of Gulf Shores, Alabama, is a development risk analyst for Regions Bank.

1991 David French (BA) of Franklin is a

distinguished visiting professor of public policy for the College of Leadership & Public Service at Lipscomb University.

1993 Tracy Byers (BS) of Ripley is chief executive officer of Lauderdale Community Hospital.

2005 Kristen Chambers (BS) of Jackson has

been named Southwest director of donor development and Women United director at United Way of West Tennessee.

2010 David Marmolejo III (BA) of Nashville is

president and director of coaching for Tennessee Christian Soccer Academy.

2011 Joshua Harper (BA) of Dunmore,

Pennsylvania, is an assistant professor in the Division of Performing Arts, College of Arts and Sciences at Wilkes University.

1995 Steven Hayes (BA) of Nashville is a high school teacher at Goodpasture Christian School.

1996 Brad Frasier (BS) of Murfreesboro is head

coach of baseball at Blackman High School.

Travis Steed (BS) of Brandon, Florida, is vice

president of architecture for Long & Associates Architect/Engineers Inc.

2002

Around 40 alumni from Lipscomb’s nationally acclaimed gymnastics team of the 1960s to 1980s met on campus this past July for a reunion to mark 40+ years since the retirement of gymnastics coach, the late Tom Hanvey (A ’42), and the end of the program.

During its existence, the team won an NAIA national title in 1979, compiled an 80-16 record and developed twelve All-Americans. That’s not to mention what most alumni remember the team for: the exhibitions during half-time at basketball games in McQuiddy Gym, described as “15 minutes of pure adrenaline” by Drew Davis (BA ’81), of Atlanta, the primary organizer of the reunion.

“The half-time show was the most fun for us, because we were showing off for our friends and you weren’t being judged for every little thing. We were rock stars, in our own minds,” he chuckled.

The attendees stayed in High Rise Residence Hall (the team members’ home during their college careers), were able to share memories of Coach Hanvey with his wife Vivian (BS ’54) and his children and enjoyed a tour of campus by today’s Athletics Director Phillip Hutcheson (BA ’90). Among the attendees was Lipscomb Athletics Hall of Famer Robert Lyn Baker (LA ’62, BS ’65), who led the team to national prominence in the 1960s.

Learn more about the gymnastics reunion at lipscomb.edu/gymnastics.

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Brent Luther (BS) of Old Hickory is interim

executive principal at Hull Jackson Montessori Magnet.

2012 Sydney Ball (BBA, MBA ’14) of Nashville,

vice president of business development at NFP Executive Benefits, was honored as 2023 Woman of Influence by the Nashville Business Journal.

David Sciortino (BS,

MBA ’03) of Brentwood is vice president of Scott Insurance and was elected to the company’s board of directors in September.

Adam Woolard (MBA) of Nashville is a

private client banker for First National Bank of Middle Tennessee.

2013

April Britt (MBA) of

Brynn Plummer (MEd)

Franklin, co-founder, executive vice president and chief experience officer, at Studio Bank, was honored as 2023 Woman of Influence by the Nashville Business Journal.

2003 Jaz Boon (BS) of Nashville is general counsel for Bridgestone Americas Inc.

Dr. Brad Crosswhite (BA) of Shannon, Mississippi, is a family physician at North Mississippi Health Services in Tupelo.

Rachel McCumsey Hammers (BA) of

Old Hickory is a nurse practitioner for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Libby Lewis Mirghavami (BS) of Mount

Juliet is manager of program and project management for Encova Insurance.

Andrea Ford Walls (BS) of Muscle Shoals,

Alabama, is a travel agent with Share the Magic Travel.

2004 Ben Holton (BS) of Murfreesboro is deputy

of advanced programs at Arnold Engineering Development Center.

Darrius Summers (BS) of New Orleans,

Louisiana, is an account executive with Telefund.

of Nashville was recognized as part of the Nashville Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Awards. She is vice president and director of diversity, equity and inclusion for AllianceBernstein.

2014 Austin Bever (BS) of Nashville and his

“Austin & Colin” comedy/music duo partner Colin Cooper signed a deal with BMG/BBR Music Group.

Janelle Brooks (MEd, GC, ’15) of Portland is

principal at Warner Elementary School.

Minh Nghiem (BS) of Tempe, Arizona, was

BISON WINS College of Business alumnus Luke Benda (BBA ’17) was honored in October with the Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s NEXT Award for 2023 Emerging Entrepreneur. Together with Braden Davidson (BS ’16, MM ’17), he founded a tech start-up called Healing Innovations Inc., which also won the Nashville Technology Council’s Tech Startup of the Year Award in 2021.

Read more about Benda and Davidson at lipscomb.edu/next2023.

WE ARE LIPSCOMB YOUR FELLOW ALUMNI

ALUMNUS IS STILL LIKE A KID IN A MUSIC CANDY STORE Lipscomb alumnus Fount Lynch (BS ’03) has had a whirwind year, even for a guy who spends his days promoting the careers of country artists such as Kenney Chesney, Cole Swindell, Dan + Shay and Ashley McBryde.

In 2022, his first year on the job as Warner Music Nashville’s senior vice president of publicity, Lynch and his staff led a campaign to promote Swindell’s super hit “She Had Me at Heads Carolina;” coordinated publicity for Cody Johnson, who won his first CMA Award for Music Video of the Year and Single of the Year; promoted artist McBryde, who won a Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance in February; and coordinated publicity for the release of Dan + Shay’s fifth album, Bigger Houses.

Not bad for a guy who grew up on a farm in Fosterville, Tennessee, in Rutherford County, and says he can’t sing or play an instrument. But he does have a passion for discovering, listening to and talking about music.

Even in his childhood, “I consumed music at a rate that most people don’t,” said Lynch, describing how his Mom would send him off to Turtles

Music in Murfreesboro for him to buy cassette tapes. “She saw that my candy store was the music store,” he said.

Lynch studied marketing at Lipscomb, and made contacts and grabbed opportunities that led to his successful career in music publicity.

“You know, in college I listened to Kenny Chesney just like everyone else, and now I’m getting to work with the guy!” he said.

Many times Lynch was listening to those music stars along with his friends in Sigma Iota Delta (SID), whom he still counts as his dear friends to this day.

“Those guys were my support group, and hopefully I was theirs,” he says of his clubmates, with whom he still plays golf and fantasy football.

“We know that when something bad happens, at least one of us is going to be there. I don’t think you get that anywhere else. I think that is something Lipscomb really promotes: relationships.”

Read more about Lynch at lipscomb.edu/lynch.

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BISON NOTES

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

100 years of student journalism marked in November

one of three recipients of the 2023 Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award at Mesa Community College.

2015 Schanda Doughty (EdD) of Clarksville has been

selected as the chief academic officer for ClarksvilleMontgomery County School System.

Jacquline Fullwood (BFA, MS ’20) of Nashville is a

mental health therapist with Omni Community Health in Goodlettsville.

2017 David Spaulding (BBA) of Franklin is an analyst with HCA Healthcare.

2018 Savannah Summers Breedlove (BA) of Nashville is an associate editor with HarperCollins Christian Publishing.

Lauren Mayberry (GC) of Gallatin is principal of

J.W. Wiseman Elementary School.

2019 Mason Borneman (BS) of Nashville is a student at the University of Mississippi School of Law and will join Holland and Knight LLP in the Nashville office as a health care regulatory and compliance associate upon graduating in May 2024 and passing the Tennessee Bar.

Rev. Veronica Dailey (MDIV) of Springfield works at Transitional Peace.

Priscilla “Margo” Kaestner (MBA) of Bellevue and

David Lombardi married in May 2023.

Past Babbler editors (l to r) Joy-Lyn (Bagley) Trotti (BA ’75), editor-in-chief, 1974-75; Stan Chunn (BS ’77), co-features editor, 1975-76; Sherrie (Brown) Montgomery (BS ’77), co-features editor, 1975-76; Charlotte (Walker) McCune (BA ’76), associate editor, 1975-76; and Larry Bumgardner (BA ’77), editor-in-chief, 1975-77.

At Bisons Weekend in November, a group of student journalists dating back to the 1950s gathered to share memories, get updated and learn how Lipscomb student journalism works today at the 100 Years of Student Journalism Celebration held by the School of Communication.

More than 40 alumni student editors gathered for an informal open-mic discussion; a viewing of The Grand Ole Guitar, a student-produced documentary that won an Edward R. Murrow Award in 2023; a tour of the university’s student news facilities; and a reunion breakfast in Beaman Library.

Alumni shared stories from the serious to the humorous, as they reflected on student life and studies while publishing a regular newspaper and annual yearbook. Pulling all-nighters, or nearly so, was a common theme heard from the student journalists no matter what decade they represented.

Babbler editors from the 1970s were known to have stashed sleeping bags in their offices and evaded the night 44

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watchman’s probing flashlight to meet morning print deadlines, while McKenzi Harris Tope (BA ’21), 2019-2021 editorin-chief of the Lumination Network, also remembers late nights covering the annual Dove Awards on campus.

Textual pranks have also been common over the years, according to alums. Craig Bledsoe (BA ’75), former long-time Lipscomb provost and opinion writer in the 1970s, used to submit his editorials under pseudonyms, including B.M. Ocspil (“Lipscomb” spelled backwards).

Linda Meador (LA ’61, BA ’65), 1964 Backlog editor, said her own self-imposed pressure to continue Lipscomb’s streak of nationally award-winning yearbooks was strong. So strong, in fact, that she resorted to fun, creative ways to overcome the printing limitations of the era by including mock student photos with names such as “Harold O. Truth.”

Read more about student journalists through the years at lipscomb.edu/100journalism.

Madeline Welch (BS) of Waco,

Texas, is an account manager with Anthony Travel for Baylor University Athletics, and received Baylor’s “One Standard, One Accord Award.”

2020 Zach Flener (BA) of Alvaton, Kentucky, has been assistant coach with the Michigan Technological University Huskies.

2022 Dr. Jennifer Calvert (EdD) of Franklin is principal of Nolensville High School.

2023 Shawna Mann (BA) of Nashville, communications

coordinator at the Frist Art Museum, was recognized along with a team of other Lipscomb students as recipients of an Edward R. Murrow Award by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the team’s self-produced documentary The Grand Ole Guitar.

Send us your notes!

Please send news of weddings, births, deaths; new jobs and promotions; academic 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

Photo credit: Addy Holmes

LIPSCOMB BISON HEADS FOR ADVENTURE ON THE HIGH SEAS

WE ARE LIPSCOMB

CONTRIBUTOR TO THE COMMUNITY

As residence hall director of Johnson, Asa Bailey (MHA ’23), usually spends her semester guiding and caring for students as they live out their college adventure. In fall 2023, however, Bailey had a whole new college adventure, as a residence hall director for Semester at Sea (SaS), traveling on the MV World Odyssey from Antwerp, Belgium, to Bangkok, Thailand, over the course of 56 days.

Semester at Sea is a study-abroad program founded in 1963 and managed by the Institute for Shipboard Education (ISE) through current academic sponsor Colorado State University. Throughout the years, nearly 73,000 undergraduate students from over 1,500 colleges and universities have participated in Semester at Sea. Bailey, associate director of residential life, is believed to be the first Lipscomb Bison to join a SaS voyage. She served 550 students as one of six residence hall directors and a co-teacher for a seminar for first-year college students on the ship.

Faculty and staff, as well as many of the students, hail from locales all over the world, said Bailey, a Houston native who has worked at Lipscomb for more than three years.

Working with Lipscomb’s Campus Assessment Response and Evaluation Team (CARE) to address the needs of students who need extra support or are suffering a personal crisis, Bailey uses her bachelor’s degree in psychology every day, she said. These experiences have made her attuned to students’ well-being and comfortable and calm in a crisis.

Her flexibility and adaptability came in handy on a floating university impacted by potential weather, mechanical problems, limited space and resources, and maritime legal issues, she said.

Read more about Bailey at at lipscomb.edu/bailey.

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BISON NOTES

Bisons Weekend brings alumni home to campus Bisons Weekend is highlighted each year by the addition of a new class to alumni’s Golden Circle, those who graduated 50 years or more ago. This past November the new Golden Circle class was 1973, the year Lipscomb seniors saw Tennessee Gov. Winfield Dunn speak on campus, a production of 1776 and snowball fights in January.

Fifty years later in 2023, alumni showed up at Bisons Weekend to enjoy a 50th reunion dinner and a Golden Circle lunch; a 40th anniversary celebration of the Swang Center, which now houses the College of Business; a luncheon hosted by the Provost for retired faculty; and a celebration of 100 continuous years of student journalism (see page 44).

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A special chapel service, featuring alumnus, current parent and faculty Mike Nawrocki (MFA ’19), was held to stir fond memories, and the Lipscomb Black Alumni Council held a reception for alumni from 1963 to 2023.

Lipscomb Athletics inducted four studentathletes into the Athletics Hall of Fame: Ryan Chastain (BS ’10), cross Country/track and field; Adnan Hodzic (BA ’11), men’s basketball; Whitney (Kiihnl) Hickman (BS ’12), softball; and Greg Wilder (BA ’84), men’s golf. In addition, the first Athletics Trailblazer Award was presented honoring the late Bailey Heflin (BS ’64), former student-athlete and track coach.

See more Bisons Weekend photos at lipscomb.edu/bwphotos23.

(l tor) Greg Wilder, Ryan Chastain and Whitney (Kiihnl) Hickman

BISON NOTES

In Memoriam 1948 Billie A. “Louise” Tilley (BA) of

1964 Anthony Green Adcock (BS) of

1949 Alice Farrar Patterson (BA) of

Lois B. Amonette (BA) of Mount Pleasant died Oct. 15.

Adams died Sept. 11.

Bastrop, Texas, died Sept. 29.

1950 Barbara Nell Nance Etter (BS) of Franklin died Aug. 7.

Samuel Ray Frizzell (BA) of Gallatin died Sept. 11.

1951 Robert A. Allison Sr. (BA) of

Anderson, Indiana, died June 24.

Troy, Alabama, died Oct. 21.

Bailey George Heflin Jr. (BS) of Nashville died Aug. 16. Heflin played basketball and ran track from 1960-64, and coached track and was an assistant coach for basketball from 1965-69.

1967 James Robert Billington (BS) of Las Vegas, Nevada, died Sept. 28.

Maxine Luther Bivins (BS) of Brentwood died Nov. 8.

1968 Clifford H. Bates (BA) of New

1954 Mary Helen Law Everidge (BS) of

Castle, Delaware, died July 18.

Plant City, Florida, died Aug. 3.

1955

Paducah, Kentucky, died Aug. 21. She is survived by son Dr. Eric Grogan (BS ’95) and his wife Melanie (Martin) Grogan (LA ’92, MACM ’21), director of spiritual formation at Lipscomb Academy; and her daughter Julie (Grogan) Moultrie (BS ’97) and her husband Jon Moultrie (BS ’96); and four grandchildren who are Lipscomb students and graduates.

G. Robert “Bob” Owens (BA) of

Johnson City died May 25, 2019. The notable northeast Tennessee community leader was honored in May 2022 by the Johnson City Chamber of Commerce with the launch of of the Bob Owens Community Leadership Fund. The fund supports programs and scholarships focusing on community leadership, advocacy and empowerment.

1956 Gary Colson (BS) of Santa Barbara, California, died Nov. 3.

William Baars Phillips (BA) of Malibu, California, died Sept. 1.

Robert “Bob” Kimberlin (BA) of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, died Oct. 15.

1969 Joe Cooke Van Dyke Jr. (BA) of Lexington died Nov. 4.

1970

Kenneth Paul Gossett (BA) of

1958 Delores Jones Coleman (BS) of Nashville died Nov. 10.

1959 L. Duane Tennant (BS) of Batavia,

Carolyn Colley Grogan (BS) of

Norris died Aug. 29.

Robert Martin McKay III (BA) of

Ohio, died July 7.

Columbia died Sept. 29.

1960 Eben Gilbert Jr. (BA) of

1972 Phil Bowers (BS) of Lilburn,

McMinnville died Aug. 17.

James Bryant Hagewood (BA) of

Georgia, died Oct. 22.

Upton, Kentucky, died Oct. 5.

Frank Edmond Outhier (BS) of

Nashville died Sept. 15.

Bradley Peters (BA) of Erving, Massachusetts, died June 20.

1962 Thomas H. Meadows (BA) of

Louisville, Kentucky, died Oct. 27.

Billie Ruth Bilyeu Hill (BA) of Cookeville died Nov. 9.

Walter Howard Pruitt (BA) of Smyrna died Sept. 28.

1976 Steven Barclay Riley (BS) of

Bowling Green, Kentucky, died Aug. 1.

1980 Deborah Cookston Hunter (BA) of Whitwell died July 23.

1963 Warren Mack Lallathin (BA) of

1982 Danny Ray Knight (BS) of Ashland

Barbara Joan Phelps Morton (BS) of Wartrace died June 4.

1995 Amy Lynn Williams (BA) of

Plain City, Ohio, died Sept. 28.

City died Oct. 23.

Franklin died July 21.

2018 Paizley LeeAnn Wilburn (BS) of Nashville died Oct. 13.

Leave a legacy at Lipscomb through your estate.

Bequests Retirement Assets Life Insurance Charitable Gift Annuities By unleashing the power of estate planning, you can find financial peace of mind for you and your family while also leaving a legacy that supports students who dream of achieving a Lipscomb degree.

Learn more about different gift-planning options available that benefit scholarships such as the Lipscomb Opportunity Scholarship Fund, an investment that provides immediate assistance to those who need extra financial aid to help clear the path for their Lipscomb education.

lipscomb.edu/planmyestate Paul Stovall Senior Director of Gift Planning Center for Estate & Gift Planning 615.966.5251 paul.stovall@lipscomb.edu

Scan code to request a free estate planning guide!

A Bisons Weekend like never before November brought a Bisons Weekend with more exciting opportunities to be a part of the Lipscomb community than ever before.

From a revamped parade style featuring golf carts in Bison Square to lectures by national leaders (page 2), from Jammin’ in the library featuring the Lipscomb faculty band Low Expectations and music student ensembles to a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Dolly Parton’s iconic outfits (page 14), the 2023 Bisons Weekend offered new experiences for the 1,500 alumni, parents and families who descended on campus.

Other events included men’s and women’s basketball games, volleyball games, the fall musical Big Fish, the IDEAL annual

Savannah’s Boogie 5K run and Pancakes with the President.

The Bison Square Fair was a particularly fun event. Buttons themed for past social clubs, current programs, legacy parents and alumni groups were a hot ticket as visitors stopped by the booths of their favorite clubs, affinity groups, colleges and class reunions. Games, face painting, a barbecue lunch and music were on tap in the Square.

Contact the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement at alumni@lipscomb.edu and follow our office on Facebook and Instagram to learn about upcoming events and opportunities to engage.

Reflections from the President

Join the Crowd: Be a Bison fan.

Just what does it mean to be a “fan”?

More than a “member” or even a “supporter,” a fan brings a higher level of devotion and a more visible effort to go along with it.

That is easy to see in the story about Bison super-fans through the decades (page 28). Whether it’s driving long distances to away games, devoting hours to developing themes, chants, songs and crowd activities, putting together creative costumes or working behind the scenes to develop a student organization, fans go the extra mile to show their pride and support.

My own mother, Brenda (Helfin) Hunter (BS ’66) was among those ladies who devoted many of their morning and evening hours during their college years to be a part of The Bisonettes, a marching corps that inspired the crowd and rocked the stands at basketball games in the mid-century.

One of my first goals upon arriving in the president’s office at Lipscomb University was to inspire more Lipscomb fans, and these are the kind of fans I envisioned: those willing to spend time, effort and definitely creativity to show their love for Lipscomb and inspire others to do the same.

The fans who shared their memories with our Lipscomb Now staff expressed time and again how their experience as a Bison fan created a community feeling, inspired pride among the student body, instilled a bold spirit and made students feel welcome and a part of a bigger, common goal.

We have big goals throughout the Lipscomb campus today, and it’s going to take true Lipscomb fans to make them happen.

Our vision is to lead as a top-tier, nationally recognized institution, and there were plenty of moments this past fall that fit within that vision. Thousands of visitors from 40 states and 10 nations descended on campus from October to December to see the “Dolly Parton and the Makers” exhibition featuring 27 of the country music singers' outfits (page 14). In December, two Bisons on the men’s soccer team were drafted among the top 10 first picks for Major League Soccer (page 9). Both these events spawned international news coverage, bringing Lipscomb’s name to more than a billion potential fans.

In the past semester we had students perform at the Dove Awards, the women’s cross country team finished 11th at the NCAA national championships (page 6), a professor who presented practicechanging research in cardiology to the world (page 5), students who won an Edward R. Murrow Award and faculty who stoked important conversation on Biblical history worldwide.

Our vision to lead on the national stage is anchored in our Christcentered mission, so I was excited that 2024 has brought the 20-year

BISONETTES: Left to Right: Front Row: LaJuana Burgess, Beverly Weldon, Harriette Haile, Jan Beeler, Becky Porter, Nane Carmen. Second Row: Sharon Carpenter, Annie Roberts, Julia Hutchison, Gwen Leehight, Glenda Faulkner, Gayle Bradford. Third Row: Bonnie Shields, Claudia Roland, Carolyn Conley Judy Brehm, Jan Alsup, Brenda Heflin. Fourth Row: E. Brown, D. Elrod, S. Hall, S. Santor, G. Henry, P. Stipps, E. Parnell. Fifth Row: M. Weills, G. Allen, J. Beane, J. Hyne, P. Saltzburg, M. Haas. Sixth Row: S. Hill, Q. Slapout, K. Brown, L. Chuckle, C. Blackwell, M. S. Bell. Seventh Row: B. Shepherd, D. Brown, L. Hester, C. Brame, N. Palmer, J. Harper. Eighth Row: G. Stuessy, J. L. Hedgecoth, J. Smith, B. Anthony, M. Thurman, L. Stuessy. Nineth Row: P. Birdwell, B. S. Chadwick, C. Bogel, P. Lents, B. Baker, M. Watkins.

Tenth Row: R. Beaver, B. Holland, J. Snell, K. Parnell.

anniversary of the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering’s first student mission team project (page 22).

Hundreds of students, through the Peugeot Center for Engineering Service in Developing Communities, have implemented almost 90 humanitarian engineering projects that have bettered the lives of tens of thousands of people around the globe. This college’s work has made Lipscomb a national leader in engineering missions that has been praised by two presidents and that partners with companies and organizations internationally.

I can certainly count myself among Lipscomb’s fans, and I hope you can too. There are so many ways you can go the extra mile to show pride and support for Lipscomb, working toward a common goal. One way is to come cheer on the Bisons as over a century of fans have! You can find schedules for all our athletic teams at lipscombsports.com.

There are many other ways you can be a fan such as mentoring students, advising faculty on curriculum, supporting your fellow alumni, serving the Lipscomb community and helping to prepare the next generation of Bisons. If you would like to be counted as a Lipscomb fan, contact alumni@lipscomb.edu and inquire about the many ways to show a higher level of devotion.

Blessings,

Dr. Candice McQueen (BS ’96) President, Lipscomb University

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