Alumni Awards

photos by James Cessna

Introducing the 2019 MTSU Alumni Award Winners

Distinguished Alumnus

by Skip Anderson

Photographer Jeremy Cowart (’99) focuses on philanthropic solutions

Internationally acclaimed photographer, activist, and humanitarian Jeremy Cowart has taken exactly one photography class in his life. And it didn’t go well—he scraped by, barely passing. He didn’t sweat it, though. An MTSU Graphic Design student at the time, he figured photography wouldn’t figure into his plans. Nobody knows better than Cowart that sometimes things don’t go as planned. “It wasn’t until I was working as a graphic designer many years later when I wanted to photograph some textures,” he said. “So I just jumped into photography and started doing it.”

That was the early 2000s, years before he would look through his lens to see President Barack Obama smiling back at him. Cowart’s portfolio is chock full of gorgeous portraits with an abstract grittiness of people you’d recognize—many of them “A-listers” who shape our American culture, and in some cases, our world.

But Cowart is no name-dropper. Surely he’d generate heavy traffic on his website if he tagged the people he’s photographed, including music icon Taylor Swift and the pope. But portraits on his website aren’t labeled; his work speaks for itself.

Despite worldwide success, Cowart’s photography career isn’t necessarily the reason that the MTSU Alumni Association named him 2019 Distinguished Alumnus. The Nashville native’s impactful work as an activist and humanitarian arguably made a stronger case for him.

Cowart has long been an energetic instigator of humanitarian causes, conceptualizing and launching dozens of initiatives designed to bring relief in the wake of disasters and other forms of economic challenges. His photos capturing human resiliency in the wake of catastrophes, including the 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires, were on exhibit recently at the University’s celebrated Baldwin Photographic Gallery, and Cowart also gave a lecture to launch the show.

Other projects are designed to provide sustained relief. In 2008, he established Help-Portrait, which encourages

hairstylists, makeup artists, and photographers to reach out to people in need from their communities, photograph them, and deliver a print free of charge. The annual worldwide event brings attention to the dignity of people experiencing poverty while celebrating the humanity of traversing the economic spectrum.

Then, in 2012, Cowart birthed what’s perhaps his most ambitious idea to date: a global, for-profit hotel chain driven by a humanitarian mission.

“What if each room had a photo of a child from Compassion International, and every room would sponsor their needs?” Cowart asks at thepurposehotel.com. “What if the walls were covered with humanitarian art by local artists, and the TV only showed documentaries about social change? And what if the blankets were sewn by women in Africa so that they could earn an income, and the soaps came from organizations like [Nashville-based] Thistle Farms, and the wi-fi upgrade fee fought human trafficking. And what if you could purchase anything you loved from the hotel in the lobby’s gift shop to give back even more?”

The first Purpose Hotel is slated to open in downtown Nashville in 2023.

Cowart remembers one member of MTSU’s faculty in particular as having a guiding hand in his career development: Barry Buxkamper. “Barry was an amazing graphics design teacher,” Cowart said. “We’ve loosely kept in touch over the years.”

Buxkamper also served as Cowart’s mentor. “Jeremy worked diligently to find the [career] ‘sweet spot’ that would best allow him to be the creative professional he was meant to be,” Buxkamper said. “I’m extremely happy for and very proud of Jeremy because he ultimately found that sweet spot on his own terms.”

Cowart met his wife Shannon at MTSU his sophomore year. They live in the Cool Springs area and have four children ages 7 to 13—two adopted from Haiti. “Adoption was something Shannon and I had talked about since MTSU,” he said. “It’s something we were called to do. It just took us a while to be able to do that.”

Jeremy Cowart is an in-demand public speaker and has authored several books, including I'm Possible: Jumping into Fear and Discovering a Life of Purpose (2019). jeremycowart.com.

Young Alumnus This year’s Young Alumni Achievement Award, given to a graduate age 35 or younger making a positive impact in the world, went to Aaron Shew (’11), a Murfreesboro native now working at Arkansas State University, who has spent more than a decade working in international development and agribusiness.

At MTSU, Shew studied abroad in Morocco, India, and Turkey; received a grant for undergraduate research at the MTSU farm; and served as vice president of the Plant and Soil Science Club. After graduating summa cum laude with degrees in International Relations and in Global Studies and a minor in Agriculture, Shew worked with a nonprofit organization in Afghanistan and Iraq to establish soybean-milling operations, creating agribusiness opportunities and improvements in regional food security. Shew completed master’s degrees in Geography and Agricultural Economics and ultimately a doctorate in Environmental Dynamics from the University of Arkansas. He has authored more than 10 peerreviewed scientific articles and presented results at more than 20 international conferences.

Last January, Shew was appointed the inaugural R.E.L. Wilson Chair of Agricultural Economics at Arkansas State University, where he is launching a new master’s of Agricultural Business focused on training the next generation of agribusiness production and food marketing experts.

Alumni of Distinction For the sixth consecutive year, True Blue Citations of Distinction were awarded in 2019. Categories and honorees were:

Achievement in Education (MTSU faculty)—Carroll Van West (’77), who is director of MTSU’s Center for Historic Preservation, the Tennessee state historian since 2013, an MTSU history professor, and the author of numerous books.

West’s role at the Center for Historic Preservation, where he has worked since 1985, brings the responsibilities of directing the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, serving as editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, and working as director of the center’s Teaching with Primary Sources Across Tennessee (a Library of Congress program). West teaches courses at MTSU in historic preservation, American architectural history, American material culture studies, and state and local history.

He has directed more than 100 master’s degree theses and 30 doctoral dissertations of MTSU graduate students, who work at universities, agencies, and history organizations nationwide. West’s preservation focus is on properties associated with the Civil Rights Movement, the Civil War, rural areas, marginalized communities, and the Southern music industry. His most recent National Register nominations include RCA Studio A in Nashville, FAME Studio (co-authored) in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the King Studios (co-authored) in Cincinnati.

Achievement in Education (non-MTSU)—G. Edward Hughes (’73) of Union, Kentucky, who retired in 2015 after 42 years as a higher education teacher and administrator in Tennessee, Illinois, Arkansas, New York, and Kentucky.

Hughes served as the second president of Hazard Community College and the first president of Hazard Community and Technical College from 1985 to 2001. He was the founding president/CEO of Gateway Community and Technical College during 2001–15. While at Hazard, the college grew from one building and 600 students to a multi-campus institution with more than 5,000 students. Hughes led the regional effort to develop the Challenger Learning Center of Kentucky, only one of 42 such worldwide centers located in a rural community.

At Gateway, he led the transformation of three former vocational schools into a fully accredited comprehensive community and technical college with three campuses in northern Kentucky. His vision and leadership included the development of the Boone campus and its nationally acclaimed Center for Advanced Manufacturing and the Urban Metro Campus. In retirement, Hughes formed The Hughes Group, focusing initially in the greater Cincinnati region, to help reduce the impact of poverty and to increase the flow of people out of poverty and into self-sufficiency.

Service to Community—Meagan Flippin (’07, ’08) of Murfreesboro, president and CEO of the United Way of Rutherford and Cannon Counties since 2013 and president of Rutherford CABLE.

Under her leadership, United Way has experienced record annual giving and the launch of an endowment campaign that exceeded initial goals by 500%. Flippin’s tenure has included the five largest gifts in the area United Way’s history and the launch of initiatives such as the Young Leaders Society, Catalyst, Mental Health Action Initiative, Legacy Society, Volunteer Connect, and the Afterschool Network, among others. She is the immediate past president for both the Junior League of Murfreesboro and MTSU’s Blue Raider Athletic Association (BRAA).

Flippin is also active within the Murfreesboro Noon Rotary, Charity Circle of Murfreesboro, and Murfreesboro Young Professionals, where she is a past president. She is on the United Way’s state association board of directors as resource development chair and sits on the Saint Thomas Health mission committee. She is a graduate of Leadership Rutherford, Leadership Middle Tennessee, and the Transit Citizen’s Leadership Academy. Flippin serves on the Alpha Delta Pi Foundation Philanthropy Committee and has earned the Certified Fundraising Executive credential. She also has received the Center for the Arts’ Change It! award, BRAA’s Most Valuable Person award, and Junior League of Murfreesboro’s Most Outstanding Member award.