2000 Edgehill, Winter 2021

The Magazine of Peabody Demonstration Sc hool & University Sc hool of Nashville Winter 2021

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UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE

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We’d love to hear from you about anything you read in this edition of 2000 Edgehill and whatever you have to say about your student days here. Help PDS/USN and classmates keep up with what is happening in your personal and professional lives by kindly sending a Class Note by June 1, 2021. n

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Social Media: Use #beyondEdgehill when sharing good news and PDS/USN memories.

Email: Send a Letter to the Editor at jtraughber@usn.org.

Class Notes should go to pwexler@usn.org with photos attached at the highest resolution available.

Mail: Write to Juanita I.C. Traughber Communications Director 2000 Edgehill Ave. Nashville, TN 37212

Find 2000 Edgehill online at usn.org/publications.

On the Cover Wearing a face shield while standing on May Plaza, Head of High School Quinton Walker, Ed.D., greets the Class of 2020 during a drive-thru Commencement on July 24, 2020.

Walker navigated personal and professional challenges of 2020 with graceful leadership and resiliency.

Just days after losing his home in the March 3 tornado, he successfully led the reimagining of USN in a pandemic and then efforts to enhance the school’s social justice curriculum and work around diversity, equity, and inclusion. That also included planning four versions of Commencement to prioritize safety and work around the city’s restrictions on gathering sizes while recognizing the work of our graduates.

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This edition of 2000 Edgehill was published in February 2021 by the Communications Office and Alumni & Development Office for the Peabody Demonstration School and University School of Nashville community.

Director Vincent W. Durnan Jr. Communications Director Juanita I.C. Traughber Development Director Anne Westfall Alumni Director Patti Wexler Archivist Jenny Winston Copy Editors Juliet Douglas Susan Pearlman Sierra Smith Lorie Strong Anne Westfall Photographers Kimberly Manz Juanita I.C. Traughber University School of Nashville does not discriminate on the basis of color, creed, gender identity and expression, handicap, national origin, race, sex, sexual orientation, or transgender status in the administration of its educational, admissions, and financial aid policies, faculty and staff recruitment and hiring policies, athletics, or other programs or activities administered by the school.

University School of Nashville models the best educational practices.

In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of greater Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.

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The Magazine of Peabody Demonstration Sc hool & University Sc hool of Nashville Winter 2021

2 0 0 0 reflections From the Director 5 Mystery Photos 6 from past to present Learning Through a Pandemic 8 Remaking School Traditions 14 Capturing History 32

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best educational practices Campus News 20 Working Towards Inclusivity 22 Renewing DEI Work 25 Understanding Identity 28

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beyond edgehill Class Notes & Alumni Spotlights 36 Weddings 48 Births 49 In Memoriam 50

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Around this walnut table in fall 1974, the late Betty and Bernard Werthan Jr. welcomed Peabody Demonstration School parents and planned the trajectory of what would become University School of Nashville. In summer 2020, the Werthan family bequeathed their dining room table to USN. It sits in the Director’s Office and remains a symbolic, functional, and essential roundtable for shaping the scope of the school.

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Here’s Our Version

“You

learn a lot about people when …” occurs to me regularly when reflecting on the past 12 months.

This issue of our magazine occupies a now-familiar genre for publications from schools — yet includes what others locally, nationally, or globally have not chosen to do. At each step along the way, we keep learning.

The pandemic, as we see incessantly, amplifies differences that already existed: regional, economic, racial, political, philosophical — all in combination, in ways that challenge efforts to form and preserve an inclusive consensus. Such has been our experience at USN. Sending this message out to your household helps open a window amid an uncommonly bubbled time, with those of us on the mitigated inside distinct from so many constituents watching from the outside. It’s just not our nature to be buttoned up.

Going back decades, people here never set out to follow the herd.

And right now, the question would actually be, “Which herd anyway?” Our part of the country responded less directly to COVID-19 guidelines (to put it mildly), then felt (and feels) the consequences of that stance as case numbers soared. We took our time in opening and sought public health directives from renowned research centers. Then by October we were all back in person, unlike scores of trusted peer schools across the country — despite our checkered record locally.

The numbers we tracked at 2000 Edgehill confirmed our path. As you’ve no doubt read elsewhere, schools have not proven to be transmission vectors for the virus. So we work our plan, we modify our protocols in light of the emerging understandings, and we recalculate our risk budgets

This plaque hangs on the west wall of the Director’s Office.

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in a way that listens to each individual experience while taking care of everyone.

And this all happens decision by decision, quite literally case by case. In the midst of the journey, heroes continue to emerge. I could not have understood back in July the importance of our staggeringly qualified Medical Advisory Board with its weekly consults, nor could any of us have predicted the difference that our rock-solid and impressively credentialed Health Team on campus would make. Teachers transform into academic contortionists on short notice to reach students with tools we barely could identify not long ago. Families find ways to make amended routines work, for the good of the whole. Students from the Blue, Yellow, Green, and Red Doors of kindergarten to the halls outside Janet Schneider’s College Counseling Office have in inspiringly large numbers thought far beyond themselves.

We hope these examples prove contagious, a buttress against COVID-19 fatigue and a bulwark against just doing what we remember used to be OK. Making a compelling argument for the right choices in the moment remains an ongoing challenge, but I wouldn’t trade our school community for any I’ve ever seen. The range of opinions expressed by USN households remains wider than at any time I can remember, but we still feel broad support on big priority issues — like taking care of faculty and reducing spread of the virus with the resources we need.

Our attention is riveted on what’s directly in front of us. In that effort, you would find tremendous urgency in our response to the overdue generational reckoning on race, so palpable since last summer. To be the school that we need to be, we need to be about that work, pandemic notwithstanding — actually especially so as stark societal inequities lay bare in this time of parallel crises.

Read in the stories to follow our version of school right now, to see us focusing on issues so fundamental that they might ironically have escaped attention at another time. In so many easily demonstrable ways USN could boast of being in the best position ever, yet that doesn’t seem right at this crossroads time in the wider world. Better that we continue learning a lot about people. nn Stay connected — keep sharing your stories too,

Vince Durnan, Director

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Mystery Photos Before the Christine Slayden Tibbott Center for the Visual Arts, much of the visual arts program at 2000 Edgehill took place in a temporary building on the far edge of school property off 19th Avenue South. We want to know about the lessons and camaraderie that took place inside and other fond memories of the visual arts program at PDS/USN. Did you help paint one of the school’s iconic murals with art teachers or visiting artists? Were you part of this class making papier-mâché volcanos or hats?

Sew or draw a quilt that hung in the Auditorium?

Send recollections to jtraughber@usn.org.

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Mystery Solved

When we picked the black-and-white photos for the Winter 2020 edition, we had no idea technology would become so essential for K-12 remote learning just days after we sent the magazine to press. Here is a look at the first computers at USN. “I remember going to Peabody campus with [High School Coordinator John] Mason’s class to use a computer lab. I remember my small lab group being equally confused leaving the lab at the completion of the lesson as we were at the beginning,” wrote Betsy Lukens Mikes ’82. “My sister, Rachel Lukens Barden ’80, and I think we recognize most students in the lower right photo and that it was taken during the 1979-1980 school year.” They recognized Barry Schulman ’81, Francie Goldner Niederman ’81, Jonathan Miller ’80, Kim Albridge ’81, Howard Masuoka ’81, Steve Ghertner ’82, Robert Aulsebrook ’81, and Rick Ewing ’83. “And although Kim looks ready to take over, it’s no surprise that Jonathan is at the keys; per the ’80 yearbook he was fluid in two computer languages,” she added.

Recognizing himself peering down at the work on the terminal, Rick thinks the photo is “from the 1980 Winterim computer class, the first of its kind at USN, which ended up launching my career in technology,” he wrote. “The line printer everyone is crouched over is a Digital

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Equipment Corporation line printer that was used to interact with a large timesharing or mainframe computer when you didn’t have a monitor screen. They were likely connected to the DEC-10 mainframe over on Vanderbilt’s campus, which ran all of school operations and was the primary teaching vehicle for the computer science and math departments back then.”

Jim Parker ‘81 placed the gathering around the terminal as an early meeting of the computer club “in the storeroom area of the science labs on the third floor in 1980,” which served as a makeshift computer lab, he wrote. Jim agreed about the terminal being connected to Vanderbilt University’s “mainframe by a modem at 300 baud” and identified many classmates mentioned above in addition to Jim Oates ’82.

laptop to school; USN provides sixth, seventh, and eighth graders with a MacBook for the academic year; and, fifth graders and Lower Schoolers take home school-owned iPads during remote learning.

During this time at USN, there were only two Apple II computers, which were located in the old chemistry closet between the chemistry and biology classrooms on the top floor, Rick recollected. Because of this, he believes the photo of students using a row of Apple computers in the Payne Library Room is from the mid-1980s or later. Today each High School student brings a

“I’m sure those big, bulky computers were pretty fancy for their time – but don’t compare to the speed and memory of our smartphones today,” wrote Laurie Straus Aronoff ’87 who identified herself in the bottom right of the Payne Library Room with Doc Robert Shuffett in the background and Nina Turner Harris ’87 on the typewriter. nn

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The Great Disruption: Learning Through a Pandemic

By Juanita I.C. Traughber, Communications Director

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verything changed, seemingly overnight. As weather warmed and blooms began to bud, the novel coronavirus — thought of as oceans away — crept to the United States of America and a period of hibernation began. The World Health Organization declared the new virus a pandemic, and normalcy became a longing of the past. Although there was no active case of COVID-19 in University School of Nashville’s community, the school cut to Spring Break a day earlier than planned and tagged on two in-service days. Instead of idle or restful days under the sun, school administrators and faculty spent the next 12 days planning how to reconfigure the day-to-day operations of a K-12 traditional school to fit the confines of a city-wide stay-at-home order.

On March 25, 2020, USN resumed classes from dining rooms, kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms, and backyards across Middle Tennessee. Concurrently, faculty and students mastered the art and etiquette of video conferencing, discerned terms like “social distancing” and “flatten the curve,” and learned how to create face coverings from fabric and properly wear them. Save for construction crews working outside and Vanderbilt University Police Department officers patrolling school grounds, USN sat empty for months.

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PDS/USN closes doors again, relies on medical experts The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the first time 2000 Edgehill shuttered its doors. Fall 1918 brought the influenza pandemic. The Nashville Banner and Nashville Tennessean reported in early October that as City Hospital reached capacity and began turning away the sick, the Davidson Co. Board of Education ordered all county schools closed, citing long distances physicians were required to travel between patients. Tennessee Board of Health Executive Officer Olin West issued a statewide request to close “places of amusement” and schools. Nashville Health Officer W. E. Hibbett gave instructions to education officials to close city schools the following day. Peabody Demonstration School Principal James S. Tibbitt obliged, and students cried.

“From all we have heard, the ‘flu’ is no jest,” students wrote in the October and November 1918 issues of The Peabody Volunteer, the PDS monthly literary magazine published by students, mentioning at least six students and two teachers who missed school for up to a month before the closure. “The Spanish Influenza, or the ‘Flu’ as it is called, has certainly taken more than its quota from the ranks of P. D. S., and we are anxious for the day when it will cease to go the rounds among the pupils and teachers and we shall no longer hear the groans of aching people and violent sneezes.”

Influenza spread slowed enough for schools to reopen by early November, according to the Influenza Pandemic Encyclopedia, produced by the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine and Michigan Publishing. Within days students were celebrating not only their return to Edgehill but also the end of World War I. “Peabody went wild,” wrote News Editor Mary Allen Tippett of the Class of 1920, “or at least as wild as dignified Peabody could.”

PDS football games went on, the new student-run cafeteria continued serving “from a large paste-board box mounted on two chairs,” and the Dem School unveiled new curriculum, including a beginning French class.

“There were many who were, as usual, sorry to come back, but there were perhaps even more who were glad to return because of the ban on amusements of every sort and their inability to do anything but stay at home and count the pictures on the wall,” Tippett continued recounting the monthly news. She noted in the magazine the spread of misinformation about influenza and even jokes among students that long absences from school made some classmates appear more attractive upon their return.

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Yet pandemics are no laughing matter. Nashville officials reported to the U.S. Public Health Service that the city experienced 40,000 influenza cases and 875 deaths related to the influenza pandemic between September 1918 and February 1919. In comparison, Nashville’s COVID-19 numbers between March 2020 and January 2021 eclipsed 74,900 cases and caused 731 deaths, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. The city has sat in Phase 3 of the Roadmap for Reopening for four months with public and private gatherings restricted to eight people and restaurants and retailers limited to 50% and 75% capacity, respectively.

Eighty-nine USN students, faculty, and staff tested positive for the virus between September 2020 and January 2021, with the overwhelming majority of transmission happening outside of USN walls. Other than children of health care professionals catching COVID-19 from their parents working on the front lines, many of the cases were preventable — traced back to social gatherings and travel & club sports teams. At some point during the five months since in-person classes resumed on Edgehill Avenue, more than 600 members of the USN community had close contact with someone with the virus. They quarantined, creating a revolving door of students and faculty in and out of remote learning and at times forcing entire grades and classrooms to transition home.

“I was interested in how things were going to be handled at USN, and it has been a huge learning experience in contact tracing and COVID testing,” said Margee Brennan, a parent of alumni and former obstetrician-gynecologist with the U.S. Air Force and in private practice. She began working in the USN Health Room in 2013 and assumed the role of Health Team Director in summer 2020 to lead the school’s increased on-campus medical presence in response to COVID-19. She and her team can spend up to 10 hours looking at seating charts, interviewing the people who test positive, and even walking around classrooms with measuring sticks to assess distances.

“We are able to fine-tune more than the health department would be able to. My goals are: one, to keep the community safe; and two, to keep kids learning in person if possible. Right now, masks and plastic dividers don’t have the research to show they decrease risk, but our experience is that they are working,” Brennan said.

“By taking a little caution and staying home when experiencing symptoms of any kind, you might save 20 or 30 students from being quarantined for 10 days in the event someone tests positive.

We all know in-person learning is so much more effective.”

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Naomi Asfaw ’30 washes her hands in a mobile sink on the May Plaza as Rose Doyle ’30 holds the door open for her friend. Everyone must wash or sanitize their hands before entering campus.

USN added additional staff, growing its on-campus medical team to include three medical doctors, two nurse practitioners, and two registered nurses working in shifts. Together they form the renamed Health Team and man the third-floor long standing Health Room to tend to minor injuries, non-infectious complaints, and dispense prescriptions as well as the newly formed Waiting Room — the USNA Office retooled — to serve as the hub for COVID-19 contact tracing, case management, and an area for those exhibiting symptoms to be evaluated and wait for rides home.

As part of a pilot program for public and private schools across the state, the Tennessee Department of Health has provided USN with BinaxNOW rapid COVID-19 tests, allowing the Health Team to confirm a likely positive case within minutes in the Waiting Room. The school also has worked with Vanderbilt University researchers on a pooled saliva study able to yield results within a few hours and with more than 100 faculty and staff and 120 High School students opting to participate. The Health Team is tracking cases and archiving data to illustrate that USN’s mitigating factors helped limit in-school transmission.

Brennan, Director Vince Durnan, and Division Heads began consulting in July with parents at the top of their fields of infectious disease, occupational medicine, and public health for advice as to the best approaches for in-person learning, given real-time

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data points of high virus transmission beyond the walls of USN. The volunteer task force, known as the Medical Advisory Board, meets weekly.

In July, before the decision to gradually return to the Edgehill Campus for in-person learning, Durnan had each USN family sign a Commitment to Community Health. In it they pledged to wear face coverings even when away from school, adhere to preventative hygiene measures, avoid nonessential travel, evade crowds, pursue vaccination, and complete daily wellness checks before coming to school.

Generosity abounds through hard times

As much as USN has strived to be connected with the Nashville community for years, such altruism did not cease with social distancing and quarantining. In the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, USN alumni sent home from college volunteered to watch the children of essential workers called to hospitals and grocery stores while schools and most child care facilities were closed. Band Director Joe Getsi coordinated a faculty donation of Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act stimulus checks to Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, raising some $10,000, enough to fund 43,160 meals to Middle Tennesseans in need.

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Hamilton Manz ’24 opens his front door to find a surprise delivery from USNA parents to commemorate his final year in USN Middle School.

Stefan Pretorius ’21 and Mia Pretorius ’19 create face shields. With family and friends, their goal was 3,500.

USN parent Susan Schoenecker and daughter Abigail ’22 model the personal protective equipment they’ve sewn.

Susan Schoenecker, 2018-2019 USNA President, made instructional videos and recruited several USN families to dust off their sewing machines to make thousands of pieces of fabric face coverings and scrub hats for health care workers.

“My sewing machine is getting a great workout. We have reintroduced ‘Home Economics’ to our daily routine. Immersed in uncertainty while participating in social distancing, I am grateful to bring out a skill passed on to me from my mother that I can share with my children,” said Schoenecker, parent of Abigail ’22 and Tyler ’20. “Necessitated by the draw on resources caused by COVID-19, there is a significant need [for personal protective equipment]. Amongst an army of friends and fellow hobbyists, we are doing our part by sewing mask covers.”

Kobie Pretorius, 2019-2020 USNA President, also gathered USN friends as well as several of Arts Department Co-Chair Jim Manning’s technical theater students to make 3,500 face shields.

Harper Martin ’26 volunteered to read to incoming USN kindergarteners during her free time to spread joy during the early COVID-19 days.

“It made me happy to know that I was making another little kid happy,” Harper said.

The High School Community Service Club asked faculty and students to record videos of themselves reading children’s books for students at Whitsitt Elementary School, a public school serv-

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE

Preston Chan ’29 works on math fluency with Gimkit in Third Grade Teacher Barbara Voehler’s class.

ing many students from immigrant homes. The Metro Nashville public school shared them on its Facebook page.

“We knew that COVID caused a feeling of lack of community, and we knew that parents would need things to do with their children, so we thought that would be a great way for us to further connect with the Whitsitt community since we could not tutor,” said Community Service Club President Lauren French ’21. “It was a fun and easy service for families.”

The club also cooked a meal for 50 people at Urban Housing Solutions and held a community-wide food drive and collecting 200 pounds of extra virgin olive oil, chicken broth, brown rice, and whole wheat penne pasta — the four items the Nashville Food Project listed as of the highest need. Although initially worried about club participation, she said the High School club has had some of its highest participation from classmates.

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At the close of the 2019-2020 school year, USNA parent volunteers made doorstep deliveries to eighth graders, faculty, and staff throughout Middle Tennessee — leaving boxes on porches and ringing bells before scurrying yards away and waving from a distance.

tops and dual teaching students in the classroom and at home.

“I think the biggest thing that I felt was the need to keep connected with the kids because it’s been super hard for everybody to maintain that community. We spend time before the lesson on how they feel Sam Hubbell ’28 tunes into class on Zoom in August from After School while her father Wilson Hubbell teaches High School physics and chemistry from his classroom. and checking in. That helps me see where At the start of the next academic year, USN was one of the few they are because it is hard to read the room when students are independent schools to remain in remote learning. Faculty and home,” said Fifth Grade English Teacher Lauren Gage. staff returned to campus, and After School supervised school-age children of employees so that they could be productive at work.

And the fifth grade shortened its day for remote learning from Thirty-two kindergarten through eighth graders came to work four classes to three to reduce screen time. Coaches and arts with their parents daily and conferenced into class from the Hasteachers have modified their lesson plans to create asynchrosenfeld Library and After School spaces. nous activities for the same reason. Faculty also have had to move from printed worksheets and assessments to Google Classroom and other technology-based tools. Gage uses Zoom breakout rooms to keep students in class and at home connectShaped by families’ feedback and faculty’s reflective analysis, ed socially and academically in their book clubs. the virtual experience resumed for a few weeks in August with learning and engagement aligned with developmentally ap“Wrapping our mind around other materials has been challengpropriate approaches, specific for each division. Summertime ing. A lot of that we have had to learn ourselves before we could adjustments to mitigate teach our students,” she the spread of COVID-19 said. “We’re all doing the and the gradual return to best we can and asking each 2000 Edgehill in Septemother for grace and underber 2020 came at steep standing and trying to make costs to morale and infrathe best of it. Students are structure. Students, lonely doing it and are so resilient.” and deprived of camaraderie, yearned to see their USN invested upwards of friends. Parents, over$1.2 million to upgrade whelmed with juggling suinternet bandwidth and pervision of their children cybersecurity, add technolat home while they tended ogy to support both remote to their professional obliand in-person learning, gations, were vocal in their stock protective equipment, frustrations with remote improve ventilation and air learning. Faculty, becompurification, and hire addiing like first-year teachers tional staff. Division Heads again, rewrote curriculum solicited young alumni to High School English Teacher Dana Mayfield sets up an iPad in her classroom to reach to fit learning through lapremote learners. return to campus to aid

Campus changes, grows bandwidth

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students learning remotely and new staff to proctor classes where teachers worked from home.

er through plexiglass shields is the norm in classrooms, the Sperling Cafeteria, and reception desks. Water fountains closed. Majority The Lower School moved of students bring lunch. to one-to-one iPads For the few hundred who for Grades K-4 so that order school lunches, brown students could have their bag sandwiches and boxed own devices to join class salads are delivered to classfrom home, in the event of rooms across campus for transitions back to remote students to eat on Edgehill learning. The Technology Lawn, Magnolia Lawn, Department purchased sidewalks and picnic tables Operations Director Erik Mash uses an electrostatic spray system to quickly disinfect push bars on doors and other high-touch surfaces.

Owl Labs for an immersive throughout campus now distance learning expericovered with white tents, ence for those in quarantine, increased internet bandwidth and Scarritt Field, land owned by the Board of Discipleship of to two separate 1 GB connections to allow for downloading, the United Methodist Church at the corner of Scarritt and 19th streaming, and uploading while on campus, and upgraded the that USN leased for $100 per quarter. firewall.

Throughout campus, classrooms have been rearranged to “This major infrastructure change gave us the ability to handle maximize f loor space and allow at least 3 feet of space between the increased internet traffic. Until that was complete, it was like desks and assigned seating. Everyone must continue wearmaking Edgehill Avenue a 16 lane road but creating a bottleneck ing face coverings, masks, or shields over the nose and mouth with everyone trying to get everyone to drive out of the parking while at school, and visitors are few. Across all three divisions, lot at the same time,” said Director of Technology Kathy “Wiz” administrators grouped students in cohorts to minimize the Wieczerza. “All of these updates in capacity and capability were range of interactions with peers. To preserve the communitymajor changes, especially for them to happen and go well while building aspect of weekly assemblies usually held in the Audischool was in session. Like Vince often says, it was like trying to torium, they are broadcasted to homerooms and advisories. change the tire on a car while it was still moving.”

Cocurricular activities also have taken on new shape, with The Operations Department installed new bipolar ionization dancers practicing outdoors and even performing their comair purification systems for 20 HVAC units across campus to pilation piece on the roof. Wind and brass instruments moved turn over indoor air at least eight times an hour. Maintenance band rehearsals into the 21st Avenue garage. And athletic staff added dozens of automatic and manual hand sanitizer stateams limited their schedules to play only schools mirroring USN safeguards and paring down practices to fewer students tions throughout campus and dozens of outdoor hand-washing over longer stretches of time and restricting spectators. stations. They even installed foot-operated door openers and toilet lids to reduce hand contact and aerosols in restrooms.

Students visit Hassenfeld Library — repurposed as faculty Beginning with the youngest students, the gradual return to work spaces for those usually in shared offices — by appointcampus began after Labor Day. Each week faculty welcomed an ment only. Print materials are quarantined for 72 hours before older grade level back to the Edgehill campus. Just days before returning to circulation.

Fall Break, the Class of 2021 arrived. Approximately 4% of families insisted upon long-term remote learning to accommodate medical issues that make someone in the home high risk The long-term impacts of the virus on K-12 education are yet for the virus or for other personal reasons. to be fully understood or seen, but school administrators have Some hallways are one-way with f loor tape and signs marking already seen benefits from the many transitions and transformathe route to navigate between classrooms. Peering at each othtions the pandemic required.

Lessons learned for better days

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Each classroom is fitted with plexiglass dividers, and students and faculty must wear face masks or coverings while inside the building.

Access to technology has largely improved for students, said Head of Lower School Amy Woodson.

“We use technology to communicate, create, or connect. Teachers’ capacity has grown. They are working a math problem on an iPad that is projected onto a TV in the classroom and also uploaded to Google Classroom for students to reference when they do homework,” Woodson said. “We’ve learned that there are ways to connect remotely, and we are going through the process of deciding which things should or could stay, like a parent education workshop on Zoom attracting 45 families instead of planning for a parent supper and never knowing how that is going to shake out.”

Lower Schoolers also have benefited from having more time outdoors, a belief LS has long held with its Young Naturalist Program, recess opportunities, and PE. With students eating outside too, they feel better because they are enjoying additional fresh air and free play with friends, she added.

Head of High School Quinton Walker said HS faculty have learned to be more adaptive in their teaching, the value of communicating early and often, and how their new schedule instituted two years ago is sustainable.

The virus dampened the usual celebrations capping the senior year. The High School Leadership Team, College Counseling Office, and Alumni & Development Office packed and delivered gift bags to seniors on Tuesday, May 19 filled with sweatshirts designed by Waverly Tibbott ’20, class mugs and keys from the Development Office, notes students wrote themselves during their freshman retreat in fall 2016, cards for seniors & their parents, and markers to decorate cars for their upcoming parade.

Remaking School Traditions

“We are better now at making our thinking visible for students: here’s what we’re doing, here is why, and here is what it leads to.

I hope we carry that lesson forward to be more intentional and vocal in our curricular choices,” Walker said. He’s also seen HS faculty push hard to experiment, refine, and “retool on the fly” to adjust to meet the stresses of teaching students in the classroom and in quarantine at home on short notice or even to modify lunch plans for weather while keeping students in cohorts.

It’s doubtful that USN will return to be the exact school it was before the pandemic. If nothing else, it will be cleaner and more connected. nn

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The Class of 2020 culminated its USN experience with Commencement on July 24, 2020.

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Unable to have their traditional breakfast, eighth graders still debuted their digital yearbook to classmates. Parents organized a drive-in screening at the River Campus with students and their families remaining in their vehicles with the 30-minute documentary shown on a large screen.

On the date seniors were originally scheduled to turn their tassels, faculty and staff met them with cheers, balloons, confetti, pompoms, airhorns, posters, and giant senior portraits during a parade through the River Campus. In decorated cars with their families, the Class of 2020 received gowns, mortarboards, and school memorabilia.

After a socially distant, 3.5-hour processional through the 19th Avenue parking lot, graduates and their families ended the day with a virtual program streamed on Facebook.

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Turkey Trot, a K-12 favorite, was reimagined with mask and colorful paper bag wearing kindergartners and seniors singing and dancing on the front stairs and Edgehill Lawn. Usually enjoyed by hundreds of parents, grandparents, and special friends packed into Sperling Gym, spectators instead were vehicles and pedestrians traveling Edgehill Avenue. Packs of fifth graders outside for their snack break mirrored the trot across the street on Magnolia Lawn, and some students inside the Main Building even opened school windows to cheer on their peers and sing along.

Share Your COVID-19 Story We’ve saved hallway signage, USN-branded face coverings, and even vials for saliva testing to be enshrined on the grounds of the Edgehill Campus. Middle School Art Teacher Emily Holt also is working on a visual compilation of the pandemic’s impact on USN and welcomes submissions of 5-by-5-inch squares made up of any lightweight material to be connected together, digitally and physically, into a quilt that will be on display at USN in the future. To contribute to the quilt or share digital reflections that should be saved for future generations to understand this tough period our community is enduring, please email stories to jtraughber@usn.org or mail squares to:

University School of Nashville

c/o Juanita I.C. Traughber

2000 Edgehill Avenue

Nashville, TN 37212

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Learning from Home

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Page 14 , clockwise from top left: o Iliana

Béhague-Mentzel ’25 and Luc Béhague-Mentzel ’26 play harp and guitar during Middle School’s Virtual Cafe Night on May 15. o E.B. Segall ’30 and Sammy Segal ’33 enjoy a socially-distant home visit from Second Grade Teacher Megan Peterson. o Andrew Knox ’27 studies at his dining room table. o Clio Cherry-Pulay ’29 is a tableau vivant of Delacroix’s “Orphan Girl at the Cemetery.” o Members of the Class of 2020 mailed gifts to their secret “Quarantenior Buddies” to raise spirits while away from school.

Page 15, clockwise from top

Weiss ’28 and Peter Weiss ’30 grill hotdogs and s’mores on their deck. o Benjamin Jennings ’27 and Donovan Jennings ’29 read for 20 minutes daily between remote learning lessons. o Book buddies Alice Cramer ’28 and Rachel Pierce ’32 use FaceTime to read together while away from school. o Blake Resnick ’31 drops Mentos in soda for an explosive experiment as USN parent Leeron Resnick watches from a distance. o Liam Dixon ’28 waters his garden of tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, strawberries, okra, basil, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, and mint.

photos submitted by USN families

o Maggie

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Responsible

Restart

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parent Kamal Tahiliani drives her daughters Ariya ’31 and Syra ’29 through the 21st Avenue garage. Lower School families picked up school supplies and iPads during a drive-thru to resume remote learning in August. o High Schoolers eat lunch on Vanderbilt University’s Magnolia Lawn. o Lower Schoolers line up for a dollop of hand sanitizer before entering school. o Kindergarten Teachers Jody Reynolds, Karri Leslie, and Jan Honsberger prepare to welcome the Class of 2033 to their first days on campus. o Lower School Librarian Emily Theobald waves Peabody to students during the back-to-school parade. o Dean of Students Nicole Jules, Head of High School Quinton Walker, and Assistant Director of Admissions Scott Collins verify families have completed the daily health screening before allowing students to enter the building.

Page 17, clockwise from top o Luke

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Ammerman ’32 plays in his assigned spot during After School in August. Toys and games are sanitized between each student. o USN Health Director Margee Brennan receives her first COVID-19 vaccination during Winter Break. o Plexiglass barriers and face coverings are the new normal in classrooms. o High School student Gillian Flatt ’21 signs the Statement of Responsibility that 25 peers co-created with their expectations and guidance around community norms while at school during the pandemic.

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Campus NEWS Although hallways emptied in March 2020, the corner of 19th and Edgehill Avenues remained well-traveled during remote learning and throughout Summer Break with excavators and workers wearing hard hats. Contractors replaced the original Peabody Demonstration School steam line with a new sustainable energy system to heat the Main Building, West Wing, and Gordon Wing.

The steam line, built into the Main Building when classes began there in 1925, had been a crucial yet hidden proverbial link to Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College for decades, even after its 1975 transition to USN. In an effort that serves environmental, budgetary, and safety purposes, Vanderbilt decided to forego its dependence on coal-powered steam heat and switch to a hot water and chilled water loop.

Construction crews dug trenches as deep as 14 feet to modernizes the original system. The new energy loop is more efficient and powered by natural gas. Landscapers restored the Edgehill Lawn in time for students’ gradual return to campus in September 2020, and the green space is now essential for outdoor breaks and lunches.

In 2003, USN added a geothermal heating and cooling system on the backfield to support the Tibbott Center and Hassenfeld Library.

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The boys’ and girls’ cross country teams placed first and second, respectively, at the TSSAA Division II Regional Championship, and both teams earned third in the state in November.

The pandemic couldn’t close the curtain on the High School Theater Department, which presented a live broadcast of the 1940s radio play “Twisted Tales of Poe” on the school’s YouTube channel in December. In June, the thespians earned several Tennessee Performing Arts Center Spotlight Awards for their 2019 performance of “Legally Blonde the Musical.”

The ability to support USN’s need-based scholarship endowment has expanded with USNA offering Evening Classes virtually through April. Members of the USN community can take short courses in literature, culture, politics, cooking, arts, finance, and technology. Visit usneveningclasses.org to view offerings and to register. USNA also moved its annual October art show online and grew Artclectic to reach buyers in at least 18 states.

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Campus NEWS

USN debaters turned in a dominant performance at the virtual Yale University Invitational in October with Mayowa Kassim ’21 and Oscar Fox ’21 claiming the championship in policy debate. Morayo Kassim ’22 and Laura Harris ’22 landed the third seed.

Coaches Todd Andrews and Tiffany Andrews recycled the chess team’s many trophies to make room for new awards. The 2020 Tennessee K-12 State Championship, delayed from the spring, was held virtually during Fall Break with Matthew Golann ’29 and Kunaal Saggi ’21 placing second and third, respectively, in their divisions. They, Stewart Hall ’25, and Evan Hauser ’25 also competed in the Nashville City Championship in January 2021.

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Juniors and seniors studying the Black Experience in the 20th Century listen to ODCL Director Roderick White, who is co-teaching the elective with History Teacher Pat Miletich. The course focuses on the arts, literature, history, and cultural impact of African Americans during the 1900s.

Shaping an inclusive educational community Although a party of one — plus an occasional college intern —the work of Roderick White’s office is a thread that weaves K-12 throughout divisions and across departments. He joined USN in 2015, nearly a decade after the Board of Trustees adopted the school’s Strategic Plan for Diversity. On a given day, he usually co-teaches the course Black Experience in the 20th Century, tends to the needs of students in his advisory, collaborates with faculty on curriculum inspection, and moderates conversations on the use of racial epithets and microaggressions in classrooms and hallways. Here he shares details on the work of the Office of Diversity and Community Life.

Q: What is the Office of Diversity and Community Life?

A: At its core, ODCL is rooted in helping to lead the USN com-

munity in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Established at USN in 1997, ODCL serves all three divisions to empower students and faculty to be agents of change, facilitate the school’s efforts to reflect the ethnic and cultural composition of Nashville, and support affinity groups for students and parents.

Most of the work is making sure we present students with a safe space where they can tackle and discuss really hard topics — that we can entertain discourse without fighting. The idea is not to have everyone agree with each other; it is to have everyone respect each other.

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Q: How does ODCL transcend divisions?

A: Some of the most progressive work done under the umbrella

of ODCL is that of 40 faculty and administrators working on four different committees established in 2016 to further the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion across the school.

The Culturally Responsive Teaching Committee is charged with ensuring USN is creating a curriculum that is deliberately inclusive and diverse, utilizing identifiers such as but not limited to age, ability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, spirituality, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status/class. This group works to examine and constantly update existing curriculum to ensure that USN can continue to offer content that is academically rigorous and also speaks to the broad palette of scholars who grace our classrooms. This time outside of the classroom is to not only

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evaluate the curriculum as a whole but also to assist other faculty when they are working on learning units to make sure they are inclusive to all of our scholars as well. We want to continue our Peabody Demonstration School heritage of being at the forefront of best practices in education.

moments that in hindsight could have been more productive and affirming.

One positive takeaway is that it allows for a space for our teachers to reflect and assist each other in increasing their bandwidth for working through difficult conversations as well as making sure that their classrooms are intentionally inclusive to all.

The Hiring Committee works to make sure we are As an independent school, reaching out to create the it is important to recmost diverse candidate ognize inclusion is not pool we can by intentionODCL Director Roderick White, Gabrielle White ’23, Morayo Kassim ’22, Arun Gandhi, Ruby always easy. With that ally recruiting candidates Lizarraga ’22, Jude Warren ’22, Mayowa Kassim ’21 smile after a Vanderbilt University peace knowledge, coupled with from historically underrepvigil on September 16, 2019. Several High Schoolers in ALBANIE spoke during the event with the opportunities that Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson. resented groups. We have being a student at USN focused our efforts in our can provide, we also have local colleges and universicreated an Outreach Committies, particularly with Tennessee tee. The Outreach Committee is State University where, after nucharged with taking the name of merous meetings and discussions USN and its benefits directly to between USN and the historiareas of Nashville that the school cally Black university, we were has not yet reached. That mission, able to secure a memorandum of which is typically steered towards understanding that allows USN students, is also aimed at families to serve as a certification school and the broader community. for education majors to complete their student teaching program.

Q: Tell us about the work ODCL does support to students and The Cultural Competency Comtheir families. mittee is tasked with ensuring a clear understanding of the A: Besides initiating and modaspects of inclusion and diversity erating conversations between for the constituents in our USN students or among students, parfamily, while fostering an apents, and faculty, ODCL supports preciation for all of the different several student organizations. backgrounds, perspectives, and ODCL has the pleasure of also Yenni Gonzalez Salinas ’21, Olivia Rhee ’20, Neha Saggi ’21, Victoria Chriscultures USN represents. We also working for the second year with tianson Galina ’20, Jadyn Sheats ’22 pause during the National Association of Independent Schools’ Student Diversity Leadership Conference held in are working to make sure faculty intern Saraya Ashley, a junior and staff continue to develop their Seattle, Washington in December 2019. attending Fisk University, who is skills through role-play situacoordinating our Middle School tions, gathered from across the conversations with ALBANIE, school and beyond, to work through how a difficult conversation which stands for Asian-American/Asian Heritage, Latinx, Biracan be held between faculty and students. This type of insightful cial, African American/African Heritage, Native, International, reflection can be tough, as it typically relies on faculty to relive European, as well as working with our Black Student Union.

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USN parents Yvette and James Floyd speak with fellow USN parent Felicia Tibbs during a Black Parent Network gathering at the Buhl House on September 24, 2019.

(Right) Dean of Students Nicole Jules, Sixth Grade Math Teacher Ida Fields, Head of High School Quinton Walker, and Assistant Head of Middle School Kelicia Cox socialize during the last in-person BPN event.

ALBANIE in High School has led dialogue among peers about social ills in the world. CORE has taken on building an understanding among peers of -isms like labelism and able-bodyism.

There’s also the Latinx Student Group. These students host cultural events and lunchtime viewing parties and conversations.

They go to protests downtown and even spoke at a Vanderbilt University peace vigil with Gandhi’s grandson.

While our students remain the primary focus of our efforts on campus, we can also never forget our families’ importance and their need for support as they traverse the USN terrain. The Black Parent Network has been a part of the thread of USN for more than 22 years. Its primary mission is to attend to the needs of our students of African heritage. BPN typically holds several events each year, beginning in early fall with a meet and greet to welcome new and returning parents of African heritage students to USN. This meeting offers our families the opportunity to share and discuss the unique experiences associated with attending USN as Black students and time with our school administrators to discuss expectations and areas of concern.

The sustained success of the BPN has also influenced the creation of the Hispanic Or/and Latinx Organization, known as HOLA, the parent network for the support of Latinx students. By their very nature, independent schools are exclusive, so to be inclusive of all requires intentional work on the part of faculty and staff to make sure no group or individual is made to feel intentionally excluded. The Gathering of Families is another event held to connect our students and families of African heritage and provides another opportunity to meet and socialize. The Senior Celebration hosted by BPN and the Fiesta de Celebración hosted

by HOLA acknowledge those graduating seniors’ individual accomplishments each year.

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Q: What impact have the events of summer 2020 had on your work at USN?

A: May 27, 2020 is a significant date for me in my household and

in my career. That was the day I found myself during a Zoom meeting with other administrators and teachers explaining to Alexander, my rising USN first grade son, why a Black man had just died under the knee of a police officer. That date also began the renewed purpose of ODCL in not only helping students to process current events but also pushing faculty to be more inclusive in their teachings and the entire school community to unbraid patterns of racial injustice that have been woven in the United States for more than 400 years.

Despite our efforts to be proactive, we are well aware that the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion does not occur in a bottle or the Edgehill bubble. Last summer also brought to USN the opportunity to learn from our students as well as alumni about what we need to address to make USN a better, more inclusive, and equitable experience for all of our students. Through the voices raised by students and alumni, an area of opportunity that was made clear is that we, as a school, need to more clearly and intentionally articulate and educate all of our community about the work being done here in our classrooms on Edgehill as well as beyond these walls. nn

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USN renews focus on diversity, equity, inclusion efforts By Juanita I.C. Traughber, Communications Director

It

was a sultry summer afternoon — amid an international pandemic and the outset of a national racial reckoning — when a poorly-timed fundraiser and corresponding social media post thrust University School of Nashville administrators into a fiery self-examination. USN had long held itself as a role model in the diversity front: being among the first Nashville independent schools to integrate and establish a top-level administrator focused on diversity; attending and even hosting conferences related to diversity, equity, and inclusion work in education; priding itself on its commitment to creating an educational environment that mirrors the cultural and ethnic composition of Nashville and serving its neighbors. As much of the country began learning words like “anti-racism” and “performative allyship,” students and young alumni pushed the school into a period of deep introspection.

On June 3, 2020, the school shared on its social media accounts the first of a series of posts for a long-planned campaign to promote giving. Within an hour, comments from young alumni began to trickle in criticizing the post and plans for a fundraiser just weeks after white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt for more than eight minutes on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed Black man, ultimately suffocating him. Floyd’s death incited protests against police brutality, systemic racism, and 400 years of oppression of Black people in the United States. The movement for Black lives included a call-to-action to demand firm stances on

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human rights issues and increased corporate social responsibility even from institutions who fashioned themselves as apolitical.

While some chose to take part publicly in a social media blackout, Director Vince Durnan wrote several letters to parents regarding current events. The Communications Office shared a general statement of USN’s commitment to diversity and inclusion on social media. Those words went largely unnoticed and overlooked.

The USN community demanded more and chastised the school for highlighting its philanthropic needs during a time of national un-

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rest and calls for social justice. Even beyond challenging the institutional perspective around diversity, equity, and inclusion being at the school’s core, students and young alumni revealed personal experiences that were less than rosy. Within hours, school administrators canceled the fundraiser and issued several statements through social media and direct emails to redouble the school’s efforts to build a more equitable school and just world.

In the following days, Ashtan Towles ’15 spoke with “a multicultural and multiethnic group of alumni who felt very passionate.” The group named themselves USN Alumni for Change, authored 13 recommendations focused on fiscal and social accountability as well as increased representation of people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds and their stories in USN classrooms and curriculum, and gathered 254 signatures from classmates and a few parents.

“In activism work, when demands are articulated the main goal is not to cause offense but to push for the structural changes,” said Towles, who works in the New York City Mayor’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. “USN is an incredible place. We believe in it. And we believe that it can be even better and prepare young people to go into the world and understand history, their identity, and not only STEM and foundational curriculum but also curriculum centering around respect. Our mission is to invoke change at USN and create an environment of accountability. A lot of these [recommendations] were birthed out of reflections on what we and current students had or had not experienced. We believe that all USN students can and should promote inclusivity and justice out of an obligation and dedication to the community.”

The conversations that began on the school’s Instagram profile evolved into hundreds of one-on-one phone calls between school administrators and students & alumni. Following were five listening sessions for alumni to share their experiences while on Edgehill and their perspective for how the school should move forward to expand its DEI goals.

Two student groups also crafted petitions calling their school to action. Leaders of USN Alumni for Change met with administrators and the Board of Trustees to advocate for more intentional institutional processes. At the same time, students looked to have a more active role in leading the conversation on race while also holding their peers and the USN community accountable.

“What I have learned from those petitions is that this office and I have not done a good job of letting the people in the community know what is going on at USN. I thought the work would speak for itself. We have faculty that are doing really amazing things,” said Roderick White, Director of the Office Diversity and Community

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Life, listing off colleagues whose have integrated DEI into their daily curriculum — Connie Fink’s social studies unit on Nashville’s historically Black neighborhoods, Joel Bezaire weaving social issues into seventh grade studies of statistics, and Victoria Roca’s creative approaches to second grade. “But we cannot lean so heavily on Black counterparts and a few teachers to lead this movement. If we are truly committed and serious about the work we want to do, we have to use the currency of the school — time and money — to do the work. We cannot open students’ heads up and pour information in; we have to have relationships. We need to be super vigilant at USN to not rest on the laurels of what we have done and constantly question the work we are doing.”

Several administrators and Black faculty spent the following weeks dissecting conversations and the petitions and creating an internal Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Tracker to measure the school’s status and progress on goals related to six categories: 1. Response to June 2020 Social Media Posts 2. Examining Our Curriculum: Curriculum Conversations around Inclusivity 3. Building Our Community: Hiring and Retention of Underrepresented Faculty 4. Building Our Community: Recruiting and Retaining Underrepresented Students of Color 5. Reflecting and Sharing Our Work: EJI Progress and Accountability 6. Caring for and Equipping Our Community: Support of Community Members Although the tracker remains an internal audit, the concept gained national attention, with the National Association for Independent Schools featuring USN’s tool in its quarterly magazine. The output of that assessment — new efforts to build the school’s collective cultural competence and anti-racist capacity — will be shared with the PDS/USN community through a dedicated DEI report this winter.

Focus on Crucial Conversations

Within a month, Black High School faculty and administrators organized a four-part series of virtual educational experiences for alumni and High School students to engage in thought-provoking conversations with community activists and academics on race, intersectionality, protests, and allyship. They emailed homework — a collection of articles and videos — a few days before each session to prepare them to hear from the Nashville leader of the Black Lives Matter organization, two Nashvillians who integrated public & private schools and participated in the Nashville sit-ins, two professors whose research focused on student activism, cultural expression, and the racial disparities of the American criminal justice

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system, and a national activist focused on LGBTQ+ work within communities of color.

“I hope that we provided the opportunity and space for our students past and present to navigate this telling and reverberating moment in informed and productive ways. I hope that we also offered reminders about the commitment and work that authentic, transformative change requires of us all,” said High School English Teacher Dana Mayfield, who co-hosted A Summer Salon Series with Dean of Students Nicole Jules, Communications Director Juanita I.C. Traughber, Head of High School Quinton Walker, and White. They plan to continue that series this spring.

In the ensuing weeks, as Middle and High School Librarian Kate Pritchard saw the same books repeatedly recommended in online chats and articles, she created USN’s Resources on Racism and Antiracism LibGuide, gaining the attention of the Nashville Scene.

“I knew that a lot of our teachers and parents would be looking for books at different age levels, not just books for adults, and I wanted them to have the resources they needed to approach this topic with their children or students,” Pritchard said. “It also seemed like a good place to share booklists that focused on [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] and marginalized authors, since there seemed to be renewed interest among our teachers and families for diverse books to share with students and children [that] include many positive and joyful representations of BIPOC and marginalized people,” Pritchard said. She added the desire to see more books in libraries featuring “children of color in which they get to have adventures, fight dragons, or just embarrass themselves in front of their crushes, instead of always having to escape from slavery or desegregate schools.”

Replicating the process USN librarians use for specific classes or projects, she also created the From Black Arts Movement to Black Lives Matter LibGuide, for a seminar taught by Mayfield.

The High School also reorganized its schedule to begin each school day with at least 15 minutes of advisory, time spent covering crucial yet digestible conversations on contemporary issues, such as the elections and insurrection. Walker created a Thinking Guide to lead that discussion, such as the 4F’s Debriefing Framework for students to share the facts, their findings and feelings, and thoughts on the future.

Fridays have a specific focus on DEI work with White providing colleagues with talking points or a question to guide discussion.

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“Given there is additional credence to advisory this year, it gives us the opportunity to put these conversations in front of students. It is the perfect opportunity to allow teachers in bite-sized portions to lead these tough conversations,” White said.

Students have discussed performative allyship, reflected on cancel culture and choosing opportunities for learning over public shaming, and learned about a new bias tracker White’s office unveiled for students to anonymously share concerns that lead to corrective action.

“In general, advisory has more programming than it has had in recent years. The ODCL programming is a good part of that and a good way to end the week. I’m grateful to have a channel to have conversations about things that I am not confident enough to broach on my own. It’s been helpful to have this in our toolkit as advisors,” said Dean of Student Life Justin Karpinos. “I can trust the way Roderick has framed discussions with programming that is educational but also gives students a chance to respond and interact. The ODCL programming has been equally responsive and informative.”

In addition to expanding their identity curriculum (see pages 26 to 29), Lower School faculty are planning the “Black Lives Matter Week of Activism” for March to teach students in Grades K-4 about topics like voter suppression, how to start a petition, and how to engage in the civic process before they reach voting age.

In December, USN co-sponsored the daylong Racial Justice in Education and Society Virtual Conference, addressing racial justice in educational settings. More than 20 USN faculty spent a Saturday learning alongside researchers, educators, community activists, policymakers, parents, families, and community members. As usual, faculty and students learned from workshops at the NAIS People of Color Conference and Student Diversity Leadership Conference, bringing back to USN a renewed passion for creating a better learning environment on Edgehill.

“This is not the work of a week or a month, it’s a purpose for a lifetime,” said Director Vince Durnan. “But it begins anew ... right now.” nn

Editor’s Note: To view Pritchard’s Resources on Racism and Antiracism LibGuide and the video recordings of A Summer Salon Series, visit usn.org/publications.

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Young students understand diversity, inclusion through self-exploration

By Lower School Teachers Lizzie Ammerman, Nabilah Rahman, and Victoria Roca “Potato parfait skin” and “eyes that can taste what they see” are some of the ways Lower School students describe themselves in projects during the division-wide study of identity that began in fall 2019 — a natural extension of the work already done around diversity and inclusion. There were cultural potlucks, cardboard name cutouts, puzzles explaining students’ hobbies & personalities, self-portraits, and an identity quilt. How did three faculty develop this curriculum and make it age-appropriate K-4? How has it benefited students? Why is it important for students to learn about their identity including social-economic status, race, and gender differences?

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each pie, sparkling faculty met regularly to explore chocolate ice cream, how diversity and inclusion work grilled chicken salad, and might be more systematically sandy beige are a few of the incorporated across the curnames that second graders used riculum. To that end, teachers to describe their skin colors after curated books, created a scope reading “The Skin You Live In” and sequence, and developed

by Michael Tyler and David Lee activities that would best support Csicsko. Dollops of white, red, our youngest learners. yellow, and brown paints landed on each desk with students swirlKnowing that children recognize ing until they felt they mixed differences in people and begin matches with their skin colors. to categorize them by those visTheir art projects were part of ible differences — such as skin Lower School’s identity unit forcolor — as early as six months, malized in fall 2019 — a natural it was of utmost importance that extension of the work already Lower School educators spoke to Lower School Teachers Lizzie Ammerman, Victoria Roca, and Nabilah Rahman done around diversity and incluthose differences and reflected sion in Grades K-4 for young positively on them. Students who minds to begin to understand socioeconomic status, race, and are not given ample opportunities to explore the way in which gender differences as well as concepts like privilege and discrimithey know themselves, and how society may portray those same nation. Students gain a better understanding of themselves, their identities, can easily fall prey to negative stereotypes and biases, classmates, and their communities, and their lessons manifest whether about themselves, or those different than themselves. In themselves in cultural potlucks, cardboard name cutouts, puzzles order for students to grow into adults who welcome diversity and explaining students’ hobbies & personalities, self-portraits, and who seek to create civil discourse with those of differing perspecan identity quilt. tives, our youngest students must explore these concepts early and often.

In December 2018, Nashville hosted the National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference, a conference Over the summer, three of the classroom teachers from the PoCC for professional development and networking for educators of group worked together to create a binder of morning meeting color and allies of all backgrounds. Teachers from all divisions lessons, read aloud discussions, and resources exploring identity took advantage of the proximity to attend powerful sessions on systematically across all grade levels. As Second Grade Teacher diversity and inclusion, and brought ideas for growth back to the Victoria Roca, Second Grade Teacher Nabilah Rahman, and First classroom. Over the next five months, a group of Lower School Grade Teacher Lizzie Ammerman were well suited to recognizing

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Images, books, and posters of students’ reflections on their identities fill Nabilah Rahman’s second-grade classroom. Most powerful are face masks students painted of themselves. Beneath each mask, students wrote what people would not know about them through physical appearances alone.

both the importance of a defined skill set of awareness and understanding of diversity, as well as the challenge of implementing a new curriculum into an already established program of elementary education. Head of Lower School Amy Woodson and Director of Diversity and Community Life Roderick White supported the trio by filling classroom shelves rich with books to support teaching young children about identity and providing inservice time for teachers to go over the new curriculum. Lower School faculty were also given tips for facilitating open and thoughtful discourse that didn’t shy away from teaching hard history or concepts of power and privilege.

picture book read alouds, and thoughtfully crafted discussions.

“The identity curriculum strengthened my classroom community in numerous ways. Students built trust with others by exploring and discussing topics that have been on their minds but may not be something they have spoken about openly before. Students gained a stronger sense of self and an understanding of the differences that surround us and the importance of accepting and appreciating our differences,” explained Third Grade Teacher Kyleen Shyer. “Additionally, it created a new awareness in them about the need to carefully analyze our history as well as events that are currently happening.”

Beginning in August 2019, all Lower School students explored facets of identity, including name, family, race, ethnicity and culture, religion, socioeconomic status, abilities, and gender through

Much of the identity curriculum happens in the conversations after a read aloud. One of the big questions we ask at the beginning of this identity study is, “What does it mean for our community

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that we have differences in our identities?” We explore that question through various activities with a focus on understanding one another as a cohesive group and how our identities make us unique.

Kindergartners filled shoe boxes with items that represent their family and culture to create cultural boxes. Students brought in objects used in Diwali and Kwanzaa celebrations, children’s books written in a variety of languages, and items from their family’s country of origin. Kindergartners loved sharing about their families and their classmates were excited about finding commonalities.

Some classes used cultural potlucks to discuss family traditions and religious holidays, sharing why they are meaningful to them and their identities. Other classes filled their plates using crayons, markers, and colored pencils.

Flags showed the cultural origin and showcased the diversity of the food we enjoy and the places to which we are connected in some way.

During the identity unit, Lower Schoolers learn about differences in religion, culture, skin color. Classmates read over the work of their peers defining themselves.

“The implementation of the identity curriculum in the Lower School, so thoughtfully created by Ms. Ammerman, Ms. Roca, and Ms. Rahman, has given common ground and new fire to this highly important, ever evolving conversation in my home. The language used at school about identity has allowed my children to ask questions in a different way, using new language. It has given them a different level of confidence in choosing just the right shade of skin for their self portraits. It has encouraged us to read about African and African American heritage. It has changed the way we buy books for night time reading,” said Bruce, mother of Parks Holliman ’30 and Elliott Holliman ’32. “The examples are too many to list, but the result is a huge boost in confidence for my children as they navigate their own identities and a platform shared between home and school for a mom navigating the challenges of supporting identity growth in her children.”

This past winter, Lower School also hosted “Exploring Identity Parents participated in the Lower with Young Children,” a parent School identity unit too, shareducation workshop for families ing about their families, name to explore classroom activities Using conversations that have happened in Lower School classrooms, parents practice how to speak with their children about history and current events during a parent stories, paths of immigration, and and read and discuss the books education workshop held February 6, 2020 in the Sperling Cafeteria. religious and cultural traditions. used as part of the curriculum.

This home connection furthered Parents practiced how they the impact of the curriculum and should talk with their children shed light on aspects of students’ family cultures that are not alusing real conversations between students and their teachers that ways discussed at school. Lower School parent Jaime Bruce, who have happened while at school. has for many years engaged in conversations with her children surrounding the difference of their skin colors, opted to particiTeachers celebrated this new opportunity for community buildpate in a parent night aimed at giving parents the tools to have ing. They worked together to create a display of learning that tough conversations using the same language teachers were using showed the larger school community what it means to embrace in the identity curriculum. and celebrate diversity through an “Identity Fair” that took place during parent teacher conferences. The fair showcased students’

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Identity Books Lower School faculty used these books for read alouds.

They are available to the USN community in the Hassenfeld Library. For the complete list of books used for USN’s Identity Unit curriculum, visit usn.org/publications.

Alma and How She Got Her Name

by Juana Martinez- Neal (K-2) The Name Jar

by Yangsook Choi (3-4) Families

by Shelley Rotner (K) A Handful of Buttons

by Carmen Luque (1-2) My Family, Your Family

by Lisa Bullard and Renée Kurilla (3-4) USN parent Vandana Abramson watches the identity video created by her daughter Annika ’29 during the Lower School Identity Fair in spring 2019.

knowledge of themselves and also highlighted how they applied that knowledge of themselves as members of a diverse community.

Reflecting on their kindergartner’s experience, alumni and parents of David Perry ’32, Mollie Shmerling Perry ’03 and Bobby Perry ’03, noted, “USN’s identity curriculum was an incredibly thoughtful way for our family to explore its varied background. We couldn’t be happier with the added perspective that the curriculum gave all of us.”

As Lower School Teachers prepared to start the 2020-2021 academic year remotely, their commitment to the curriculum remained strong.

“Nothing could be more important in a pandemic than students understanding how they connect, belong, and are significant,” noted First Grade Teacher Marty Kennedy.

Indeed, a summer filled both with the disconnection that comes from social distancing, and the trauma of police brutality and racial inequities highlighted by the murder of George Floyd, among so many others, highlights the grave importance of this work. When our youngest students truly know themselves, they can also deeply know others who are different from them, and pave the way for courageous conversations and actions that make our society better, one relationship at a time. nn

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

The Skin You Live In

by Michael Tyler and David Lee Csicsko (K-2) Skin Again

by Bell Hooks (3-4)

This Is How We Do It

by Matt Lamathe (K-4) What Do You Believe?

by DK (K-4) Maddi’s Fridge

by Lois Brandt (K-4)

Don’t Laugh at Me

by Steve Seskin (K-2)

Jack, Not Jackie

by Erica Silverman (K-4)

They All Saw a Cat

by Brenden Wenzel (K-2) Voices in the Park

by Anthony Browne (3-4) Come with Me

by Holly McGhee (K-4)

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‘Past is Prologue’ captured PDS history during pivotal time During Reunion weekend in spring 2020, four members of the Class of 1970, Jim Coddington, Bruce Davis, Ann Schoggen Hammonds, and Julie Reichman, talked with Archivist Jenny Winston about creating “The Past is Prologue,” our school’s first history book written 50 years ago in Leland Johnson’s American Problems elective. She shares an account here.

By Jenny Winston, Archivist

I

first read “The Past is Prologue” when I came to USN in the summer of 2014, on the occasion of our year-long Centennial celebration. It quickly became my go-to source of timeline events in the school’s early history and a constant companion guide in my mission to understand the story of Peabody Demonstration School. What immediately struck me about this book was the fact that it was written by students – seniors, at that – and over the course of just one school year, 1969-1970. How and why did 12 students, with their minds set on post-high school plans, during a pivotal time of social and political change, decide to write a 55-year history of their school? The whole pursuit just sounded unlikely, even as the red-bound proof of its ultimate success sat open daily on my desk.

In reflecting on the experience with us 50 years later during our virtual Reunion in May, members of that class recalled that their new history teacher, Leland Johnson, was the real impetus for the idea.

“An ‘American Problems’ course in 1969? [The history of PDS] wasn’t really what was on our minds. I’m surprised that this was the project,” said Jim Coddington, as we opened our discussion. “Mr. Johnson obviously was very convinced that we would get something relevant to our day out of this.”

Ann Schoggen Hammonds agreed, “He was quietly persuasive.”

Bruce Davis remembered hoping the elective promised an excuse to do something outside the norm of typical classes. “American Problems – this might be a good opportunity to protest somewhere or to go out and sit in the grass … this will be kind of fun,” he said.

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“The Past is Prologue,” often referred to as “the red book.”

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Johnson himself spoke to the lofty thinking behind the idea in the preface of the book, writing, “During the progress of the study, the history of the Demonstration School began to assume meaning in relation to the history of the nation and the history of developments in American education during the past half century…. the history of the school, in the wider perspective, reflects vigorous conflicts in educational theory and several problems common to the nation – American problems.”

As it turned out, in writing a school account the students in “American Problems” didn’t get that opportunity to protest or hang out on the lawn across the street. What they did gain was an effective crash course in historical research methods and the iterative writing process. Evaluating and exhausting 50 years of materials was no small task.

To gather information for their chapters, the authors consulted the papers of previous director J.E. Windrow and archival materials at the Peabody library, spun through newspaper collections on microfilm at Nashville Public Library, interviewed alumni and former teachers, and dusted off old documents living largely undisturbed in the Dem School building.

“I have a memory of sifting through very dusty, old school newspapers,” Hammonds said, remembering the research for her chapter on student government, “I remember there being a room downstairs in the basement behind the gym where we dug up a bunch of archives that were not particularly well organized…. [I remember] the smell of the old documents.”

Coddington, who wrote about school athletics, had a similar impression. “It was not just an intellectual experience, but it was literally a sensu[ous] experience. The touch of the papers, the feel of old papers,” he said. “Some sense of why [conducting research with primary documents] was important got established over the course of that year. There’s something very real and pleasurable about getting right to that thing that somebody made and did at the time.”

When it came time to write, it was a collaborative effort. Davis, who wrote the chapter on the school’s physical spaces, remembered students reading aloud to each other, workshop style, with a cooperative rhythm akin to college-level writing courses.

Julie Reichman recalled the educational significance of this collaborative writing and editing experience; “You didn’t just write and maybe get some great comments from a teacher and a grade, but your colleagues were giving you feedback. And then, you wrote it again. And again. And again.

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE

Title page of “The Past is Prologue,” listing the names of the student authors in the “American Problems” class.

“[The class was teaching us about] not only having a reason to write, but that it would keep improving and you could see that as you went along, from your colleagues. And the chance to read how someone else approaches something and then give them feedback. For me, the writing process was revealed in that class.”

“He treated us like colleagues,” Hammonds remembered of Johnson and the writing process.

After these 12 seniors submitted their chapters, achieved their final credits for graduation, and sailed through the year-end rites of passage, it was Johnson who compiled the meticulous work of the students and carried the project to its publication the following December. Copies were sold for $10, with the proceeds benefiting a student scholarship fund. Just a few years later in 1974, Peabody College announced the Dem School would close, setting into motion the most significant event in our school’s chronology to date.

Turns out, capturing the Dem School’s half-century in a book was not only an ambitious undertaking but also a timely one.

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Research notes for the chapter on athletics, donated to the USN archives by Jim Coddington ’70.

Leland Johnson and others selling copies of “The Past is Prologue” outside the PDS auditorium. Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt Special Collections.

“When I look back on it all I think, how innovative. And it’s just a hallmark of what was Peabody. They empowered a class of kids to go and write a history like this and give us the opportunity to work as colleagues with an instructor and to go out and do real research. It really was a pretty good adventure,” Coddington said.

Fifty years later, and with thanks to Johnson and his dedicated students from the Class of 1970, we refer to “The Past is Prologue”

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December 1970 letter from principal Robert Smotherman announcing the publication and sale of “The Past is Prologue.”

often – to consult lists of early graduates and sports scores and to learn about important events and people. It is an integral piece of the school’s historical record, the value of which could not have been predicted by those 12 PDS students. Today, USN students often are introduced to the book as both a primary and secondary source, prompting great discussions about who writes our stories and why. Director Vince Durnan and his Historical Methods class students of the early 2000s made essential strides in re-

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searching and writing stories of PDS/USN from 1970 forward, though we have yet to publish a true student-penned sequel to “The Past is Prologue.” Whether we could achieve such a feat to complete a history of our next 55 years, is a lingering question of interest, time, and resources. But if there’s anything our school’s past has taught me, it’s that the unlikely is always possible. nn

Jenny Winston is a librarian and holds professional designation from the Academy of Certified Archivists. She served as the USN archivist from 2014 to 2020 and was instrumental in researching and organizing school records, photos, and artifacts for the school’s centennial celebration and its perpetuity.

To learn more about “The Past is Prologue,” read Julie Reichman’s chapter The Past Was Prologue in “The Same River Twice,” or visit usnarchives.omeka.net/exhibits.

Do you remember the 1969-1970 school year and the writing of this book? Do you remember Leland Johnson? Are you one of the student authors? We’re still learning the story of this book, and it’s not complete without the memories and perspectives of all of you. Please send your thoughts and recollections to jtraughber@usn.org.

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The 90th birthday celebrations for retired USN faculty Heber Rogers and Gracie Allen included well-wishes from Pam Thompson, Les White, and Betty Pearson White.

CLASS NOTES Foundation Board selected her based on her ability to inspire others to make significant contributions to historic preservation.

Class of 1964 classmates met for lunch in Nashville.

1965

Class of 1964 lunch, from left to right: Mike Nixon, Steve Furman, Marvin Wilker, Sandra Stone Merritt, Al Lowe, Nan Eisenstein Speller, Susan Hammonds-White, Margo Paty Pickering, Beverly Nelson, Shirley Hopton Cudabac.

FORMER FACULTY Retired History Teacher, Assistant Director, and Interim Director Heber Rogers celebrated his 90th birthday on October 24, 2020 with more than 20 current and former PDS/USN faculty honoring him in a parade driving by his home.

Director of College Counseling Janet Carney Schneider, who will retire from USN in June 2021, was grand marshal.

Retired Physical Education Teacher Gracie Allen had an outdoor, socially-distant 90th birthday party in December 2020 with several current and former PDS/USN faculty sharing well-wishes during a drive-through parade.

1964 The Heritage Foundation of Williamson County presented the fourth annual Mary Pearce Legacy Award to Emily Magid. The Heritage

Capt. Jim Horner shared an article from the April Edition of The Triton, a yachting magazine for mega yacht captains and crew, about the first yacht that he was captain of, The Tennessean Lady, owned by The Tennessean newspaper. He is in Miami after cancelling trips to the West Indies and the Caribbean last summer on the yacht. Jim, who has married many couples on yachts, also officiated the wedding of his daughter Tanya on December 18, 2020, and was able to have both of his daughters home for Christmas.

1968 Class of 1968 meets via Zoom every third Thursday monthly. Email Shannon Paty at theshannonpaty@gmail.com if you are interested in joining.

Continued on page 36

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Beyond Edgehill

Mark Thompson ’85

Since graduating from University School of Nashville, the Rev. Mark Thompson (also known as Matsimela Mapfumo) has dedicated his life to social justice activism, a cause imbued in him by generations of religious leaders in his family and nurtured through his years of education at USN, Georgetown University and beyond. The host of “Make It Plain,” a live political, human rights and news daily call-in talk show and twice-weekly podcast, Mark is also a regular contributor on MSNBC speaking on a wide range of issues. “Make It Plain” was the first talk show to sign on satellite radio in 2001. He was the first and only African American talk host on SiriusXM Progress, and the only African American in the U.S. hosting a daily, national show on a progressive, liberal talk format.

Outside of the world of media, Mark has worked as an organizer for two of Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns (including in 1984 while a student at USN), emceed the Million Man March, and served on the board of the annual Jubilee commemoration of Bloody Sunday, including marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge an estimated 30 times with the late civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis through the years. Mark took time from planning to participate in the August 2020 March on Washington for an interview with classmate Chris Chamberlain ’85.

Q: What is the most significant contribution your USN experience is making in your life today?

A: In Rosemary Scott’s Model UN class, I assumed the role as Zimbabwe. We formed something called UNISAC, the UN Interim South African Commission and actually advocated sending troops to South Africa to end apartheid. John and Susan Marberry got me involved with the student newspaper, and I started writing stories about apartheid and the Jackson campaign. During my first 48 hours at Georgetown, I got involved in protests about apartheid and calling for the school to divest from South Africa. I went straight from “The Paper” to “The Hoya” and continued writing articles about apartheid, and eventually Georgetown did divest.

The Marberrys really helped me chart a path where I could integrate my journalism with my activism. If it had not been for my experience at USN, I might have been one of those guys who could only read news off a teleprompter.

another. We were sitting in the jail cell, and he told me, “Mark, you have a calling on your life.” I asked him, “How did you know?” He said, “I can tell.” He ended up mentoring and guiding me to finally answering my call, and I’m thankful I did.

Q: What advice do you have for USN students today, especially as it relates to the growing movement for Black lives?

Q: What led you to enter the ministry?

A: It’s important that this generation knows that this is nothing new. John Lewis and the march from Selma to Montgomery began as a Black lives matter march because of the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson.

The civil rights movement that began on August 28, 1963, the anniversary of the death of Emmett Till, was a Black lives matter moment as well. This generation needs to not only understand that but also realize that there’s so much more that needs to be done. We cannot stop. We have to imagine and then achieve a world where this is no longer happening. We can literally abolish violent policing from our culture and our society.

A: I was called to the ministry before I got to USN, I just ran from it. I was a teenager at Clark Memorial United Methodist Church, a significant church in the civil rights movement in Nashville. I felt the call, but I didn’t know if I could be a minister; I thought that was something higher than something I could be. We had a protest at the U.S. Supreme Court one year, I don’t even remember what the issue was. (I’ve been arrested probably about 50 times, and I can’t remember every single arrest and issue.) But I was in jail with my pastor from my church, Israel Baptist Church. One of the gifts of being a pastor is discerning the call in

They’ve got to stay engaged by being involved in organizations that are doing work. Social media is a good thing, but it also leaves a false sense of accomplishment. Police are governed locally; there is no national policy. We really have no choice but to organize on the ground locally if you want change and reform. We’re not going to be able to tweet away police violence or voter suppression. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., when he was 25, led a local movement in Montgomery. By having the effect he did locally, it ended up having national impact. Wherever you see people doing incredible work is where you should go. nn

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1971

1983

Director Vince Durnan met with the Class of 1971 for a Zoom meeting to discuss school life on Edgehill.

The Tennessean published an opinion editorial by Rick Ewing titled “Racism and bigotry today shouldn’t surprise you, but you need to listen and act justly.”

1972 Manuel Zeitlin, founder and co-owner of Manuel Zeitlin Architects, was featured in the Nashville Business Journal for entering into an employee-owned model with 11 other partners.

1975 The Arthritis Foundation presented Robert Shmerling, M.D., Clinical Chief, Division of Rheumatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, with the 2019 Dr. Marian Ropes Award for excellence in arthritis care.

1978 Anthony Williams spoke about the historic organ in Fisk University’s Memorial Chapel during the Nashville Symphony’s 2021 Let Freedom Sing concert series. He is Associate Professor of Music and University Organist at Fisk University in Nashville, where he teaches organ and courses in Music History, including courses in American and African American music.

1979 Edible Nashville featured Lee Ann Harrod Merrick and her business Tinwings in its May/ June issue. The article covered how the success of her catering business allowed her to open her brick and mortar kitchen in The Nations neighborhood of Nashville.

1981 Mary Tanner Bailey performed in “Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol” in December 2019 at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston. Mary performed the roles of the Ghost of Christmas Past and Mrs. Dilber.

Beth Moskovitz Zeitlin has created OneDey. com, a company for conscious consumers to find quality, eco-friendly products made by sustainable focused companies.

1984 Virginia Delegate Mark H. Levine is a 2021 candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia.

Mark is serving his sixth year in the Virginia House of Delegates.

1989 Jeffrey Jackson’s new book titled “Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis,” was published in November 2020 and he spoke during an author event at Parnassas Books in Nashville. Visit jeffreyhjackson.com for more information. The book was named as a 2021 Finalist for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non-Fiction.

Gregory Downs, a historian at the University of California, Davis, was quoted in The New York Times article “Amid the Monument Wars, a Rally for ‘More History.” for his role in organizing a nationwide demonstration to accurately reflect Civil War history, and was also quoted in an article in The New York Times discussing “Sedition: A Complicated History.”

1990 Kristi Jordan Graham, M.D., completed a documentary short film about her father, Harold Jordan, M.D., who is also a former member of the USN Board of Trustees.

Gwynn Crichton graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in May with a Master’s in Divinity and was ordained in the Episcopal Church as a priest. She and spouse Janean moved to Richmond, Virginia during the summer where she is serving at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Richmond as the Associate Rector for Pastoral Care.

1991 Sara Lubow Fried, owner of Fete Nashville, shared her new website fetenashville.com.

She plans luxury weddings and events for high-profile clients.

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Jeffrey Jackson ’89

Mindy Minnen Gold ’94 and family

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1994

1997

Mindy Minnen Gold shares that she and her family are living in Nashville after residing in the Chicago area for more than 20 years. Her two sons are attending USN High School. Mindy founded an education consulting company focusing on relationship-centered learning in online spaces and facilitating educational technology professional learning for teachers and teacher leaders.

Eric Appelt, Ph.D., former USN faculty member, spoke with the AP Chemistry class about his work in computer science at Vanderbilt.

1995 Amanda Colleen Williams was at USN last January for a lunchtime concert. She is an awarded songwriter and music publisher with songs on albums certified at 17 million sales by the Recording Industry Association of America®, including “She’s Tired of Boys” written with Garth Brooks. As an educator, entrepreneur, and business owner, Amanda is regularly called on to speak as a non-attorney copyright expert at government institutions including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide. She is piloting a program with the U.S. Department of State called Arts Envoy IPR, combining arts diplomacy and intellectual property rights education.

Mitsubishi Motors North America has named Katherine Knight as vice president and general counsel. Most recently, Knight was general counsel for Arkansas-based USA Truck. Previously she spent nearly two and a half years at Nissan and about five and a half years at Dollar General. Knight is a Vanderbilt Law graduate who will be based in Franklin and will oversee all legal services for the company.

Brice Behringer was promoted to captain of the U.S. Merchant Marine as part of the U.S. Naval Auxiliary, Combat Logistics Fleet and Special Missions programs. He is moving back to Nashville from Massachusetts.

1996 Hayley Hovious, President of the Nashville Health Care Council, was featured in an article in Vanderbilt Magazine in January 2020 discussing the economic impact the city’s health care companies have in Nashville.

1998 Fat Bottom Brewing Company owners Ben and Dru Potash Bredesen joined The Nashville Food Project, Renasant Bank, and Nashville Soccer Club to launch the Community Cupboard initiative to provide food to Middle Tennesseans who have lost their jobs or have been furloughed and are fighting food insecurity.

William Tyler scored his first film, “First Cow,” by well-known female indie film director Kelly Reichardt and introduced it at the Belcourt theater in March. The Music City Film Critics’ Association announced William as winner of the Jim Ridley Award. The award recognizes a Nashville artist or film that best represents our city.

Noah Charney, Ph.D., was a guest speaker for the League of Women Voters of Nashville Hot Topics event. Noah shared the Radnor to River‘s vision for integrating conservation thinking into Nashville’s planning.

1999 Beth Perry Bennett is featured in the Harvard School of Public Health’s Alumni Corner of its fall newsletter. She gave a talk at the Fall American Savings Education Council Meeting about “Creating Paths of Least Resistance for High Savings Levels: New Models in Behavioral Science.”

Emily Thaden is one of 21 housing experts appointed to Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s Affordable Housing Task Force. Emily is a “national affordable housing expert who works in communities across the United States to advance equitable land use and permanently affordable housing solutions.”

Christopher Bradshaw ’00

2000 Georgetown University named Christopher Bradshaw the 2021 Legacy of a Dream Award recipient, an honor presented annually to an inspirational emerging leader in the Washington community. As Founder and Executive Director of Dreaming Out Loud, he is working to create food equity.

2001 Emily Neumann was in Nashville to produce an episode for “Trisha’s Southern Kitchen.”

Emily is the assistant director for the show and was also an assistant director on “Nashville,” “Room 104,” and “Drunk History.”

Kim Sandler Rhodes, M.D., an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt’s Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, was interviewed by WKRN News 2 in November 2020 to discuss “Vanderbilt’s Lung Screening Program working to make sure screenings happen despite pandemic.”

Julia Sullivan was named as one of 10 business leaders likely to leave their mark on Nashville by the Nashville Business Journal in the article “People to Watch in 2021.”

2002 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced Cammie Staros, Artist and Lecturer in Art at California State University, as a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.

Continued on page 41

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Beyond Edgehill

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Allison Fundis ’99

2020 Distinguished Alumna

In August 2019, Allison Fundis, Chief Operating Officer of the nonprofit Ocean Exploration Trust, set out on a month-long expedition in partnership with National Geographic to solve the mystery of famous aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. Equipped with the latest technology and scientific expertise aboard the EV Nautilus with Allison as the Expedition Leader, they hoped to end decades of speculation about what happened to the aviation pioneer. National Geographic produced a two-hour documentary, “Expedition Amelia,” about the expedition. The documentary premiered globally in 172 countries and 43 languages that October.

Allison never imagined when she graduated from USN two decades earlier that she would be honored as the 2020 Distinguished Alumna.

Her last 15 years have been dedicated to ocean science, research, explorations and education; work that involves a lot of time on a ship at sea in unexplored waters. “It’s fair to say we are all in the same boat right now, wrestling with what the future holds and how to navigate these unexplored waters ahead,” she said during a conversation with Alumni Director Patti Wexler.

Allison uses the quote of early mapmakers who inked the phrase “Here be dragons” on areas of the map that were unexplored and where potential dangers were thought to exist, to explain to USN’s youngest graduates that their paths have already brought them face to face with many more dragons than any of us could have imagined at their age. During her Commencement address, she encouraged the Class of 2020 to take the knowledge gained from hard and valuable lessons and to use passions and voice to take action to bring equality, justice, innovation, discovery and creativity to the world.

Q: Tell us about your expedition with National Geographic on EV Nautilus.

A: In August 2019, Ocean Exploration Trust partnered with National Geographic to conduct the most technologically advanced search for Amelia Earhart’s lost LockHeed Electra airplane. I co-led the expedition with Robert Ballard (President of Ocean Exploration Trust and National Geographic Explorer-at-Large),

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who is best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic shipwreck.

The expedition, which was funded by National Geographic, included an extensive search across both land and sea around an uninhabited Pacific atoll called Nikumaroro in the Republic of Kiribati. We conducted the ocean search aboard EV Nautilus (owned by Ocean Exploration Trust) and were equipped with the latest in seafloor mapping technologies and deep-sea robotic vehicles capable of conducting visual surveys and recovery of suspected artifacts. While we were searching underwater, we also had a shore-based team investigating Earhart’s potential campsite with forensic dogs, DNA sampling, and archaeological digging.

We chose to look for Earhart’s plane at Nikumaroro because of 30 years of prior research that had uncovered some compelling clues that led us to believe that she could have landed her plane there rather than Howland Island, her intended target.

Q: How does it feel to have looked for clues to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart?

A: Amelia was ahead of her time in the way she led her life both in air and on land. And her name is synonymous with adventure and bravery. She was a barrier breaker for women’s rights and deftly traversed the world and society to pursue her passion for exploration. She continues to be an inspiration to so many of us more than 80 years later, and being a small part of sharing her legacy is a real honor I am grateful to have.

Q: What inspired you to become an expedition leader? What kind of education and professional experience does it take to get into this field?

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Q: Twenty years after graduating from USN/PDS, are you

where you expected to be at this stage of your career and life?

A: I don’t know that I ever had expectations of being in the role I am today, but I wouldn’t trade it and I’m grateful for all the experiences I’ve had in the past that led me to it. Like most people, I did not take a linear path in my education and career and I think it is those varied experiences that really set me up to succeed in my role.

All photos: National Geographic

Q: What is the most significant difference your USN experience is making in your life today?

A: I’ve always loved bringing projects, ideas, and people together and that is essentially what I do when I am at sea leading deep-sea exploration expeditions. As an expedition leader, I oversee an expedition from the planning stage through implementation and ensure all teams onboard — scientists, engineers, robotic vehicle pilots, the ship crew, and communications — and those supporting from shore are aligned and able to efficiently carry out the objectives of the mission. I also help prioritize the many simulation goals of each team to keep the expedition on schedule. These expeditions are expensive to implement, and we want to ensure we’re taking advantage of every minute we have at sea.

One of the reasons I got into oceanography and deep-sea exploration is because of the many fields it requires, and it requires a truly interdisciplinary collaboration to pull off a successful expedition.

On our team, we have scientists of many kinds (geologists, biologists, archaeologists, chemists, maritime historians), engineers, filmmakers, educators, communication specialists, and maritime professionals. Pretty much any background in STEM or storytelling can lead to a career in deep-sea exploration and research.

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE

A: I learned a lot of valuable lessons at USN and formed some of my deepest friendships I still have today. Some of the lessons I took away from USN and still carry with me today are that how you think is more important than what you know, the value of community and individual action, that we all must remain aware of our own biases and live with empathy, and the impact of both having and being good mentors.

Q: What words of wisdom do you have for USN students today?

A: Allow life’s curveballs (and there are many these days) to open doors that you might not have imagined for yourself. As you have doors open and opportunities made available to you, you will have a lot of difficult decisions to make with regard to deviating from what you may at the time think is a linear path to success.

Try a lot of things to find what you love doing, do not be afraid of failure, and be open to serendipity. nn

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Beyond Edgehill

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Sam Linton ’08

Sam Linton ’08 was a general surgery resident at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in his third year of residency working at Kings County Hospital in Flatbush, Brooklyn when the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York. His experience on the front line of dealing with this disease impacted his personal and professional life in ways he never imagined. Sam discussed with Alumni Director Patti Wexler why he chose the medical field and his experience treating COVID-19 patients.

He lives in Chicago with his wife Mariel Snetman Linton ’08 and their 14-month-old daughter Margot. He is doing a two-year pediatric surgery research fellowship at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago as well as earning a master’s degree in health services and outcomes research at Northwestern University.

Q: Why did you choose medicine?

A: I love medicine because you get to have personal interactions with people who need help, often in a way they have never needed it, but I don’t think I really appreciated that until I started working in the field. Medicine allows you to get to know people in a way you never would know them otherwise. Not just specific people but humanity as a whole. Working in rural Kentucky and urban Brooklyn, you see how similar people are and how they have the same needs, wants, and dreams.

It’s a truly unique bond with a person for them to allow you to care for them and earn their trust in things that they may not trust other people with.

Q: How has the pandemic changed your work?

A: It completely changed my hospital and day to day job. By mid-March we knew it was seriously impacting the population of Brooklyn. We shut down elective surgeries and tried to separate COVID-19 patients from those without. Essentially, we had to treat everyone as if they may have it because tests were slow, symptoms started late, and a huge portion of our patients in Brooklyn got it. At first, things slowed as we got prepared, and then suddenly the emergency room was slammed with patients with COVID-19. First the floors filled, then the intensive care units, then the additional ICU spaces we opened filled. The risk to benefit ratio of being in the hospital changed, leading us to send people away from the ER who would previously be watched in the hospital and to give people antibiotics who would have been operated on in normal times.

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Q: You managed a COVID-19 unit in Brooklyn.

What was that like?

A: My job changed as I became chief resident of the surgical intensive care unit in April. By then the SICU was designated for COVID-19 patients, not just surgical patients. While the types of patients in our beds changed, our job was the same: be a doctor, and take care of critically ill patients.

The real differences were there were no studied treatments and there was a real risk of team members catching what we were seeing to be a rapidly fatal disease. Again, this changed the riskto-benefit ratio of a lot of things we normally do.

How could we work to minimize provider contact while also doing everything possible to prevent disease progression? It was and is a mysterious disease, you couldn’t predict who would do well and who wouldn’t.

Q: How did that experience impact you personally?

A: It was incredibly difficult: to see colleagues worried if they would be next to lose consciousness in the hallway; to see friends lose their mentor to a disease they were working so hard to treat and understand; to see people afraid to go home to their family because they couldn’t live with themselves if they passed this on to loved ones; to be afraid to go home to mine; to watch patients die alone and have to tell their families it’s too dangerous to see their family member one last time, not just for them but everyone they know and see.

When I finally felt like I helped people was when I started video calling families and showing them their loved ones a few final times before they died. We had one woman fly from California and stay in a hotel near the hospital for two weeks while she

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usn.org/alumni n wasn’t allowed to visit her mom dying in the ICU just so she could be as close as possible. At the same time, it was fascinating to work with people trying to overcome this disease. To learn what worked and what didn’t and to see these patients’ families take it seriously — only going out for essentials, understanding why they can’t come in person, and even calling to ask about medications discussed in COVID-19 related press conferences.

Q: What is the most significant difference your PDS/USN

Q: What words of wisdom do you have for USN students today, especially as it relates to the pandemic?

A: Don’t assume you know what other people are going through.

And think about how you can best help people. It’s not about what you do but the way you do it. You can’t always change people’s lives in the way that you want, but you can still have a positive impact on them and those around them. nn

experience is making in your life today?

A: It taught me how to find joy in learning and to value variety of experiences as a way to grow and better understand the world we live in.

Class Notes continued

2003 USN Trustee Bobby Perry, owner of A&H Plumbing, a certified minority-owned business, was quoted in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce newsletter for business owners in September 2020. In the article “6 Tips for Running a Socially Distant Business,” Bobby discusses the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s COVID-19 guidelines and how his company addresses the safety of employees and customers.

Authority Magazine interviewed Alexandra Connell for “Female Disruptors: How Alexandra Connell of Pluma is shaking up the coaching industry” in June 2020 as part of a series about businesswomen.

2004 Rosie Siman Yakob shared a video project on Facebook that she worked on with Tim McGraw, Dolly Parton, and the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp to bring the city a message of hope.

Basak Kizilisik, Vice President of Marketing for Morris Higham Management, oversees marketing for artists in the music industry. She recently oversaw a video shoot for “Startin’ Young” by Brandon Lay on USN’s campus.

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE

Mclaine Richardson, jewelry designer and owner of Margaret Ellis Jewelry, was featured in the StyleBlueprint article “5 Ways to Be Nashville-Chic & Fabulous.”

2005 Margaret Brittingham was on campus as part of a panel to discuss mental health with High School students. Margaret is a Licensed Professional Counselor and has a private practice in Nashville.

Allison Duke Budslick and her business Duke’s General Store were featured in Garden & Gun magazine.

2006 Will Akers released his new novel “Westside Saints,” a sequel to his 2019 debut novel Westside.

Jana Bregman, M.D., Pediatric Ophthalmologist, spoke with the USN HS AP Chemistry class in May 2020 to discuss her career and how she chose her specialty as a physician.

Leslie Todd has a new position as Assistant Professor of Art History at Sewanee: The University of the South.

2007 Avery Durnan Akkineni was honored as one of The Drum’s 50 Under 30: outstanding women in creative digital. Avery is vice president of media at VaynerMedia, Singapore. Prior to her role at Vayner, she spent six years at Google.

The Washingtonian featured an article about Joe Biden’s Presidential Campaign National Press Secretary, TJ Ducklo, discussing what it’s like to work a campaign while battling a personal health crisis. Following the presidential debate in Nashville, the Tennessean featured an article on TJ titled “Nashville native goes from student council president to Joe Biden’s Presidential campaign.”

Biden appointed TJ as White House Deputy Press Secretary.

2008 Jillian Berkman, M.D., Neurology Resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was a guest speaker in AP Chemistry in May 2020. She spoke to the students about neurology as well as working for the Medicare Rights Center and her hope to work on health disparities in the neurology patient population.

Jared Stillman of 102.5 The Game presented PENCIL with $13,090 to support the nonprofit that builds strategic partnerships between community groups and Metro Nashville Public Schools.

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Jared Stillman ’08

Ellie Lentz has joined USN as a Lower School Teaching Assistant.

Julia Garrison, Rachel Zolensky, Juliette Rubin, and Hannah Cornfield have joined forces to support the voting rights restoration efforts to restore voting rights to former felons who have completed their sentences, including parole and probation.

Ian Ball was on campus in March 2020 for a lunch and learn with High Aliza Sir ’09 and Margie Quinn ’09 School students to discuss his work at Microsoft Research NYC. He plans to join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics as an assistant professor.

2009

2011

Margie Quinn and Aliza Sir celebrated their 30th birthdays with a fundraising adventure biking 444 miles on the Natchez Trace Parkway to raise funds for local organizations working for justice and fairness in their communities. They raised $12,232 for six organizations across the South doing work in their communities to create a more equitable and just society.

Chicago kindergarten teacher Charlotte Owens was interviewed on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” in August 2020 for a segment about how COVID-19 is affecting teachers and students returning to classrooms.

2010 David Steine graduated from Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in January 2020.

He passed the Tennessee bar exam and has moved back to Nashville from New York City.

Avi Bregman talked to students in the AP Chemistry class in May 2020 about his career as a Materials Scientist.

Jamie Miller accepted a new position as Judicial Intern with Magistrate Judge Alistair Newbern at U.S. District Courts.

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Sarah Berkman was featured in The New York Times article “What Happened to Those Couples Who Quarantined Together?” in October 2020.

2012 Ellen Jones has been supporting the Nashville community during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of her dietetics program at Lipscomb University, and was featured in an article on the university’s website.

Miro McPherson participated from California in the virtual Home Run for Humanity sponsored by the USN Habitat for Humanity Club in November 2020.

Ian Ball ’10 and Director Vince Durnan

Preston Crowder developed “Don’t Look Black” during monthly workshops with Tennessee Playwrights Studio. Nashville actors will read it February 5, 2021 during the Tennessee Playwrights Studio’s Virtual Reading Festival, which is free and open to the public. Visit tnplaywrights.org to register and receive the

2000 EDGEHILL

to him by his grandfather. After a few months of making sawdust on the front porch, and with lots of feedback from friends and family, the three flagship products were ready to be shared with others. This company is the manifestation of that product development and the continuation of the goals and values proposed by the objects.

2015 Walter Hindman was featured in The Tennessean after launching Junkdrop, a trash removal service focused on “connecting those with too much with those with not enough.”

Miro McPherson ’12

Preston Crowder ’12

Zoom link. Devoted to social justice and activism, Preston said he aims to create plays that create conversation and address issues facing people of all backgrounds. He is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in playwriting at The New School.

Bryard Huggins released a new song titled “Walk With Me,” available on Spotify. He wrote, composed, and produced this song in light of the social justice movement and for all the people who are marching for change. He said his “goal for this song is to inspire and encourage everyone of all races, creeds, and cultures to keep standing up to injustice and to continue to fight to make the world a better place.” Bryard also recorded a music video of his performance of Richard Smallwood’s iconic hit “Total Praise” in the USN Auditorium. “It’s always so much fun visiting USN and it was especially memorable being able to shoot this video on the same piano I’ve played on in my years at the school,” he said. That’s Hype Productions, the company of his brother Jaran Huggins ’18, filmed and produced the video.

The duo also created the video “Stand By Me,” a melody of healing and unity featuring Linde LaChance and artists on Bryard’s independent record label Muse Entertainment.

Freelance guitar player and songwriter Josh Halper was featured in the Nashville Scene in December for his solo debut “Alrightnik.”

2013 William Doak was a guest speaker for AP Chemistry class in May 2020. He talked to the students about work/life balance and encouraged students to have a passion on top of their careers. William is a medical student at Brown University. He has worked in public health in Maine, and his fluency in French, Italian, and Haitian Creole has given him many employment opportunities. He has led hikes in the Alps and enjoys climbing in British Columbia.

Griffin Tanner, Sound Engineer for the Wall Street Journal’s daily podcast, “The Journal,” interviewed with Dr. Anthony Fauci in April 2020 and asked him, “How does life return to normal?”

Maggie Rose is a staff writer on the new Disney / Marvel show, “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.”

2014

Elena Escalas, recent graduate of University of California, Los Angeles, joined a USN High School Math class in May 2020 to discuss women in STEM. She has accepted a position as a Software Engineer with Google.

Ashtan Towles joined Director Vince Durnan’s Tuesday Morning Coffee in October 2020 to hear Diversity & Community Life Director Roderick White. Ashtan works at the New York City Mayor’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes.

2016 Ben Werther is a graduating senior from Cooper Union and created a platform for his school to showcase their work. This project turned into a huge endeavor, includes over 800 entries from around the globe, and was featured in The New York Times.

Megan Kasselberg helped create a free student run digital platform called Intern From Home where companies post internship opportunities.

Madigan Wheelock joined the USN Admissions Office as the Administrative Assistant.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article in November 2020 by Margo Ghertner titled “Moving to a New Home? How to Avoid Packing Regrets.”

Max Plummer, an industrial designer and artist, launched the new venture Great New Tools after restoring an antique wood lathe gifted Continued on page 44

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The Tennessean recently published an opinion editorial by Lola Motley concerning the air pollution issue in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Lola is attending Bowdoin College studying math and environmental studies.

2019 Adam Wooten, a gymnast at University of Michigan, was featured on the podcast “Benched Stories with Jacque Young.” He discussed his journey with music while being a high level athlete, his experiences competing as a biracial athlete in a sport that is predominantly white, and the importance of diversity in both the world and the gymnastics setting.

Adam is a six-time Tennessee state all-around champion and finished fourth in the all-around at the Junior Olympic National Championships in 2019.

Drew Dibble ’18 surrounded by classmates

2017

2018

Lucy Kloeppel, Princeton student and member of the crew team, was highlighted on her team’s Instagram for being a learning consultant at the university. She helps students figure out how to navigate the academic rigors of life at Princeton.

USN alumni and classmates came out to support Drew Dibble, member of Davidson College Wildcats men’s basketball team. Drew was playing at Memorial Gymnasium in December 2019 in the Davidson vs. Vanderbilt game.

2020 Cole McMillan was named the recipient of the Academic Award during the fifth annual Tennessean Sports Award at sportsawards. tennessean.com. Cole played baseball while at USN.

In an article by NBC News, “Students at Vanderbilt leave fraternities and sororities, alleging racism and insensitivity”, Kate Deegan is featured for leaving her sorority after condemning racism on Instagram and being asked by the sorority to limit sharing her opinion on social media.

Henry Hicks was selected as a Truman Scholar. Henry is a comparative American studies and creative writing double major.

The fellowship is awarded in recognition for his outstanding potential as a public service leader. Henry was also chosen by Oberlin College President Carmen Ambar to serve on the Presidential Initiative on Racial Equity and Diversity committee. The committee is made up of 21 members including deans, professors and three students.

Classmates from 2019 gathered for a Friendsgiving celebration in November 2019.

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WEDDINGS

BIRTHS

Lindsey Mossman ’02 wed Michael Shaw on October 26, 2019.

Elizabeth Foy ’97 and Michael Wilson welcomed Beau Philip Wilson on November 27, 2019.

Florence Page ’07 and Cooper Brown welcomed Margaret “Maggie” Alyson Brown on December 26, 2019.

Carolyn Hecklin ’02 and Adam Hyatt welcomed Zachary Noah Hyatt on July 20, 2020.

Jessamine Jowers ’07 and Hunter Burkey welcomed Theodore Isaac Burkey on February 17, 2020.

Beth Green ’07 wed Ari Schiftan ’07 on September 14, 2019.

Julie Eskind ’02 and Andrew Galbierz welcomed Sadie Fite Galbierz on May 22, 2020.

Emily Strupp ’07 and Edward Linton ’07 welcomed Jonah Akers Linton on November 19, 2019.

Calle Nielson ’07 wed Jon Barlow on July 20, 2019.

Allison and Matt Addison ’04 welcomed Frances on December 17, 2019.

Kalpana Vallabhaneni ’09 and Nate Trench welcomed Akhil Trench on July 11, 2020.

Abby Perlman ’09 wed David Bleckman on April 11, 2020.

Carla Sandler-Wilson ’04, Josh Wilson, and Aaron Wilson ’33 welcomed Samuel Martin Wilson on May 1, 2020.

Ilyssa Berger ’05 wed Josh Wilson on November 9, 2019.

Brooke Sgambati ’07 wed Peter Vizcarrondo on August 29, 2020.

Aliza Sir ’09 wed Sam Gerstle ’09 on November 3, 2019.

Katie Shmerling ’05 and Adam Wayne welcomed Alice Margaret Wayne on December 12, 2019.

Isabel Ross ’06 and William Dale welcomed Warner Ross Dale on February 28, 2020.

Share Your Story Are you an alumnus who has made special contributions to our society during these challenging times? Or do you know of a classmate fighting aspects of COVID-19 or racial injustices? We want to share those stories on these pages.

Email Alumni Director Patti Wexler at pwexler@usn.org.

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Weddings Ilyssa Berger ’05 wed Josh Wilson

Brooke Sgambati ’07 wed Peter Vizcarrondo

Beth Green ’07 wed Ari Schiftan ’07

Calle Nielson ’07 wed Jon Barlow

The wedding of Aliza Sir ’09 to Sam Gerstle ’09 was nearly a USN reunion. (Left) Class of 2009 classmates Margie Quinn, Scott Fishel, Sam Gerstle, Lindsey Eskind, and Aaron Simon with the bride. (Below) Also in attendance at the wedding were: (first row) Diane Sacks ’81, Margie Quinn ’09, Scott Fishel ’09, Noah Rosenblum ’09, Aaron Simon ’09, Greg Sir ’78, Marshall Moutenot ’09, Sam Gerstle ’09, Aliza Sir ’09, Alexa Friedenberg ’09, Molly Sir ’11; (second row) Lindsey Rosen ’09, Caitlin Del Casino ’08, Alex Becker ’09, Phillip Forrester ’09, First Grade Teacher Betsy Greenbaum Hoffman ’83, Lily Alberts ’09, Lindsey Eskind ’09, Alice LaBour ’09, Josh Zeitlin ’09; (third row) John Hassenfeld ’75, Henry Spradley ’09, Henry Gottfried ’09, Missi Shainberg Friedenberg ’81, Lori Greenbaum Fishel ’81, Ethan Hassenfeld ’09, Director Vince Durnan, Nani Durnan ’09, Julia Durnan ’11, Sarah Berkman ’11; (back row) Alex Eaton ’09, Sam Fishell ’09, and Mike Rosen ’82.

Abby Perlman ’09 wed David Bleckman

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Births

Beau, son of Elizabeth Foy ’97

Zachary, son of Carolyn Hecklin ’02

Sadie, daughter of Julie Eskind ’02

Frances, son of Matt Addison ’04

Samuel, son of Carla Sandler-Wilson ’04

Alice, daughter of Katie Shmerling ’05

Warner, son of Isabel Ross ’06

Maggie, daughter of Florence Page ’07

Theodore, son of Jessamine Jowers ’07

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE

Jonah, son of Emily Strupp ’07 and Edward Linton ’07 Akhil, son of Kalpana Vallabhaneni ’09

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In Memoriam

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usn.org/alumni

We remember these deceased alumni, former students, and faculty for their contributions to PDS/USN and beyond Edgehill. Included on this page are those of whose deaths we have recently learned, even when some years have passed. To read their obituaries, visit usn.org/publications.

Katherine Higgins Brogden ’44 Dianne Netherland Morton ’45 December 3, 2020 March 13, 2019

Kay Early Russell ’28 October 6, 1996

Mary Hamilton Trabue ’33 August 9, 2013

Alfred Crabb ’36 January 11, 2020

Amelia Hancock Minor ’38 March 27, 2020

George Newton Tillman ’47 October 29, 2020

Craig Faulkner ’48 November 5, 2012

Martha Wallace Fredin ’48 December 4, 2019

Bill Gernert ’48 October 8, 2014

Jane Stuntz Jager ’48 June 3, 2016

James Talbot ’48 June 20, 2013

Harry Hibbett ’49 January 5, 2014

James Cox ’51 August 31, 2020

Don Edgar Follis ’52 September 15, 2020

Stephen Tippens ’54 October 15, 2018

Mary Ann Comer Upchurch ’59 November 10, 2007

Frances Cone White ’59 August 12, 2019

Marideane “Muff “ Brown Cline ’59 December 15, 2020

Melvin Schlanger ’60 June 25, 2020

Beth Luton ’72 July 27, 2009

Sara Handlan ’73 April 26, 2006

Bernell Jackson ’73 November 19, 2020

Kathy Fulton Spears ’75 September 7, 2020

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In Memoriam

John Courtney ’75 November 14, 2020

James “Bil” Hays ’79 December 31, 2020

April Gardner-Giosa ’90 March 2020

Ellen Dickinson Retired First Grade Teacher March 5, 2020

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David Maclean Retired Network Manager March 23, 2020

We also fondly remember the following parents of alumni who made indelible contributions to the PDS/USN legacy.

Iris Buhl (August 11, 2020) cared deeply and passionately about USN, to which she was tirelessly devoted. She was the second president of the University School of Nashville Association and served on the Board of Trustees from 1981 to 1985. She returned to USN each spring to plan and host the annual lecture for High School students named in memory of her late husband and former USN instructor Arthur “Mike” Buhl III. The generous donation of their house on Woodmont Boulevard to the school in 2000 created a home for the Director and a warm gathering spot for faculty and families known as the Buhl House.

Her memory also lives in thousands of books donated to the Hassenfeld Library. She is survived by her son Michael Buhl ’85, a brother, and a nephew.

Betty Lee Weinstein Rosen (October 17, 2020) was one of the most involved alumni in recent school history. She attended Peabody Demonstration School with the Class of 1958 through eighth grade, returned as a parent of three now-alumni, and served on the alumni leadership team for the Annual Fund from 2005 to 2007, helping secure the financial health of USN. She is survived by her husband Howard Rosen, who served on the USN Board of Trustees in the 1980s; her three sons, Mike Rosen ’82, Eric Rosen ’83, Danny Rosen ’86; grandchildren including Lindsey Rosen ’09, Aaron Rosen ’12, Lauren Rosen ’17; and a host of family.

Betty Werthan (May 18, 2020), who was heavily involved in the Peabody Demonstration School’s Parent Teacher Association, could be named the godmother of University School of Nashville. Her optimism and commitment saved PDS and created USN. In 1974, when she and the late Bernard Werthan Jr. learned of Peabody College’s plans to close its Dem School, they gathered like-minded parents around their dining room table (see page 3). This Transition Committee of parents later leveraged their homes to purchase the school and shape it as a new entity yet still connected to its educational roots. Betty remained associated with USN over the decades since the graduation of her children (Betsy Werthan Schwartz ’75, Kay Werthan ’78, Tim Werthan ’80, Tony Werthan ’83) as an Emeritus Member of the Board of Trustees and generous benefactor, including the school in her planned giving. She also is survived by grandchildren and a great-grandson.

USN EVENING CLASSES

Now through April USN Evening Classes

March 10 Tiger Give Back Challenge

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April 29-May 1 Virtual Reunion for classes ending in one and six

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For more information on these events, visit usn.org.