On Friday, September 27, Belmont students had the opportunity to hear a presentation titled “The Dark Side of Everest” from Jordan Dunn, a May 2019 graduate. While studying at Belmont, Dunn was a double major in economics and information systems.
As a beneficiary of the Lumos Scholarship, Dunn trekked through Sherpa villages across the Himalayas to learn the story of the Sherpa people, aid the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) and work in health in Kathmandu. While in Nepal, he focused his trip on education, healthcare, economics and conservation.
With more than 5,000 people having summited Mount Everest, it is no surprise that the mountaineering and tourism industries have greatly evolved and developed in Nepal. As one of the poorest countries in the world, the growth of tourism helped Nepal to grow their economy by six times between 1990-2017. Dunn shared about the impoverished population living in the country, as well as the challenges that have risen in the midst of tourism and mountaineering.
Sunrise view of Mount Everest captured by Jordan Dunn, a 2019 Belmont graduate and beneficiary of the Lumos Scholarship
Although the growth in their economy helped financially, Dunn expressed concerns about the Sherpa population, a very small ethnic group in Nepal well known for living in the mountains. Dunn described them as a strong, loyal and hardworking people. Unfortunately, the influx of tourists attempting to climb Everest resulted in the exploitation of the Sherpa.
Visitors and tourists pay the Sherpa to lead them through the mountains which has created an economic trap. The Sherpa are now stuck between mountaineering with tourists or farming as their only options for income. Due to the little knowledge of life in the mountains, tourists often make poor decisions in their treks, leaving the Sherpa no choice but to follow along and put their lives at risk.
“My hope is to take all of this and work for the next few years to make a big impact in the future and contribute to Nepal in a bigger and better way,” said Dunn.
The Belmont Lumos Scholarship is awarded to young adults ages 18 to 26 and enables recipients to embark on a self-designed international working adventure. For a minimum of eight weeks, recipients explore, engage and immerse themselves in local communities to deepen their understanding of an issue, project or idea that impassions them.
To learn more about Dunn’s experience and see more of his photos from Nepal, visit his travel blog.
The Edward C. Kennedy Center for Business Ethics hosted former BP executive, Jeff Morgheim, for a convocation and lunch on September 26 to share his firsthand experience of how one’s choices and decisions determine one’s long-term ethical reputation.
Following the Gulf oil spill and drilling platform explosion
in 2010, Morgheim, director for climate change at the time, was primarily responsible
for coordinating BP’s response to the congressional investigation and other
federal agencies which pursued criminal charges against BP.
It was Morgheim’s job to establish a pipeline of information to D.C. and respond to congressional requests for information, which he estimated to be about 1,500 questions. It would be perjury of congress if he got any of the questions wrong.
“I commend you all here at Belmont for having such a focus
on ethics,” Morgheim said. “In all of the things I studied about the deep water
horizon event, the thing that caused the spill was not the well, it was the
company culture.”
Jeff Morgheim, former BP executive, speaks at Belmont on September 27, 2019.
Morgheim went on to provide his insider’s perspective on the impact of the flawed company culture during that time and offered advice for other organizations to avoid similar mistakes.
He told students that facing ethical dilemmas in their
careers would be inevitable. He advised them to always take the short-term pain
of owning up to mistakes because it would strengthen the organization in the
long run.
“People won’t pay attention to what you say, but they will pay attention to what you do. And they will pay way more attention to what you permit. What you permit, you promote,” he said. “You are your longest stakeholder. You’ll live with the consequences of your decisions way longer than anyone else. Have respect for yourself at the end of the day.”
BP made a big organizational change in the company in 2009, changing
the communication and reporting strategy of the drilling team. The company
wanted standardization in how it drilled wells, but never redefined the roles
of employees. About six months later, the spill occurred in April 2010.
Morgheim said BP was not putting money before people’s lives. Rather, it was its culture of politeness that steered them wrong. “We hadn’t created an environment that encouraged people to speak up. It was a culture of never telling the person above you there was a problem, even when you really didn’t have it under control. No one at any point was willing to stop the job and say they had lost control,” he explained. “That culture ended up killing 19 people. We can always focus on money, but at the end of the day, it’s about the lives that were changed.”
In response, Morgheim told business professionals and
students that the most important takeaway for other organizations is to create
a “speak up” culture. If you see something, say something, and if there’s
nothing actually there, there should not be a punishment. He also emphasized
how important it is in leadership to say sorry right away when things go wrong
and really mean it.
When an organization messes up or something goes wrong, it
is the entire organization that is at fault, not just any one person. With the
proper oversight and company culture, catastrophes can be caught and prevented.
Morgheim emphasized that this is why focusing on ethics is so important and
should be done at every level of an organization.
Belmont University’s Massey Graduate School of Business Alumni Board recognized outstanding alumna and Executive Leadership Coach Christie Berger, who has demonstrated excellence in the areas of professional achievement, community involvement and commitment to the Massey School. Berger was honored at the Alumni Board’s Distinguished Graduate Award event on October 23.
Berger is a certified executive coach that supports
individuals and organizations striving to enhance their performance and reach
their potential. In addition to her private coaching practice of more than 10
years, Berger has served as Head of Executive Coaching for Belmont University’s
Center for Executive Education and collaborated with a variety of global
management consulting firms. Prior to becoming a coach and consultant, Berger
worked in sales and marketing for Tyco International.
Grace Rydburg, a 2015 Massey graduate and chair of the Distinguished Graduate Awards, said, “We are very excited to celebrate Christie Berger at this year’s Distinguished Graduate Awards for not only her professional accomplishments, but also her contributions to both the Massey School and our community. Christie is a standout in her field on top of being a successful entrepreneur, an advocate for women and a working parent. We could not ask for a better example of the Massey School’s values.”
Berger has worked with hundreds of leaders and executives
from small to Fortune 50 organizations. Yet, the foundation of her work is
universal in that all organizations and communities benefit when leaders and
teams are able to perform at their best. Berger’s action-oriented, brain-based
coaching style encourages her clients to push their growing edges to accelerate
performance and reach their leadership potential. Organizations she has served
include Viacom, VF Imagewear, Sony Music, MARS Petcare, HCA, Pillsbury Law,
Brookdale, Hill-Rom, KPMG, Bridgestone, Sarah Cannon, Tractor Supply, Lee
Company and Waller Law.
Berger developed a coaching division in Belmont’s Center for Education to enhance leadership development program offerings, designing and managing more than 300 executive coaching engagements for client organizations and for the Executive Leadership Experience Development Program. Berger also created an Executive Career Coaching Program for Vanderbilt University alumni. She has co-hosted and produced a weekly live talk-radio show airing in 28 states, booking and interviewing preeminent minds in human and organizational development, along with leaders in both non-profit and corporate entities.
Berger is also passionate about supporting women in leadership.
She is the founder and leader of Fusion Leader Circuit, an executive development
program for women leaders in Nashville, with a purpose to ignite performance
and opportunity through connection. A Belmont MBA alumna, Berger is a certified
Brain Based Coach from the NeuroLeadership Institute and an Evidence Based
Coach from Fielding University. She is a Nashville native and lives in Franklin
with her husband and two children.
A day-long symposium last Friday proved to be an educational and inspirational wrap up session for Belmont’s 5th Annual Diversity Week celebration. “Minding the Gap: A Diversity in Entertainment Symposium” featured a variety of guest speakers discussing a wide range of topics related to issues of inclusion in music, entertainment and media.
Symposium organizer Dr. Cheryl Slay Carr, associate dean of the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, said, “This was an incredible day of dialogue with industry partners across Nashville. It’s the first time the Curb College has hosted this event or anything like it, and addressing such a wide swath of issues with a receptive audience while expanding our connection with the Nashville entertainment community was very gratifying.”
“There’s a synergy that’s created when people are brought together in the same room to discuss something vital,” Carr continued. “This is an important take-away for our students, the idea of networking with purpose, to create mutual benefit and enrich our industry. Light bulbs went off for some of us, thinking about the many possibilities ahead! This event was so successful that we look forward to continuing the dialogue. I’m excited, and we are already planning for next year, and for offering Minding the Gap as an annual event.”
The public event opened with Assistant Professor of Music Business Dr. Eric Holt moderating a five-member panel analyzing the rise of the urban music scene in Nashville. Several panelists remarked that while the urban music scene in Nashville has grown considerably in recent years, representation among music business leadership has not kept pace. “Unfortunately, record labels and publishers in executive suites do not reflect that growth,” said RCA Inspiration Senior Vice President and General Manager Phil Thornton. “I’m talking about a handful of executives in two dozen labels… We need more young, diverse voices in these organizations.”
Dreamville Records producer Ron Gilmore, a Nashville native, added that he felt the need to move away from Music City in 2010 so he could explore opportunities in a more diverse musical culture. After finding tremendous success–including as keyboardist in the touring bands for Lauryn Hill and J. Cole as well as producing on several of Cole’s multi-platinum albums–Gilmore returned to Nashville with a new goal.
“Nashville overly prepared me. I can read music, I can compose, I’m a really good player. That comes from being around great musicians all the time,” Gilmore said, recalling his upbringing in church and the Nashville School of the Arts. “That was normal for me. When I got to New York City, I realized that’s not normal everywhere. This city has given me so much so now I want to inject what I’ve learned here.”
Shannon Sanders, program director for 102.1FM The Ville, added that building a stronger community network within Nashville’s urban music scene will aid in its continued growth and development. “Compare it to an engine. We see an engine as one thing, but it takes a lot of little parts to make it go… We have to rally behind something. Unity, that’s what will move the needle.”
Gospel Music Association’s Jackie Patillo, Creative Artists Agency’s Coady Rapp and Universal Music Group’s Eryka Hammonds participated in a panel on women in the music business.
The day’s second panel focused on “Who’s in the Room Where It Happens? A Look at Women in the Music Industry.” Moderated by Carr, who is also conducting grant-supported research on the topic, the panelists represented women at various stages in their careers who touched on inclusion in all its forms.
Coady Rapp, Creative Artists Agency human resources executive, said, “This whole topic can be so messy. There are so many facets of diversity: religion, race, age, culture, socioeconomic. I say assume positive intent. It’s not up to others to cater to us, but it’s on us to come to an understanding of where others are coming from.”
Gospel Music Association President Jackie Patillo agreed, noting, “You have to have mutual respect and a desire for connection.”
During the panel Carr reflected on the “Women in Music Row” study she’s been conducting, noting it “facilitated a research-based dialogue amongst women within Nashville, so it was phenomenal to include even more women in that discussion today. And there’s more research on the horizon. During the Symposium breakfast, we announced a new Curb College Diversity Research grant to support faculty interested in deepening this dialogue. Amy Smith and Jodi Marr are the first faculty to receive the new grant, and they will also be exploring issues related to women in entertainment. We see ourselves [in Curb College] offering our findings in the form of a more cutting-edge and informed curriculum, and hope to serve as a resource to the Nashville and broader entertainment community.”
In addition to the new research grant, Carr also revealed a new scholarship has been started to support women in the industry. The Fiona Whelan Prine scholarship has been created within the Curb College to support underrepresented women and to increase the pipeline of such women in the music industry.
Moderator Dr. Sybril Brown joins alumna travel journalist Jeannette Ceja and FOX17’s Grover Murrell to discuss diversity in the media.
The panelists also encouraged mentoring and advocating for others as part of the process to make change happen, a theme that was repeated in an afternoon session on diversity in the media, titled “JetSet and the News—Leveraging Diversity in the Digital Age.”
Panelist Jeannette Ceja, a Belmont alumna and travel journalist, said, “At times I didn’t see anyone who looked like me doing a travel show. In 2019, that propels me to want to be that example for other little girls and boys.”
Other panels during the day-long symposium discussed diversity in operas, museums, nonprofits and the film industry while an afternoon session allowed attendees to sit back and enjoy the sounds from a diverse array of musical artists, including Jason Eskridge, Jamiah, Ysa Fernandez and Alejandro Sierra.
Several Belmont alumni and the family of former Media Studies Chair Thom
Storey are hosting a golf tournament on Friday, October 4 at Gaylord Springs
Golf Links to raise money for a scholarship named in his memory.
Storey passed away in 2018, three years after he was diagnosed with cancer. The scholarship allows his legacy to continue by providing financial assistance to future journalists who want to study at Belmont.
Storey was hired in 1985 to start a mass communications program, which eventually grew into a major with now hundreds of graduates. For several years, he was chair of the Media Studies Department and adviser of the campus newspaper, The Vision. During his tenure, Storey received Belmont’s Chaney Distinguished Professor Award for superior teaching and was named Journalism Educator of the Year by the Southeast Journalism Conference.
Belmont alumna and one of the event organizers Michelle Williams said Storey earned the nickname “Linko” in college. “He was the ‘missing link’ to what became a group of life-long friends,” she said. “To many alumni, Storey was the link to some of their best memories at Belmont and to their future careers. So became the name of the tournament – Links for Linko.”
The Executive Learning Networks at Belmont University will present the Next Level Conference on November 20 at 1 p.m. in the Frist Lecture Hall and Janet Ayers Conference Center.
The Next Level Conference was developed in response to the rising
need to explore, discuss and support women in business and leadership roles.
This half-day conference, open to all business executives, will feature keynote
speaker Betsy Myers and two 1-hour long workshop sessions, covering a wide
range of relevant leadership topics.
Belmont’s Director of External Relations & Executive Learning Networks Jill Robinson said the conference’s mission is to educate, advocate and promote women in business, women in leadership and women forging and strengthening their careers.
“Executive Learning Networks is honored to curate and present a conference focusing pointedly on women in the workplace. In 2013, Executive Learning Networks created the offshoot ‘Coffee Connect’ network specifically for supporting the women in our member organizations; this year’s inaugural conference is a culmination of the desire to bring this conversation to the broader Middle Tennessee business community,” she said. “As we celebrate executive women in business and encourage diversity in leadership, we invite both women and men to join us for an exciting day of learning and collaboration.”
Keynote speaker Betsy Myers is currently the founding director of the Center for Women and Business at Bentley University. A leadership expert, author and advocate, she speaks at conferences and workshops around the world on the changing nature of leadership. Her book, “Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You,” continues to be the basis of her work as her experience spans the corporate, political and higher education arena.
Keynote Speaker Betsy Myers
As executive director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Myers focused the center’s teaching and research around personal leadership. Senior adviser to two U.S. presidents, she was most recently the chief operating officer of the Obama Presidential Campaign and chair of Women for Obama. During the Clinton Administration, she spent several years at the U.S. Small Business Administration in posts that included director of the Office of Women’s Business Ownership. She then moved to the White House as President Clinton’s senior adviser on women’s issues and director of the Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach.
The conference schedule includes two breakout sessions. Attendees may choose from a number of engaging sessions, led by some of Nashville’s leading women in business. Breakout options include the following and many more.
Beyond Diversity and Inclusion: The contextualization of authenticity, age, class, gender, immigration status and race. Led by Juliana Ospina Cano of Conexión Américas.
Finding Common Ground: Using the language of food to bridge cultures, genders and socioeconomic backgrounds. Led by Maneet Chauhan, recognized chef, author and TV personality .
Demystifying Diversity & Inclusion. Led by Janessa Cox-Irvin, AllianceBerstein’s head of diversity & inclusion.
The Courage to Lead with Soul: Authentic, Transformational Leadership. Led by Dr. Susan H. West, chief of staff and vice president in the Office of the President at Belmont University.
Invisible Barriers in Navigating your Career. Led by Karen Thompson, assistant vice president in the Marketing and Corporate Affairs Group at HCA Healthcare.
“Please don’t interrupt. I was talking.” A look at gender bias in the workforce. Led by Robin Everhart, senior vice president, chief human resources & transformation officer of Louisiana-Pacific Corporation.
Tickets are available for the full afternoon conference—including the Betsy Myers Keynote and two breakout sessions with a number of impressive session leaders—at an early bird or regular rate (early bird deadline is October 11; use discount code: NXTLVL10). The Betsy Myers Keynote Session & Reception is also available as a stand-alone ticket. Note: The early bird code will expire on Oct. 11 and only works with the conference and NOT the stand-alone Betsy Keynote ticket.Register and Purchase all tickets here.
Along with the Belmont University Executive Learning
Networks, Next Level is sponsored by First Tennessee Bank, the Belmont
University Alumni Association and 3D Technology.
Paige Parrucci, a sophomore songwriting major at Belmont University, cried tears of joys when she received the news that her song “Rectify” had been selected for the Fall Season Promo Commercial for CBS’s “F.B.I.”
Parrucci said, “It felt like the hard work was paying off. It’s so difficult to break through in this industry, and this felt like a step in the right direction for me.”
She recorded the song in December 2018 with distribution company and studio, In the Groove, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Parrucci also recently had placements on ABC’s soap opera “General Hospital.”
Belmont University was at the top of Parrucci’s list during her college search due to the strong songwriting program. She said she has fallen in love with the program, professors and her classmates. “Every songwriting class feels like a mini family, full of laughter and love. It’s wild to think that I’m able to experience a classroom setting like that,” explained Parrucci.
When
she was 8 years old, Parrucci began playing piano and has been in love with
music ever since. Performing has been a passion of hers for a long time, but
her love lies primarily in the writing process. She began songwriting in middle
school but has always known a career music was the only one she’d be happy
pursuing. Parrucci says her interest in the film and TV side of songwriting
developed more recently within the past two years.
Next up for Parrucci is a new EP currently in the works as well as continuing to write and record for In the Groove Studio. She hopes for more placements in the future and is thankful for the support she continues to receive from family and friends.
Austin Lanning, a sophomore at Belmont University, recently released his debut book, “Temporary Infinity.” Lanning is an entertainment industry and religious studies double major from Waco, Texas. His book illustrates the human walk with Christ and with others through the lens of mental illness.
The book tells a fictional narrative about a young man with family and mental health issues looking for fulfillment in life in part one, shares Lanning’s testimony in part two and includes journal entries of expression from Lanning’s high school experience in part three. “Temporary Infinity” has been released at Barnes and Nobles, Garden Publishing Co. and Amazon.
As a freshman in high school, Lanning began writing this story but nearly gave up. With the support and encouragement of two friends, he decided to continue writing. Throughout high school, Lanning began to use the creation of this book as an outlet to express his feelings and emotions into something he could control. “I’ve always written. I grew up a very lonely kid, and writing was a way to create a new life when I was unsatisfied with my own,” he explained.
Lanning put in a lot of work to get the book finished, starting with the fictional narrative only. “When it was over, I looked at what I had done and wasn’t satisfied. I felt that I was hiding behind this story. That’s not the example I wanted to set,” he said. “So I began to write down my own story. I had put some of my journals online whenever I was discouraged and a couple of them made it into the American Library of Poetry. But, I would frequently get texts or messages that my raw emotion had helped someone else, and I thought, ‘if God can use my broken life and create beauty from it, why am I not letting him?’ So, I put those in the book two and used notes from myself to tie it all together.”
Lanning says he made this book for others. He hopes that people will be shown Christ through his book and given hope at rock bottom. With a desire to use his book for good, Lanning is donating 70 percent of the profits from book sales to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).
“Life has given me so much and I just want to give back because I don’t deserve to be here, but God saw something in me and I hope to bring young guys and girls to see that in themselves,” Lanning said. “I’m just going to be obedient to what God says and see what He can do with it now that it’s out. If it lets one person know that they hold worth and are loved, then it was worth it.”
In the future, Lanning hopes to attend graduate school outside of Barcelona, Spain while working with refugees.
In the Janet Ayers Chapel on Monday, Dr. Kevin Cosby delivered a message titled “Thunder or Angels” to Belmont students and visitors.
Cosby has been the senior pastor of St. Stephen’s Church, the largest African American church in the state of Kentucky, for the past 40 years. He is also the author of five books and has served as the president of Simmons College in Louisville, Kentucky, the nation’s 107th historically black college, for the past 14 years.
“Whenever we are living a life of service and not a life of selfishness, there will always be two voices in your head. One is the voice of thunder, and one is the voice of angels. Whatever voice we listen to will determine whether or not we will truly serve humanity,” Cosby shared.
He spoke about the choice presented to Jesus when he was given the opportunity to escape death and flee to Athens or stay to be crucified in Jerusalem to sacrifice himself. By staying in Jerusalem and facing crucifixion, Jesus saved humanity.
Dr. Kevin Cosby in Chapel at Belmont
“We think that our faith only makes sense when we come to church and when we go to chapel. The fact of the matter is that our faith is so real that it is interwoven into the very fabric of life. At the root of our faith is this idea that in order for something to live, something has to die,” Cosby explained.
Cosby said he was only able to be standing there that day because somebody died and urged the audience to always remember someone died for them. “I would not be here if Rosa Parks was not willing to die. I would not be here if Martin Luther King Jr. had not died. They died so I would have the right to be here.”
“Thunder or Angels” brought to light the disparities the African American community has faced and are still facing today with the reminder that Christians are called to give up their lives to serve others.
Cosby declared, “Everyone must make a decision. Will I be willing to stay in Jerusalem? Will you consume your life or will you contribute your life?”
Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Dr. Christi Williams was one of approximately 20 individuals throughout the United States who were invited by the organization Pet Partners to attend a professional summit in San Antonio, TX this past month. Pet Partners is a nonprofit organization that registers handlers of various species to serve as volunteer pet therapy teams.
Pet teams provide animal-assisted-interventions for a wide variety of needs, including patients in healthcare facilities, kids with reading disabilities, students around exam times as well as adults and children in courtrooms, in crisis situations, etc. All of this work is done with the intent to help reduce stress and anxiety and improve human health and well-being through the human-animal bond.
The summit was held to gather various professionals who are using animal-assisted-interventions within their industry with the goal of helping to improve the usability of animals at a professional level. Williams was invited for her experience of training and working with her therapy dog, Layla, as a volunteer team in various healthcare settings at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, as well as for her research publications on the benefits of animal-assisted-interventions.
The summit included physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, educators, researchers, child-life specialists, volunteer coordinators and representatives from police departments, insurance companies and various hospitals throughout the United States.
For more information about animal-assisted-interventions or how to get involved, please visit petpartners.org.
