Alumna Anna Vaus, the first-ever recipient of Miranda Lambert’s “Women Creators” scholarship at Belmont, recently made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry stage.
Recognized with Music Row’s DISCovery Award earlier this year, the 2018 graduate of Belmont’s songwriting program is signed with Black River Publishing and Creative Artists Agency and has opened for major country artists such as Lee Ann Womack, Jon Pardi, Old Dominion and Hunter Hayes.
Emily Weisband, a 2015 alumna of Belmont’s songwriting program, recently released the first single of her career as an artist, “Identity Crisis.” At 26, Weisband is already a Grammy-winning songwriter known for co-writing “Thy Will” (Hilary Scott and The Scott Family). Additional writing credits span multiple genres including the pop world with BTS and Halsey, the country genre with cuts from Dan + Shay, Tim, McGraw and Faith Hill, as well as Christian music with recordings by Natalie Grant and Danny Gokey.
The launch of her solo career was recently featured in articles in Music Row and Billboard.
The research work of Dr. Doyuen Ko, associate professor of audio engineering, was recently featured on the website of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The article, “Sound Hounds: How One Research Team Is Helping Preserve the Acoustics of Historic Places,” notes the celebrated artists who have recorded in Columbia Studio A through the years. “There’s a magic there that’s not quantifiable,” Ko told the publication. “For many years, certain musicians always wanted to record their instruments in that place, in that studio.”
According to the website, Ko and his fellow researchers hope to complete their analysis of the data collected at Music Row by the end of this summer, and they will then use the most effective data gathering methods to pursue additional research at sites in New York and Peru.
Professor and Jack C. Massey Chair of Entrepreneurship Jeff Cornwall gave a talk at the United Nations for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day.
His talk, “How Emerging Technology for Online Education Can Foster Global Growth in Business Startups,” was broadcast on UN Web.TV. Cornwall was also given the Lifetime Achievement award by the International Council for Small Business.
The event was co-organized by the Permanent Mission of Argentina to the United Nations, the International Trade Centre, the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs and the International Council for Small Business.
The event can be tracked on social media via #MSMEDay19.
New Jersey-based Canadian singer Patrice Jégou, a 2000 Belmont alumna with a Master’s of Music degree in Classical Vocal Performance, received top honors in the A Cappella Song category at the 17th annual Independent Music Awards (IMAs), the influential program for independent artists and releases. The lead track from this versatile singer’s recent album release was honored at the annual awards ceremony held in New York City on Saturday, June 22.
Her winning track, “Lover Come Back To Me,” features Mark Kibble and Alvin Chea from Take 6. The tune is from her latest album If It Ain’t Love which released on March 22, 2019. The winning projects were selected by judging panels comprised of top recording talent including: Tom Waits, Lee Ann Womack, Robert Smith, Nicole Atkins, Todd Rundgren, Martha Wash and Jim Brickman, among many others; and influential press, managers and talent buyers from the Americas, Europe and the Pacific Rim.
Dr. Jeff Overby, director of Belmont’s Center for International Business, was recently quoted in WalletHub’s “Ask the Experts” piece on the status of the American Express credit card brand. The article can be found here.
Cheryl Carr, associate dean of the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, recently presented “Innovating Leadership & Entrepreneurship in The Entertainment Industry” for the Association for Popular Music Education. She also presented “Women in Entertainment: Outsider Influence, Career Strategies, and the Power of Narrative” for the Association of Arts Administration Educators.
Thanks for being very informative, approachable & giving practical cheap ways to do science!
I really enjoyed the day! Thanks for putting it together and thanks for making me feel comfortable to ask questions.
Another WONDERFUL experience w/ Dr. Garrett and Belmont! Love visiting here with all the outreach and substantial professional development. THANK YOU!
I enjoyed seeing a higher level of questioning. I can see how ideas begin to merge.
These are just a few of the comments from attendees at the fifth annual installment of the It’s Easy Being Green: Budget-Friendly Safety-Conscious Chemistry Labs for the Secondary Science Classroom of Today workshop series, hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Physics.
Throughout the month of June, event organizer Dr. Danielle Garrett, assistant professor of chemistry education, hosted three day-long workshops for middle and high school science teachers. In the workshop this year “Go Green with G3: Garden Indicators, Gases and Galvanic Cells, participants engaged in lab work focusing on anthocyanin acid-base indicators from the garden, the ideal gas law and stoichiometry, and reduction potentials and galvanic cells.
This year, 42 attendees from 13 counties participated in the workshop series at Belmont, with a few teachers coming from as far as Knoxville to attend. More than 40 percent of the participants reported having attended at least one previous workshop since the program’s launch in 2015.
“I love the fact that each year I get a mix of both returning teachers and new attendees. It makes the experience so much richer, as these events not only provide teachers with hands-on professional development in chemistry, but they also serve as a way for teachers to make new professional connections – building a network of support and camaraderie,” Garrett said.
At the end of each workshop, participants are given a short questionnaire to complete. “The questionnaire helps me collect information about which labs the teachers found most useful and what topics they would like to see for future It’s Easy Being Green workshops,” Garrett said. “It’s great to see how many of the returning teachers are incorporating the labs and ideas they get at my workshop into their classrooms. Their continued positive feedback and enthusiasm for the content fuel my commitment to try to make each new workshop better than the last.”
Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary from 2009-2013, visited Belmont’s campus on June 24 while in Nashville to talk about her new book, “How Safe Are We: Homeland Security Since 9/11.”
Napolitano was invited to speak with the “Global Tennessee” podcast by Belmont campus partner Tennessee World Affairs Council. According to Council President Patrick Ryan, Napolitano spoke about the work of DHS in the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11 and specifically about the challenges she faced during the first term of the President Obama Administration.
“She described the scope of the Homeland Security secretary’s responsibilities – running the third largest U.S. government organization behind the Pentagon and the VA,” said Ryan.
Napolitano talked about aviation security measures that were needed, natural disasters that struck, pandemic outbreaks like H1N1, terrorist attacks like the Times Square and Boston Marathon bombers and the challenge of cyber threats to U.S. infrastructure.
“Secretary Napolitano went into detail about immigration, refugees and the situation at the southern border – something she’s very familiar with as former two-term Governor of Arizona,” said Ryan.
The Global Tennessee Podcast concluded with Napolitano providing insights and perspective on the foreign cyber threat to U.S. elections, existential threats posed by nuclear weapons and climate change and “Black Swans” – the low probability, high impact phenomena that DHS must be ready to address.
The podcast is available on the Tennessee World Affairs Council website.
The Tennessee World Affairs Council, a nonpartisan educational nonprofit, and Belmont University have partnered on global affairs awareness programs since 2009, including numerous speaking programs with ambassadors, business leaders and other specialists. The Council, with offices in Fidelity Hall, offers town halls and other programs on campus and free membership to Belmont students and faculty. It welcomes Belmont students to become involved through internships and volunteer support.
Belmont University announced today the appointment of Dr. Jhennifer Amundson, associate provost of faculty at Judson University (Elgin, Illinois), to the position of dean for the new O’More College of Architecture, Art and Design and chair of the Department of Architecture, effective August 1.
Earlier this year Belmont revealed plans to launch the first Bachelor of Architecture program in Middle Tennessee and only the second in the state. The five-year degree, which will begin classes in Fall 2020, intends to provide graduates with the fastest direct path to pursue licensure in their field while also filling a significant gap for architectural education in Nashville and the surrounding area.
With the addition of the O’More School of Design to campus last fall and the launch of the B.Arch. program, the University is restructuring its existing college organization to provide increased focus on art and design programs. The College of Visual and Performing Arts will separate into two distinct colleges: the College of Music and Performing Arts and the O’More College of Architecture, Art and Design. Amundson will be the founding dean of the O’More College of Architecture, Art and Design, which includes majors in art history, studio art, fashion design, fashion merchandising, interior design, experiential design and design communications in addition to the new B.Arch. program.
Belmont Provost Dr. Thomas Burns said, “Architecture education fills a much-needed gap in the economically thriving Middle Tennessee market, and the addition of O’More’s design programs to Belmont’s creative community makes this University the perfect spot for what we intend to be a national leader in architecture and design education. Dr. Amundson’s strong credentials and impressive background ensure she is the right person to help us accomplish that goal. Moreover, her integrative and mission-focused approach represents a perfect fit for Belmont as a student-centered campus.”
With more than 25 years of architectural education in her portfolio, Amundson previously served as dean of Judson’s School of Art, Design & Architecture before taking her current position as associate provost of faculty. During her tenure as dean, she organized symposiums for female design students to address workplace challenges and helped launch Judson’s interior design program. She has contributed greatly to architecture scholarship through more than 20 books, articles and presentations and has been honored as a Dibner Library Resident Scholar by the Smithsonian Institution. She also received three United States Capitol Historical Society Fellowships as well as a Judson University Excellence in Teaching Award.
Amundson said, “It’s a profound honor to be named the founding dean of the O’More College of Architecture, Art and Design. I am thrilled to join the Belmont community at a time of such exciting developments for art and design education. In particular, I look forward to collaborating with faculty and administration to build on the developments from last year’s merger of the O’More programs with the University’s established curricula in art and design to further nurture a community of creativity and innovation that, joined to Belmont’s faith-based, liberal-arts ethos, will be a unique and powerful setting for a new program in architecture.”
Dr. Amundson earned a bachelor’s of science in architecture studies and a master’s of architecture from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign followed by a Ph.D. in art and architectural history from the University of Delaware. The unique combination of her credentials—a Ph.D. paired with an M.Arch. plus licensure—make her an ideal candidate for a University that values both the liberal arts and professional education paths.
