IMPORTANT NOTE: These are the archived stories for Belmont News & Achievements prior to June 26, 2023. To see current stories, click here.

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Murphree Busy with Summer Bug Activities

Hope Buckner
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Murphree Busy with Summer Bug Activities

Dr. Steve Murphree, professor or biology and entomologist, has had a busy summer full of bug-related activities. Murphree’s recent activities include:

  • Insect presentations at the Murfreesboro Bug Hunter’s Cub Scout Day Camp, the McKendree United Methodist Church Preschool and Montessori Centre.
  • A presentation on Civil War medicine, insects and diseases to children enrolled in the School of the Soldier summer day camp and the Natural History summer day camp at the Historic Sam Davis Home and Plantation.
  • at the Historic Sam Davis Home and Plantation
  • A Tennessee Naturalist Program workshop at Cedars of Lebanon State Park titled Invertebrates: Pollinators, Predators, Pests and Parasites
  • Assisting with the annual Insects of the Night program at the Warner Park Nature Center in Nashville.

Additionally, Murphree hosted his annual Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies summer day camps for rising 1st through 6th graders on Belmont’s campus all throughout the summer. Murphree said “I have provided events to hundreds of children throughout the years, and it has been a privilege to meet young people who are interested in insects and spiders.”

Dr. Adrianne Archie Named Assistant Dean and Director of Leadership Development at Belmont University

Hope Buckner
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Adrianne Archie Head ShotFollowing a lengthy nationwide search, Belmont University recently announced that Dr. Adrianne Archie has been named as the University’s assistant dean and director of leadership development, a newly created position. Archie will begin her position at Belmont on August 22.

A Louisville, Kentucky native, Archie has more than 16 years of experience and education in leadership, teaching, development and management. Throughout her career, Archie has served in a variety of roles within the nonprofit sector including managing young adult and college ministries, serving as a missionary and volunteer teacher abroad and working as an AmeriCorps Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) before earning her Doctorate in Education in Learning Organizations and Strategic Change. Most recently, Archie served as executive director of Homework Hotline where she managed and provided tutoring to 5,000+ Tennessee students and parents, managed budgetary and strategic planning endeavors and oversaw the organization’s volunteer and development operations.

Seeing Belmont’s mission, vision and values as a reflection of her own, Archie said she is excited to begin her new role on campus. “I believe every individual has the ability to be a great leader,” she said. “Belmont recognizes the need for each student to be equipped with the necessary leadership skills, experience and resources to effectively engage and transform the world. I am passionate about empowering and developing others and will work diligently with the administration and staff to optimize and create leadership opportunities for all students.”

In her new role on campus, Archie will be responsible for developing, implementing and administering a campus-wide leadership development program for all students, assisting in providing support and direction to Belmont’s more than 165 student organizations and managing the Office of Leadership Development. “We are very excited to have Dr. Archie join our Belmont team,” Dean of Students Dr. Jeffery Burgin said. “She is very engaging, authentic and desirous of working collaboratively with Academic Affairs and community partners. She understands the importance of faith in the Belmont environment and how that can shape the student experience. Her ability to lead and work in the development of young people has been demonstrated throughout her career and brings me great excitement.”

Student Travels Tennessee to Capture Powerful Stories

Hope Buckner
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Student Travels Tennessee to Capture Powerful Stories

Crystal Lemus travels Tennessee for her work with TBI survivorsBelmont junior and neuroscience major Crystal Lemus will spend the last few weeks of her summer working for The Brain Injury Association (BIA) of Tennessee where she is assisting with one of the organization’s publications. Focused on the everyday life of traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors, the publication seeks to share powerful stories and make the general public more aware of TBIs and their impact. In this role, Lemus is traveling the state, through a travel grant, to gather stories and share mental health information and resources.

Lemus got involved with the association through her work as a research intern at Vanderbilt’s Psychiatric Lab. With goals surrounding education and support of Tennessee’s TBI survivors, promoting awareness, peer mentoring and more, Lemus started her work with BIA in a fundraising and funding research role. Thanks to her success, she was given the opportunity to be the organization’s primary administrative writer, lead support groups, contribute to mental health curriculum and travel the state to collect survivor stories.

“Advocating for mental health has always been one of my top priorities,” Lemus said. “The more people I am able to reach, the better. Mental health is a real issue, and the world needs to know just how much importance is weighed on the matter.”

After graduation, Lemus said she hopes to go on to medical school and become a physician, all the while advocating for mental health. With these goals in mind, the opportunity to work along BIA was a perfect fit. “Not only am I learning more about mental health and traumatic brain injuries,” she said, “But I am also being exposed to legislation and current policy concerning healthcare. This information is a need to all pursuing medicine. To be well-rounded, we must be up to date on healthcare policies, and this is my way of maintaining my exposure.”

Though the opportunity to learn more and more about her future career field is a significant benefit, Lemus said the biggest reason she took this opportunity was to express her love for people. “Wherever the art of medicine is love, there is also a love of humanity,” she said. “Through this project, my main goal is to advocate for a more humanistic approach to traumatic brain injuries.”

Lemus’s work was recently featured in an article she wrote for the Robertson County Connection. Click here for the full article.

Adams Attends Dietary Supplement Research Practicum

Hope Buckner
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Adams Attends Dietary Supplement Research Practicum

Jamie Adam Head ShotDr. Jamie Adam, associate professor in the School of Nursing, was selected to participate in the Mary Frances Picciano Dietary Supplement Research Practicum held at the National Institutes of Health earlier this summer. The practicum experience is an intensive educational opportunity designed for faculty and practitioners within dietary supplement education and research. Participant selection is competitive and open to faculty, graduate students and research practitioners in health-related disciplines including nutrition, food science, pharmacy, pharmacology and pharmacognosy, exercise science and kinesiology, medicine, dentistry, nursing and complementary and alternative medicine.

During the practicum, Adam heard directly from key stakeholders including representatives from the dietary supplement industry, consumer advocacy groups and the media. The practicum faculty consisted of experts from the National Institute of Health, academic institutions, federal regulatory like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and more.

Associate Dean of the School of Nursing Dr. Martha Buckner said, “Dr. Adam’s selection for this opportunity is a reflection of her great work in teaching pharmacology for nursing students for the past several years. Her participation will provide direct benefit to our students and faculty in understanding the complexities of supplement use among our population, the associated quality, safety, and regulatory framework.”

Third Annual ‘Battle of the Belmont Bands and Family Fun Festival’ Set for Aug. 26

April Hefner
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Third Annual ‘Battle of the Belmont Bands and Family Fun Festival’ Set for Aug. 26

Belmont University will kick off the 2017-18 academic year with a family-friendly music festival on Sat., Aug. 26 featuring exclusively student and alumni talent. The event will begin on The Lawn at 5 p.m. with an event designed for Bruins of all ages. Children’s activities will be held on the patio in front of McWhorter Hall, including face painting, balloon animals, inflatables,illusionist performances and more. Plus, a number of popular community food trucks will be on hand, stationed along the Lawn, to provide refreshments, and numerous arts, crafts and boutique vendors will be set up around the Lawn to welcome back alumni and friends and sell artist merchandise.

At 6 p.m., music performances kick off with the annual “Battle of the Belmont Bands” contest as selected student bands compete in front of a panel of industry experts in the audience to determine a winner. Those judges are organized by Musician’s Corner, the annual concert series in Centennial Park to promote emerging artists, which then invites the winner to perform at an upcoming concert.

This free event is open to the public, and parking is available on the north side of campus in the Inman/McWhorter Garage, the Ayers Garage and the Baskin Garage, all of which can be viewed on the Campus Map.

 

 

Motion Pictures Alumna Screens Film at CineArtistry

Hope Buckner
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Motion Pictures Alumna Screens Film at CineArtistry

Bethany Brinton, a recent Belmont graduate, recently screened her short film “My Practice,” as part of a bi-monthly series by CineArtistry, a group that promotes indie filmmaking. Brinton created the short as her senior capstone project for her degree in motion pictures, highlighting the combination of her two passions–music and film. Brinton also earned a degree in commercial music while at Belmont.

The screening, which included four shorts, took place at the Secret Rose Theater in North Hollywood. A facilitator hosted a question and answer session with the filmmakers after the showings. “I was so happy to screen my short for an audience and have my hard work pay off,” Brinton said. “It was received very well!”

Having lived in LA for the last year, Brinton said she’s been honored to learn more about her industry and have the opportunity to continue storytelling. “Living in LA has been great,” she said. “I’m hugely grateful to all the fellow students who helped make this film happen.”

 

Students Earn Top Marks at National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition

Hope Buckner
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Students Earn Top Marks at National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition

Four Belmont students recently competed in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) semifinals, the most students Belmont has ever had to make it to this level of NATS competition and one student, Alex Wunder, won first place in his division, underclassmen men. In addition to Wunder, Belmont’s participants included Nick Branson, Melissa Starkweather and Jeff Tarver. To reach the semifinals, these students participated in the organization’s regional auditions which were hosted on Belmont’s campus in the spring.

Each region’s top five finalists then send performance videos to NATS for national semifinals consideration. Videos are then evaluated by voice teachers across the country, and only the top 15 are invited to the semifinals.

Participating students pose for the camera
Semi-finalists (L to R) Tarver, Starkweather and Branson enjoying beautiful downtown Boulder

At the event, singers perform a variety of repertoire pieces consisting of operatic arias, art songs or oratorio arias. After performing in the semifinals, Wunder was selected to competed in the finals and won first place in his division. This is the first time in four years that Belmont has had a first place winner.

Coordinator of Vocal Studies and Associate Professor of Voice Dr. Mark Whatley said, “This is a wonderful accomplishment for our students to have earned. They all gained valuable experience by auditioning and spending time in a competitive environment outside of Belmont. This also provides an opportunity to meet teachers and students from all across the country, making those all-important connections that are so critical to having a career in music.”

Above image (L to R): Wunder and Whatley

Arts and Business Council Welcomes New Leadership

Hope Buckner
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Arts and Business Council Welcomes New Leadership

The Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville, currently housed on Belmont’s campus, has recently welcomed a new Executive Director, Jill McMillan. The Council has been on Belmont’s campus since 2013 through a partnership that advances the educational and charitable purposes of both organizations by leveraging and uniting their unique resources to create a thriving, sustainable creative culture in Nashville.

Originally from Indiana, McMillian comes to Nashville from Boston, most recently. Throughout her career, she has gained a range of experiences and arts exposure including her first professional position as a marketing intern at a major studio in Los Angeles to her most recent role as a strategic fundraiser at one of Boston’s leading cultural institutions.

McMillian graduated summa cum laude from Pepperdine University with a B.A. in Integrated Marketing Communication and a minor in Industrial Organizational Psychology. After graduation, she taught with Teach for America in Phoenix, Arizona before moving to Boston to begin her career in arts administration. There, McMillan worked with Boston Children’s Theatre, ArtsBoston, Broadway In Boston and the Institute of Contemporary Art.

In her new role, McMillan will oversee the Arts and Business Council’s five main programs. Focused around the viability of Nashville’s creative community these programs offer assistance to artists from all genres and include:

  • The Volunteer Lawyers and Professionals for the Arts: A program that provides free legal services to Nashville’s artists
  • Educational Offerings: Monthly seminars cover topics pertinent to the sustainability of artistic ventures and Periscope, ABC’s 6-week intensive training program, is an artist entrepreneur training experience
  • Arts Board Matching: A program that pairs young professionals with arts organizations and prepares them for board membership
  • WorkCREATIVE: Bridges the gap between arts and business by inviting artists into the workplace to help produce a more engaged, innovative and productive workforce through the tactful collision of art and industry.

“ABC is currently experiencing a time of excellence and stability,” McMillan said. “Now with over 10 years in service of artists in Nashville, the Arts and Business Council’s current position allows us to focus on strategic growth and innovation in our programs and offerings. We hope to serve as a translator and connector, leveraging and uniting the unique resources of the arts and business communities to ensure that Nashville is, and remains, a dynamic cultural hub.”

Image provided by Heidi Ross.

Alumna LeMieux Named XMI Chief Operating Officer

Hope Buckner
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Alumna LeMieux Named XMI Chief Operating Officer

Jennifer LeMieux headshotJennifer LeMieux, a Belmont Executive MBA alumna, was recently named as Chief Operating Officer for XMI, a company that provides businesses with the business infrastructure necessary for growth. In this role, LeMieux will be responsible for strategic planning and management, identifying business development and partnership opportunities and strengthening internal company teams and company culture.

She joins XMI with over two decades of experience working with companies to improve business operations and processes. Under her leadership in previous roles, LeMieux forged long-term client relationships that produced process management improvements, higher revenue flows and growth for client companies. She also has significant experience implementing training programs for employees and developing initiatives to reward top performers.

“Jennifer will be a wonderful asset to the XMI executive leadership team,” said James C. Phillips, Jr, chief executive officer at XMI. “Her experience working with growing businesses in the health and technology sectors are one of many attributes that make her a good fit for this position, and we are pleased she has joined XMI to help businesses grow and thrive.”

Prior to joining XMI, LeMieux was chief customer/operations officer at Gaffey Healthcare and HealthTechS3.  Her career has been focused on partnering with growing businesses and supporting them with business process services and outsourcing needs.

“I am excited to join the XMI team, and I look forward to strengthening existing relationships and creating new partnerships to help businesses amplify their ambitions,” said LeMieux. “I am always invigorated by the opportunity to support businesses with business infrastructure so they can focus on growing their products and services, revenue and staff.”

Student Selected as Festival’s Principal Viola

Hope Buckner
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Student Selected as Festival’s Principal Viola

Belmont student viola player performs at a festivalBelmont senior and music performance major Corey Starks was recently selected as the Principal Viola of the Guilford Symphony Orchestra at Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“Being chosen as Principal is an honor given to those who have well-developed leadership abilities and mature playing,” said his Belmont and Festival viola instructor Sarah Cote.  “I am very proud of Corey!  He did a wonderful job leading his section in Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and the Rodrigo Concierto.”

The Eastern Music Festival is a five-week program attracting music students from around the country and abroad. The festival’s student orchestra rehearses six times each week and performs twice weekly.

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