Additionally, current Belmont junior Ariel Redmond won second place in the Kings Peak International Music Competition under the College Student category.
“We’re so honored to represent Belmont and get the school’s name out there!” said Matthews.
A native of Florida, Matthews received his Masters Degree from Belmont and his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of West Florida. He has achieved numerous prizes in piano competitions that led to a Medal of Musical Excellence from the City of New York. After his first Carnegie Hall debut in April of 2014, Matthews has been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, People Magazine, Good Morning America, NPR and BBC World News and has performed solo in all of the United States in North America being known for his dramatic romantic piano music performances. In 2015, he returned to Carnegie Hall for an encore performance with the music of Franz Liszt. The New York Post quotes James as being a “rising star.”
Lauryn Hedges, a Belmont songwriting student who uses the stage name “Lauryn Marie”, recently won the American Songwriter 2nd Annual Song Contest for a song she submitted as part of Belmont’s Commercial Songwriting II course. For her first place award, Lauryn will receive a $10,000 prize, career consultation with Atlantic Records’ SVP of A&R, a feature in American Songwriter Magazine, a publishing deal opportunity, promotion and global distribution of her song and a lifetime American Songwriter membership.
Lauryn’s song, “Walk,” which she wrote and performed, took First Place in this year’s contest. Lauryn’s song was first named as one of the contest’s Top 50 last week–the winning entries were announced on Dec. 15.
More information, including a video of Lauryn’s “Walk”, can be found here. Second and third place, as well as 10 Honorable Mentions, are also included.
Since first coming to Belmont nearly 20 years ago, Professor of Entrepreneurship Dr. Jeff Cornwall – known affectionately across campus and to his students as “Dr. C” – has built a legacy based on helping students start, grow and make their entrepreneurial ventures stand out. Before his upcoming retirement in May, and in honor of his longstanding commitment to students, the Cone Center for Entrepreneurship surprised him with the establishment of the Jeffrey R. Cornwall Legacy Launch Fund at this year’s Top 100 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards, held Monday night in the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Named in his honor, the fund celebrates Cornwall’s success and contributions toward building entrepreneurship at Belmont into a nationally recognized program.
The Jeffrey R. Cornwall Legacy Launch Fund will support a student or students whose entrepreneurial vision and spirit holds the potential to leave a legacy through the launch and growth of a venture. A preliminary goal of $25,000 was set to jumpstart the endowment, but thanks to the support of generous alumni and community supporters, the endowment reached just under $45,000 before the announcement was made Monday night. The total continues to grow as more and more people pledge their support for the fund.
“Enduring legacies are built on strong foundations, and as Jeff transitions to his next phase, his legacy will be built on the many great students and student ventures he has helped through his teaching and mentoring,” said Elizabeth Gortmaker, director of the Thomas F. Cone Center for Entrepreneurship. “We have such an amazing community at Belmont where our alumni want to give back to our students, and this endowment provides a unique opportunity to support our next generation of entrepreneurs and the ventures that have the power to leave lasting legacies of their own.”
Dr. Greg Jones, Dr. Sarah Gardial (left) and Elizabeth Gortmaker (far right) with Thomas Cone and his daughter (center)
Ranked again as a top entrepreneurship program for 2022 by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine, Belmont alumni entrepreneurs represent more than 724 businesses in 87 cities and six countries in 2021, and with a focus on business for a purpose, the majority are still in business 5-10 years later.
This year’s Top 100 honorees include 39 new names, represent businesses founded in 31 cities and feature alumni who studied 37 different majors while at Belmont. A video with the full list of entrepreneurs honored can be found on the Belmont Entrepreneurs YouTube page, and the event’s commemorative booklet can be found on Issuu.
Professor of Entrepreneurship Dr. Mark Schenkel said, “Dr. Cornwall has had an incredible impact on students through his own teaching and mentorship, as well as on me and many of his colleagues here and throughout the entrepreneurship discipline. His legacy leaves an indelible mark on the DNA of how we teach and how students experience entrepreneurship at Belmont.”
Schenkel spoke about legacy at the Top 100 event, saying Cornwall often joked about his tendency to chase shiny objects in the 17 years they have worked together. “I learned quickly that he wasn’t talking about the shiny objects we tend to think of, like the latest technology or other short-lived ideas. For Jeff, students are the real shiny objects, and the ‘shine’ is the transformative brilliance he sees within each of them. Just how the brilliance of diamonds comes to be, he sees the valuable quality in students that takes time and work to shape into something that sparkles and eventually becomes widely admired.”
Cornwall’s approach is shaped by more than 40 years as a serial entrepreneur and teacher. He has been involved in more than a dozen startups, including co-founding and serving as the CEO of the fast-growing Atlantic Behavioral Health Systems in Raleigh, N.C. Before coming to Belmont, Dr. Cornwall was the Sandra Schulze Chair in Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, following previous service on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the University of Kentucky. At Belmont, he has served as the prestigious Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship, as well as his role as professor. He has authored nine books and numerous articles and has been recognized with national awards for his work in curriculum development and teaching. In 2013, he was named the National Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Cornwall’s father was a huge influence in his life, inspiring him to think about how to succeed and how to share his wisdom with the next generations of entrepreneurs. He is known for challenging his students to realize that their legacy is not in their list of accomplishments, but in the traditions, thoughts and ideas they will someday pass to those who will come behind. He also emphasizes the importance of balancing ventures with family and faith, wanting his students to understand that their legacy will be left in the kind of people, parents and spouses they become. He encourages students to share their success stories, failures and overall entrepreneurial journey with others through a “pay it forward” philosophy, and he loves to see students step into mentoring roles themselves.
Cornwall poses for a selfie with a Belmont student
Potential award recipients for the Cornwall Launch Fund will be considered through an annual self-nomination process and reviewed by an award committee with representatives from the entrepreneurship faculty, the Cone Center for Entrepreneurship, prior award recipients and successful entrepreneurial alumni. Recipients will be recognized with both a certificate and a grant-based monetary award at the annual College of Business Awards celebration intended to support their efforts to launch and grow their business. Recipients will also have access to mentoring and other resources through the Cone Center. A campaign with the goal of raising money to sustain the endowment in the years to come is in the works, and recipients will be encouraged to contribute as their businesses grow and succeed.
“I am so humbled by the creation of this fund in my name,” said Dr. Cornwall. “It is incredibly heartwarming that Belmont entrepreneurs will receive support to launch many new ventures over the years to come.”
Belmont University’s Jack C. Massey College of Business is being recognized for its leadership and innovation in student career readiness. SkillSurvey, the leading provider of talent intelligence and career readiness solutions, recently announced its inaugural Career Readiness Leader & Innovator Awards to recognize institutions that demonstrate success in career readiness and included Belmont as a Top 5 Career Ready Business School.
“Belmont’s Jack C. Massey College of Business is focused on equipping our graduates with both the soft and hard skills they’ll need to excel in their careers,” said Dean Dr. Sarah Gardial. “Whether they go into finance, marketing, accounting or entrepreneurship, our programs are designed to help them think critically. Our faculty and staff keep an ear to the ground on changing industry demands, and we are constantly striving to further develop our curriculum so our alumni are more than ready for today’s ever-changing business climate.”
The SkillSurvey Career Readiness® platform uses proven HR technology developed by I/O Psychologists based on behavioral science and job competency modeling, developed in partnership with the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), to evaluate students on behaviors key to employers and to workplace success.
With this ranking, Belmont joins an impressive list of colleges and universities that are taking the lead to measure students’ career readiness in the competency areas employers value most. Participating institutions obtain feedback from supervisors and co-workers following internships, co-ops, student employment or other work experiences using behaviors mapped to the eight NACE competencies.
The Leader Awards recognize top-performing institutions whose students received the highest evaluator ratings from more than 60,000 supervisors and 20,000 companies, government agencies and non-profits following the student ratings of these schools. Amazon, Apple, Daimler, Google, International Paper and Northwestern Mutual are among the top-20 employers submitting the most feedback on students.
“Congratulations to the winners! We’re thrilled to honor institutions that are innovative in supporting career readiness using SkillSurvey’s solution, which provides students and campus leaders with ‘hard data on soft skills,’” said Randy Bitting, head and co-founder of Career Readiness at SkillSurvey. “More than 170 higher-ed partners are using SkillSurvey to bring consistency in measuring students’ readiness for the workforce, and we want to highlight the Leaders and Innovators for their results and commitment to student success.”
SkillSurvey Career Readiness provides career services, student employment and academic programs with individual Career Readiness Reports and first-of-its-kind data to discover insights into how ‘career ready’ their institution’s students are compared to students nationally and to actual job candidates.
Belmont’s School of Physical Therapy was well represented at the 2021 Educational Leadership Conference recently held in Atlanta, Georgia.
A collaborative effort of the APTA Academy of Education and American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT), the Conference is designed to excite, educate, invigorate and facilitate discussion among all stakeholders in physical therapy education. The conference seeks to provide opportunities to meet and engage in collegial discussions with physical therapy educators from across the country. This year’s theme was “Habits for the Development of an Impactful and Sustainable Future for All.”
Professor and Chair of Belmont’s School of Physical Therapy at Belmont Dr. Gary Austin (pictured above) presented a poster on “Healthcare educator’s knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about pain” submitted by he and his co-authors Sue Curfman and Ryan McConnell.
On November 13, the School of Physical Therapy celebrated the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program Class of 2022 as they completed their coursework and transitioned to full-time clinical education experiences in preparation for Graduation in August 2022. The White Coat Ceremony and Reception were sponsored by Upstream Rehabilitation. In addition to students and their families and guests, the ceremony was also attended by College of Health Sciences & Nursing Dean Dr. Cathy Taylor, Regional Vice President Benchmark Physical Therapy Dr. Rob Colasso and School of Physical Therapy faculty and staff. Dr. Casey Kalb, Vice President of Operations at Upstream Rehabilitation, addressed the Class offering encouragement and wisdom. The ceremony also included the Presentation of White Coats by the students’ advisors, Blessing of the Hands led by University Minister Heather Daugherty and the reading of a Professional Oath.
Belmont University held its December 2021 commencement ceremony for graduate and undergraduate students at 5 p.m. on Friday, December 17 in the Curb Event Center. The University celebrated the graduation of a total of 422 students, awarding 367 bachelor’s degrees, 55 master’s degrees and 1 doctoral degree, with one student earning two degrees.
A video of the ceremony can be watched by clicking HERE.
All graduates, family, guests, faculty and staff were invited to attend a commencement reception immediately following the ceremony, sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations. The commencement reception provided an opportunity for graduates and their families to meet and mingle with faculty, administrators and fellow graduates.
Nashville-based social enterprise nonprofit, Poverty and the Arts is now Daybreak Arts
Daybreak Arts, founded by Belmont alumna Nicole Brandt Minyard (class of 2014), was recently rebranded from Poverty in the Arts to better promote and support their artists. The newly-named organization and Brandt Minyard were recently recognized at Belmont’s third-annual Top 100 alumni entrepreneur event.
“When I started this nonprofit as a college student at Belmont University in 2014, I didn’t understand the importance of selecting a name that was both practical and inspirational,” Brandt Minyard explained. “Little did I know how important picking the right name and logo was going to be. For years I’ve been looking for the right time to execute an organizational rebrand and name change. So when most of our regular programming and shows were paused in 2020, it finally seemed like the year to go for it! I’m so thankful that we had the opportunity to dream alongside our artists, board, staff and other key stakeholders during this rebrand.”
Rebranding has been a dream of Brandt Minyard since 2015. Poverty in the Arts was the original name of a set of community service projects that were created in 2011 in partnership with Room in the Inn, and the name was kept for consistency sake.
The name, Daybreak Arts, was selected with great care and attention for how the rebrand would impact the artists, the value of their work and the community’s perception of the organization.
One artist of the program said, “As people currently experiencing and/or struggling to free ourselves from being homeless, transient, below the poverty line, etc we are constantly being labeled, profiled, judged and marginalized as such above anything else we are. [It’s] nice to feel as though artist, not homeless artist/poor artist/charity case, was the label applied to us when promoting and selling our art.”
Staff worked alongside Peck Design Firm and Delevante Creative for the rebrand. Ultimately, the sun icon in the organization’s new logo was created by a Daybreak artist, Kateri, in 2015. Daybreak was thrilled to compensate Kateri for her design influence.
To see the rebrand and support Daybreak artists this holiday season, visit https://daybreakarts.org.
Dr. Reuben Bueno, Jr., Associate Dean for Clinical Education at the Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine has been named to 2022 class of the Nashville Health Care Council Fellows program. This year’s 33-member cohort includes senior executives from health care companies of all sizes and sectors who will convene to discuss and address the challenges facing the nation’s health care industry.
The 2022 class is the ninth to be named for the annual initiative, the first in two years after the program’s hiatus during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Class members represent several health care industry sectors, including health care education, hospital system management, information technology, managed care and capital investment, among others.
The members of the 2022 Fellows class are:
Reuben Bueno Jr., M.D., Associate Dean for Clinical Education, Belmont University Frist College of Medicine
Kevin L Billups, M.D., Professor of Urology & Internal Medicine, Director of Men’s Health, Chief Medical Officer MMG Vaccine and Immunization Program, Meharry Medical College
DeAnn Bullock, M.D., MMHC, Chief Medical Officer and Emergency Department Medical Director, Nashville General Hospital and TeamHealth
Christopher Chi, Chief Operating Officer, Monogram Health
Tonya Copeland, Vice President of I/DD, UnitedHealthcare Community & State (Tennessee)
Lisa Davis, Chief Financial Officer, Ascension Saint Thomas
Mike Edgeworth, M.D., Chief Population Health Officer, Octave Bioscience
Kim Elliott, Chief Nursing Officer, Brookdale Senior Living
Caleb Gallifant, Vice President of Product and Strategic Partnerships, Humana
Ting Gu, Principal, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe
Jennifer Guckert Griffin, Senior Vice President of Legal, Deputy General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, Amedisys, Inc.
Philip Harrison, Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, SmileDirectClub
Michele Johnson, Executive Director, Tennessee Justice Center
Jason Johnson, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, Community Health Systems, Inc.
Evan Keyser, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, LifePoint Health
Serrah Linares, Vice President of Partnerships, Change Healthcare
Nancy Jean Muldowney, Clinical Nurse Manager of Operations, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee
Kristin Neal, Senior Vice President Optum Care Services Stars and Clinical Quality, Optum
Scott Noonan, Vice President – Operations Counsel, HCA Healthcare
Gail Peace, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Ludi, Inc.
Darshan Prabhu, Partner, Whistler Capital Partners
Michael Schlosser, M.D., MBA, Senior Vice President of Care Transformation and Innovation, HCA Healthcare
Stephen Smith, Director, TennCare
Jeffrey Sturman, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, Memorial Healthcare System
Amit Vashist, M.D., Senior Vice President & Chief Clinical Officer, Ballad Health
Paul Vernich, Chief Executive Officer, Winnow
Jeff Williams, M.D., Neuroradiologist/Partner, Premier Radiology /Advanced Diagnostic Imaging
“We are thrilled to reinstate this top initiative after pausing last year’s class due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to continue to create the space for the most inspiring conversations in health care,” said Hayley Hovious, Council president. “The health care ecosystem we have built over the past 60 years in Nashville makes the Fellows program uniquely suited to provide participants exposure to the leaders who created the biggest health care organizations in the world, as well as those disrupting the industry and introducing new models amidst a rapidly changing landscape.”
Barbara Massey Rogers and the Jack C. Massey Foundation jointly announced today a new $15 million gift to Belmont University, matching the largest single gift in University history. The donation—which secures the naming rights to a to-be-constructed building designed to foster explorations of data, discovery and design—continues a longstanding tradition of generous support of Belmont by the Massey family while honoring the legacy of one of the greatest entrepreneurs and businessmen in American history. The new facility, to be named the Jack C. Massey Center, will be located on 15th Avenue and will be home to the University’s Admissions Welcome Center, the recently launched Belmont Data Collaborative and the Cone Center for Entrepreneurship, among other entities.
Barbara Massey Rogers, daughter of Jack C. Massey, said, “I am humbled and honored that the new building on the Belmont campus will carry the name, Jack C. Massey. The building will be a part of the Massey legacy which our family will treasure for generations to come.”
Belmont President Dr. Greg Jones added, “Belmont’s late Chancellor Herbert C. Gabhart forged a friendship with Jack Massey 60 years ago that resulted in the Massey family becoming tremendous partners to Belmont, dramatically advancing the trajectory of this campus and influencing the lives of thousands of students. Jack Massey’s leadership and support was pivotal to Belmont’s growth, transformation and impact. With this new gift we will be able to extend that impact even further, inspiring every student, employee and visitor to our campus with the entrepreneurial spirit, moral character and innovative leadership Jack demonstrated with exceptional effectiveness throughout his career. I am grateful to Barbara, the Massey Foundation and the entire family for their vision and generosity in bringing this new facility to life.”
The late Jack C. Massey (1904-1990) and his family have collectively been among Belmont University’s biggest benefactors. The first person in history to take three unrelated companies to the New York Stock Exchange, Massey’s gifts helped Belmont establish its undergraduate and graduate business programs and built both the Massey Business Center, which houses the Jack C. Massey College of Business, and the Massey Performing Arts Center. In light of the new facility being built and named in his honor, the previously named Jack C. Massey Business Center, facing Wedgewood Avenue, will be renamed the Barbara Massey Rogers Center.
In addition, Massey gifts have endowed Belmont’s Chair in Entrepreneurship, leading that program to be among the best in the nation, as well as the Massey Center for Financial Information, the first financial training lab in Tennessee when it opened in 2005. Massey gifts also established the Doyle Rogers Distinguished Chair of Law. In addition to housing offices for Belmont’s entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship programs, the new Jack C. Massey Center is also expected to include dedicated spaces for the Kennedy Center for Business Ethics, the Center for International Business and the Beasley Institute for Free Enterprise.
Massey College of Business Dean Dr. Sarah Gardial said, “The new Jack C. Massey Center will elevate—and celebrate—the tremendous influence of Jack Massey as a businessman and as a leader who thought outside the box, conducted himself with the highest character and achieved phenomenal success. Mr. Massey stepped up to support Belmont at a critical juncture in the life of this institution more than five decades ago. Now, his example will be integral to the vision of Belmont University moving forward. Our College of Business bears his name because he represents an ideal role model for our students. Through this new building, that legacy will be enhanced even further as his values and entrepreneurial mindset are proactively and intentionally shared as an example to everyone who enters those doors.”
Jack C. Massey began his entrepreneurial career as a retail druggist in 1930 after graduating with a degree in pharmacy from the University of Florida. His business expanded into a multi-city wholesale surgical supply operation which he sold to the A.S. Aloe Division of the Brunswick Corporation in 1961. At the age of 56, becoming bored with retirement, he went on to secure a place in American business history by helping take three separate companies to the New York Stock Exchange. Massey was a co-founder of the Hospital Corporation of America (now known as HCA Healthcare) and served as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Executive Committee and a member of the Board of Directors. He was also the principal who purchased Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation from Colonel Sanders and directed its growth to one of the world’s largest commercial marketers of prepared foods before selling the company to Hueblein, Inc. Jack C. Massey was inducted into the Global Business Hall of Fame in 1987, and was a member of the inaugural class of the Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame.
Site preparation for the new Jack C. Massey Center facility begins this week with plans for a groundbreaking in early 2022. The six-story building will serve multiple functions with the first and second floors designed to welcome campus visitors, prospective students and families while also providing space for the University’s Career & Professional Development team and GPS office. Dedicated academic space in the form of faculty offices and classrooms will be located on floors three and four. Transformative innovation spaces—including the Belmont Data Collaborative, the Cone Center for Entrepreneurship and other business/design functions—as well as state-of-the-art collaboration workspaces for students and faculty will occupy the upper two floors, welcoming people to come together with the goal of solving complex problems.
Plans for the building include incorporating technology to help share the Jack C. Massey story to inspire students, guests and future leaders across every potential field of study. The structure, which will be located between the campus’ Baskin Center and Johnson Center on 15th Avenue, is estimated to be complete by fall 2023.
