Nashville social enterprise nonprofit Poverty and the Arts (POVA) will share their work virtually at the ‘Arts & Homelessness International’ monthly conversation on March 31 at noon Central. POVA’s Founder and Executive Director Nicole Minyard (Belmont alumna, class of 2014) will share about the organization’s mission and Nashville’s unique creative community that helped POVA grow in its early stages. There will also be a brief Q&A with POVA artists also in attendance.
Arts & Homelessness International (AHI) exists to bring positive change to people, projects and policy in the homelessness sector through arts and creativity. AHI has been hosting virtual international monthly conversations throughout the pandemic, and this March POVA will be a featured guest to share about their work to support artists impacted by homelessness in Nashville.
Located on Dickerson Pike in East Nashville, Poverty and the Arts (POVA) is a nonprofit social enterprise that provides people impacted by homelessness with access to creative resources and an artistic platform to enhance their quality of life and earn income.
Belmont University’s Undergraduate Mock Trial Team scored fourth best of 20 teams at the 2021 American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) Regional Competition held virtually in February. In its fifth year of competition, Belmont’s team earned a bid to the Opening Round Championship Series Tournament March 20-21 where students will compete for a bid to the AMTA National Championship Tournament in April.
In addition to the team’s victory, Aubrey Keller was named one of nine outstanding witnesses and Luke Worsham and Keidron Turner were named two of 12 outstanding attorneys.
The Undergraduate Mock Trial teams are coached by Adjunct Professor Summer Melton, a Belmont College of Law graduate and practicing attorney at McAngus, Goudelock, and Courier, LLC. Melton has been coaching Belmont’s Undergraduate Mock Trial Teams for three years. This was the team’s second year making it to the Opening Round Championship Series, which is the second round of the American Mock Trial Association’s annual national tournament.
Melton, proud of the work and dedication her students put forth, described the success of Belmont’s Mock Trial Teams. “The best way to describe our teams, the Beekeepers and the Bees, is through a quote from The Bee Movie: ‘According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. The bee of course, flies anyway, because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.’ The skills the students strive to learn and perfect are difficult and time consuming. But, with the right amount of faith, and a ton of hard work, we have continued to soar. I couldn’t be more proud of each and every student and can’t wait to watch them conquer again.”
The Mock Trial team is a part of Belmont’s student-led, undergradute Pre-Law Society. Team members who competed at regionals include Interdisciplinary Studies and Global Education students Bailey Adams (legal studies), Chloe Bellgardt (global leadership studies and sociology), Carmen Mendez (legal studies), Disha Patel (legal studies), Nardien Sadik (legal studies), Elizabeth Sutphin (global leadership studies and corporate communication); College of Sciences and Mathematics student Lillian Davidson (biochemistry and molecular biology); Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business student Cheyenne Robertson (music business); College of Music and Performing Arts student Raelyn Stuart (commercial voice); College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences students Kevin Botros (philosophy and political science), Aubrey Keller (English), Isabella Kaufman (political science and history), Mattie Luster (English), Mae McAninch (English), Morgan Pettit (politics and public law), Keidron Turner (politics and public law) and Luke Worsham (communication studies).
AMTA serves as the governing body for intercollegiate mock trial competition. Through engaging in trial simulations in competition with teams from other institutions, students develop critical thinking and public speaking skills, as well as a knowledge of legal practices and procedures. AMTA sponsors regional and national-level competitions, as well as providing interesting and complex case materials for academic use.
College of Entertainment and Music Business Professor Dr. David Tough recently had his song “Devil Knockin’ at My Door” featured in the television series Riverdale, performed by Belmont alumnus Chase Bader (2015). Tough is an associate professor in audio engineering technology at Belmont and has a primary skill set in audio engineering and songwriting/production combined.
Tough’s other sync placements in 2020 include Blindspot, Love & Hip Hop, The Young and The Restless, NASCAR racing, five original songs in the movie “Stars Fell on Alabama” anda national Suave shampoo commercial. Several of these songs were co-written and performed with CEMB alumni including Rowland Folensbee (2011), Griffin Peterson (2012) and Mitch Furr (2016).
Philosophy alumna Erin Cline was recently named as the Paul J. and Chandler M. Tagliabue Distinguished Professor in Interfaith Studies and Dialogue at Georgetown University. She also serves as the Senior Research Fellow in the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown, where she teaches Chinese philosophy, Chinese religions, comparative philosophy and theology and Ignatian spirituality.
Cline, who received an M.A. and Ph.D. from Baylor after graduating from Belmont with a Bachelor of Science degree, is the author of five books and more than 30 research articles. Her latest book, “Little Sprouts and the Dao of Parenting: Ancient Chinese Philosophy and the Art of Raising Mindful, Resilient and Compassionate Kids,” shows how the wisdom of Chinese philosophy can enrich the lives of families today in a variety of surprising ways.
With multiple accomplishments as a writer, she was also the only student selected for the Top 20 College Students in American on the All-USA College Academic Team when she was attending Belmont.
Associate Professors Dr. Elisa Greene, from Belmont’s College of Pharmacy, and Dr. Jamie Adam, from Belmont’s School of Nursing, were recently selected for the 2021-23 cohort of The Lilly Faculty Fellows Program through the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities. The program is designed for mid-career faculty leaders across the disciplines to creatively engage the intersections of Christian thought and practice with the academic vocation.
The initiative’s goals are to refresh and enliven a sense of calling for participants as people of faith, as teachers and as scholars and to provide funds for Fellows to develop and pilot Faculty Fellow programs on their own campuses.
“As someone with a strong sense of Christian identity and mission in my own work, I believe in the premises of this program and am excited by the prospect of working alongside one of my favorite collaborators, as well as other like-minded faculty members,” said Greene. “I love exploring ideas and am excited at the thought of being asked to think creatively and innovatively about bringing Christ-centered vocational engagement into our daily work. I’m privileged to draw meaning and fulfillment from my work, be it in clinical service, teaching or relationship building, and I believe this program will not only enhance my own spiritual walk, but allow me to (re)light that same fire in others.”
Although the Lilly Network has in the past emphasized faculty programs in humanities and the arts, this project especially sought out applicants from STEM, social scientific and professional fields. Greene and Adam wrote in their program application that, as dual healthcare providers and academicians, they see the need for “whole person care” in the lives of their fellow faculty and their students. “Whole person care” refers to incorporating spiritual, physical, psychological and emotional well-being into healthcare provision.
The pair will use these ideas as a starting point to work on a creative and innovative program to support faculty in their own and their students’ “whole person care” through a variety of modalities, including possibilities such as round-table discussions, presentations, interdisciplinary small groups and mentoring opportunities, all geared toward equipping Belmont faculty to better engage their whole selves at work. View their application video here.
The funded campus projects will be sites for creativity and experimentation that examine, cultivate and enliven faculty engagement with Christian thought and practice as experienced on church-related campuses.
This is not a new concept to Greene or Adam, as both women have previously served on several committees examining and supporting the connection between academic vocation and Belmont’s Christian mission, in addition to a variety of other University leadership roles. In one instance, Adam designed a curriculum module titled, “Called to Care,” highlighting the connection between faith and nursing, and in another, she created student and faculty reflection guides to support vocation exploration during study abroad trips. Greene participates in a campus mentorship program that specifically pairs students and faculty to explore the intersection of faith and work.
“I am eager to continue exploring faith and vocation through the collaboration and opportunities this fellowship will provide,” Adam said. “In Belmont’s Nursing program, Christ-centered perspective is a core concept threaded through every course in the curriculum. Each semester, I have the opportunity to highlight nursing as a profession, but also as a ministry in the courses I teach. I encourage my students to consider nursing as a vehicle for administering physical, emotional, mental and spiritual care.”
Through a college-level task force that has created multiple workshops and presentations, Adam has helped increase opportunities for faith exploration for students in Belmont’s College of Health Sciences and Nursing and the College of Pharmacy. She has also given multiple presentations on faith and vocation at University events, student convocations, new faculty orientation, Nurse’s Christian Fellowship meetings and faculty workshops.
Greene explained that while working within a faith based academic institution, she is also contracted to practice pharmacy and provide experiential education, which makes up a significant portion of the pharmacy curriculum, at the faith-based clinic Siloam Health near campus. The mission at Siloam is “to share the love of Christ with those in need through healthcare.”
“Christian thought and practice is incorporated into the training on site in a formal ‘Institute’ that students of all disciplines complete together. This incorporates various modules such as spiritual care, health literacy, using interpreters and poverty medicine into the medical training students receive. These combined settings allows a multitude of opportunities for marrying faith and work – whether it’s praying with a patient, ministering to a faculty/staff member’s needs, or rejoicing and celebrating with a student over their God-given individuality and gifts,” Greene said. “I have cried, prayed and rejoiced with many a student in my office whether dealing with academic or personal life struggles or blessings.”
Adam and Greene have both served as team leaders on an annual Interprofessional Medical Missions Team trip to Guatemala, where students and faculty from a variety of health professions participate in providing health screenings and education to vulnerable communities. Inspired by the experiences, the two developed a six-hour interdisciplinary continuing education program and have had scholarly works published, including one in the area of faith and learning surrounding their experiences with medical mission work.
Adam and Greene had a successful publication from this work titled, “Providing care across a language barrier: a program at the intersection of interprofessional education and co-curricular engagement” in Currents in Pharmacy Education. Their article “Shaken and stirred: designing a short-term medical service-learning trip with faith and mutual sustainability in mind” will be published in the Journal of Christian Nursing this September.
Learn more about the details of the Lilly Faculty Fellows Program here.
Amazon Alexa is a voice controlled artificial intelligence (A.I.) platform that has the ability to provide information upon request. As part of the Introduction to Healthcare Informatics concentration in the Doctor of Pharmacy program at Belmont, April Pepper, Phuong Truong and Karen Le worked as a team to develop different applications, or “skills,” that are now available in the Alexa store.
The skill, “Drug Wizard,” was created to help pharmacy students study the brand and generic names of the top 300 medications currently prescribed in the United States. “Diabetes Goals Quiz” is another skill that was created. Its purpose is to help students study the American Diabetes Association diabetic goals. The “Thyroid information” skill was created to help students grasp introductory lecture material for this topic. This material was based on clinical practice guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American Thyroid Association. The information in these skills are provided for informational and educational purposes only. They are not a substitute for professional medical advice, treatment or diagnosis.
Dr. Anthony Blash, Pharm.D., BCompSc., CPHIMS, associate professor in the College of Pharmacy’s Healthcare Informatics concentration has created a sequence of five courses and a one-month Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiential (APPE) rotation at various sites in the city to prepare Belmont’s student pharmacists to become future leaders in healthcare informatics.
Belmont University’s College of Pharmacy is the only pharmacy school in the world with a healthcare informatics concentration leading to an internationally recognized certification in healthcare informatics. This certification may be obtained before experiential rotations, residency inquiries and job searches begin.
“We also collaborate with organizations during the school year and take on real world projects from our healthcare informatics community. Our students have the opportunity to develop an impressive project portfolio during their time at Belmont, working with many partner organizations on projects such as machine learning and predictive analytics with Amazon SageMaker, becoming data analysts while exploring big data and analytics with Amazon Relational Database Service by Amazon Web Services, and creating artificial intelligence software for Amazon Alexa.” said Dr. Blash.
The informatics concentration at Belmont is collaborating with interested organizations to provide competent student and graduate healthcare informaticians with clinical expertise and hopes to expand their program to include residents and/or fellows. Collaborating would be of no cost to the partnering organization and could help to advance Healthcare Informatics initiatives currently underway or in the planning phase. To find out more about partnering with the healthcare informatics team at the College of Pharmacy, please contact Dr. Blash at Anthony.Blash@belmont.edu.
Belmont alumna Andie Rankins was promoted to director of publishing administration at Essential Music Publishing, a division of Provident/Sony Music Entertainment where she manages the administration of a growing catalog of award-winning copyrights. With a Bachelor of Music in Commercial Music, Rankins graduated with the class of 2003.
Previously, she served as EMP’s manager of publishing administration where she took the lead on the conception and development of the intuitive new online licensing tool for the company’s catalog. Rankins also works to advance the growth of the publishing administration section of the company and expand the metadata initiatives.
In a recent press release through Merge PR, Tony Hemmings, president of Provident Entertainment, said, “Andie’s promotion is a reflection of her hard work and dedication as well as her leadership and vision. Her role will be invaluable as we continue our focus of providing value-added licensing and administration services for our writers and publishers.”
With multiple promotions across the organization, Rankins shared her gratitude and excitement for the next step in her career with the public relations firm Merge PR here.
Belmont faculty member Dr. Angela Lane was recently recognized as the 2021 Walk to Cure Arthritis Adult Honoree with the Arthritis Foundation. As a current associate professor of Nursing, Lane has worked for the past 30 years as a nurse tech, registered nurse and advanced practice nurse.
When Lane was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at age eight and then again at age 20, she recognized a passion for giving back to this community. Through her experience with arthritis, she has demonstrated selflessness as she continues to serve others in the Arthritis Foundation community.
Lane is currently on the board with the Nashville Arthritis Local Leadership Board and has just commenced her work as chair.
The Store, a nonprofit free-referral based grocery store co-founded by Belmont alumnus Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, marks its one-year anniversary this week. Located on campus, The Store’s original model was significantly impacted by major events hitting the city and the world last March.
In response to the March 3 tornado that devastated parts of Nashville, The Store opened for in-store clients earlier than expected on March 12, 2020 to serve impacted families. But The Store was only open for four days when the COVID-19 pandemic became widespread, and it was obvious in-store shopping was not going to be feasible. A new plan was needed, and exemplifying the theme Better Together, staff, partners and volunteers all worked diligently to reach people in need as they were sheltered at home. A home delivery system for the elderly was immediately put in place with volunteers delivering to 48 elderly households the first week, and curbside pick-up was implemented for households in need. The weekly deliveries are currently capped at 450 households, and curbside pickup is at 200 per week, serving more than six times initial projections.
The Paisleys said, “When we started dreaming about creating The Store years ago, we never imagined we would open our doors just days from catastrophic events–the tornados and then the pandemic–that would greatly impact the need for assistance in our community for months and months to come… We couldn’t have opened The Store without fantastic community involvement from many people and organizations, including Belmont University, our board, staff, referral partners, volunteers, donors and the Edgehill community. None of us could have done this alone. We are definitely Better Together.”
The Store’s success in reaching the individuals and families in need of services is due in large part to their referring agencies, which increased from the original six partners in March 2020 to currently 15. Again, Better Together. Clients are referred by the following nonprofit and government agencies: Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, Edgehill Community Partners/MDHA, Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Monroe Harding (Reengagement Hub), Conexión Américas, Country Music Association, Metro Public Health Department (COVID Reserve Group), Oasis (Transitions Program), TriStar Centennial Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Hillsboro High School/MNPS Hillsboro Cluster, Safe Haven Family Shelter, Amerigroup, End Slavery TN, Community Achieves Program and YWCA.
Courtney Vrablik, The Store executive director, added, “We are so grateful for our community partners who have worked with us as we rapidly adjusted our operating model to meet this year’s challenges, our volunteers who stepped up to deliver groceries to our elderly neighbors, and our donors who recognized that their support meant food on tables this past year. I think it’s been a great example of how Nashville is at its best when we work together.”
The Paisleys partnered with Brad’s alma mater, Belmont University, on the location of The Store at 2009 12th Ave. South, next to the University’s Ministry Center. Belmont University offers legal aid clinics, therapy, counseling and nutritional education at the center, and through the Tennessee State “2-Gen Grant” is able to provide services to eligible families. Both groups will work closely together to serve the broader community in a variety of ways.
It is estimated that at this time 54 million people are suffering from food insecurity nationally. One in four are children, and one in six are elderly. The Store is thankful it is able to serve the community not only food staples but fresh produce, toiletries, household cleaners, pet food, diapers and other non-food items they may need provided by sponsors, partners and donors.
In honor of The Store’s one-year anniversary, Brad Paisley was recently interviewed on The View, and the Paisleys’ friend, actor Kevin Nealon, selected The Store as his charity to benefit during his recent appearance on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. In addition, local NBC affiliate WSMV, ABC affiliate WKRN and FOX affiliate FOX17 featured the couple discussing the anniversary.
The Store Founder’s Circle supporters include Belmont University, ESa, Sysco Corporation, Amerigroup, The Children’s Hospital at TriStar Centennial, Nationwide Foundation, Kroger Foundation, Give – Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation and Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley. The Store’s food comes from Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, Sysco, Fresh Point, and local growers such as Old School Farms and includes both perishable and nonperishable offerings. All the food in The Store is selected to be both nutritionally beneficial and fresh.
The Board of Directors for The Store include Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Co-founders; Megan Zarling, Board President; John Schario, Vice-Chair; David Minnigan, Secretary and Elaine Bryan, Treasurer. Other board members include Father Dexter Brewer, Sarah Cates, Jaynee Day, Pete Fisher, Doug Paisley, Michelle Rowe, Scott Scovill, Michael Stagg, Becca Stevens, Dawana Wade and John Zarling. Executive Director is Courtney Vrablik.
About The Store Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley have partnered with Belmont University to spearhead The Store, a year-round free grocery store. Individuals and families will be referred by nonprofit and government agencies for a term of one year. There is no charge to those referred or to the people and agencies that send them. They may obtain food to supplement their income during times of crisis and as they work toward self-sufficiency.
A philosophy of community empowerment means The Store aims to help solve hunger issues in its community by developing programs to meet the needs of the community, including partnering with other organizations on issues of food security. The Store believes in cooperation and collaboration between organizations to better serve the population. Over time, the organization plans to develop additional supplemental services beyond the grocery store, such as job training, cooking and nutrition classes.
Country artist Ashley Cooke recently topped the iTunes Country charts at No. 1 and the iTunes all-genre charts at No. 15 for her new debut song “Sunday Morning Kinda Saturday Night.” A Belmont alumna, Cooke graduated with a degree in corporate communications in 2019 and then moved on to pursue her career in the music industry.
In 2019, Cooke participated in and won Belmont University’s Country Music Showcase following in the footsteps of other successful country artists such as Brad Paisley and Chris Young (read here). Since then, she has been writing and working with highly-acclaimed producers and songwriters establishing herself as an artist.
With more than 78 thousand streams for her new single, she shared with CelebSecrets Country that she “hopes her fans will relate to the lyrics.” In light of the consistent success, Cooke has also been receiving press from various news sources including Sounds Like Nashville. For more information on her upcoming work, visit her website.
