A group of systems engineering students recently visited the Peytonsville Baptist Church to assist them with their sound system. They verified, aligned and tuned the sound system in addition to providing hands-on training with the system for their worship team. According to Scott Munsell, the audio engineering lecturer on the trip, “It was a wonderful opportunity for our students to give back to the community as well as gain some excellent, real-world, hands-on experience applying the skills they’ve learned in Systems Engineering!”
System Engineering Students Visit Peytonsville Baptist Church
Alumna Promoted at Big Yellow Dog Music
Alex Stefano (’15) was recently promoted to General Manager Creative – Film & TV Sync at Big Yellow Dog Music. Stefano has worked with the team for three years and previously served as a Creative Manager for the company. According to Big Yellow Dog Music CEO Carla Wallace, “Through Alex’s efforts, we have secured placements for our writers in Grey’s Anatomy, Big Little Lies, How to Get Away with Murder, T-Mobile, Toyota and many more. As a classically trained pianist and a lover of films, she has an ability to combine those two strengths that creates great opportunities for our writers.” Stefano graduated with a B.B.A. in music business.
Bob Harris Discusses BBC with Students
Legendary BBC announcer Bob Harris spoke to Belmont students about his career with the BBC this week. Harris hosted “The Old Grey Whistle Test” for eight years when that show introduced acts such as Elton John, Van Morrison, Wings, Queen and others to the British audience. Harris has been with the BBC for over 40 years and currently hosts “The Bob Harris Show” on BBC Radio 2, the only show featuring country music on the BBC. He offered students expertise from his incredible career in radio programming and music discovery.
Alumnus Breaks ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award Record
Alumnus Ashley Gorley (’99) was named the performing rights organization’s Songwriter of the Year at the Rhyman this week for the fourth consecutive year. He has won this award five times now, setting a record for ASCAP country songwriters. “It’s amazing,” Gorley said. “There’s so many people I wish I could write more like that are out in the audience tonight.”
Gorley has written more than 34 No. 1 singles and has had more than 300 songs recorded by artists such as Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Florida Georgia Line, Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean and Darius Rucker. He was named the ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year in 2009, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017; Billboard Country Songwriter of the Year 2013 and 2016; and the NSAI Songwriter of the Year 2013 and 2016.
Gorley has been nominated for multiple Grammy and CMA Awards, he was nominated for ACM Awards Songwriter of the Year in 2016 and 2017, and has received the CMA’s Triple Play Award nine times in his career, which recognizes songwriters with three or more No. 1 songs in one year. In 2016, he became the first songwriter to be honored with three CMA Triple Play Awards in a single year, for earning nine chart-topping songs in a 12-month period.
In 2011, Gorley partnered with Combustion Music and Warner/Chappell Music to begin his own publishing venture, Tape Room Music. Writers for Tape Room Music have already celebrated eleven #1 songs and eight top ten singles by artists such as Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt, Keith Urban and Dustin Lynch.
Alumna Promoted to VP of THiS Music
Alumna Anna Weisband (’16), was recently promoted to Vice President of THiS Music, where she began working as an intern in 2012. According to partner/GM Rusty Gaston, “Anna…knows how to create value! Her passion for songs and songwriters, combined with her personality, confidence and enthusiasm makes her a magnet for success. Her abilities are limitless and we can’t wait to celebrate all her future successes in the many years to come.”
Weisband is responsible for talent discovery, collaboration creation, artist/writer management and song placement. She was a music business major at Belmont.
Belmont Graduate Student Co-Founds ‘Teach for Ecuador’
Juan Pablo Martinez, a current graduate student in Belmont’s organizational leadership and communication program, is one of five co-founders of Teach for Ecuador, a nonprofit that seeks to create a movement of agents of change committed to expanding quality education and opportunities for all Ecuadorian children. Martinez created the organization as an opportunity to give back to his country–and to prove that where you were born does not have to define your abilities, talents or outcomes.
“In my country, the place where you were born defines which opportunities you will have,” Martinez said. “I simply could not live with that. I had the blessing of being born to a family that prioritized my education over anything. Founding Teach for Ecuador is a way to give back to the society what life gave me.”
Utilizing a two-part model for services, the organization’s Fellowship Program provides an opportunity to the country’s brightest and most promising individuals from Ecuador’s best universities and workplaces. These fellows serve as full time teachers in low-income communities with some of the nation’s most under-resourced schools. This experience, Martinez said, benefits both the fellows and the community around them. “Our fellows get exposed to the grassroots realities of Ecuador’s education system and begin to cultivate the knowledge, skills and mindsets necessary to attain positions of leadership and identify their role in building a larger movement for equity in education,” he said.
Beyond their experiences as fellows, Martinez and his team support the leaders in their efforts to become advocates for change. Working in many positions within the education system as well as within the ecosystem surrounding Ecuador’s education, these fellows share a collective purpose towards nation-wide educational equity. “Together, we are working to build a broad people’s movement for educational equity that will accelerate progress toward the day when all children in Ecuador have the opportunity to attain an excellent education so that we, as a nation, can find our light and true potential,” Martinez said.
Martinez said the choice to attend Belmont’s master’s of education in organizational leadership and communication program was an easy one, particularly in light of the complexity that surrounds the work he does. “All sectors and organizations need leaders of excellence,” he said. “Belmont’s program will allow me to inspire and prepare professionals and organizations to undertake these responsibilities.”
Wells Visits Songwriting Class as Guest Speaker
Grammy-nominated producer, mixer and songwriter Greg Wells recently visited Jodi Marr’s Songwriting class as a guest speaker. Wells’s credits include Katy Perry, Adele, Keith Urban, One Republic, 21 Pilots, Timbaland, Celine Dion, Carol King, Pink and others.
Trost Receives Paul J. Hartman Memorial State and Local Tax Forum Award
Law Professor Charlie Trost was awarded the Paul J. Hartman Memorial State and Local Tax Forum Award for his outstanding contributions and dedicated service to the field of state and local tax law. Trost is the author and editor of the treatise, Federal Limitations on State and Local Taxation, 2d. He is recognized as a distinguished State and Local Tax (“SALT”) practitioner and serves as a Life Member and a former Treasurer of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.
He is a former Commissioner of Revenue for the State of Tennessee and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. In 2016, Trost was named one of the top ten State Tax practitioners in the country. He is of Counsel with the Nashville law firm Waller Lansden, where he has been a member and partner since 1981.
The Paul J. Hartman State & Local Tax Forum was established in 1993 in Nashville, Tennessee. Since that time, the Board of Trustees and Advisory Board have worked together to provide industry, practitioners and state revenue employees the opportunity to participate in a quality forum exploring significant national developments and trends in state and local taxation. Trost is only the third recipient of this award.
Belmont Celebrates Marie Curie’s 150th Birthday with Women in Science Symposium
Belmont University’s Department of Chemistry and Physics celebrated scientist Marie Curie’s 150th birthday with a Women in Science Symposium held Monday, November 6. The event, “Celebrating the Women of Physical Science” welcomed 50 local high school students, from 15 area high schools, who participated in lab tours, demonstrations and hands-on lab activities before Belmont faculty member Dr. Krista McBride led a short talk on the legacy of Curie’s life for the attendees and Belmont community.
Immediately after, Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross shared a keynote presentation, “With the Right Shoes, You Can Do Anything.” Iriarte-Gross is responsible for bringing Expanding Your Horizons (EYH), an international program bringing hands-on STEM experiences to girls, to Tennessee and is the recipient of the first American Chemical Society (ACS) Women Chemists Committee ChemLuminary Award for Most Innovative Recognition of Women in the Chemical Sciences.
Event organizer and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Education Dr. Danielle Garrett said the Department hosted the event as a way to highlight the continued underrepresentation of women in the physical sciences, make physical science more relatable and accessible to students and heighten publicity of Belmont’s science programs. Citing research that shows women receive more than 50% of bachelor’s degrees in biological sciences but only 39% in physical sciences (and the number decreases when considering chemistry and physics), Garrett and the rest of the Department’s STEM Outreach Committee are committed to emphasizing the importance of women in STEM fields.
School of Music Ranked as Great Value College for Music Majors
Belmont University’s School of Music was recently ranked as No. 19 on Great Value College’s Top 60 Great Value Colleges for Music Majors (Undergraduate). The School is the highest ranked in the state.
Using data from a number of sources, the ranking uses a point system that evaluates affordability, awards and recognition, competitiveness, average class size, additional features and graduate success, among other things.
Dean of the School of Music Dr. Stephen Eaves said, “The School of Music has a long tradition of excellence and innovation in developing relevant, successful musicians who are leaders in the field of music. We are pleased to be recognized as a great value for undergraduate music majors.”
