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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Pharmacy Student Society Officers Attend National Meeting

Paul Chenoweth
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2015-ASHP-Summer-MeetingDestin Lenz and Kelsie Graham, third year Belmont pharmacy students, recently attended the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists 2015 Summer Meeting in Denver, Colorado. Lenz and Graham serve as president and vice president, respectively, in Belmont’s Student Society of Health-System Pharmacists (SSHP).

This year’s meeting had the highest attendance of any in nearly a decade, consisting of four content-targeted conferences including the Ambulatory Care Conference, Informatics Institute, Medication Safety Collaboration and Pharmacy, Practice and Policy.

The duo participated in a student leadership development workshop focused on leadership opportunities in pharmacy practice and attended a session entitled, “A Student’s Guide to Provider Status,” where updates on the latest developments in provider status legislation were discussed.  In addition, they attended poster presentations, a session exclusively for students entitled, “Career and Life Success,” and a number of educational seminars on a variety of topics.

For more information, click here.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean Announces Plans to Join Belmont University Faculty This Fall

Paul Chenoweth
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Nashville Mayor Karl Dean Announces Plans to Join Belmont University Faculty This Fall

Will teach undergrads as Distinguished Visiting Professor of History and Politics

Belmont University undergrads are going to be scrambling today to add another class to their course schedules upon hearing the news that Nashville Mayor Karl Dean will be joining the University’s faculty this fall as Distinguished Visiting Professor of History and Politics. Following two successful terms as Nashville’s Mayor, helping to garner Music City a new and fitting “It City” moniker, Dean will leave office in late September and will assume his duties at Belmont in mid-October. His public service commitment will continue as he joins the ranks of higher education to share his expertise and insights with Belmont students.

Retired president of BellSouth/AT&T-Tennessee Marty Dickens recognizes better than most the contributions Dean will bring to the University as he worked tirelessly alongside the Mayor to make the Music City Center a reality and also serves as chair of Belmont’s Board of Trustees. “This is indeed another great day in the life of Belmont University,” Dickens said. “I can think of nothing more exciting than our students having the opportunity to learn from Karl Dean. Mayor Dean brings a wealth of experience in his understanding of how government works and how to operate within the associated politics to get things done ethically and with integrity in the best interest of the citizens being served. He has been an outstanding mayor of Nashville and he will be an outstanding addition to Belmont University.”

“I’m deeply honored to be asked to join the faculty here at Belmont,” Mayor Dean said. “The opportunity to work with our city’s, state’s and nation’s future leaders is a responsibility that I take very seriously. I’m looking forward to talking to students about some of the things that I believe have made Nashville such a strong city.”

Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher noted, “Mayor Dean’s service to our city is extraordinary, and the leadership he has shown in taking Nashville to the next level reflects the innovative, entrepreneurial, creative spirit we want to model for our students at Belmont. Having someone of his experience join our faculty is an incredible coup, and having someone of his character and friendship to this institution partner with us on educating the next generation of leaders is a rare opportunity.”

Karl Dean is the sixth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. He was elected on Sept. 11, 2007 and was re-elected on Aug. 4, 2011. Mayor Dean’s priorities are improving schools, making neighborhoods safer and bringing more and better jobs to Nashville. He also works to sustain and improve Nashville’s high quality of life through numerous initiatives that promote health, sustainability and volunteerism.

Mayor Dean first held public office when he was elected as Nashville’s Public Defender in 1990, a post he was re-elected to in 1994 and 1998. Mayor Dean served as Metro Law Director from 1999 to January 2007, when he resigned to run for the office of mayor. Mayor Dean completed the program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1999.

Wedgewood Academic Center Raises the Bar for Green Construction in Higher Education

Paul Chenoweth
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Wedgewood Academic Center Raises the Bar for Green Construction in Higher Education

Belmont becomes first university in Tennessee, first new construction in Nashville to achieve platinum LEED® status

Ten months after a successful opening, the Wedgewood Academic Center was recently awarded prestigious LEED Platinum® certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), making Belmont the first University in Tennessee and the first LEED for New Construction project in Nashville to achieve that level, the highest in the LEED ratings system.

The 186,000 square foot Wedgewood Academic Center sits above a five-level underground parking garage and represents Belmont’s largest building to date. The facility houses more than 50 undergraduate programs from three different colleges as well as 20 state-of-the-art science labs, numerous classrooms and offices, two food service venues, multiple green roofs and a chapel.

David Minnigan, a principal with architectural firm Earl Swensson Associates (ESa), noted that the platinum certification is even more significant considering the challenges such a building presents in terms of its large size, style (traditional versus modern) and contents. “With such classical architecture, it is not always appropriate to use contemporary techniques—like some types of green screens or sun shades—that are commonly utilized on many LEED-certified new construction projects. Plus, a facility that’s in use by college students 18 hours a day and incorporates science laboratory facilities can make energy efficiency difficult. But Belmont is committed to quality construction, and Bob and Judy Fisher are champions of sustainable design. They are passionately dedicated to common-sense sustainability, so we were excited to partner with them to help achieve their goals for this project.”

Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher, who participated as a college student in the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, works diligently to balance cost effective construction with environmentally-friendly features, examining every detail of each new construction project. “Universities should be at the forefront of issues impacting society. And my son Rob, who is an environmental consultant, frequently reminds me that sustainability and conservation are critical topics facing us today and facing the future generations we’re educating on this campus. It’s imperative that we model a strong commitment to managing resources, as Belmont’s done with its Conservation Covenant, recognizing that prioritizing ‘green’ initiatives reflects good stewardship and offers long-term benefits to our operations, the environment and our community’s health and satisfaction.”

LEED®, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the preeminent program for the design, construction, maintenance and operations of high-performance green buildings. To achieve LEED certification, building projects satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels of certification, with platinum representing the highest possible level. Points are accumulated in a number of categories, including the sustainability of the site itself, water efficiency, energy conservation, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation in design.

A few highlights of the sustainable initiatives that are reflected in the Wedgewood Academic Center as outlined in the LEED report include:

  • Over 30,000 square feet of site area was restored or protected
  • 73 percent of the area within the LEED project boundary is vegetated open space
  • Combination of vegetated roof (over 18,600 square feet) and highly reflective roof (over 23,800 square feet) will result in significant energy savings, reduced heat island effect and effective storm water runoff treatment
  • 100 percent reduction in potable water usage and 55 percent reduction in total water usage were achieved through use of groundwater for irrigation
  • 41 percent reduction in water usage in flush & flow fixtures (saving approximately 200 kGal of water annually)
  • Energy usage was reduced by 38 percent over a baseline building due to several factors that include space conditioning provided by chilled beams, water source heat pumps, and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat pumps
  • Energy use reduction results in approximately $155,000 in annual energy savings for the University
  • 8 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills (953 tons total)
  • 44 percent of all materials used on-site (by cost) were manufactured and extracted/harvested/recovered within 500 miles of the project site.

A complete scorecard for the Wedgewood Academic Center’s LEED certification can be found here.

Tough Gives Tour to Local Students

Paul Chenoweth
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ToughAssociate Professor of Audio Engineering Dr. David Tough recently gave a tour of Belmont’s recording facilities to a group of students from the Heart Foundation and Berean Baptist Church Ministries.

Tough’s tour was arranged through a contact at Tennessee State University to provide the students with a behind-the-scenes look at Belmont’s facilities.

Alumni Present Research at International Conference

Paul Chenoweth
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Andrew Trask and David Gilmore, 2014 Belmont computer science graduates, will present their research at the 32nd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), the leading international machine learning conference, in France. Their paper titled, “Modeling Order in Neural Word Embeddings at Scale,” describes the deep neural network built at their employer, Digital Reasoning and is co-authored by Digital Reasoning’s Chief Technology Officer Matthew Russell. Neural Networks are computer systems that are modeled after the human brain and can gather new data, process it and react to it. The paper details both the impressive scope of their neural network as well as the exponential improvement in quality.

The design for the network is based on ideas Trask developed studying at Belmont.  The parallel neural network is 14 times larger than the previous world record (built at Google), and performs 40 percent better in a key language-recognition benchmark than any other program. Their paper will be published in Volume 37 of the Journal of Machine Learning Research.

For more information, click here.

Panvini Leads Student Research Group at Belle Forest Cave

Paul Chenoweth
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cave-1Chair and Professor of Biology Dr. Darlene Panvini and six senior biology majors are conducting research at the Belle Forest Cave Property in Bellevue this summer.  Recently purchased by TennGreen, this four-acre wooded site contains a limestone cave, head water spring and several streams. TennGreen is a nonprofit committed to protecting Tennessee’s natural treasures by creating a network of parks, greenways and wildlife areas across Tennessee.

Student research projects include cataloging macroinvertebrate diversity in the stream, determining relationships between occurrence of earthworms, soil fauna and exotic plants and assessing decomposition rates of native and exotic leaves in the stream and terrestrial plots dominated by exotic and native plants.

Sanders Explores Land, Life Lessons at Pine Ridge

Paul Chenoweth
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Sanders Explores Land, Life Lessons at Pine Ridge

SandersRising senior social work major Rebecca Sanders trekked many miles and asked many difficult questions during Professor Dr. Andy Watt’s Maymester program as she and her team learned the history of the western U.S.’s land and people.

The trip began May 12 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where Sanders met with tribal elders and local artists to hear their stories and visit important, local sites. The next stop was the Crow Reservation in Montana to learn about the Battle of Little Big Horn and Crow culture. Soon after, the group traveled to Yellowstone National Park to participate in the park’s Wolf and Bear Exploration and Cody, Wyoming for the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The trip concluded May 29 in Keystone, South Dakota with stops at Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, Sylvan Lake and Badlands National Park.

Sanders explained that Belmont prepared her for the trip by teaching the value of a good question asked in humility. “As we traveled to two Native American reservations, the first national park and various sites along the way, we asked hard questions. We asked about the justice of American westward expansion as we learned from our Lakota and Crow friends. We asked about the health of eco-systems within Yellowstone National Park and the controversy over wolves and bison. We asked about the nature of respect owed to historical figures. Belmont has taught me to never stop asking questions,” she said.

Sanders said she is thankful Dr. Watts mentioned the trip during her Christian Ethics Seminar last fall. Primarily having traveled abroad in the past, Sanders wanted a chance to experience America more fully. Looking for an opportunity to spend time outdoors and learn about American history from the people who lived it, Sanders said her time in Pine Ridge was exactly what she hoped for. “Every day was an adventure,” she said.

Sanders plans to obtain her master’s degree in social work after graduation and go on to work within the criminal justice system. Thanks to her trip, Sanders said she has a more practical understanding of the many ways people experience life in America and a deeper insight into the theories and statistics she has learned in class.

“The trip will shape the rest of my time [at Belmont] through the way it showed me that the answers I find when I ask hard questions demand action. I am acquiring skills at Belmont that will enable me to act on the answers to the tough questions of social justice.”

Alumni Help Soldiers, Veterans Through ‘REBOOT Combat Recovery’

Paul Chenoweth
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Alumni Help Soldiers, Veterans Through ‘REBOOT Combat Recovery’

Alumni Evan and Jenny Owens may not have ever gone through basic training, much less served in combat, but the couple has still developed a passion for ministering to soldiers and their families. In fact, helping soldiers overcome the spiritual wounds of war has become this couple’s mission and led to them founding REBOOT Combat Recovery in 2011.

Jenny received her B.A. from Belmont in 2005 followed by a doctorate in occupational therapy, also from Belmont, in 2007. After graduating, she worked in neuro-rehabilitation at Vanderbilt and then with patients suffering traumatic brain injuries at the Warrior Resiliency and Recovery Center at Fort Campbell’s Blanchfield Army Community Hospital.

Jenny said, “I will never forget my first soldier patient. He was young, strong, handsome and totally intimidating. He seemed absolutely out of place among the wheelchairs and walkers that scattered the clinic. But, upon getting to know him, I came to recognize the invisible wounds that no less affected his mind and spirit. He was involved in a rocket attack at a gym in Iraq. It was a mass casualty situation. He dragged his workout buddy to safety before he even recognized that he was also injured. His greatest desire was to be returned to full duty and deploy, once again, with his unit to Afghanistan. But he had memory problems, trouble finding his way around, problems getting his words out, headaches and visual disturbances. Anxiety, a thing that had been completely foreign to him, bubbled under the surface… This is why REBOOT exists. This soldier is who we exist for. Because this soldier patient is one of a million like him.”

Evan added, “When Jenny accepted the position at Ft. Campbell as an OT, we moved into a community of military families. As we became friends with these families, we recognized that there were issues not being addressed through the traditional treatment models. During a road trip, my wife began reading a book about PTSD aloud. By the end of the chapter, we both had felt a calling, loud and clear that this was where we were to focus our efforts.”

In 2010, Jenny and Evan met with a combat-injured staff sergeant and his wife who had reached a crisis point and were desperate for hope. The two couples discussed difficult topics and talked about coping strategies, and before long, the support group of four had grown to 10. By the next year, Jenny and Evan knew this was their new calling, and REBOOT was born. “We had no plans of building a non-profit,” Evan said. “Our goal was to simply help a few friends by listening to them and supporting them in any way we could. It only took a couple meetings for us to be hooked! From there, doors began to open. We were invited on post to form our first REBOOT Combat Recovery group. Our group sizes quickly grew from 7 families, to nearly 20 in under a year. It was clear we had hit a nerve and people were responding. Other military bases began to call and ask how they could start holding REBOOT in their communities and the momentum continued. Today, REBOOT Combat Recovery has over eight locations and is on pace to serve over 750 families! We are proud of our 88 percent graduation rate, and nearly 25 percent of our graduates go on to become leaders within the organization.”

REBOOT Combat Recovery exists to support the healing of combat veterans and their families from the spiritual wounds of war. The nonprofit organization offers a 12-week flagship program that focuses on topics including “Where was God?” and “What Happened to Me?” as well as exploring subjects like guilt, forgiveness, grief and identity. Reboot also offers six-week continuation courses focusing on spiritual foundations and growth as well as specific issues faced by  military families.

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Fadely Recieves VESNIP Credo Award

Paul Chenoweth
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Achievers.FadelyThirteen Belmont students recently completed the Vanderbilt Experience Student Nurse Internship Program’s Summer 2015 Nurse Residency. Out of these, Tisra Fadely was recognized with the Credo Award for her hard work on the perioperative track. According to her certificate, Fadely “is a student that made our patients the highest priority by communicating effectively with patients and their families and was committed to being a team player.” 

As stated on her certificate, some of her preceptors attested to the qualities Fadely has that earned her the award. “Tisra demonstrates a rare sensitivity and dedication to patient centered care, as well as a keen interest in evidence-based practice. She was consistently kind, attentive and professional. As a coworker, she was respectful, conscientious and hardworking. One of her most impressive attributes is her gracious manner of asking questions and sharing information. She researches questions she has relating to patient care and shares her knowledge with true intellectual enthusiasm. I have found her deeply committed to patient care and genuinely committed to nursing.”

Honors Students Represent Belmont at Christian Scholars Conference.

Paul Chenoweth
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CSC-Attendees
Ellis (2nd from left) and Potts (3rd from left) with two other Honors student panelists at the Christian Scholars Conference

Each year, Belmont’s Honors Program, co-sponsored by the Office of Spiritual Development, selects two outstanding students to present essays at the Christian Scholars’ Conference (CSC). Belmont honors students Sarah Ellis, senior political science major, and Samantha Potts, senior music business major, were recently selected to represent Belmont.

The mission of the CSC is to create and nurture an intellectual and Christian community that joins individuals and institutions to stimulate networks of scholarly dialogue and collaboration.  The conference calls together scholars from a wide variety of disciplines in the liberal arts, sciences, business, law, education and medicine to develop their own academic research and reflect on the integration of scholarship and faith. Hosted by Abilene Christian University in Texas, this year’s session was titled, “Honors Students at Faith-Based College and Universities: How Do We Respond to Injustice?”

Participants presented an original essay on faith, social justice and public policy before an audience of fellow students and professors.  Ellis discussed her essay, “Social Justice, Faith and Serving Community Needs” and Potts presented “Education, Faith and Public Policy in Disadvantaged Communities.” Ellis and Potts also attended lectures and met with Christian educators from across the country.

According to Dr. J. Warren Casey, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Harding University, the Belmont presenters “were poised and professional and their thoughts were well-received by those in attendance.  After the session, the Honors students pulled together and spent two days telling stories and going to sessions together.  [They] are a delightful pair and, most importantly, they represented Belmont Honors in an outstanding way.”

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