The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has selected Assistant Professor of Nursing Kathy Jordan, also program chairwoman for undergraduate nursing, to serve as a registered reviewer to evaluate proposals for the Health Care Innovation Awards. The center will provide up to $1 billion in funding for projects that develop new payment and service delivery models that will reduce costs while preserving or enhancing the quality of care for beneficiaries in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The review process will begin Oct. 1.
Jordan to Review Health Care Innovation Proposals
Overby Holds Inaugural Kennedy Chair of Excellence
The Belmont University College of Business Administration (COBA) has given Dr. Jeffrey W. Overby the inaugural Edward C. and Helen J. Kennedy Chair of Excellence. Overby is an associate professor of marketing and serves as the director of the Center for International Business.
The Chair of Excellence was created through a generous gift from Helen J. Kennedy. The Edward C. and Helen J. Kennedy Chair of Excellence provides funding for a permanent chair in a business discipline within the College of Business Administration. The chairman must demonstrate proven success in the classroom, high quality scholarship and meaningful service to the Belmont community and beyond. The chairman also is expected to be a positive role model and mentor for the professional development of his or her colleagues.
Overby’s responsibilities include teaching marketing and international business at the undergraduate and graduate levels, expanding Belmont’s international business major, establishing study abroad relationships with foreign universities, and promoting internationalization within the College of Business Administration and the greater Nashville community.
He regularly teaches in international study programs, which includes recent study abroad trips to Spain, France, United Arab Emirates, Poland, South Korea, South Africa and Botswana. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Business Council of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, Sister Cities of Nashville, Round Table Inc., and the Tennessee World Affairs Council. Overby was the lead author and administrator on an $189,000 grant from the Bureau of International Education to internationalize the curriculum and to develop international-oriented co-curricular activities in COBA.
Overby obtained a Doctorate of Philosophy in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a Master of Business Administration from Millsaps College, and a Bachelor of Science in French from Mississippi State University. He has also studied at Odense University in Denmark, Birbeck College in England, Clemont-Ferrand, France and the Najafi Global Mindset Institute at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. His academic research interests are in the areas of international marketing, international business strategy, cross-cultural consumer behavior and the ethics of globalization. He has published in a number of leading journals, including the Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, The CASE Journal, Marketing Theory, and the International Marketing Review.
Clance Selected for Scholarship to Fudan University in Shanghai
Belmont alumna Tara Clance (’13) has been chosen by the Chinese Embassy as the recipient of the Chinese Government Scholarship to Fudan University in Shanghai where she will be pursuing her master’s in Chinese politics and diplomacy. Fudan is one of the oldest and most selective universities in China and is ranked No. 2 in the top universities in the nation. The scholarship will pay for Clance’s two-year program in full.
Clance, a Belmont honors student, graduated with a double major in international politics and Asian studies as well as a double minor in Spanish and Chinese.
“I ended up receiving the Gilman Scholarship in the exact amount that I needed in order to go on Belmont’s 2012 Rise of the Red Dragon study abroad trip to China. It is on that trip that I fell in love with China’s culture and knew that I wanted to go back,” Clance said.
Dr. Mimi Barnard, assistant provost of interdisciplinary studies and global education, accompanied Clance on the Rise of the Red Dragon program, led by Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn, director of Asian studies. “It was a joy to participate alongside students and faculty in China. Now, more than ever, it’s important for students to have an understanding of our global community–Tara will be highly prepared for a leadership role that leverages her education, languages and experience,” said Barnard.
Belmont’s Interdisciplinary Studies and Global Education houses the Asian Studies program, which provides an opportunity for those students with special interests in Asia to prepare themselves for a wide range of careers and callings. With many different courses and experiences available, students are able to focus on both the modern and traditional history and literature of Asian cultures and societies, contemporary Asian politics, economic links between the Asia and the rest of the world, and global philosophical, ethical and religious issues.
CEMB Launches New Internship Experience ‘Creative Connection’
This fall four juniors in the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business (CEMB) will take part in Creative Connection, a unique internship program designed to connect students with key music industry companies and help them establish familiarity and meaningful relationships with four different facets of the industry: publishing, administration, artist management and business management. Students will experience the different aspects of the music business by working with four different local companies: Creative Nation, Words and Music, Crush Management and The Kella Stephenson Company.
Jamie Stamey, CEMB Internship Coordinator, said, “This industry is full of individuals that are driven to provide experience and opportunities to up-and-coming professionals. Belmont and the Mike Curb College are fortunate and grateful to have relationships with these people for the benefit of our students.”
Opening Convo Marks Start of Vision 2020 Planning
A new academic year kicked off officially on Wednesday with the traditional Opening Convocation to celebrate the first day of classes for the fall semester. Following the singing of University Hymn “Jesus Is the Christ” and the Alma Mater, along with an opening prayer by Vice President for Spiritual Direction Dr. Todd Lake, Provost Dr. Thomas Burns welcomed the gathered crowd, calling attention to several items that illustrate this year’s campus theme, “Through the Eyes of Others.”
In addition to Belmont’s commitment to KIVA and the recent partnership with Live Beyond, Burns pointed to the upcoming Oct. 3 First Year Seminar (FYS) convocation with Christian missionaries Keren Madora and Kristine Diggins. Kristine is the daughter of Keren Madora and Dan Everett, the author of FYS common book, Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes.
“I challenge you,” Burns remarked, “as you participate in these activities, to make new connections – between people, between ideas, between actions – and to find the courage to make a difference in our world. I invite you to struggle with questions which have no easy answers. May we welcome those struggles, embrace them and let them transform the way we view and live in our world. Not every University will dare ask this much of its membership, but that’s why all of us have chosen to be part of Belmont University.”
Al-Shamma Publishes Article
Dr. Jim Al-Shamma, assistant professor of theatre, has published an article in the spring 2013 edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. It is included in the special section, “Witnessing History, Performing Trauma” and addresses a play by contemporary Iraqi playwright Jawad Al Assadi ; the article is titled “Staging Baghdadi Bath on the Western Stage: Toward a Theatre of Trauma.”
Al-Shamma facilitated and participated in a panel on Arabic drama on Aug. 3 at the annual conference of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Panelists included Jordanian director Mohammad BaniHani, who spoke on censorship in his country. Al-Shamma’s paper explored the social function of the bathhouse in Arabic drama and was titled, “’You are my blissfulness and my hell’: The Bathhouse in Two Arabic Plays.”
The video of the production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Al-Shamma at Texas A&M University-Commerce in February 2013 has been posted to MIT’s Global Shakespeares website, which is an educational archive of productions of Shakespeare from around the world.
McAbee Paper Accepted for Presentation
Assistant Professor of Religion and the Arts Donovan McAbee will present a paper at Calvin College’s Kuyers Institute Conference in October. McAbee’s paper, “From Knowledge to Wisdom: Developing Virtues through Service Learning” outlines the steps that he is taking to develop a team-based, service learning “Introduction to the Old Testament” course that centers its learning outcomes on the Old Testament call to care for the weak and the oppressed, particularly for the “aliens” in our midst. By serving local refugee communities in Nashville, McAbee hopes that the prophetic heart of the Old Testament will come alive for students, and that by reflecting on the plight of refugees in our country, students will be able to better connect with and understand the wanderings of the ancient Israelites in the Old Testament.
The theme for this year’s national teaching conference is “Virtues, Vices, and Teaching.” Presentations will focus on exploring “the implications of a focus on virtues and vices for the way Christian teaching and learning are approached.”
Taylor Movie on Faith, College National Recognized
Adjunct instructor Steve Taylor directed “Blue Like Jazz,” a 2012 movie based on Donald Miller’s best-selling memoir of the same name. In the film, an incoming college student discovers the student body’s conflict with his Christian faith and abandons it. The USA Today named it among the top movies students should watch get through their freshman year.
Taylor teaches Producing Film for the Entertainment Industry at Belmont University.
“Beautifully directed by Steve Taylor, the film tackles the existential struggles and corresponding crisis of faith so many people deal with during college,” the article says. Click here to read the article on “Blue Like Jazz” in USA Today.
McLain Earns Bluegrass Achievement Award
The International Bluegrass Music Association will honor adjunct professor Michael McLain and his family with its Distinguished Achievement Awards for their pioneering contributions to bluegrass music. The IBMA’s Distinguished Achievement Awards will be presented at a Special Awards Luncheon on Sept. 26 during IBMA’s World of Bluegrass events.
McLain teaches guitar, mandolin and banjo at Belmont and led the University’s Bluegrass Ensemble for more than a decade.
The McLain Family Band began performing in 1972. One of the first bluegrass bands to perform with symphony orchestras, the group performed in more than 80 countries for the U.S. government as “America’s Ambassadors of Traditional Music.” The band hosted a festival in Berea, Ky. for 13 years, and the siblings recorded more than a dozen albums on their own Country Life Records label. Fans will remember Raymond W. McLain as a banjo player with Jim & Jesse and mandolin player with Reno and Harrell, and Michael McLain on guitar and banjo with the Claire Lynch Band.
Bennett Presents at Workshop, Has Editorial Published in Essence
Dr. Sybril Bennett, professor of journalism, presented two workshops at the Alabama Broadcasters’ Association in Birmingham, Ala. She used her Seven Elements of Innovation framework: problem, principle, purpose, perspective, pioneering, passion and play to analyze TV news reporting and producing and she also conducted a session on social media strategies for newsrooms.
Bennett also had an opinion editorial published on Essence.com addressing the aftermath of media magnate Russell Simmons’ decision to publish a sex tape parody of Harriet Tubman on YouTube. Her piece is entitled, “In honor of Harriet Tubman, Pre-Internet Innovator.” The post includes an excerpt from her book, “Innovate: Lessons from the Underground Railroad” regarding Tubman’s leadership.
