Within a month of achieving her B.S. from Belmont in August, alumna Beth Baggett (’07) also received a certification as a nuclear medicine technologist from Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Upon graduation from the year-long program, she was presented with the M.D. Ingram Award for Technical Excellence for outstanding performance during clinicals at Vanderbilt Medical Center, Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and the Veterans Administration Medical Center. Baggett graduated from Belmont with a B.S. in medical imaging and is currently employed by the Hendersonville Medical Center.
Alumna Certified as Nuclear Medicine Technologist
Former Bruin Selected in CBA Draft
Former men’s basketball player Andrew Preston (Winchester, Ky.) was selected by the expansion East Kentucky Miners of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) in its college draft Tuesday night. Preston, a three-year starter and integral cog on Bruin NCAA Tournament teams in 2006 and 2007, developed into one of the most dependable post players of Belmont’s NCAA era. Named to the 2007 Atlantic Sun All-Tournament team behind his 18 point-10 rebound performance in the championship game victory at ETSU, Preston is the program’s NCAA era career leader in blocked shots (123) and ranks fourth in career field goal percentage (.534). Preston earned Academic All-Conference honors in 2006 and graduated this past May with a degree in accounting. “All of us are excited for Andrew’s opportunity in the CBA draft,” Belmont head coach Rick Byrd said. “Andrew’s dedication, work ethic and unselfish nature should make him a favorite of his coaching staff and teammates. I would expect Andrew to have an impact this rookie season and his Belmont family will be pulling for him.”
Billionaire Dennis Bakke Speaks on ‘Joy at Work’
Billionaire Dennis Bakke, co-founder and former president/CEO of the AES Corporation, spoke at Belmont this week, detailing the ideas behind his New York Times best-selling book, Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job. Bakke founded AES in 1981, helping to build the international energy corporation into a multi-billion dollar company with 40,000 employees in 31 countries. Co-sponsored by the Belmont Center for Business Ethics and the Office of Spiritual Development, Bakke led a networking reception and lecture Tuesday night for local business leaders and spoke again at a convocation in Neely on Wednesday.
“Making money is absolutely essential to running a business,” Bakke said. “But it’s not the purpose for the business. It’s not the reason the business exists. Our purpose should be to do something useful for society, to serve.”
Bakke concluded his talk on Wednesday by discussing the qualities necessary to be a great leader: humility and love. “Be the best in the world as a manager but don’t confuse it with leadership. Management is about control while leadership is about freedom, freeing people to make decisions.”
Dr. Harry N. Hollis, the James M. Medlin Chair of Business Ethics, is co-founder and current director of the Center for Business Ethics at Belmont, where he has taught since 1991. Dr. Hollis said, “Dennis Bakke is a business leader who understands that ‘Joy at Work’ depends on people who are ethical in all their relationships. His company was founded on the values of integrity, fairness, fun and social responsibility—which is certainly a winning combination for workplace success.”
In 2003, Bakke and his wife Eileen founded Imagine Schools, an organization that operates independent and nonprofit public charter schools. Imagine Schools now serve more than 20,000 students on 51 campuses in 11 states and the District of Columbia.
Henry Named Interim Head Coach for Men’s Golf
Billy Henry has been appointed interim head coach for men’s golf, announced Belmont Director of Athletics Mike Strickland. “Billy’s credentials speak for themselves, and we are honored to have him join our athletic department staff,” Strickland said. “His experience, integrity and good nature will enhance our golf program.”
Henry has more than four decades of distinguished service in intercollegiate athletics, both as a coach and administrator, including his recent 20-year post as assistant athletic director at the University of Tennessee before retiring in 2005. Belmont men’s golf returns to action Oct. 15-16 when it hosts the Belmont Fall Shootout at Nashville Golf & Athletic Club. For more on this story, click here.
Faculty/Staff Quoted in Tennessee Newspapers
This past weekend found several Belmont staff and faculty featured in regional news outlets:
• Dr. Pat Raines, dean of the Massey Graduate School of Business, was quoted in the Memphis Business Journal in an article on the rise of delinquent home loans.
• Provost Dr. Dan McAlexander was quoted in a Tennessean article on Hispanic student recruitment.
West Graduates Leadership Middle Tennessee Program
Dr. Susah H. West, vice president for presidential affairs, recently graduated from the year-long Leadership Middle Tennessee program along with 27 other community and business leaders from the region, according to Jack Turner, chair of the group’s board of directors. Leadership Middle Tennessee is a regional leadership institute encompassing the 10-county area in Middle Tennessee which includes Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Maury, Montgomery, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties.
New Theater Opens with Gala Celebration
Belmont University opened its new theater complex this past weekend with an invitation-only, black-tie Gala Celebration. The inaugural production in the 350-seat Troutt Theater featured William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing, a collaboration between the Belmont Theater Department and the Nashville-based Actors Bridge Ensemble. Actors Bridge has a long history with Belmont as the ensemble was founded in 1995 as a training program in the university’s Little Theatre.
Belmont Provost Dr. Dan McAlexander said, “We are proud to open this extraordinary new theater complex with this collaborative production. It serves as a perfect example of both Belmont’s distinctive brand of education—which connects rigorous learning on campus with real world experience in the professional communities of Nashville—and our commitment to serve this city. Of course, these new venues are tremendous assets for Belmont students. But, because they will be shared with a wide variety of local professional theater and dance companies, they are also outstanding new additions to the cultural life of Nashville.”
Much Ado About Nothing Director Bill Feehely, a former Belmont theater professor, founded Actors Bridge and now serves as the group’s artistic director. “It was a great honor to be given the opportunity to direct the very first production at the Bill and Carole Troutt Theater,” Feehely said. “I have the chance to do the thing I love with two organizations dear to my heart, Belmont University and Actors Bridge. I am also thrilled to be able to add to my career highlights premiering a wonderful cast and crew in this beautiful facility.”
Moore Speaks at Conference; Featured in Publication
Dr. Alison Moore, assistant professor in the Chemistry and Physics Department, was an invited speaker at the National Meeting of the ACS (American Chemical Society) that was held recently in Boston, Mass. Her presentation was about incorporating liberal arts into chemistry through the linked cohort course. Dr. Moore was also featured in an article in this week’s Chemical & Engineering News. The article summarizes the session in which Dr. Moore gave her presentation. The two photos that appear in the article are of Belmont students. To read the article, click here.
Curb College Partners with Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Mike Curb Family Foundation to ‘Celebrate the Songwriter’
Three major Nashville organizations—Belmont University, the Mike Curb Family Foundation and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame—announced today an exciting new partnership focused on the foundation of the music industry: songwriting. Intended to create visibility and understanding of the songwriting craft, the partnership includes the establishment of a new songwriting major in Belmont’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business and a permanent location for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, both of which will be housed in historic 34 Music Square East on Music Row.
With a mantra to “Celebrate the Songwriter,” the event opened with Hall of Fame member Dolly Parton offering her thoughts. “When I first came to Nashville, all of us would just get in a huddle to try to write together, folks like me and Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson,” Parton said. “Most of us barely got through high school, much less college. Belmont has done a wonderful thing as a university and with the music program, and I think it’s great how they are embracing songwriting.”
The building at 34 Music Square East—which is the former home of the legendary Quonset Hut, Columbia Studio A, Columbia and Epic Records, and Sony Music Nashville—joins Ocean Way and RCA Studio B as yet another valuable Music Row extension of the Curb College. Mike Curb said, “Belmont students can now further enrich their education of this industry’s history in Nashville in the historic Columbia Records Building and the historic Quonset Hut Recording Studio, the first recording studio on Music Row where great artists such as Marty Robbins, Sonny James, Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee recorded numerous hit records.”
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher, who tried to convince Parton to forego her “day job” to join the Curb College faculty, noted the immense opportunities the new partnership would offer. “It’s going to be a great learning environment for our students to come and learn and grow… [Though the students are young], like we saw with Josh Turner, they can turn their ideas into great songs.”
Deans’ Convo Focuses on Faith-Informed Academics
In a special convocation yesterday on Faith-Informed Academics, three Belmont Deans—Dr. Phil Johnston, Pharmacy; Dr. Kathy Baugher, Enrollment Services; and Dr. Jack Williams, Health Sciences and Nursing—shared a bit of their personal background and the lessons they learned as they approached their careers.
Speaking in a panel format to a full house at the Bunch Library Multimedia Hall, Dr. Johnston opened the session with his early memories of wanting to be a garbage man. Though he loved the sounds of the huge garbage trucks rumbling down his street, his career desires ultimately changed as a teenager when the longing for a car set him on an unexpected path. “At age 15, I decided to get a job, and at that time my choices were either working at a grocery store or the local drug store. That set my fate. I found out at the pharmacy what I needed to be—someone who would help people.”
Baugher, on the other hand, admits that her career only makes sense in hindsight. Growing up, she felt drawn to teaching and majored in elementary education before attending seminary, assuming her life would be spent in mission education. What she discovered, however, was that her personality was a better fit elsewhere. “What I didn’t know then was that I am a bossy girl, and we bossy girls like to take charge and get things done. I really didn’t need to be an elementary school teacher because I would kill somebody… Administration became interesting to me, though. I’ve learned a lot about pairing ministry and vocation. In admissions, I get to interact with young people and talk about God’s purpose in their life.”
Though Williams grew up in church, he discussed reaching a point in his 20s in which he struggled with what to think about Jesus. He acknowledged that he went into science to get something he could wrap his arms around, something that would offer answers he wasn’t finding in religion. But a significant turning point occurred for Williams following an accident in which he barely escaped death from a falling tree. “For the next three or four months after that, I had a connection with God that I still can’t explain. It opened up my eyes to the idea that not everything is rational. I started opening up my heart to other ways of listening besides just my head.”
