Class of 1962

Sen. Alexander, who earned his bachelor’s degree in 1962, majored in Latin American Studies. He was a reporter and news editor of The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper. The Maryville, Tenn., native is a former two-term governor of Tennessee, U.S. secretary of education, University of Tennessee president and professor at Harvard’s School of Government. He earned his J.D. at New York University Law School. In private life, he helped found the nation’s largest provider of worksite day care, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc.

Class of 1974

Bayless, who grew up in Oklahoma City, Okla., attended Vanderbilt on the prestigious Grantland Rice Scholarship. The 1974 graduate covered sports for The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper and majored in English and history. Bayless developed a national reputation as a sports writer for the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times. He wrote three books chronicling different eras of the Dallas Cowboys and was a prominent sports columnist in Dallas, Chicago and San Jose before being hired full time as a commentator by ESPN for programs like 1st and 10 and SportsCenter.

Class of 1963

Blount, a Grantland Rice Scholarship recipient, came to Vanderbilt from Decatur, Ga., where he was editor of his high school newspaper. He majored in English and began working for The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper after becoming friends with Lamar Alexander and other student journalists. Blount became editor before graduating in 1963. He is a prolific writer and humorist who has authored 21 books. He’s a columnist for The Oxford American, contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly, and panelist for NPR’s Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me.

Class of 1974

Elson, a native of Oak Ridge, Tenn., majored in English at Vanderbilt. She was elected the first post-World War II woman editor of The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper. She worked at the Nashville Banner the spring of her senior year in 1974 before graduating magna cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa. She reported for the two Dallas newspapers before moving to the Chicago Tribune, where she held a variety of positions, including associate managing editor/features. At the Tribune, she edited a series about the Human Genome Project that won a Pulitzer Prize for exploratory journalism. Elson became managing editor of Tribune Media Services, the syndication and licensing division of Tribune Co., in 2004.

Class of 1991

Feist, who majored in political science at Vanderbilt, began volunteering for The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper his first day on campus. Feist, who was born in Trinidad, hosted Viewpoint, a campus public affairs/talk program that aired on Nashville cable. He graduated magna cum laude and joined CNN full-time in 1991. He was founding executive producer of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Feist was named political director and senior executive producer of political coverage during the 2008 presidential election. In January 2009 he became CNN’s vice president of Washington-based programming. Feist earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

Class of 1974

Benson grew up in Nashville, loved Vanderbilt and developed a keen interest in radio during his teens. He found his way to campus and WRVU, where he began reporting news on a fill-in basis. WRVU became a large part of Benson’s college life. After graduating in 1974 with a B.A. in history, “D.B,” as he was called, began his radio career with Jefferson-Pilot at WQXI AM/FM in Atlanta. Now, with more than 30 years of radio industry experience, he is president and CEO of Lincoln Financial Media Co., whose parent acquired Jefferson-Pilot. Benson has overall responsibility for the operations of 14 radio stations in Atlanta, Miami, San Diego and Denver. Benson has been named to Radio Ink magazine’s list of “The 40 Most Powerful People in Radio.”

Class of 1980

Heard, a native of Jackson, Miss., enjoyed writing for The Hustler and later Versus. He earned his B.A. in English in 1980. After graduation, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he began working at magazines, and he’s been doing that ever since. Now he is the editorial director of Outside magazine. He also has worked as an editor and writer at Wired, The New York Times Magazine, New Republic and other publications. Heard’s new book, The Eyes of Willie McGee, tells the story of a young African American man from Laurel, Miss., who was executed in 1951 for allegedly raping a white housewife. To tell the story, Heard relied on exhaustive documentary research, including FBI documents, interview transcripts and the recollections of family members whose parents or spouses were involved in the case.

McGill, who was born in 1898 in Igou’s Ferry, Tenn., enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1917. He wrote a column called “Censored” for The Hustler and contributed to Jade, a student humor magazine. McGill also wrote poetry and became friends with some of the famed Fugitive writers. During his senior year, he was suspended for writing a Hustler column in which he criticized the administration for not using the $20,000 that was bequeathed by a former professor for a student lounge. He left the College of Arts and Science, although he later enrolled in Vanderbilt Law School. McGill never completed any degrees at Vanderbilt. He worked at the Nashville Banner newspaper, and in 1929, he joined the Atlanta Constitution, where he worked his way up to syndicated columnist, editor and publisher of the morning newspaper. McGill was a staunch supporter of civil rights and opposed social and educational segregation at a time when few around him spoke out on the issue. In 1959, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorials condemning hate crimes by the Ku Klux Klan. McGill died from a heart attack in 1969.

Class of 1988

Olney, who grew up on a farm in Vermont, came to Vanderbilt to study history, but said “my major was working at the newspaper and at Versus.” By age 15 he knew that he wanted to be a sportswriter, in particular, one who covered baseball. He does this now as a senior writer and analyst for all ESPN entities, appearing on programs such as “Baseball Tonight” and “Sports Center.” After graduating with a B.A. in history in 1988, Olney became the Nashville Banner beat reporter for the Nashville Sounds. He moved to the San Diego Union- Tribune and Baltimore Sun before joining The New York Times. He has been at ESPN since 2003. Olney is the author of The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness and of the forthcoming book How Lucky You Can Be, which is about basketball coach Don Meyer.

Class of 1955

According to the 1953 Commodore, Smith was among those who began work on a campus radio station, then called WVU. He served as the station’s first technical director and engineer. Smith earned his B.A. in chemistry in 1955 and then went to Harvard, where he received his M.D. He did tours of active naval duty during Vietnam and Desert Storm, where he was deployed to the Middle East. He joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1969 and directed the Coronary Care Unit and Heart Station. He also became chief of cardiology at the Nashville Veterans Medical Center. Smith was in charge of a series of experiments involving the effect of weightlessness on astronauts’ heart function during the three Skylab missions. The cardiology unit at the Nashville VA Medical Center is named after him.

Class of 1980

Wilkinson grew up in Atlanta, Ga., and worked as a reporter and news editor for The Hustler. She earned her B.A. in English literature in 1980. After working for United Press International in Peru and Nicaragua, Wilkinson joined the LA Times in 1987. She has covered wars, crises and daily life in more than 50 countries. She now is based in Mexico City, where she is the Times’ bureau chief and a contributor to its La Plaza blog. Among her awards, Wilkinson received the George Polk Award for coverage of the Balkans and Kosovo and the Overseas Press Club Award twice. She also wrote the lead story in the Times’ Pulitzer-award-winning package on racially motivated riots. Her book The Vatican’s Exorcists: Driving Out the Devil in the 21st Century has been translated into half a dozen languages.

Class of 1997

Tyler Kepner published his own baseball magazine in high school and in his first year of college. He received the prestigious Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Scholarship and became editor-in-chief of the Hustler. Kepner wrote about the Anaheim Angels for the Riverside Press-Enterprise and the Seattle Mariners for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before heading to The New York Times. Starting in 2000 he covered the Mets and then moved to the Yankees beat in 2002. In 2010, Kepner was named a national baseball writer for The New York Times.

Class of 1979

Fred Buc was a high school senior when he signed up for a class at Vanderbilt so he could work at WRVU. Buc later became general manager at WRVU and worked a part-time job at WKDA-AM and WKDF-FM while attending Vanderbilt. After college, he went to work full-time at WKDA-KDF. In the late ’80s Buc became part of the original “Rebel 100” staff of WRLT-FM. Buc then worked for Jefferson-Pilot Communications and KCFX-FM. He co-founded a national advertising agency before returning to WRLT, now known as Lightning 100. Buc was named general manager in 1998.

Class of 1973

Neil Skene was editor of the Hustler his senior year. After graduation, he joined the Tampa Times. Then he enrolled at Mercer University’s School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1977. Skene served as capital bureau chief at the St. Petersburg Times. He became editor of the St. Petersburg Evening Independent in 1984. He then led Congressional Quarterly as president from 1987 to 1997. Skene is vice chairman and legal counsel for software provider MedAffinity Corp. and president of Holly Lake Investments. He has been writing a series on the history of the Florida Supreme Court.

Class of 1971

Terry Eastland covered sports for the Hustler. He later held editorial positions at the Greensboro Record, San Diego Union and Virginia-Pilot. In 1983, Eastland was named chief speech writer for U.S. Attorney General William French Smith. He later became director of public affairs for the Justice Department. Eastland has written several books, and his articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Commentary and New Republic. He was a correspondent on documentaries for PBS examining how the media covered a particular story, such as Gulf War Syndrome. He became publisher of The Weekly Standard in 2001.

Class of 1968

Frye Gaillard worked on the Hustler and the high-profile speaker series Impact Symposium, for which he helped bring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy to campus. He worked for the Mobile Register before returning to Nashville to write for the Race Relations Reporter newsletter. He eventually became Southern editor at the Charlotte Observer, where he covered the city’s landmark school desegregation case. Gaillard has written or co-authored more than 20 books, including Cradle of Freedom, The Dream Long Deferred and Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music.

Class of 1999

Lee Jenkins grew up in San Diego and was awarded the Russell- Rice Sportswriting Scholarship in 1993. He started his work at the Hustler covering sports. “Tyler Kepner assigned me my first story for the Hustler on Vanderbilt baseball player Josh Paul, who later went pro, before I had finished moving into my dorm,” Jenkins said. Jenkins served as Hustler editor-inchief, which he calls “the best job I ever had.” After graduation, Jenkins, an American Studies major, covered UCLA basketball and football for the Orange County Register and the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets for The Colorado Springs Gazette. In 2003 he joined The New York Times, where his assignments included being the beat reporter for the New York Mets. Jenkins’ numerous honors include first place in the New York Press Association (Sports Reporting) category and the Football Writers Association of America (Best Game Story). In 2007 he was named senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the NBA finals, with an emphasis on feature writing. Jenkins lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Vanderbilt alumna Elizabeth Cook Jenkins (’99), and their two children.

Class of 1997

Geist Willie Geist recently was named co-host of the 9 a.m. hour of the Today show. He has hosted MSNBC’s “Way Too Early With Willie Geist” and co-hosts political show “Morning Joe.” He has a video blog on MSNBC.com called Zeitgeist. Geist grew up in Ridgewood, N.J., and when he joined the Hustler staff, he first worked as a staff sports writer and then an associate sports editor. “I had never covered sports because I’d been playing them my whole life,” Geist said. “Sports writing kept me close to the games in college.” Geist was named a contributing editor of the Hustler his senior year. Meanwhile, his interest in American, and particularly Southern, politics deepened with classes from political scientists like John Greer, Bruce Oppenheimer and John Kuzenski. Geist earned his bachelor’s degree in political science in 1997. He jumped into sports television as an editor and producer for CNN/Sports Illustrated, a 24- hour sports network based in Atlanta. In 2005 Geist joined MSNBC as a senior producer for “The Situation with Tucker Carlson.” His newsroom banter with Carlson became a regular feature of the program where Geist would report and offer his unique spin on the day’s news. Geist’s big break came in 2007 when he was named co-host of “Morning Joe,” which has grown to become arguably television’s most influential political show. Geist lives in New York City with his wife, Vanderbilt alumna Christina Sharkey Geist (’97), and their two children.

Class of 1972

Harris, who grew up in Tampa, Fla., came to Vanderbilt as a national merit scholar. The university’s lack of a journalism school actually attracted him to campus, as he preferred to focus on the liberal arts. “In a remarkable way we were self-taught. None of us was a journalism major,” said Harris, who was editor-in-chief of the Hustler his senior year. He majored in history and economics. After his junior year, Harris competed with some 1,200 applicants for a Washington Post internship and won a coveted slot with the Los Angeles Times/ Washington Post News Service. Harris was hired by the Tampa Times after graduation. In 1973, the Washington Post offered him a position in London, where he would select and edit stories for their syndication clients. “This was long before the Internet and email so we were dealing with satellite windows, ticker tapes and telex operators,” Harris said. During that time, Harris met the man of his dreams and they have been together for more than 38 years. That relationship was a deciding factor in Harris’ decision to settle in London and build his career there. In 1979 Harris became a news editor at the Financial Times, which was launching its first international edition. He stayed at the Financial Times for nearly 30 years in a variety of reporting and editing positions and created Mudlark, a financial diary column, before retiring in 2007. Harris now is a freelance columnist for Securities & Investment Review.

Class of 1988

Kelley, of Bethesda, Maryland, is a New Jersey native. She worked for The Hustler all four years at Vanderbilt (1984-88) and served as editor-in-chief. She majored in English and history. She worked as a freelance reporter and producer in London and later in Washington, D.C. Kelley joined NPR in 1994 as an editorial assistant for Morning Edition, and she advanced to the helm of Weekend Edition. Along the way, she has helped shape NPR coverage of major stories, including Hurricane Katrina, terrorist attacks, U.S. presidential elections and more. She is now the senior supervising editor of All Things Considered.

Class of 1969

Offenburger, an Iowa native, launched his journalism career at the age of 13 as sports editor for his hometown newspaper. At Vanderbilt, he majored in political science and reported for The Hustler, covering speakers and programs, including those related to civil rights and the Vietnam War. Offenburger served as editor-in-chief of The Hustler. Highlights of his career included writing more than 4,000 columns for the Des Moines Register. Offenburger left the paper in 1998 but continues to write on a freelance basis. He and his wife, Carla Offenburger, co-manage Offenburger.com, a news and opinion website. 

Class of 1977

Rothschild, of Los Altos, California, grew up in New Jersey. At Vanderbilt, he worked at WRVU throughout his undergraduate and graduate school years and served as station manager. Rothschild majored in psychology and received his bachelor’s degree in 1977. He then studied computer science at Vanderbilt and earned a master’s degree in 1979. Career milestones include co-founding Veritas Software in 1988 and gaming company Mpath Interactive in 1995. Rothschild now is vice president of infrastructure engineering at Facebook and a consulting partner with Accel Partners. He serves on the Vanderbilt Board of Trust and the university’s Technology Transfer Advisory Committee.  

Class of 1990

Scholly, of Chicago, grew up in nearby Glenview, Illinois, and joined WRVU during her freshman year at Vanderbilt. At WRVU, she worked as a disc jockey, assistant music director, general manager and business manager. Scholly majored in anthropology and earned her bachelor’s degree in 1990. After earning a master’s in journalism at Northwestern in 1994, she was hired into the nascent field of online media, eventually serving as vice president of interactive for the Chicago Tribune Media Group, overseeing all of Chicago Tribune’s web and mobile products. Since 2010, Scholly has been chief operating officer for Chicago Public Media.

Class of 1991

Sheinin, of Baltimore, Maryland, grew up in Carrollton, Georgia, where he learned about the Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Scholarship. He received the scholarship when he came to Vanderbilt in 1987. As a first-year student, Sheinin broadcast news updates for WRVU and wrote for The Hustler. He also wrote for Versus magazine. Sheinin earned his bachelor’s degree in 1991, majoring in English and music. Sheinin has been covering baseball and writing features and enterprise stories for The Washington Post since 1999. His books include RG3: The Promise (Penguin, 2013), which is about Heisman Trophy winner and Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III.

Class of 1995

Chowdhry, an entrepreneur and native of Knoxville, Tennessee, majored in English and minored in East Asian Studies while working on the Commodore yearbook and The Vanderbilt Review. She rose to editor-in-chief of both publications. Chowdhry co-founded AnswerLab, a consulting firm whose clients include Facebook, FedEx, Nissan and Google. For the past three years, AnswerLab has made Fortune’s list of “Top 25 Companies to Work For.” Last year, Chowdhry was named one of Fortune’s 10 Most Promising Women Entreprenuers.

Class of 1979

Etheridge grew up in the Mississippi cities of Carthage and Jackson. As a Vanderbilt freshman in 1975, he began working for Versus, then a monthly feature magazine. Etheridge majored in English and served as Versus editor his senior year. After earning his BA in 1979, Etheridge moved to New York City and spent four years at The Nation. He went on to become associate editor at Harper’s Magazine and then editor at Rolling Stone and George. In 2008, Etheridge published Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, which features the mugshots of all the 328 riders arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, as well as new portraits and excepts of interviews with 80 of those riders. He is now a freelance photographer and also works with his wife, Kate Browne, documenting her public-sculpture series around the world.

Class of 1972

Neel enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1963 and worked at the Vanderbilt Hustler for three years. He was drafted into the military after his junior year and was a Navy journalist from 1966-1970. Neel returned and graduated with a major in fine arts in 1972. Three years later he wrote Dynamite! 75 Years of Vanderbilt Basketball. He became legislative director for then-U.S. Rep. Al Gore and later chief of staff for Gore’s Senate office. Neel also worked in the White House as Vice President Gore’s chief of staff and President Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff. Neel is currently teaching adjunct in the Vanderbilt Department of Political Science and working on a political novel to be published later this year.

Class of 1994

Stitt came to Vanderbilt in 1990 from Covington, Tennessee. She worked on the Hustler’s Perpectives section while majoring in theory and composition at the Blair School of Music. Stitt earned her bachelor of music degree in 1994 and moved to New York where she pursued her career in music and earned an MFA from New York University in 1997. Stitt is currently working on the original musicals Snow Child and Ajax. Her other shows include The Danger Year, Big Red Sun and Samantha Spade: Ace Detective. Her choral piece with hope and virtue was featured on NPR. Her most recent orchestral piece, Waiting for Wings, co-written by her husband Jason Robert Brown, was commissioned by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and premiered there in 2013.

Class of 1970

Rawls, whose celebrated career has included award-winning investigative reporter, New York Times bureau chief, television screenwriter and professor, was born near Goodlettsville, Tennessee, and grew up in Chattanooga. He enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1959 and joined the Commodore yearbook staff two years later to assist then-editor John Hemphill. Rawls, who was very involved in intramural sports and Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, credits Hemphill with early influence on his career. "Hemphill impressed upon me the importance of correctly identifying scores of names in yearbook photos," Rawls said. "These might be the only remembrances of some of my classmates. I learned the importance of accuracy, something that stayed with me through the years."  

Rawls took a break from college in 1964 but was employed as a university fundraiser in the Office of Alumni and Development. Rawls also served in the U.S. Army before returning to campus in 1966 to complete his degree. At that time, Rawls needed money to cover all of his college expenses.

Hemphill was working at The Tennessean as the Vanderbilt correspondent and encouraged Rawls to apply for a sports opening. Rawls became the tennis and bowling editor and wrote a series of investigative stories about the abuse of Tennessee Walking Horses. His series was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. All of this happened before Rawls, who majored in history while working full time for The Tennessean, received his bachelor of arts in 1970.

In 1972, Rawls became the first national correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was a Pulitzer finalist in 1975 and then won the Pulitzer in 1977 for a series of articles that disclosed 21 murders and other illegal activities inside a hospital for the criminally insane in Pennsylvania. The disclosed atrocities resulted in 37 guards and hospital officials being indicted for illegal activities before the hospital was closed. Rawls later wrote a book called Cold Storage based on that investigation.   

Rawls joined The New York Times in 1977 and worked in both Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, where he became the Times' Southern bureau chief. In 1986, he moved to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to direct its news operation. In the next two years, the staff won two Pulitzer prizes and had seven finalists. 

Rawls later became a screenwriter and producer for several movies and miniseries for television, including "A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story,"  "Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter," "In the Line of Duty: Ambush at Waco," and "Tonya and Nancy: The Inside Story." 

In addition, he taught from 2000 to 2015 at Middle Tennessee State University, where he was named director of the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies. He also taught a Vanderbilt course on investigative reporting. 

Rawls is married to Kathryn Stark Rawls, who earned a bachelor of arts from the College of Arts and Science and a master of arts from Peabody College. They have two children, a daughter and a son; and two granddaughters.

Class of 1973

Similar to Rawls, Nolan said that his student media experiences led him down the journalism path, although Nolan focused more on broadcasting. He is a lifelong Nashvillian who grew up in the Hillsboro Village neighborhood next to campus. In August 1969, he enrolled at Peabody College and began volunteering as a disc jockey and news announcer at WRVU, then located in the south tower of Neely Auditorium.

"WRVU was known back then as a 'carrier current station,' since the signal was broadcast via wires that went through the steam tunnels and out to the dorms," Nolan said. "There was a transmitter in each dorm that relayed the signal onto each floor. That worked in the smaller dorms but not so well in Carmichael Towers. If you drove by the towers and put your radio on 580, you could hear the signal for a block or two."

By December 1970, the Federal Communication Commission had approved an educational FM license for WRVU. After his sophomore year, Nolan transferred to Vanderbilt and continued to work at the radio station. 

"Our news department would read the Vanderbilt Hustler and the Vanderbilt Register and call people connected to those stories for interviews," Nolan said. "We also recorded various campus lectures, such as an annual series by the late Oakley Ray, a much admired psychology professor. In addition, WRVU would carry any Vanderbilt baseball games not on WLAC, and I learned to 'think on my feet' during those broadcasts."

Nolan served on the student media's publications board his senior year. He also wrote a story for the 1973 Commodore about Nashville. Nolan earned his bachelor of arts in political science in May. The next month he was hired to report news for WPLN FM (Nashville Public Radio) under a Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant. He also did some stories for "All Things Considered."

Then on July 3 he anchored WDCN-TV's (now WNPT) first live coverage of a Metro Council meeting. "The Vanderbilt Urban Renewal Plan was up for a public hearing," "I was very familiar with the plan because I had covered it while at WRVU. That council meeting was the beginning of a 12-year career for me anchoring the Metro Council television broadcasts."  

In 1975, Nolan was recruited to WTVF-TV (Nashville's CBS affiliate), where he covered Metro Government for 10 years. Nolan left the media for two years to be press secretary and executive assistant to former Nashville Mayor Richard Fulton. He then returned to WTVF as a political analyst and became director of public relations for Hart & Company, an advertising and public relations firm.

In 1991, he joined DVL Seigenthaler Public Relations, a Finn Partners Company, where he is now a senior vice president. Nolan also has an interview program, "Inside Politics" on the NewsChannel5 Network, and a weekly column, "Capitol View," for the WTVF website.

"I learned a lot during my WRVU days about gathering, writing and broadcasting stories," Nolan said. He noted that the best part of working at WRVU was meeting his future wife, Betty Lee Love Nolan. She earned a bachelor of arts in Spanish and fine arts. They have two daughters, a granddaughter and a grandson. 

Class of 1992

One of the requirements for all first-year Vanderbilt students is the Commons Reading—a text that all students receive by mail and are expected to read over the summer prior to their first semester. The undergraduate Class of 2020 will read Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South (Vanderbilt University Press, December 2014) by Maraniss, who rounds out this year's group of student media honorees.

 Maraniss was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up primarily in Washington, D.C., but later moved to Austin, Texas, where his father (journalist and author David Maraniss), was the Southwest bureau chief for the Washington Post. "One day my dad was visiting my high school and noticed a poster advertising the Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Scholarship," Maraniss said. "That was life changing. I had been the sports editor for the Austin High Maroon and realized this would be a perfect scholarship for me." 

Maraniss received the Russell-Rice scholarship in 1988. "I was grateful for the opportunity and privilege to get to know alumnus and legendary sports journalist Fred Russell," he said. "A couple of times each year, Mr. Russell would take the four scholarship recipients in school (one for each year) to the University Club, where we would learn about Vanderbilt leaders and iconic sports figures that Russell knew. I bonded with my university quickly and treasured my friendship with him." 

Each year the previous recipient of the Russell-Rice scholarship would welcome the new awardee to campus and to student media. Dave Sheinin did this for Maraniss, who covered men's and women's soccer his first semester. Sheinin later wrote an article for Versus magazine on Perry Wallace. 

"That was the first time I heard about Wallace," Maraniss said. "I was taking a black history class with Yollette Jones (now associate dean in the College of Arts and Science)," Maraniss said. "I asked her permission to write a class paper on Wallace. Thank goodness she agreed, and I tracked down Wallace, who was a law professor at the University of Baltimore. I also wrote several articles for The Hustler about his legacy."

Maraniss earned a bachelor of arts in history in 1992 and went to work for the Vanderbilt Athletics Department in media relations. He moved to Tampa, Florida, to work for the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays team in its inaugural season. In 1999, he returned to Nashville and joined McNeely Pigott and Fox Public Relations. Meanwhile, his interest in race, sports and the story of Perry Wallace deepened. In 2006, he began writing the manuscript for Strong Inside, devoting many evenings and weekends to the project.

Strong Inside has been awarded the Lillian Smith Book Award and the lone Special Recognition honor at the 2015 RFK Book Awards. Meanwhile, Maraniss has left McNeely Pigott and Fox to focus on writing books. He is also contributing to an ESPN website called "The Undefeated."

"This career adjustment will allow me to focus on my two true loves, my family and writing," said Maraniss, who is married to Alison Williams Maraniss. They have two children, a daughter and son. 

Class of 1988

Beasley, dean of The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons and an associate professor of communication studies, grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and came to Vanderbilt as a first-year student in 1984. She had been the editor of her student newspaper in high school, but wanted to explore different media in college. "I joined the news team at WRVU and added my name to the wait list to be a disc jockey," Beasley said. Like Nolan, she met her future spouse, Trey Beasley, at WRVU. "I was into REM, the Ramones and other bands coming out of the college scene," she said. "The radio station provided some extra space for me to be creative. I encourage our students 'to try different voices' while they have the opportunity."

Beasley served as secretary for the student media board her junior year. "I learned valuable lessons about managing volunteers for a nonprofit organization and conducting board meetings," she said.

Beasley earned her bachelor of arts in speech communication and theatre arts in 1988 and went on to the University of Texas, where she received a doctorate in speech communication. She taught at Texas A&M University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Georgia before coming "home" to Vanderbilt's Department of Communication Studies in 2007.

Media was an important part of her life in college and that has continued in her research, with a focus on race, gender and diversity in U.S. political rhetoric. She is the author of Who Belongs in America? Presidents, Rhetoric and Immigration and You, the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric: 1885-2000.

One of the courses she teaches, "Mass Media and Politics," looks at the business of media, which she said is especially appropriate this election cycle. In 2015, she led a new Maymester course that she created in partnership with Queen's University, Belfast, to explore the comparative, transnational understanding of the civil rights movements in the southern United States and in Belfast in the 1950s and 60s.

Also in 2015, Beasley was named dean of the Ingram Commons, where she serves as the academic leader, mentor and senior administrator of the first-year experience at Vanderbilt. "I didn't feel like I fit in when I arrived here as a student, so I think it's really important that our exceptionally talented faculty and staff across campus strive to meet students 'where they are' when they in the transition from high school to college," Beasley said. "That's why I am so committed to helping every incoming student find his or her place on our campus."

Beasley is joined in the Dean's Residence on campus by her husband, Trey, who is assistant vice chancellor for treasury and university treasurer, and their two sons.

Class of 1967

Haile, who earned a bachelor of arts in 1967, grew up in Cleveland, Tennessee. As a freshman, he joined WRVU, where his hometown friend Warren Corbett was business manager and a mentor. The radio station was on a couple of floors of Neely Auditorium's south tower. Haile served as station manager his junior and senior years.

"I learned to surround myself with people passionate about their jobs and trust them to do their work," said Haile, who also served on the VSC board. "We changed the format—bringing in Top 40 programming—and doing remote broadcasts to bring more attention to the station." In 1966, Haile, who had worked for his local newspaper in high school, also became campus correspondent for The Tennessean.

Haile majored in political science. "Given all my other responsibilities, I was not the best student," he said. "Sometimes I didn't make it to class. However, beloved professors like political scientists Bob Birkby and J. Leiper Freeman helped me work through everything."

Thanks to a flier he saw on the WRVU bulletin board, Haile went to Boston University for graduate school, where he earned a master of science in communication. Haile also continued working at The Tennessean, as a state and national political reporter. "I can’t think of a more dedicated group of journalists to be around during a turbulent and exciting political era, with legendary editor John Seigenthaler as our anchor," Haile said. "The connections I made in Nashville have stayed with me."    

Not long after completing a journalism fellowship at Stanford University, Haile moved to the Orlando Sentinel, where he became editor in 1985. Haile was among the first to recognize that changing the culture of the newsroom was key to adapting traditional print to new media. As a new media pioneer, he built one of the world's first fully-integrated multimedia newsrooms with print, the Internet, and a 24-hour cable news channel all operating from a central news desk. The paper earned three Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership.

At age 55, Haile chose to step away from daily leadership of a newspaper to devote what he called “a second half” to public service. He has served on a number of health care, environmental and arts boards. He lives in the Denver area, where he also “works at” his pastel and oil painting.

Class of 2003

Parang grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where his father is a professor and administrator at the University of Tennessee. "In considering colleges, I was glad to stay a little closer to home at a Southeastern Conference school that excels in academics and campus life," he said.

An early influence on his career was the opportunity to do improvisational comedy in high school. "I thrived on the spontaneity and excitement of the performances," Parang said. Arriving at Vanderbilt in 1999, he joined "Tongue 'N Cheek," the university's then-fledgling improv organization, where he made some of his best friends.

Parang also wrote for The Hustler and Orbis, the latter of which began in 2001 as a bi-weekly publication for liberal and progressive views. The writers strived to foster an environment more open to the university's increasing diversity. Parang wrote mostly opinion and humorous pieces.

He earned a bachelor of arts in 2003, with a double major in political science and sociology. Parang had begun shifting his focus from improv and comedy writing to what he thought would be more marketable—a law degree. Parang enrolled at Georgetown University Law Center but also became a house player at the Washington Improv Theatre.

While Parang earned his law degree and began practicing at a New York City firm, he soon realized that he would be happier, and ultimately, more successful as a writer and comedian. He left the law in 2010 and within a year he was a writer for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." In 2015, he was promoted to head writer for "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah."

Parang is among the "Daily Show" writers whose work has been recognized twice with an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. His writing has been featured in McSweeney's, The Onion, and The Morning News.    

Parang noted that during the Trump presidency, the show scripts have tended to go through more re-writes up to the start of each show. "Constant breaking news is the wonderful blessing and the terrible curse of President Trump,” he said. Parang emphasized that the writers' job is to make jokes about topical events. "'The Daily Show' is news-satire—not real news—so we don’t expect or want viewers to use our show as a news source," he said.  

He recommends improv for those who want to hone their skills of learning to write creatively under a tight deadline. "If you are interested in becoming a comedian, try to put yourself up on stage for live performances. And follow your passion—as much as possible—for whatever path you choose," Parang said.

Class of 1972

Potter is a third-generation newspaper journalist. His grandfather was in the newspaper business in Southside, Virginia. His father operated the Star-Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia, where Potter grew up. At about age 10, he began stacking papers off the press and delivering papers.

Potter continued at his family's paper, spending several summers as a reporter and copy editor in high school and college. Potter started at Washington and Lee University in 1968, but transferred to Vanderbilt his junior year. He signed up as a general assignment reporter for The Hustler. The managing editor was Clay Harris, a 2012 Student Media Hall of Fame inductee. "Clay asked me the next spring to become sports editor, and I was editing the copy of future Hall of Fame inductees Skip Bayless and Terry Eastland," Potter said.

Potter majored in history and minored in philosophy. One of his favorite professors was John Compton, who taught "History of Philosophy." Potter enjoyed Compton's teaching so much that after earning course credit, he audited the class.

Potter earned a bachelor of arts in 1972 and continued in journalism at the Star-Exponent and the Virginian Pilot. He also went to journalism school at the University of Missouri, earning his master's in 1981.

Potter then became a reporter at the Nashville Banner, where he remembers covering one of city's biggest business stories—the sale of NLT Corporation, which owned the Grand Ole Opry and WSM Radio—to American General. "Nashville was definitely one of the newsiest cities in which I've ever worked," he said. He also was a reporter and editor at the Kansas City Times before taking over the Independent-Messenger, a paper his grandfather had helped found in Emporia, Virginia.

Potter's father had owned a small chain of newspapers, including two dailies at one point. After he died, Potter wished to devote his time and resources to helping community newspapers remain sustainable during an increasingly challenging financial environment.

With the help of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Potter created the Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism. "The Potter Fund sponsors a yearly conference that brings in a variety of experts to help community newspapers not only survive, but also thrive in the digital age," he said.

Although Potter had to resign from being The Hustler sports editor to catch up on academics, he remains extremely grateful for his time in student media. "I spent 20 years in small towns before coming to Vanderbilt," he said. "The university really opened me up to the wider world through my classes and Hustler friends. Just as at Mizzou, it was the people and the ideas that made Vanderbilt important to me."

Class of 1970

Privett grew up in Birmingham and worked for her high school newspaper and also the Birmingham News the summer before college. She enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1966 and signed up to work for The Hustler, then located on the third floor of Alumni Hall. "The late '60s was an incredible time to be a college journalist, with the growth of the civil rights movement, increasing opposition to the Vietnam War, and the women's movement still in its early stages," Privett said.         

Privett said that the most fun she probably had at The Hustler was the fall of her junior year, when Chuck Offenburger, a 2014 inductee into the Student Media Hall of Fame, was editor-in-chief. "I was the managing editor, and my job was to be the organizing influence to make our deadlines," she said. Privett also worked as the paper's copy editor before graduating in 1970.

She had majored in political science and has fond memories of staying in touch with Chancellor Heard after college. "Chancellor Heard set a very special tone for Vanderbilt," she said. "He had a sense of authority without being authoritarian. I wish that I had saved the beautiful letter that he wrote to me about why he felt it was important to serve on higher education initiatives for the Nixon administration."

Another one of Privett's vivid memories was walking through the Branscomb Lobby with her raincoat over her pants—even on a sunny day. "At that time, women had to follow rules about proper attire that did not apply to men, like wearing a coat over slacks," she said. "I remember this rule impacted my wardrobe when I was leaving for a date on a motorcycle."     

After graduation, Privett went to New York University Law School, where she earned her J.D. She passed the Alabama bar and became a civil rights attorney. After practicing with firms in Mobile and Birmingham, she joined the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. She lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment and joined the Alabama Women's Political Caucus. She also became a member of the Junior League of Birmingham, where she co-chaired a project to raise awareness of domestic violence.

In 1995, she was appointed the first female U.S. Attorney in Alabama. Two years later she went into private practice, focusing on alternative dispute resolution. In 2003, she became a circuit judge for the 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama. She presided over civil cases concerning issues ranging from asbestos and bingo to a sales tax that paid for $1 billion in new school construction.

Privett retired from the bench in 2015. She continues to live in Birmingham, devoting more time to hobbies that include reading, needlepoint, photography and travel, including occasional trips to watch Vanderbilt baseball.

Class of 1968

Shannon was born in Gainesville, Georgia, and worked for her hometown newspaper during high school. She enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1964, when issues like the Vietnam War, civil rights, drugs and poverty were beginning to generate intense debate on college campuses. "Vanderbilt had a great deal of academic freedom, one of the reasons I chose this university," Shannon said.

She was a student during the first years of the Impact Symposium, a speakers series designed to bring more intellectually stimulating programming to campus. "I was proud of then-Chancellor Alexander Heard for standing firm on the principle of 'open forum' when many of those connected to Vanderbilt and in the community opposed letting Stokely Carmichael speak in 1967," she said.

Shannon majored in English and minored in French and philosophy. "The department provided great support and freedom for my writing," she said. "English Professors Vereen Bell and Harold Weatherby and Philosophy's Charles Scott were among my mentors."  

She began writing for The Hustler. One of her favorite articles featured the new computer center in the round building of Stevenson Center. "Journalists always need to be embracing the future," she said. "I have always had to convince technical people of the importance of explaining in plain English what they are doing."   

Shannon started working for The Tennessean her senior year, and continued there after earning a bachelor of arts in 1968. Like Haile, she had strong praise for the leadership and mentorship of Seigenthaler. "In those days at The Tennessean, no one wanted the title of investigative reporter," she said. "That would have been redundant. We were all expected to ask the uncomfortable questions."  

Shannon wrote about civil rights, police violence and abuses in the prison system. In 1970, she became The Tennessean's Washington, D.C., correspondent, where she covered Watergate, presidential campaigns and Tennessee political leaders who included Howard Baker and Albert Gore Sr.

Four years later Shannon won a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University. She then worked at Newsday, Newsweek and Time Magazine, where she focused on national security and criminal justice issues, such as international arms trafficking, drug trafficking and money laundering, organized crime, terrorism and espionage.

Three of Shannon's books have been published, including Desperadoes: Latin Drug Lords, U.S. Lawmen, and the War America Can't Win. Desperadoes, a New York Times best-seller, served as the basis for the Emmy-winning miniseries "Drug Wars: The Camarena Story," broadcast on NBC in 1990. A second Emmy-nominated miniseries based on the book ran in 1992.

Shannon lives in Washington, D.C., where she is a contributing editor for Cipher Brief, an online news organization devoted to national security issues. In addition, she is working on a new book about the first transnational organized crime leader of the Innovation Age.

Class of 1979, 1980

Heyman grew up in Dayton, Ohio, skipping his senior year of high school and enrolling at Vanderbilt in 1975. He and some of his suitemates signed up to work at WRVU, which was settling into its new home in Sarratt Student Center.

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“I had friends who were disc jockeys with their own shows; I was part of the news team—sorting and selecting wire copy, making edits and broadcasting the reports during my air shift,” Heyman said. “I especially enjoyed researching and broadcasting the really bizarre sports stories my listeners would find intriguing.”    

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The skills he learned at WRVU, such as communicating in front of a microphone, proved tremendously helpful many years later when he became U.S. ambassador to Canada.

“I tell students that college should be all about exploring new fields and trying activities that are outside of your comfort zone,” Heyman said. “Broadcasting news and sports on WRVU to the local community was experiential learning at its best.”

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Heyman completed a double major in business and economics, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1979. That spring he enrolled at the Owen Graduate School of Management, where he earned his Master of Business Administration in 1980. He then began working in Chicago as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs, where he eventually became managing director of private wealth management.

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In September 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Heyman to be U.S. ambassador to Canada, and he was confirmed by the Senate the next March.

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“My introduction to the Canadian citizens was through a national radio tour—in which I was connected to local broadcasters on a city-by-city basis,” Heyman said. “My wife, Vicki, whom I met while we were MBA students at Owen, did the interviews with me. This was actually my first time back on the radio since my WRVU days. I certainly was glad to have had that experience on live radio.”

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Heyman served as ambassador until January 2017. He recently established an office focused on the Canada-U.S. relationship, and serves on an advisory board of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. He’s also appearing frequently on national and international news programs in his role as a freelance advocate for U.S.-Canadian relations. “I am taking my title of ‘former ambassador’ very seriously as I speak out for our nation’s continued connectivity with neighboring Canada,” Heyman said.

Class of 1968, 1981

Hindle, a Rhode Island native, arrived on campus just a few months after McCord graduated in 1964. He joined the editorial staff of Spectrum, a magazine created in the early 1960s for Vanderbilt students to publish their honors work. “The publication had expanded to include a larger focus on creative writing—poetry, short stories and the like,” Hindle said. “Serving on the editorial staff taught me how to evaluate writing and research as well as develop skills in editing and production. I also learned the value of peer review.” Vereen Bell and Paul Elledge, who are both professors of English, emeriti, were among his favorite mentors.

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Hindle, who majored in English and fine arts, received his Bachelor of Arts in 1968. After serving as an army officer for four years, he went to graduate school—returning to campus to earn his doctorate in English 1981. During that time, Hindle and Larry Stein, a fellow graduate student, spent six weeks co-writing the book Elvis: The Army years 1958-1960, published under the pseudonym Nick Corvino.  “It’s followed me all my career,” he says, “for better or worse!”

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Hindle worked at Peabody College as director of development before accepting a marketing position with Northern Telecom. He relocated with his family to London, England. In 2002, he accepted appointment as an adjunct faculty member in Human and Organizational Development, where he taught a weekly seminar for HOD majors working in London to fulfill their semester-long internship requirement. “It was rewarding to guide students, many of whom had never been outside of the United States, in their exposure to the world of work.”

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He also started the Greater London Vanderbilt Club, the first Vanderbilt alumni chapter outside of the United States, working to build Vanderbilt’s international presence and increase alumni engagement.

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Hindle is a former director and president of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association and served a four-year term on the Vanderbilt Board of Trust.   

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He remains very engaged with the Vanderbilt community, including Student Media. Most recently, he coached a group of students in designing and building a marketing plan for an international fashion show they were organizing. “I always encourage young people to get involved with extracurricular projects that teach skills for future employment.”   

Class of 1970

Hubbard, who grew up in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, enjoyed extemporaneous speaking and debate competitions in high school. “When I arrived on campus in 1966, working at WRVU seemed like a natural extension of my deep interest in public speaking,” Hubbard said.

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Hubbard remembers a tiny WRVU studio on an upper floor of Neely Auditorium. The news staff was small and he practiced his broadcast voice. “I tried to sound authoritative and not ramble while reading the short news summaries that we pulled together from wire copy,” he said.  

One of his most memorable interviews was with Impact speaker Stokely Carmichael. “I guess it was an impromptu Q&A as I had to hustle to talk with him during a walk across campus,” Hubbard said. He also played guitar in a jazz group that did a benefit in honor of poet and activist Allen Ginsberg, who was also part of Impact.  

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Hubbard completed a double major in physics and astronomy. The late professor Douglas Hall, who had just joined the department, was his adviser. Hubbard earned his Bachelor of Science in 1970 but stayed in Nashville—working as a research assistant in Physics and Astronomy while playing music at night in clubs like Red Dog Saloon and Black Diamond Lounge.  

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In 1973, Hubbard moved to San Francisco and went to graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley. He spent 20 years at NASA, eventually serving as director of its Ames Research Center. He also served as NASA’s first Mars program director and restructured the program successfully in the wake of mission failures. He is the author of Exploring Mars: Chronicles from a Decade of Discovery. Hubbard is a recipient of NASA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal.  

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In 2007 Hubbard became an adjunct professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University. He is semi-retired now, but remains engaged in several projects, including chairing the SpaceX Commercial Crew Safety Advisory Panel.

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Hubbard still credits his experience at WRVU with helping him hone his organizational and communication skills—which have been vital throughout his career. “Particularly when I was at the higher levels of NASA, I learned that it’s extremely important to be able to explain to a variety of audiences what you want to accomplish,” he said.

Class of 1968, 1972

“The Hustler was like a home away from home,” said Kurtz, who was a little homesick when he came to campus in 1964 from Spring Valley, New York. During high school, Kurtz worked summers for a Rockland County newspaper. He covered sports all four years at Vanderbilt and was sports editor his junior and senior years.

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“I didn’t ‘live’ at The Hustler, like some of my friends, but my freshman dorm—Vanderbilt Hall—was only about 200 yards away from the office on the third floor of Memorial Hall,” Kurtz said. “I would go the printer off campus some nights to watch the process of setting and proofing the copy.” He was also active in Alpha Epsilon Pi social fraternity and was elected to several offices, including president.

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One of his most vivid memories was the late Perry Wallace breaking the color barrier as the first African American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference.

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The early days of the Impact Symposium, on which Kurtz served on the board of directors, also made a huge impression on him. Speakers while Kurtz was a student included Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr., Alexander Kerensky and Barry Goldwater.  

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“My advice to student journalists is to be very aware of your surroundings because you can miss something newsworthy if you’re not looking carefully,” Kurtz said. “Also, avoid specializing in just one area if you want to increase your marketability after graduation.”

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Kurtz, who majored in political science, after considering graduate school in journalism, chose to attend law school in 1969. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1968 and his Juris Doctorate (also from Vanderbilt) in 1972.

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After earning a Master of Laws at Harvard, Kurtz joined the law faculty at the University of Georgia in 1975, where he specialized in criminal law and family law. A recipient of the University of Georgia President’s Medal for distinguished service in academic work and community service, Kurtz is now an emeritus professor and represents Georgia as a commissioner on Uniform State Laws and has chaired a number of accreditation visits of law schools for the American Bar Association.  

Class of 1964

McCord, who grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, was editor of The Vanderbilt Hustler during a pivotal period of the civil rights movement. He enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1960, four years before the first eight African American undergraduate students were admitted.  

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McCord remembers writing about racial issues on campus, including a female student who was criticized by the administration for dating a black man from another university. “One of the deans called her parents to put pressure on her to end the relationship,” McCord said. “I thought this was a significant news story, although the administration didn’t like me publishing it.”

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McCord also wrote about Congressman John Lewis, who represents Georgia’s Fifth District. During the ’60s, Lewis was a Fisk University student activist organizing sit-ins at segregated lunch counters and risking his life as a Freedom Rider.      

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McCord majored in English in the College of Arts and Science and earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1964. Life after college for McCord began in the military, where he was on active duty in the Air Force during the escalation of the Vietnam War.

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In 1967, McCord started his journalism career at Newsday in New York before heading west. He worked for the Santa Fe New Mexican and founded the Santa Fe Reporter, where he was the longtime editor and publisher. The weekly newspaper received more than 200 awards for excellence, including the top prize by Investigative Reporters and Editors for an in-depth examination of the state’s mental hospital.

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McCord is the author of four books, which include The Chain Gang: One Newspaper Versus the Gannett Empire, a finalist for the National Book Award. The Chain Gang, first published in 1996, was propelled by a call that McCord received from his friend and colleague Frank Wood, who was waging a fierce fight against a corporate take-over of the Green Bay News Chronicle. McCord has also written extensively about his adopted hometown, where he has been named a Santa Fe Living Treasure.

Class of 1969

Oliver grew up in DeKalb County, Georgia, and went to Vanderbilt in the fall of 1966. She pledged Kappa Delta sorority, which encouraged her to become involved in extracurricular activities like The Hustler, where she was a news reporter. She was also involved in the start-up phase of Versus.   

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“Vanderbilt was not considered an activist school during the ’60s, but writing for the paper brought me closer to the political turbulence across the nation, especially with regards to civil rights and the Vietnam War,” Oliver said. “I remember Robert Kennedy speaking at Impact, and the day that Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis.”

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Oliver majored in English and was on track for teacher certification, but decided to forgo a semester of student teaching. She took classes at Georgia State one summer while working as a life guard, earning her Bachelor of Arts in three years.  

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“Based on my interest in media and experience with student publications, I took an editorial position with an Atlanta-based magazine called Southern Engineer and Electrical South,” Oliver said. “I also enrolled in Emory University’s evening law division.”

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Oliver later became a full-time law student at Emory, earning her Juris Doctorate in 1972. She taught at Boston College Law School before entering private practice in Decatur, Georgia.

Oliver was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1987, serving five years before moving to the George State Senate, where she was appointed chair of the Judiciary Committee. This marked the first time in 40 years a woman had been named chair of a standing senate committee. Oliver served three terms before running statewide for lieutenant governor. She then took a short break from politics, practicing law and teaching at the Barton Center for Child Advocacy at Emory University.

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In 2003, she rejoined the Georgia House, where she continues to represent the 82nd District and chairs the Judiciary Committee. Georgia’s anti-stalking law and legislation to protect neighborhood activists from intimidation are among her many legislative accomplishments.

Class of 1959

Cohen wrote for The Vanderbilt Hustler all four of his undergraduate years and served as editor-in-chief his senior year, writing what he describes as “crusading editorials” that criticized the university administration for actions taken without student input. He majored in economics and business administration, graduating magna cum laude in 1959. He then served in the Air Force and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. Cohen went to work at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he became assistant chief counsel of the Division of Investment Management. He was there when the U.S. Supreme Court held that variable annuities were subject to SEC regulation, and he participated in the development of the SEC’s regulatory regime during his five years on the staff. 

Class of 1992

Cottle enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1988 but didn’t start writing for The Vanderbilt Hustler until her sophomore year. “I absolutely loved writing the column for three years, and I think the experience helps me keep my perspective on all the divisiveness and polarization inside the Beltway these days,” she said. Cottle majored in English and minored in European studies. After graduation and a fellowship with Mother Jones magazine, she became editor of the Washington Monthly. She also worked at the New Republic as a senior editor and Newsweek and Daily Beast as a Washington correspondent. She was a senior writer at the National Journal and a contributing editor at The Atlantic before being named lead editorial writer for national politics at The New York Times in 2018. 

Class of 1970

Livingston was a Grantland Rice Scholar when he enrolled in 1966. He served as sports editor at The Vanderbilt Hustler and especially enjoyed writing columns, including some political-themed ones. He majored in English and graduated cum laude in 1970. Livingston began his career at the Dallas Morning News and then worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer for 10 years before becoming senior sports columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1984. He spent 34 years there and will be inducted into the Cleveland Press Club Hall of Fame in November 2019. The Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer has covered the Olympics, Super Bowl, World Series, NCAA Final Four, and all major college bowl games. His most recent book is George Steinbrenner’s Pipe Dream: The ABL Champion Cleveland Pipers. 

Class of 1973

Rapp came to Vanderbilt in 1969 as a Grantland Rice Scholar. At The Vanderbilt Hustler, he wrote both news and sports stories before serving as the arts and entertainment editor. He devised his own major—Theory of Communications. After graduation in 1973, he was briefly a poet and bartender before working for the Memphis Press-Scimitar, Cincinnati Post and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He moved to D.C. in 1985, starting a nearly quarter-century career at Congressional Quarterly, which produces a number of high-profile publications about Congress. Since 2014, he has worked independently as a journalist and publishing consultant. His book, Tinker to Evers to Chance: The Chicago Cubs and the Dawn of Modern America was published by University of Chicago Press in 2018.  

Class of 1993

Roumain, widely known by the moniker DBR, enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1989. He covered arts and entertainment stories for The Vanderbilt Hustler and an arts magazine within the paper called Ripple. After receiving his bachelor of music in 1993, he earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan. Roumain has won an Emmy for outstanding musical composition for his collaborations with ESPN; created works for Carnegie Hall, Boston Pops and Library of Congress; and led the creation of the chamber opera “We Shall Not Be Moved,” which was cited by The New York Times as one of the best classical musical performances of 2017. He has collaborated with Lady Gaga, DJ Spooky and Philip Glass, among others. Roumain, who has been a visiting composition professor at the Blair School, teaches at Arizona State University.