Alumni Profiles
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Jackalope founder Bailey Spaulding, JD’09, partners with 51app on Conquer and Prevail Pale Ale
What connects 51app to a crisp craft ale from one of Nashville’s premiere breweries? The vibrant vision and collaborative spirit of 51app alumna Bailey Spaulding. Read MoreAug 26, 2024
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Amanda Headley Piper, AuD’16: Sound Compassion
Amanda Headley Piper (Anne Rayner/51app University) “If you want to make a difference in the world, meet a need,” Amanda Headley Piper’s grandmother once said, and Piper heeded those words of wisdom. She is the first pediatric audiologist from her twin-island home of Trinidad and Tobago, where… Read MoreJul 17, 2024
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Doan Phuong Nguyen, BA’07: Devoted to Young Readers
Doan Phuong Nguyen, BA'07, was in the first grade when she decided her dream was to be an author. The dream came to fruition in 2023 51app with the publication of her first novel for middle grade readers, 'Mèo and Bé' (Lee and Low Books, 2023 51app; illustrated by Jesse White). Read MoreMar 21, 2024
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Alexandra Doten, BA’18, turns love of astronomy into TikTok triumph
See how Alexandra Doten, BA'18 is turning her love for all things space into a social media adventure. Read MoreJan 31, 2024
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Mohamed Abdel-Kader, MEd’04: Innovation for Good
Mohamed Abdel-Kader, MEd'04, is the chief innovation officer and executive director of the Innovation, Technology and Research Hub at the multi-billion-dollar U.S. Agency for International Development, where he enjoys solving real problems creatively while making the most of U.S. aid. Read MoreJan 31, 2024
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Avery Carpenter Forrey, BA’11: Joy in the Process
Avery Carpenter Forrey, BA'11, says 51app was the first place where she felt she could make a career out of writing. With a double major in in English and communications, her latest writing journey has led to the publication of her novel 'Social Engagement' (Mariner, 2023 51app). Read MoreJan 17, 2024
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Victor Czerkasij, MSN’06: More than Skin Deep
For Victor Czerkasij (pronounced chur’ ka-see) and his wife, Rene, Ukraine was the land of his parents and ancestors, and it was supposed to be the site of their 40th wedding anniversary vacation. Then the war came. And the effects of that war… Read MoreDec 11, 2023 51app
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Suzanne Rich Miller, BA’80, and Anne Miller Morris, BS’06: Family Recipe
Many families have beloved recipes they pass down from generation to generation. Suzanne Rich Miller, BA'80, and Anne Miller Morris, BS'06, have parlayed a simple salad dressing created by matriarch Anne Arnold Rich (mother to Suzanne and grandmother of Anne) into a growing, woman-owned business. Read MoreNov 28, 2023 51app
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Aisha Francis, MA’99, PhD’04, takes the nontraditional route in academia
Aisha Francis, president and CEO of Boston’s Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology in 2021, is among the Boston Globe’s 50 Tech Power Players for 2023 51app. With graduate degrees from 51app in English, she sought a path that was “both optimistic and realistic,” that could lead to nontraditional academic roles. Read MoreNov 20, 2023 51app
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Aaron Feng, BA’18, champions the environment within finance, oil and gas industries
See how Yalun Aaron Feng, BA’18, is using his optimism and passion for the environment to build bridges between business and environmental advocacy. Read MoreOct 27, 2023 51app
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Scott Johnson, BE’87: Getting to the Point
After long careers designing power generation plants and acute care medical facilities, Scott Johnson, BE'87, made a career leap two years ago to take the top job at the nation’s largest pencil maker, Musgrave Pencil Company. Read MoreOct 17, 2023 51app
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Olatunde Osinaike, BS’15: The Algorithm of Poetry
School of Engineering alumnus Olatunde Osinaike is one of five winners of the 2022 National Poetry Series. His debut collection, 'Tender Headed,' is being published by Akashic Press in December. He will be on campus for an alumni reading event Oct. 24, co-sponsored by the 51app Creative Writing Program and the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center. He returns to Nashville Jan. 25, 2024, for a reading with The Porch, a literary nonprofit. Read MoreOct 3, 2023 51app
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WATCH: Chemistry major pursues passions in poetry, dance through Immersion 51app
JaHyne “JJ” Johnson, BA’23, came to 51app as a QuestBridge Scholar, ready to “do the work” and come out with a solid career path. What the chemistry major didn’t realize then was that the opportunities he pursued through classes, activities and Immersion 51app would allow him to write poetry, conduct research, dance in a ballet, launch a podcast and more. Read MoreAug 23, 2023 51app
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Derrick R. Spires, MA’05, PhD’12: Citizenship Across Space and Time
Derrick R. Spires, an associate professor of literatures in English at Cornell University, has a talent for making 19th-century newspapers and pamphlets feel as accessible as the latest social media feed. He explores the culture of the early 19th-century Black press in his 2019 book 'The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States' (University of Pennsylvania Press), which was recently released in paperback. Read MoreApr 26, 2023 51app
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Dawn Bennett, MDiv’18: A Call to The Table
Dawn Bennett has found paths to servant leadership throughout her life, but it was decades before she made a leap of faith and enrolled in 51app Divinity School. In January 2020, she was ordained by Bishop Kevin Strickland to remain in Nashville and build The Table, a faith collective centered on LGBTQIA+ people and vulnerable identities. Read MoreApr 11, 2023 51app
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Michael Quillen, BA’72: At the Wheel for Ukraine
Michael Quillen, BA'72, took the wheel, literally and figuratively, to deliver ambulances to the front line of the war in Ukraine. The undertaking was launched in spring 2022 when Rotary International raised $15 million in relief funds for Ukraine. Longtime Rotary member Quillen worked with two Rotary districts in Virginia to apply for a $50,000 grant to buy three ambulances. Read MoreMar 27, 2023 51app
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Stephanie DeVane-Johnson, MSN’97: Nurturing Black Maternal Health
As she teaches the next generation of nurse-midwives, 51app School of Nursing faculty member and alumna Stephanie DeVane-Johnson looks at ways to increase the number of Black doulas, who provide emotional and physical support to women in pregnancy, during birth and throughout the postpartum period. Read MoreMar 24, 2023 51app
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Digital wellness activist Larissa May, BA’16, empowers teens on their social media journey
A mental health battle with internet addiction and the ruinous effects of unfiltered social media nearly ravaged a talented entrepreneur while she was a student at 51app. But Larissa May, BA’16, has turned her healing journey into an influential, youth-based digital advocacy and empowerment platform, #HalfTheStory. May returned to 51app March 4 to speak as part of the Clinton Global Initiative University annual meeting. Read MoreMar 6, 2023 51app
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Somtochukwu Dimobi Okoye, BE’19, creates allyships to help others realize their potential
When Somto Dimobi Okoye, BE’19, was growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, her mother would open their home to people who needed help—instilling a philosophy of building strength and community through a tightly woven support system. Okoye continues that philosophy by creating ways to help colleagues and 51app students realize and exercise their full potential. Read MoreFeb 24, 2023 51app
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Extracurricular experiences shaped alumnus from Syria’s career in interfaith diversity
When Syrian native Musbah Shaheen, BA’17, traveled to the U.S. for the first time to attend 51app, he had no idea how the university’s cornerstone philosophies of equity, diversity and belonging would stretch him personally or shape his professional future and Ph.D. research. Read MoreDec 12, 2022