VANDERBILTMAGAZINE Vsummer2008 Pragmatist and Dreamer Nicholas Zeppos – professor, provost and now chancellor also: Ambassadors at Large Traumatic Brain Injury Political Animals V ITAL Every gift counts. Every year. Each year, thousands of alumni, parents and friends invest in Vanderbilt, helping the university fulfill its mission to educate, inspire, create and teach. Their gifts come in all sizes and make a big difference. Your generosity will help Vanderbilt provide financial aid to talented students. You’ll help create special programs, research opportu- nities, and new initiatives that benefit every student. You’ll support great teaching. And you’ll be part of Vanderbilt’s mission to educate a new generation of leaders. Just know that your gift—in any amount— makes a vital difference in Vanderbilt’s continued success, every year. www.vanderbilt.edu/thevanderbiltfund 1-866-882-FUND Photos by Vanderbilt Creative Services Contents FEATURES 32 Natural-Born Optimist 44 When Vanderbilt went At Home in the World searching for its eighth chan- Combating drug trafficking, cellor, all trails led straight negotiating mega-deals, and back to Kirkland Hall. hustling deposed dictators out of Dodge are all in a day’s work when you’re a 38 U.S. ambassador. When War Comes Home 54 Vanderbilt therapists treat most patients with mild Candidates, traumatic brain injuries Scandalgates, by repairing memory. But Battleground States what do you do when the The men and women of memories are of roadside Vanderbilt’s Department of explosions and fallen Political Science dive into comrades? a historic election year. DEPARTMENTS 5 DoreWays 60 10 1,000 Words Vanderbilt on 12 The Campus the Potomac 18 Sports Policy made in Washington 22 Collective Memory affects nearly everything on campus. Vanderbilt’s Office 24 Bright Ideas of Federal Relations works to 28 In Class make the university’s voice 66 The Mind’s Eye heard above the clamor. 70 S.P.O.V. 72 A.P.O.V. 74 The Classes 88 Southern Journal COVER Nicholas Zeppos presides at his first Commencement as chancellor. See story on page 32. Photo by John Russell. MIKE STEWART/' CORBIS SYGMA 2 Shattered Diplomacy Think your job is tough? Try working with an angry mob of thousands right outside your office. While James Sasser, BA’58, JD’61, was U.S. ambassador to China, American-led NATO forces bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Chinese citizens reacted by violently protesting outside the U.S. embassy in Beijing. Sasser was trapped in the embassy for four days while his wife, Mary Gorman Sasser, BA’59, and son, Gray Sasser, JD’98, took refuge beneath a table in a nearby house. Read more about alumni who have served as U.S. ambassa- dors on page 44. Contributors Editor Michael Lee Woodard GayNelle Doll Michael Lee Woodard, BS’90, came to Vanderbilt in 1978 on a football Art Director and Designer scholarship. In 1982 he left college to enter military flight training, later return- Donna DeVore Pritchett ing to complete his education. Woodard has spent his adult life involved in Editorial military flying all over the world and has also found time to earn a master’s For the Summer 2008 issue Associate Editor and Advertising Manager degree in political science from American Military University. He enjoys Phillip B. Tucker triathlons, reading ancient history, and flying with the Tennessee Army National Guard. Arts & Culture Editor Bonnie Arant Ertelt, BS’81 Ray Waddle Class Notes and Sports Editor Ray Waddle, MA’81, lives in Connecticut, where he is editor of Reflections, Nelson Bryan, BA’73 the theological journal of Yale Divinity School. A journalist for more than 20 VProduction and Design years, Waddle from 1984 to 2001 was religion editor of The Tennessean, to Assistant Director, Photography Services which he continues to contribute pieces about religion. His work has taken Daniel Dubois him deep into the Bible Belt and as far away as Yugoslavia and the West Bank. Photographers The author of Against the Grain: Unconventional Wisdom from Ecclesiastes, he also con- Steve Green, John Russell tributed a chapter on religion for the book Nashville: An American Self-Portrait. Designers Chris Collins, Renata Moore, Taylor Holliday Jenni Ohnstad Taylor Holliday is a Nashville-based writer and editor who specializes in Color Correction and Retouching the arts, food and travel. She earned a master’s degree in international affairs Julie Luckett Turner from Columbia University with a focus in media and communications. A for- Vanderbilt Magazine Advisory Board mer Wall Street Journal arts editor, she now freelances regularly for the Journal Roy Blount Jr., BA’63 as well as The New York Times and other national publications. Caneel Cotton, BA’88 Terry Eastland, BA’71 Hugh Owen Nash Jr. Robert Early, BA’71, MDiv’76 Hugh Owen Nash Jr., BE’67, is the author of Patriot Sons, Patriot Sam Feist, BA’91 Brothers, which tells the story of American Revolution figures Abner Nash and Frye Gaillard Jr., BA’68 Janice Miller Greenberg, BS’80 Francis Nash, and how three Nashvilles—including Tennessee’s capital—came G. Marc Hamburger, BA’64 to be named for Francis Nash. A native of Savannah, Ga., Hugh Nash is a part- Molly Henneberg, BS’95 ner in the Nashville engineering firm Nash Lipsey Burch LLC. He received his Ann McDaniel, BA’77 master’s degree in electrical engineering from Tennessee State University. Wendell Rawls Jr., BA’70 Edward Schumacher Matos, BA’68 Ario Hosseini Randall W. Smith, BA’84, MDiv’88 Ario Hosseini is a rising senior in the College of Arts and Science and the Potential advertisers interested in purchasing space in recipient of the Bernard Fensterwald Memorial Scholarship. He was born and Vanderbilt Magazine should contact Phillip Tucker, advertising manager, at [email protected] or reared in Lexington, Ky., after his parents left Iran in the wake of the Islamic 615/322-3989. Revolution. A neuroscience major, he is applying to medical schools this sum- Vanderbilt Magazine is published three times per year by mer. At Vanderbilt he founded and served as president of the Iranian Cultural Vanderbilt University from editorial and business offices at the Loews Vanderbilt Office Complex, 2100 West End Society, president of the Aikido Club, executive member of the Neuromajors Society and Ave., Suite 820, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615/322- 1003. Web version: www.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbilt- the Middle Eastern Student Association, a member of the Multicultural Leadership magazine. Council, and a volunteer for teaching children in Nashville about science and mentoring E-mail: [email protected]. Please send address corrections to Gift Records Office, Vanderbilt high-school youth. University, VU Station B #357727, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37235-7703. Vanderbilt Magazine is print- ed by Lane Press in Burlington, Vt. Additional Contributors: Melissa Carro, Stephen Doster, Lisa A. DuBois, Brenda Opinions expressed in Vanderbilt Magazine are those of Ellis, Jessica Ennis, Frye Gaillard, Larry Leathers, Jenny Mandeville, Ann Marie Deer the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the Owens, Missy Pankake, Jim Patterson, Kami Rice, Lisa Robbins, David F. Salisbury, Ryan views of the magazine or the university administration. Schulz, Bill Snyder, Cindy Thomsen, Whitney Weeks, Amy Wolf Vanderbilt University is committed to the principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action. Copyright 2008 Vanderbilt University 4 Summer 2008 DoreWays From the Editor From the Reader Last-Name Basis Echoes from the Holocaust I especially appreciated “In the Face of anderbilt has had eight chancellors in its 133-year history, Destruction” by Lisa Robbins [Spring 2008 and I have known five of them. issue]. Harry Kahn, his wife Hannah West- Joe B. Wyatt had been chancellor for four years when I came to field, Erich Westfield, Ernest Freudenthal work at Vanderbilt in 1986, and he had a reputation as an excellent A forum for exchanging ideas V and others were classmates and friends of steward of Vanderbilt’s finances. The Texas native didn’t look the part mine. Through them I learned about a world of the academic, with his athletic physique and tan that revealed his love of outdoor far beyond my small town—and I’ve been pursuits—but he recognized early on how important Peabody could be both to trying to learn more ever since. Knowing Vanderbilt’s future and to American K–12 education. The thriving Peabody College them changed my life. I am grateful to Van- we have today owes a great deal to Wyatt’s vision. derbilt administrators, who knew how to I interviewed Alexander Heard when I was take good advantage of great human resources writing a historic piece about the Vanderbilt/ made unexpectedly available to them. Peabody merger, and I could see why alumni Betty Goldiamond, BA’44 who’d been students during his time as chancel- Chicago lor held him in such reverence and with such affection. He was thoughtful, erudite and gen- Thank you for your wonderful article, “In teel. the Face of Destruction.” The stories of those I interviewed Heard’s predecessor, Harvie who survived the Holocaust and ultimately Branscomb, a few months before he died at age thrived never cease to be an incredibly com- 103. I was writing a piece about Rhodes Schol- pelling tribute to the human spirit’s triumph ars, and I went to Branscomb’s home on a warm against all odds. winter day. The living room was like a sauna, One of the individuals you featured was but Branscomb had a chill, and he was fussing Inge Smith. Battle Ground Academy did a as he tried to turn on the fireplace. I remember profile about Inge in the Spring 2007 issue of his marvelous collection of Brazilian santos on ELLEN RUSSELL SADLER BGA Today.