2021 - Barney S. Graham, PhD'91
A pathbreaking immunologist, virologist, educator and leader, Barney S. Graham, PhD'91, has been instrumental in vaccine development for several decades. In recent months, he served as the chief architect for the first experimental COVID-19 vaccines, which have already transformed countless lives across the nation.
Graham is currently the deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center and the chief of the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory and Translational Science Core connected with the National Institutes of Health. Throughout his career, he has also served as the chief resident at Nashville General Hospital and head of the Vanderbilt AIDS Vaccine Evaluation Unit, among other key positions in medicine and research.
2019 - James Patterson, MA'70
James Patterson, MA'70, the world's bestselling author, philanthropist, and advocate for childhood literacy and education, is the recipient of the 2019 Vanderbilt Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award. Patterson has written more No. 1 New York Times bestsellers than any other author. His work spans several genres including action, mystery, romance, true crime, young adult and historical fiction.
In 2019, Patterson created the Patterson Fellowships that will bring eight distinguished visiting scholars to the university each year. These fellows will spend a week in one of Vanderbilt's Residential Colleges, discussing their work and regularly interacting with undergraduate students that live in those communities.
Patterson started the ReadKiddoRead.com initiative to encourage children to read, and childhood education is the focus of much of his philanthropic support at Vanderbilt. The Patterson Scholars program supports 19 undergraduate students studying to be teachers. He also supports two programs, the Reading Academy at Vanderbilt and Read and Play Saturdays, aimed at stimulating reading among underprivileged middle school students in the Nashville community.
2018 - H. Rodes Hart, BA'54
An extraordinary leader and philanthropist, H. Rodes Hart, BA'54, has helped position the university's impact on society through education and has contributed to Vanderbilt's ascendance among the nation's elite universities.
Hart's strong leadership helped steer the university through two historic transitions. As a member of the former George Peabody College for Teachers Board of Trust from 1967 to 1979, he played an integral role in the successful merger of Vanderbilt University and Peabody College. He then served until 2011 on the Vanderbilt Board of Trust, for which he sat on its Audit, Budget, Investment, Public and Government Relations, Medical Center Board, Buildings and Grounds, and Executive committees. From 2008 to 2011, he was chair of the highly successful Shape the Future Campaign, which raised a record $1.94 billion to further Vanderbilt's missions of education, discovery and patient care.
Hart's leadership is matched by his tremendous generosity. He has been a driving force behind Peabody's service to society through education and human development. With a deep belief in the importance of a world-class faculty, he and his wife, Patricia Hart, BA'57, have endowed numerous faculty chairs, positioning Vanderbilt to attract and retain the best possible talent. They also have created scholarships that have helped the university recruit the most talented and diverse students. Peabody's reputation as one of the nation's premier colleges for preparing teachers and leaders is, in many ways, due to the Harts' generosity and partnership.
The Harts are also stalwarts in the Nashville community. Their passion for the arts and numerous nonprofit organizations in Nashville is visible throughout the city and has contributed significantly to its enhanced national reputation.
2017 - Perry E. Wallace, BE'70
As the first African American varsity basketball player in the Southeastern Conference, Perry Wallace, BE'70, was a renowned figure in the American Civil Rights Movement.
His contributions on the court and the importance of his trailblazing career have been recognized through induction into the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. His jersey was retired by Vanderbilt, he was named an SEC Living Legend and to the Silver Anniversary All-America team, and he was honored with the prestigious Michael L. Slive Distinguished Service Award.
For several years Wallace was a senior trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice, handling cases involving environmental, energy and natural resources law. He served a three-year term on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology. Wallace was a professor at Howard University and the University of Baltimore before joining American University's Washington College of Law in 1993 as a law professor specializing in environmental law, corporate law and finance. He also served as the director of the university's JD/MBA dual degree program.
2016 - Richard B. Johnston Jr., BA'57, MD'61
Richard B. Johnston Jr., BA'57, MD'61, is a renowned immunologist and pediatrician who has dedicated his life's work to improving the health of children.
As national medical director of the March of Dimes, Johnston led an effort that has significantly reduced birth defects such as spina bifida. After medical research found that consuming folic acid prior to and during the early stages of pregnancy reduced the occurrence of neural tube defects, Johnston led a national folic acid public awareness campaign. He brought the nation's obstetrician-gynecologists, pediatricians and nurses together to enlighten and educate women of childbearing age of the importance of folic acid in preventing certain birth defects. His leadership ultimately led to the Food and Drug Administration's 1998 ruling to add folic acid to America's grain supply, which has since significantly reduced neural tube defects such as spina bifida in the United States.
2014 - Dr. Harold "Hal" Moses, MD'62, HO'62, HO'63
Dr. Harold "Hal" Moses, MD'62, the Hortense B. Ingram Chair in Cancer Research at Vanderbilt University, is the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award-the highest honor for a member of the Vanderbilt alumni community. Moses is a highly acclaimed international lecturer and world-renowned scholar in the field of cancer biology.
Much of Moses's research career has been related to cellular activity and growth in breast cancer and the crucial discoveries from his research team have served as building blocks for other cancer scientists. His achievements have also been recognized with the 2013 American Association of Cancer Research Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research, the Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research at Vanderbilt and the T.J. Martell Foundation Lifetime Achievement Medical Research Award.
2012 -Vice Admiral Nora Tyson, BA'79
RADM Nora Tyson, Vice Director of the Joint Staff, has dedicated her life to serving her country. Her naval career has helped ensure national security, while her efforts in international diplomacy have helped extend goodwill across the globe. Her 2010 appointment to lead the 80 combat aircraft and 13 ships of the U.S. Navy's Carrier Strike Group Two distinguished her as the first woman in U.S. Navy history to be named commander of a carrier strike group. Her impressive naval career and leadership style elicits praise from superiors and subordinates alike. She has remained dedicated to the country's security and the young Americans she leads throughout her service. In addition to supporting Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and New Dawn in the Persian Gulf, she led the Navy's initial relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina, and the U. S. Navy's exercise and engagement activities with our partners in Southeast Asia.
2008 - Dr. Levi Watkins, MD'47
Dr. Levi Watkins, the first African American to be admitted to and graduate from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, has made great strides in improving healthcare, education and diversity on a global scale. A groundbreaking cardiologist, he performed the world's first human implantation of the automatic implantable defibrillator and later developed multiple innovative surgical techniques for implanting this device. His commitment to racial equality has contributed to an increase in minority representation of over 400 percent at Johns Hopkins University, where he currently serves as a professor of cardiac surgery and associate dean of the school of medicine. His legacy at Vanderbilt University is marked by the annual Levi Watkins Jr. Lecture on Diversity in Medical Education, as well as the Levi Watkins, Jr. Professorship established in 2002 in his name.
2007 - Carol Ann Etherington, MSN'75
Carol Etherington has devoted a lifetime of passion and energy to the advocacy of health and human rights. She has served as a catalyst for change and refuge for underserved and traumatized populations on local, national and global landscapes. Much of her work as a mental health expert has focused on creating effective community-based programs for individuals, families and communities who have survived natural disasters, war, crime or other abuses. Equally significant is her tireless commitment to educating and influencing the next generation of great nurses as an assistant professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University. Her strong belief that health and human rights are inextricably linked are shown in her lifetime achievement as a clinician, teacher and humanitarian. Truly, her knowledge and steadfast dedication have transformed our world.
2005 - The Reverend James M. Lawson, '71
The Reverend Lawson has devoted a lifetime of passion and energy to being a catalyst for change, both through his ministry and his leadership in nonviolent action. For his indelible footprints in the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deemed him the foremost nonviolence theorist in the world. Equally significant is the Reverend Lawson's continued advocacy and tireless commitment to organizing and mobilizing people for justice and peace around the globe. Truly, his influence in sowing the seeds of spiritual and moral revolution has transformed our world.
2004 - Dr. Mildred T. Stahlman, BA'43, MD'46, HO'48
Throughout a lifetime of indelible contributions to the field of medicine, Dr. Mildred Stahlman pioneered modern neonatal care across the United States and the world - revolutionizing the face of neonatal care in modern academic medical centers and, thus, changing the fate of countless newborns that would otherwise have had no future. An international expert on diseases of the newborn, she has spent her academic and professional career at Vanderbilt, creating the first modern neonatal intensive care unit in the country, initiating the Angel Transport mobile intensive care unit for newborns, developing overseas fellowship exchange programs, and continuing to research diverse methods to prevent and treat disease. Equally significant is her devotion to each Vanderbilt medical student and pediatric resident who has had the privilege of working under her demanding tutelage. And her belief in the power of education is illustrated through her quiet, generous philanthropy. Truly, her contributions to medicine, the field of ethics, and her community have transformed the world in which we live.
2002 - Dr. Thomas Frist, BA'60, HO'65
Throughout a long and distinguished career in health care and business, Dr. Thomas Frist Jr. led a revolution in health care delivery across the United States and the world, providing exceptional medical care to millions of people. In bringing together the disciplines of medicine and business in his global company, Hospital Corporation of America, he has energized national and regional economies in new and important ways. Equally significant is his devotion to the common weal. His leadership nationally has challenged prevailing philanthropic wisdom. His founding of United Way's Alexis de Tocqueville Society has organized giving to help resolve some of society's most difficult problems. His vision of a better, more humane world truly has transformed the places in which so many live and work.
2000 - Dr. Antonio Gotto, BA'57, MD'65
Antonio Gotto, BA'57, MD'65, has contributed greatly to our understanding of cardiovascular disease through his work as a physician, researcher, teacher, administrator, and author. He is considered one of the world's foremost authorities in unraveling the complexities of atherosclerosis, the primary cause of cardiovascular disease. Since 1997 he has served as the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, where he also is a professor of medicine and provost for medical affairs.
A tireless researcher in the field of lipid chemistry and the role of lipoproteins in cholesterol metabolism, Gotto has been the main investigator in trials that have proven the benefit of arterial plaque reduction in cutting the risk of vascular and heart disease.
During more than two decades spent at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Gotto was the Bob and Vivian Smith Professor and chairman of the Albert B. and Margaret M. Alkek Department of Medicine and chief of the Internal Medicine Service at the Methodist Hospital in Houston. At Baylor he also held the J.S. Abercrombie Professor Chair for Atherosclerosis and Lipoprotein Research and was scientific director of the DeBakey Heart Center.
Gotto is the author of more than 350 original scholarly articles. He also wrote The New Living Heart Cookbook and co-wrote The Living Heart and The New Living Heart Diet-all best-selling books that increased the public's understanding of cardiovascular disease and its dietary treatment.
A Nashville native, Gotto earned his B.A. in biochemistry at Vanderbilt. He received a D.Phil. in biochemistry from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Gotto has served as national president of the American Heart Association and as president of the International Atherosclerosis Society. He and his wife, Anita, who received her baccalaureate degree from Peabody College in 1959, have three daughters.
1999 - Delbert Mann, BA'41
Instilled with an early love of theatre, Delbert Mann grew up in Nashville and attended Hume-Fogg High School. At Vanderbilt, Mann majored in political science, served as president of the Student Council, on the Student Union Board and Honor Council, and played fraternity sports. He was also co-editor of the Vanderbilt Hustler with Ann Gillespie, BA'41, who after graduation became his wife. Throughout high school and college, Mann worked in community theatre both as an actor and a director's assistant.
After graduation and a tour with the Army Air Corps during World War II, Mann earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale Drama School. The experience at Yale did not diminish his love of theatre, but it did lead him in another direction. Mann decided to become a director. His mentor from Nashville community theatre days, Fred Coe, a Peabody alumnus, was producing television programs in New York and encouraged Mann to come to New York, even giving him a chance to direct an early Philco Playhouse. From 1949 to 1959, Mann honed his craft during the legendary decade of live television in New York, directing more than 100 programs for such shows as Philco Playhouse, Omnibus and Playhouse 90.
Mann's cinematic directorial debut was a film version of a live television drama that Mann had directed for the Philco Playhouse. Marty won four Academy Awards, including Best Director for Mann. He continued to direct films for both the cinema and television. In 1979, he received the Golden Globe award for the television drama All Quiet on the Western Front. He has also won awards for Desire Under the Elms, Separate Tables and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Mann has directed such actors as Henry Fonda, David Niven, Ernest Borgnine, who won the Best Actor Oscar for Marty, Sophia Loren, Doris Day and Lee Remick.
A long-time trustee, Delbert Mann has been generous with both his time and resources to Vanderbilt University. The Manns are strong supporters of the Fred Coe Artist-in-Residence Fund, honoring their friend who died in 1979. For years, Mann has been donating his papers to the Jean and Alexander Heard Library. In 1994, the library published Catalog of Delbert Mann Papers. Head of Caroline Productions in Los Angeles, Delbert Mann has earned the luxury of being selective about the projects he undertakes, working only when a story has a strong personal meeting. After more than five decades in television and motion pictures, Delbert Mann continues to direct films that call up the best of human qualities and illuminate our common humanity.
1998 - Cal Turner Jr., BA'62
Cal Turner Jr., BA'62, came from small-town roots in Scottsville, Kentucky. He began working at the age of 13 in the Dollar General Stores founded by his father and grandfather.
After graduation from Vanderbilt he served in the U.S. Navy for three years, joined the Dollar General Corporation in 1965, and was elected to the board of directors the following year. He was named president in 1977 and succeeded his father as chairman in 1988.
Dollar General is a highly successful business with over 25,000 employees and with annual sales over $2.5 billion. Turner's corporate leadership is characterized by his total commitment to the mission of Dollar General: "Serving others. A better life for our customers. A superior investment for our shareholders. A partnership in meal development with our employees."
Turner takes service of others very seriously, with membership on a number of boards, both corporate and philanthropic, including the Vanderbilt Board of Trust. His far-reaching involvement is marked by his dedication co promoting education and literacy and in helping others to help themselves through education in the classrooms of life. His projects, as exemplified in the partnership with the YWCA in a job-training program in the Sam Levy Homes, are creative and functional and have a very real effect on those who are touched by them. He and Dollar General have earned countless accolades, including the Presidential Award for Private Sector Initiatives and the Saturday Evening Post's prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award for an active grass-roots approach to literacy programs.
Turner's commitment co-education is also demonstrated in his partnerships with Vanderbilt University. He established a scholarship-internship program in the Divinity School; the Cal Turner Center for Leadership and Moral Responsibility and the Cal Turner Distinguished University Professor; and most recently, the new Cal Turner Chancellor's Chair in Wesley Studies and Theology at the Divinity School.
1997 - Dr. Norman E. Shumway, MD'49
Norman E. Shumway, MD'49, is Considered by many to be the preeminent pioneer and world authority on human heart transplantation. He performed the first successful heart transplant bn an adult in the United States in 1968 and the first heart-lung transplant in 1981. Shumway also pioneered a procedure for correcting birth defects through bypass surgery and developed techniques for total surgical correction of "blue baby" heart defects.
The Michigan native intended to enter law before World War II interrupted his studies at the University of Michigan. He entered the army in 1943 and was given the choice of becoming a physician or a dentist. He chose to study medicine, and following a nine-month premed course at Baylor he entered medical school at Vanderbilt, receiving his degree in 1949. He also earned a Ph.D. in 1956 from the University of Minnesota.
Now professor emeritus of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford University and associate chief of external affairs at Stanford Hospital, Shumway was recalled to service after retiring as chairman of Stanford's department of cardiothoracic surgery and Field Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery from 1976 to 1993.
Among the many honors he has received, VUMS named him its Distinguished Alumnus in 1983. Other honors, to mention only a few, include the Modern Medicine Award for Distinguished Achievement, the Renee Leriche Prize from the International Society of Surgery, and the First Texas Heart Institute Medal.
Shumway has a son and three daughters, including Sara, who followed in her father's footsteps and received her medical degree from Vanderbilt in 1979. Shumway and Sara, who runs the transplant program at the University of Minnesota, recently cowrote a book, Thoracic Transplantation.
1996 - Muhammad Yunus, PhD'71
Muhammad Yunus of Dhaka, Bangladesh, began his graduate studies in Vanderbilt's graduate program in economic development in 1965 and remained at the University until he received the Ph.D. degree in 1971. After returning to Bangladesh as a member of the Planning Commission, he soon joined the faculty of Chittagong University.
As Yunus traveled between his home and the university, he passed peasants, mostly women, working at handicrafts and roiling in the fields without sufficient tools and adequate irrigation. Recognizing their need for financial capital, he established the Grameen (rural) Bank to help the rural and frequently landless poor. By 1994 the bank had almost two million clients and had issued hundreds of millions of dollars in loans. No collateral has ever been· required, and the repayment rate is ninety-eight percent.
Yunus's micro lending plan has expanded into micro entrepreneurship which has resulted in a measurable increase in the living standards of his countrymen. The model has inspired more than 100 similar enterprises in more than 40 countries around the world, including the United States.
Muhammad Yunus has been featured in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications around the world. He has been featured on 20/20 and 60 Minutes, and is the recipient of a number of international awards.
To learn more, and to nominate a deserving alumnus/na, visit our Awards Page.