MTSU and professor Hanna Terletska lead research and training efforts to prepare workforce for the future of computing
Page 28
Blue and Blooms
Photo by Cat Curtis Murphy
Middle Tennessee State University
Summer 2025, Vol. 30, No. 1
University President
Sidney A. McPhee
University Provost
Mark Byrnes
Vice President for University Advancement
Joe Bales
Vice President for Marketing and Communications
Andrew Oppmann
Senior Editor
Drew Ruble
Associate Editor
Carol Stuart
Director of Creative and Visual Services
Kristy D. O'Neal
Designers
Darrell Callis Burks, Brian Evans, Micah Loyed, Brittany Stokes
Contributing Editor
Nancy Broden
Contributing Writers
Skip Anderson, Nancy DeGennaro, Jimmy Hart, DeAnn Hays, Jordan Reining, Patsy Weiler, Randy Weiler
University Photographers
James Cessna, Andy Heidt, J. Intintoli, Cat Curtis Murphy
Special thanks to Lynn Adams, Ginger Freeman, Martin O'Connor, Matt Posey, Mary Purdom
Cover photo by J. Intintoli; photo illustration by Micah Loyed and Darrell Callis Burks
Address changes should be sent to Advancement Services, MTSU Box 109, Murfreesboro, TN 37132; alumni@mtsu.edu.
Other correspondence goes to MTSU magazine, Drew Ruble, 1301 E. Main St., MTSU Box 49, Murfreesboro, TN 37132. For online content, visit mtsunews.com. 136,034 copies printed at Courier Printing, Smyrna, Tennessee.
Designed by MTSU Creative and Visual Services.
MTSU HOMECOMING 2025
SEPTEMBER 19–20
Join in the tradition that brings us together to celebrate your Blue Raiders for a memorable Homecoming weekend!
Golden Raiders Reunion (Class of 1975)
Alumni Awards
Mixer on Middle Homecoming Parade
Alumni Tailgate
MTSU Football vs. Marshall, 6 p.m.
To find updated listings and RSVP for some events, visit mtalumni.com/Homecoming2025 or call 615-898-2922.
A New Approach
Inflation and rising costs for materials have certainly impacted all of us over the last several months. Whether it was the price of a dozen eggs or the cost of a new computer, almost everything we use, or touch, has seen drastic increases in price. As a result, we’ve all been forced to make changes in our purchasing and spending habits.
Your alma mater has not been immune to these escalating costs, and, like you, we have been forced to make adjustments to many of our activities. Unfortunately, one of the places where we have seen the greatest impact on our costs is MTSU magazine. With paper and ink costs rising dramatically, even doubling in some cases, and postage costs set to go up again this summer, we were forced to make some decisions on our primary alumni communications piece.
Effective July 1, we are adopting a new circulation plan—one that we hope will allow us to continue to provide you with valuable stories on the activities and successes of your alma mater while reflecting prudent financial management to assure we remain good stewards of our University’s resources. Under our new distribution plan, all alumni households with a valid mailing address will receive one copy of MTSU magazine each summer. This robust issue will be a comprehensive review of major University programs and activities from the previous 12 months, keeping you informed of the people and events that make MTSU special.
Each winter, a second, abbreviated issue will be produced, again with stories and profiles of key highlights from the fall. This issue will be a bit timelier
and spotlight events from the previous six months, like Homecoming, and our campus activities and traditions. Circulation for this issue will be limited to alumni and friends who are active donors; new graduates, who will receive a three-year subscription; members of MTSU Foundation and Alumni Association boards, various advisory boards, and the Blue Raider Athletic Association; and participants/attendees at our major events.
This is not a decision we made lightly, and we are looking to ways to assure we continue our communications with you. We will maintain online versions of both magazines that will be available to everyone and intend to supplement those with the Middle Minute, our e-newsletter, and a vibrant social media presence to keep our Blue Raider community informed and engaged in the life of the University.
If you want to be sure that you keep receiving your MTSU magazine, I encourage you to stay actively involved. All donors of $100 or more annually, as well as those who are active in our campus/alumni programming, will receive both issues. We are working to assure that everyone who wants to be engaged in our community will be provided the resources they need to stay informed and involved. Please know how much we appreciate your understanding and support as we transition to this new model of communications. We will be constantly monitoring the situation as we explore new or improved ways to stay connected.
Again, thank you for your continued support of MTSU!
Joe Bales Vice President for University Advancement
Fertile Ground
A brief conversation
on the Daniels Center with MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee
This year, the University is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the creation of the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center. Tell me your thoughts about reaching this milestone.
I’m proud to say that the Daniels Center is the most comprehensive veterans and military family center at a university in Tennessee. It’s proof of the University’s ongoing commitment to military personnel and student veterans.
MTSU’s 3,200-square-foot and growing Daniels Center provides service and support for the thousands of veterans and family members who attend MTSU. Everything a student veteran needs to succeed is available through the center, from getting advice on courses and completing government paperwork to getting questions answered about benefits and employment opportunities.
Located in Keathley University Center in the middle of campus not far from both Military Memorial and Normal Way—and not far from where planes used to take flight and land on the campus airstrip—the Daniels Center is a one-stop shop for student veterans.
Even prior to the Daniels Center’s opening, MTSU boasted a long and proud history of offering programs and initiatives in support of student veterans. Talk about that.
As far back as the 2000s, a motivated group of MTSU staffers and professors who were veterans themselves formed a Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. They met regularly to discuss concerns like how to deal with students and professors’ getting called to active duty midsemester. They wrote policy and submitted the work for University approval. We were very much fertile ground for the establishment of a true military center. We had already done a lot of the work.
In 2004, a campus committee began fundraising to create a Veterans Memorial. Unveiled in 2009, it recognizes the contributions of alumni and others who have served in the nation’s armed forces since 1911. The memorial hosts a variety of annual events that honor veterans and future military leaders. No other college campus in America boasts a similar Veterans Memorial.
In 2011, MTSU became the first institution of higher education in the state—and one of the first in the country—to partner
Everything
a student veteran
needs to succeed is available through the center.
with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ new VetSuccess on Campus program. A VA mental health counselor was later added to expand services offered on campus. Such continuous progress paved the way for organizers to finally gain support for additional veteran-focused campus initiatives—notably, a full-fledged veterans center.
I have heard you say, though, that to get there, the University needed a “true general” to lead the charge.
We did. And we achieved that through the fortuitous hiring of retired Lt. Gen. Keith M. Huber ( photo at right ), a three-star general who spent 38 years in the U.S. Army, 14 of them as a general officer. When he retired from the military in 2013, his résumé had no corporate equivalent: His workdays sometimes involved combat. His business trips were tours of duty. His operating budget was $960 million. His meetings were often with heads of state or the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
After he became a civilian for the first time since heading to West Point at age 18, the general still wanted to serve. So, he contacted academic institutions throughout Tennessee that had ROTC programs and offered to speak at commissioning or awards ceremonies—or anywhere else he could provide education or inspiration.
When he spoke at MTSU, I was among those present and inspired. I had been looking for a way to build on the University’s long track record of partnering with the military and educating veterans. After assessing MTSU’s veteran environment, General Huber agreed to permanently join the University—but on a few conditions. One was that MTSU construct a true student veteran support center.
How did the Daniels family get involved?
Beverly Keel, now dean of MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment, felt strongly that Huber should meet her good
friend and legendary country music performer and Grand Ole Opry member Charlie Daniels. Keel arranged the meeting, which turned out to be a trip with Huber, Daniels, and David Corlew, the leader of Daniels’ Journey Home Project veteran assistance program, to Fort Benning, Georgia, to see the Best Ranger competition.
The May 2015 trip went well, to say the least. By August 2016, less than a year after the MTSU military center opened, it was officially renamed the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center following two significant financial gifts from the Daniels family.
How has the Daniels Center grown in scope over the past decade?
Initially, the center’s primary concern was onboarding veterans and/or family members, trying to ensure their transition to civilian life was seamless. While navigating residency, prior learning assessment, and the GI Bill® are still items the Daniels Center attends to, its focus has gravitated toward academic success and tapping into VA non-educational resources. We are laser-focused on ensuring that our students get strong advising and degree-planning and that they make good grades.
Is it true that the center will help veterans anywhere in the state, nation, or world, regardless of a connection to MTSU?
Veterans with a need do not have to be related to MTSU to visit our campus and visit our offices! The center will also help anyone, anywhere over the phone. The Daniels Center is now a field office for the Tennessee Department of Veterans Services, and there is a Veterans Service Officer on site Monday through Friday.
Thank you, Mr. President.
by Randy Weiler
MTSU’s top-notch Army ROTC program marks 75 years of “regimentation . . . discipline . . . something different”
Since 1950, MTSU’s storied Army ROTC program has provided leaders to serve the nation in duty assignments around the world for the Army, National Guard, and Army Reserve.
As part of its rich history, this Reserve Officers’ Training Corps regiment has been named the No. 1 program nationally three times—in 1978 (among 283 colleges and universities), 2001, and 2006 (best medium-sized cadet battalion). It has commissioned 1,600 officers to the nation’s military leadership, including 17 current or retired general officers.
Five generals who rose through the ranks after serving as MTSU cadets were among about 150 attendees at a recent 75th anniversary celebration at the
Veterans Memorial: retired Brig. Gens. Les Fuller, Pat O’Neal, and David Ogg, and retired Maj. Gens. Max Haston and James “Jim” Myles. Myles also was announced as MTSU’s nominee for the National Army ROTC Hall of Fame.
“It was new and something different, another avenue of learning. I liked the regimentation and discipline,” said retired Col. Charles Loyd “Charlie” Pigg, who at 92 was the oldest living ROTC alumnus on hand for the April event. Following his service, Pigg returned to MTSU to work and retired in 1992 after 28 years as a campus planning engineer.
ROTC alumnus and retired Army Col. Charles Loyd “Charlie” Pigg (l), age 92, and current cadet battalion commander George Jouny
Five retired U.S. Army generals who are MTSU ROTC alumni (l–r): retired Brig. Gen. David Ogg, Maj. Gen. Max Haston, Maj. Gen. Jim Myles, Brig. Gen. Pat O’Neal, and Brig. Gen. Les Fuller
Eight ROTC alumni killed in action were recognized at the ceremony. Another six pre-ROTC era students from what was then named Middle Tennessee State College also died while serving their country and are listed on the Veterans Memorial wall.
In Cantrell Hall, where a celebration cake was served, two tables featured items from a 2005 time capsule, dug up the day before, and a 2025 capsule, which was buried afterward.
Two former cadets were inducted into the MTSU ROTC Hall of Fame—Meg Kelm, currently director for counterintelligence at the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency, and retired Col. Joseph M. “Jay” Harmon III, former deputy to the commanding general at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence. Both acknowledged how ROTC funded their educations at MTSU and led to their career service.
“ROTC shaped me,” Kelm said.
View video from ROTC 75th celebration by scanning QR code.
Photos by Andy Heidt
Alumnus and retired Army Maj. Gen. Max Haston, former Tennessee Army National Guard adjutant general, giving the 75-year history of the MTSU Army ROTC program
Ogg with a copy of his father’s telegram for orders from 1953
2005 time capsule items
From the earth to the skies, MTSU-connected researchers cultivate projects that improve people’s lives
by Drew Ruble, Carol Stuart, and Patsy Weiler
Higher education research is a great investment for people and society.
As the following stories show, through real-world projects in key areas of agriculture, aerospace, education, medicine, public safety, and weather, MTSU-connected researchers are playing a pivotal role in boosting the food supply, solving issues related to literacy, making aviation safer, helping sex trafficking victims, improving weather forecasting, and wielding artificial intelligence in health care.
These stories of persistence, innovation, and empathy showcase MTSU’s commitment to helping the citizens of our state, nation, and world live better and more rewarding lives.
GLIDING ALONG
MTSU Aerospace professor Nate Callender adds a potentially life-saving wrinkle to the pilot literature on “engine-out glide”
Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was the US Airways captain who guided his Airbus A320 with 155 passengers aboard to a safe landing in the Hudson River in 2009 after a flock of Canada geese knocked out both of his airplane’s engines.
The feat, remembered as the “Miracle on the Hudson,” made such an impression that Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood retold the story in a movie titled Sully
In the film, and in real life, Sullenberger adjusted the plane’s pitch to maintain an optimal glide speed, calculating the correct speed and altitude at which to raise the plane’s nose and slow its descent, creating a softer landing.
Avionics companies have developed on-board systems to help pilots navigate “engine-out glides” like what Sullenberger faced. Existing in-cockpit displays provide “glide range rings” that inform pilots how far the aircraft should be able to glide at any given moment, as well as the locations of nearby airports. Developed by tech heavyweights like Garmin and Boeing (ForeFlight), avionics software of this type is now an industry standard.
But recently, MTSU professor and associate chair of the MTSU Aerospace Department Nate Callender introduced a way to improve engine-out glide performance that adds a critical new component to the pilot literature. It could prove to be a life-saving development in future flight.
Callender made his discovery while working as an expert witness on a court case dealing with a single-engine airplane that lost its engine in flight.
As a part of the case, Callender used his flight-testing background to design and lead a flight test to determine the aerodynamic performance of this airplane. He then used that information to make glide-path predictions to airports that were available to that airplane at the time.
In the course of doing those calculations, Callender discovered something novel. Something he said pilots don’t know and are not presently taught. According to Callender, when a pilot loses the engine, making the airplane a glider, the safest landing location may not be straight ahead. A turn will likely be necessary to get there.
How best to turn in an engine-out glide, Callender said, is not taught. Meaning pilots don’t know whether to use a very low bank angle or a really steep bank angle.
“I was able to identify the bank angle that gives a pilot the most glide distance when they have to conduct a gliding turn,” Callender said. “Essentially, current, readily available avionics software does not account for the distance that you would lose if you have to turn in the glide.”
Callender has published his information in multiple places, as well as presented his results at various conferences including at the Society of Flight Test Engineers, where representatives of both Boeing and Garmin were in attendance. Callender has encouraged each company to consider this potential enhancement to their software.
—Drew Ruble and Skip Anderson
Nate Callender (r)
WINNING THE READING WARS
MTSU’s Literacy Studies Ph.D. program, one of the first in the nation, draws national support in its quest to solve America’s literacy crisis
According to the National Literacy Institute, 21% of U.S. adults are illiterate, while 54% have a literacy comprehension below a sixth-grade level. Those figures combine to rank the United States 36th globally in literacy.
Progress is being made in the Volunteer State. Just last year, Gov. Bill Lee announced that Tennessee students now lead the nation in reading proficiency gains thanks to our state’s “strong K–3rd grade literacy strategy,” grounded in phonics and teacher training, which he introduced in the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Lee’s formula aligns with what educators today believe are best practices for improving literacy rates: employing scientifically proven methods of teaching reading while also creating an army of literacy experts who can teach others what they know to be effective.
MTSU’s Literacy Studies Ph.D. program in the College of Education is specifically designed to create those experts. In doing so, it is addressing the shortage of scholars, PreK–12 leaders, nonprofit leaders, and policymakers equipped to bridge the gap between growing research in literacy and educational practice, policy, and professional preparation.
Drawing on faculty from the College of Education, College of Behavioral and Health Sciences, and College of Liberal Arts, the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program is rapidly developing literacy leaders who can effectively translate research to practitioners—and becoming a national model along the way.
“We are one of the first Ph.D. Literacy Studies programs in the nation,” said Amy Elleman, professor and director of MTSU’s program. “There are a few out there. But they are few and far between. And none have really looked at the literacy issue with our interdisciplinary lens, or really with our focus on translating research to practice in the classroom.”
Research is emerging from the program. But an equal emphasis is placed on teaching doctoral students what works in reading instruction and how to train others.
“As our graduates move into leadership roles, they are positioned to translate research to practice,” Elleman said. “And there aren’t that many doctoral programs doing that work.”
Don’t just take Elleman’s word for it, though. Last year, a large, not-for-profit foundation, which asked not to be
identified for this article, discovered MTSU’s program and reached out to the University to request its participation in a grant-funded project.
The anonymous foundation funds programs nationally that are building the pipeline of teacher educators who are deeply knowledgeable about the body of research on reading and can be translators of research to practice. Specifically, the foundation seeks to grow the number and capacity of high-quality doctoral programs in reading (like MTSU’s) across the country and to attract more candidates to those programs.
MTSU received $1 million from this foundation to develop more doctoral students who will graduate and go into high-level leadership positions of change.
Beginning in 2025, the foundation will pay tuition and stipend support for two cohorts of seven new students for four years (their entire education). This will result in an additional 14 high-quality graduates ready to impact literacy education upon graduation.
—Drew Ruble
Amy Elleman
A PERENNIAL PARTNERSHIP
MTSU professor Song Cui teams up with a Kansasbased sustainable agriculture agency to prove less tilling tastes great
Tennessee’s motto is “Agriculture and Commerce.” Agriculture has always been Tennessee’s No. 1 industry and synonymous with its brand.
Food grown in Tennessee is planted in carbon-rich topsoil. But topsoil is disappearing at a terrifying rate across the U.S. According to a study by Cornell University, almost 2 billion tons of farmland are lost to soil erosion every year. From a food supply standpoint, it’s nothing short of a crisis.
Tennessee farmers boast a proud history of employing conservation methods to reduce the erosion of topsoil across the state. That’s one of many reasons the nonprofit Land Institute, based in Salina, Kansas, has its eye on Tennessee. Through the selective breeding of seeds and the development of perennial grain crops that don’t need replanting annually, the Land Institute is a national leader in ecologically sensitive agriculture.
Now, as a result of a recent partnership between the institute and MTSU Agriculture professor and researcher Song Cui, perennial plants like grain, sorghum, and sunflowers are being tested in Tennessee soil. It’s creating new opportunities for Tennessee farmers.
Perennial grains like those the Land Institute pioneered grow long roots that extend deep into the ground. By doing so, they build healthy soil, better absorb water, protect soil from erosion, retain nutrients, foster biodiversity, and remove carbon dioxide from the air.
The Land Institute’s signature product to date is Kernza, a perennial grain it developed, which flourishes in the
Midwestern U.S. Kernza produces a grain yield for about three years—a significant improvement over annual crops requiring tilling each year.
Major food manufacturers like General Mills and supermarket chains such as Whole Foods are already deep in the Kernza business. Consumers nationwide can easily find Kernza products, including beer, on grocery store shelves.
The question for the institute now is: Can Kernza (and other perennial crops) viably grow in other parts of the country and world? To that end, Land Institute has launched a movement to scale perennial agriculture, building connections to ensure that perennial grains will be developed on every continent except Antarctica. In doing so, it supports more than 200 researchers in more than 30 countries.
Enter Cui, who become a partner to investigate some of the institute’s lines in plant breeding in Tennessee last year.
“They might be shooting for higher yield, better adaptivity, adaptivity to a new environment, a lot of things,” Cui said of the institute’s interest in MTSU and Tennessee farming.
“They have varieties of breeding lines that no one has ever grown in the Southeastern U.S. Now we are!”
Cui most recently planted Kernza in November 2024. Their roots are huge and very deep—at least three or four feet.
“You’re looking about almost zero management,” Cui said. “It’s one time planting and getting them established, maybe some weeding at the very beginning.”
Cui’s early success with perennial plants is creating buzz in the Tennessee farm community.
“Tennessee farmers are interested in growing these,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘Hey, can I have some seeds? I want to grow it.’ ”
—Drew Ruble
Song Cui (r) showing Kernza roots
TRAFFICKING SIGNS
MTSU professor and student help inform law enforcement training to assist sex trafficking victims
When the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Human Trafficking Unit gets a 3 a.m. call after a state trooper notices a possible sex trafficking victim, the person in that pulled-over vehicle may initially reject an agent’s help.
“You’re the police, and they’ve been groomed to hate you, and we’re there to take you away from what they’ve been told,” said Jeremy Lofquest, assistant special agent in charge of the unit.
But down the road, after receiving specialized assistance and therapies from service providers and programs, such victims sometimes return to express their gratitude and tell of their changed lives. “You’re seeing someone get their whole life back on track that you don’t get to see in a lot of other criminal investigations,” Lofquest said.
Helping law enforcement throughout the state identify, rescue, and assist sex trafficking victims is an impetus for a research project launched by MTSU’s Rachel Davis, a Sociology assistant professor, and student Melissa Guinn ( photo at right ). A first-generation student and senior majoring in the new Cybersecurity Management program, Guinn aspires to apply her skills to tracking online predators and hopes to also start a nonprofit for victim advocacy.
While taking Davis’ Sex Trafficking course, she asked Davis about collaborating on a project. The professor suggested using hypothetical vignettes to survey law enforcement
across the state, similar to her own planned research about people’s perceptions of campus sexual assault.
“I decided that I wanted to focus on law enforcement’s perceptions because how they think of not only the victim but the scenario itself plays a part into the justice and the help that that victim is going to receive,” Guinn said.
The two developed vignettes about sexual assault and sex trafficking to help illuminate any concerns about officers’ training, recognition of situations, and specific challenges. They plan to present detailed findings to the TBI soon, particularly related to runaway youth. They recently shared some preliminary results at the American Society of Criminology and the Southern Sociological Society—and are seeking grants to expand the project nationally.
“We’re really hopeful that this can highlight blind spots in law enforcement’s training related to sex trafficking and can highlight ways that we can strengthen our cultural response to sex trafficking and not just rely on law enforcement,” Davis said.
In each of the past two years, the TBI’s Human Trafficking Unit received approximately 1,300 tips and leads for human trafficking (including labor trafficking), all checked out by analysts and its nine agents. It had seen 30% yearover-year growth several years previously.
Law enforcement agencies in Tennessee may receive training on the topic from others that is well-intentioned and -designed. But the TBI wants to offer local officers information relevant especially to Tennessee. The agency welcomes Davis and Guinn’s research to gain feedback from subject experts that can be used in law enforcement training, as well as to increase public awareness.
—Carol Stuart
Rachel Davis
A CLEARER PICTURE
MTSU Computer Science graduate Lucas Remedios wields artificial intelligence (AI) in the fight against a silent killer
A study in Academic Radiology found that, on average, radiologists must interpret one CT or MRI image every three to four seconds to keep their workday on track. It’s a frightening pace considering patients’ lives often depend on scan readings to determine if something looks abnormal.
Help for weary-eyed radiologists has arrived in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) applications making imaging evaluation more precise and efficient, improving diagnostic accuracy. AI can’t replace an experienced radiologist’s clinical judgment; however, it can identify and flag potential abnormalities in scans, enabling human professionals to focus more on complex interpretations.
The key is harnessing mass data—billions upon billions of medical scans collected in a database—to enable AI to do its job. That’s where computer scientists like MTSU graduate Lucas Remedios (’20), currently a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University, enter the picture.
As a researcher at the Medical-image Analysis and Statistical Interpretation (MASI) lab at Vanderbilt, Remedios is wielding AI in health care imaging to better understand one of humanity’s most insidious diseases—diabetes.
One question is if Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes— traditionally considered completely separate buckets— really are separate, or if they would be better described as part of a spectrum or gradient of the disease.
“To that end, I’m trying to help characterize what’s happening in the phenotypes [genetic traits] of people who have Type 1 vs. Type 2 diabetes,” Remedios said. “The way
I’m approaching it is by looking at abdominal medical images.”
Using anonymous digital scans taken at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Remedios is part of a team teaching computers to make measurements of organs like livers and pancreata in a standardized, comparable way. It’s work that would take years to accomplish using traditional methods, like having graduate students individually mark up scans. By comparison, Remedios and colleagues are effectively teaching computers how to view and measure images independently and more precisely.
“We achieve a much more fine-grain way of measuring what’s happening in body composition,” he said.
At the heart of his research is the quest to determine if there is a spectrum of the disease—a Type 1 diabetes, a Type 1.5 diabetes that’s somewhere in the middle, a Type 2 diabetes, and perhaps even a Type 2B or Type 2C diabetes—not dissimilar to the way other diseases like breast cancer are diagnosed. The consequences could be life-altering. Presently, if a doctor is treating a patient like they have Type 2 diabetes when they have Type 1, they’re doing that patient a disservice, and treatment should be changed immediately.
“I think, longer-term, appreciating that there may be more than two types of diabetes, and that there’s actually a spectrum of disease, well, that could be very helpful,” Remedios said. “And let’s just say imaging can play a real role in that.”
AI is clearly at the forefront of health care innovation. Data researchers like Remedios on the cutting edge of AI use appear poised to quickly close the gap between aspiration and implementation of new, life-saving technologies.
—Drew Ruble
AN ATMOSPHERE OF CHANGE
MTSU grad Jared Frazier launches his computational science career abroad to impact weather and climate research across the globe
Jared Frazier’s new address in the small, seaside town of Kühlungsborn, Germany, is about 4,500 miles away from his roots in Spring Hill, Tennessee. It’s his latest stop on an exciting international journey of leading-edge weather and climate research and personal discovery.
A 2022 MTSU graduate who earned a master's in the Netherlands, Frazier was hired in September 2024 as a computational scientist at the Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP). His employer is one of 96 independent institutes under the umbrella of the Leibniz Association.
Frazier is enjoying a hands-on opportunity to interact with the ICON model—one of the world’s leading high-resolution computer modeling frameworks for weather, climate, and environmental prediction. It provides a nearly homogeneous coverage of the globe—for better, faster predictions of routine and severe weather events, particularly in Europe.
The IAP conducts research mainly on the middle atmosphere, particularly on the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (approximate altitude of 31 to 124 miles), as well as on the dynamic coupling between atmospheric layers at different altitudes from the troposphere—which starts at the Earth’s surface and extends 5 to 9 miles—to the thermosphere. Between these two locations are the stratosphere, or the ozone layer, and on top of it the mesosphere, where meteors burn up. The focus of this area is to research the dramatic changes the terrestrial atmosphere is experiencing.
There are growing needs for operational weather forecasts of the atmosphere that extend beyond heights of about 62 miles. The rapid development of the civil, commercial, and military use of space requires an increasingly precise determination of trajectories for rockets, satellites, space debris, and controlled reentry scenarios.
Lasers from IAP’s remote sensor
Frazier said his daily life “consists primarily of talking with scientists at the institute about what their workflows look like regarding downloading, preprocessing, running computer simulations, and post-processing. Then, I code up software solutions, including usage documentation, that can be used by our institute’s scientists.”
Because of Frazier’s software engineering background and high-performance computing training, his work translates practically into a scenario where previously a scientist might have to wait four or more hours to process data and then visualize it using scripts, to recently only having to wait about 30 minutes, not to mention the energy savings.
Outside Frazier’s work window, he can view the Baltic Sea. When not working, Frazier says, he is usually biking along the coast or to nearby towns, reading books, or listening to German podcasts, “with the strong winds and hypnotic crashing of the waves in the background while walking along the coast.”
What’s next for Frazier? One certainty: The sky’s no limit for his future trajectory.
—Patsy B. Weiler
Jared Frazier
Jan. 22 Unity and remembrance at MLK Celebration
Feb. 28
Riding and roping at Rutherford County’s rodeo
Feb. 18
Real estate mogul and author Dana Frank
March 5
#Qualified author Amanda Nachman at women’s history keynote
Feb. 27–March 2
A staging of the timeless classic Our Town
April 12
“Melting Point” theme for TXMD Runway Show
April 30
PARTYNEXTDOOR bringing the party to Murphy Center
April 15
A glimpse of farm life at Ag Education Spring Fling
May 13
Ladies in Concrete workshop for youth
Events Calendar
Mark your calendar for upcoming events around campus
Sept. 11, 7:30 a.m.
Veterans Memorial 9/11 Remembrance Day
Sept. 19–20
Various locations
Homecoming Weekend:
MTSU football vs. Marshall, Sept. 20, 6 p.m., Floyd Stadium Updates at mtalumni.com
Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m.
Hinton Music Hall, Wright Music Building Schola Cantorum Concert
Oct. 23, 8 p.m.
Hinton Music Hall, Wright Music Building
Jazz Artist Series: Roland Barber, trombonist
Nov. 8
Various locations
Salute to Veterans and Armed Forces:
MTSU football vs. FIU, 2 p.m., Floyd Stadium
January 2026
MLK Celebration and Candlelight Vigil
Aug. 23, 4 p.m.
Murphy Center
Convocation speaker: Bob Welch, co-author of Healing Wounds
(Aug. 22, 5 p.m., book signing at President’s Party, KUC Knoll)
Aug. 30, 6 p.m.
Floyd Stadium
MTSU football vs. Austin Peay, home opener
Sept. 17, 3 p.m.
Tucker Theatre
Constitution Day event: “We the People, The Place of the U.S. Constitution in Students’ Everyday Spaces,” David Brooks, PBS News Hour and New York Times
Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m.
Hinton Music Hall, Wright Music Building Wind Ensemble Concert
Oct. 2–5 and 7–10
Boutwell Dramatic Arts 101 The Wolves, drama about a high school girls indoor soccer team
Nov. 6–9
Tucker Theatre
Pirates of Penzance, a Gilbert and Sullivan comic operetta
Nov. 20–22, 7:30 p.m.
Tucker Theater Fall Dance Concert 2025
More events and details at mtsu.edu/calendar
Major Impact
MTSU produces the most graduates in the Midstate, providing 1 of 6 college-degreed workers to the greater Nashville market. Here are some fast facts about recent graduates over an academic year.
3,842 degrees awarded
3,818 total graduates
25
average age of graduates
3.33 average GPA for grads
1,001 degrees awarded by College of Basic and Applied Sciences
Noteworthy
One observer's list of MTSU majors that deserve more attention— and set graduates up for great careers
by Drew Ruble
MTSU and its so-called marketing experts (like me!) commonly give extensive coverage and marketing love to the “sexier” academic programs on campus. Think Recording Industry, Live Production (Video and Film Production), Concrete and Construction Management, Aerospace, Fermentation Science, and Horse Science.
We do so for good reasons. First off, those programs are stellar and among the best in their class in America. But let’s be honest: From a marketer’s standpoint, they offer a lot of sizzle. Horses? Grammy winners? Distilling? Pilot prep? I mean, c’mon. Can you blame us?
All that said, we know there are numerous degree programs on campus that are (too often) unsung, underestimated, overlooked, underhyped, underheralded, and/or overshadowed (pick your modifier) and deserve some ink.
Many of these are the “nuts and bolts” degree programs that, year after year, go quietly about their business successfully preparing students for fulfilling lives and lucrative careers.
It’s time to shine a spotlight on some of them.
The following, then, is a list of 18 programs at MTSU that don’t always get the marketing love they deserve but are incredibly valuable degrees sure to benefit any graduate (aka, your children, grandchildren, neighbors, and other family members).
They are presented here in alphabetical order, so as to ensure no additional prejudice.
Note: This is just one editor’s educated opinion. Are there degree programs at MTSU that should be on this list that aren’t? Yes! Literally, dozens! This list, then, is simply intended to draw attention to and be reflective of the myriad dynamic and diverse degree programs available at MTSU flying too far under the radar.
Accounting
Don’t sleep on this career path to earn financial success. Our graduates are recruited by more than 100 companies in the metropolitan Nashville area. The Accounting Department offers both the B.B.A. in Accounting and the Master in Accountancy (M.Acc.) degrees. By moving much of the coursework online, the Jones College of Business experienced a whopping 50% increase in enrollment in its Accounting program between fall 2023 and fall 2024. New curriculum options that fill real-world needs are soon to include anti-money laundering coursework. Industries ranging from law enforcement to the financial services industry to online gaming have expressed interest in such curriculum.
Actuarial Science
Another high-earning career based in numbers that is nothing to yawn about. Actuaries are the go-to problem solvers for businesses that need to manage financial risk. And every business manages financial risk. MTSU is the only university in Tennessee that offers actuarial science coursework for both undergraduate and graduate degrees. In 2024, MTSU was recognized as a Society of Actuaries Center of Actuarial Excellence, placing it among the top 40 schools in the world . Combine that with the Gold Level Recognition given by the Casualty Actuarial Society, another major actuarial society. MTSU is among only nine schools in the world with both these recognitions.
Animation
Now, don’t get me wrong. Animation is without question as sexy as programs like Recording Industry and Video and Film Production, which are also housed in the College of Media and Entertainment. It’s just that Animation gets overshadowed by those more established programs that boast such rich histories. MTSU’s Animation program is ranked tops in Tennessee by Animation Career Review (ACR), an online national and international ranking resource for animation schools. ACR also ranks MTSU No. 8 among the Top 25 Animation B.S. Programs in the U.S. (out of 199 schools). Growth in special effects and multimedia animation in film, video games, and other media are driving career prospects.
Biology/ Chemistry/ Physics/Math
Yes, I cheated and grouped the four curriculum pillars of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, and I did so because it’s the same argument for all. Each prepares students for problem-solving/critical thinking, analyzing/interpreting data, making observations/drawing conclusions, complicated/advanced mathematics, and counterintuitive thinking—all of which prepare students broadly to succeed in a wide range of fields. Such skills are crucial to science careers but also translatable to the business world. Mathematicians and physicists commonly go into trading or the financial sector. Physics majors frequently become engineers. All four disciplines also translate well to the medical fields and, increasingly, to law (intellectual property, patent, digital privacy) or any profession valuing technical backgrounds.
Communication
Good communication is the backbone of any successful workplace. The Communication major, grounded in the liberal arts tradition at MTSU, builds valuable assets that can lead to many rewarding career opportunities in today’s dynamic workforce. The ability to communicate effectively is one of the skills most highly sought by employers. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Job Outlook 2020 Survey found that the knowledge and skills taught in communication courses are essential to being hired. The Communication major takes a generalist approach, with concentrations available in Culture and Social Influence or in Organizational Communication. Surely we can all agree that what the world needs now is better communication!
Computer Science/ Data Science
Combined (again, unartfully) because the same case can be made for each. MTSU’s high-tech graduates commonly land at Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, to name a few. Data collection has become a kind of currency over the past decade, but most companies don’t specialize in analyzing it to make better business decisions. As a result, data science has emerged as a valuable new strategy in corporate circles. MTSU’s Data Science Institute, the first of its kind in the Midstate, develops public and private collaborations, and provides invaluable, real-world study opportunities for students. The Computer Science Department, meanwhile, produces graduates capable of designing, implementing, and documenting computer software systems—marketable skills in any economy.
Cybersecurity Management
The newest degree option on the list (it just launched in 2024!), Cybersecurity Management paves the way for graduates to pursue positions such as security analysts and information security managers. The degree covers areas including cloud computing, digital forensics, infrastructure design and management, database design, and systems analysis and design—all from a cybersecurity perspective. Electronic data is foundational to modern commerce and industry, and MTSU is the only university in Tennessee with a degree related explicitly to cybersecurity management.
All MTSU degrees related to teacher preparation at every level
More than 113 years after being founded as a teacher training college, MTSU is still the No. 1 producer of teachers in the greater Nashville area. Educator, counselor, librarian, or education leader are some of the most important jobs in the world because the day-to-day work has the potential to shape the minds and actions of future leaders. Graduates of MTSU’s undergraduate and graduate licensure programs are highly sought after by school districts. Placement rate after graduation is essentially 100%. MTSU also excels in education research, including through its world-renowned Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. MTSU’s College of Education is also the nexus of continuing education for professional educators across Tennessee.
Industrial- Organizational Psychology
I-O Psychology is the psychology of the workplace and employee behaviors. Students learn how to hire and train effectively by applying evidence-based practices to organizational challenges. Career specialties include recruitment and selection of employees, training, job analysis, compensation, performance measurement and talent development, leadership, work attitudes, occupational health, organizational development, and more. According to U.S. News and World Report , industrial-organizational psychologist ranks No. 2 in Best Science Jobs (just behind psychologist). But I’ve buried the lede . . . MTSU is one of only a few universities across the nation to offer a bachelor’s degree in I-O Psychology. Even more spectacular, MTSU’s I-O Psychology master’s program has been ranked the No. 1 such program in the United States by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology!
Whether it’s joining MTSU’s student-run newsroom, calling games for ESPN+, or working for the University’s in-house advertising agency, the MTSU School of Journalism and Strategic Media offers something for every student looking for a career in media. The Center for Innovation in Media brings together the University’s two campus radio stations, WMOT and WMTS, and the school news outlet, Sidelines, along with TV broadcasting facilities used by the Middle Tennessee student news team. This collaborative space enhances the student experience with opportunities to acquire and use the digital media skills needed in today’s newsrooms. Highlighting one of six concentrations here, the school offers an Investigative Journalism concentration that speaks loudly to the world we live in today. In it, future members of the Fourth Estate are challenged to examine the status quo and identify stories and groups that mainstream media often underserve.
Marketing
Professional Selling Journalism
Like real estate or entrepreneurialism, you don’t normally think of going to college to be an effective salesperson. But like Real Estate and Entrepreneurship, which are MTSU academic programs, MTSU offers a Marketing degree with a concentration in Professional Selling. The benefits of a sales career include high earning potential, the opportunity for travel, career advancement, a daily variety of tasks, and helping people and businesses. Students within the program have access to MTSU’s Center for Professional Selling, as well as the Mel Adams State Farm Agent Professional Sales Lab, which allows them to practice real-world selling scenarios to hone their skills. MTSU is one of only 62 universities from the U.S. and Europe accepted as an associate member of the University Sales Center Alliance, an organization dedicated to preparing students for success in professional sales roles.
Nutrition and Food Science
Nutrition programs significantly impact America by producing qualified dietitians and nutritionists who play a crucial role in promoting public health—by educating individuals on healthy eating habits, managing chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease through dietary interventions, and advocating for better food policies, ultimately contributing to a healthier population nationwide. With its multivarious majors and concentrations, MTSU’s Nutrition and Food Science program has great potential to impact public health at a time when threats to health—particularly from high obesity rates—are rampant. The Nutrition and Food Science major provides preparation for careers in community nutrition services; county, state, and federal health departments; food systems management; food processing; food marketing; and quality control.
Public Writing and Rhetoric
One of MTSU’s most innovative new majors, Public Writing and Rhetoric is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program and the first major of its kind in Tennessee What separates it from the more established concentrations in English? It is built around a core set of classes meant to introduce students to a wide range of writing strategies, writing contexts, and genres that they might use for personal and public purposes, as well as in professional contexts. Working with faculty who research and teach courses on technical writing, video games, community and public rhetorics, digital reading practices, podcasting, collaborative writing, and user experience design, students in the program become dynamic, rhetorically adaptable writers prepared to navigate a wide range of audiences, genres, and platforms (think content strategist, grant writer, social media manager, or user experience designer, to name a few). In a world where employers put a premium on flexible, well-developed writing skills, Public Writing and Rhetoric majors and minors graduate with both in-demand professional skills and the ability to make a difference with their writing.
Integrated Studies
Check out MTSU’s degree completion program! Students who have accumulated a variety of course credits that are not easily applied to a particular degree program often find that they can be used to earn a Bachelor of Science in Integrated Studies, allowing them to graduate sooner. Instruction to complete the degree is offered on the MTSU campus as well as online. This degree is extremely flexible and is an excellent option for students seeking a broad-based educational experience or wanting to custom-design a degree program. This program is also a favorite among adult learners with college-level learning derived from work experience. Elective course requirements for adult learners are often fulfilled through the Prior Learning Assessment program, which evaluates college-level learning gained through work, training, certifications, licensure, military, and other programs. MTSU
MTSU and professor Hanna
Terletska lead research and training efforts to prepare workforce for the future of computing
by Drew Ruble
Say the word “quantum,” and the average person might conjure up images of time travel, à la the television show Quantum Leap from the 1990s.
Told of quantum initiatives now taking place on the campus of MTSU, they might envision a portal tucked away somewhere in a basement lab where researchers disappear and reappear at random intervals.
Spoiler alert: That’s not happening.
FORWARD
The future of quantum computing is indeed the stuff of fantasy and science fiction. And MTSU researcher Hanna Terletska, leader of MTSU’s Quantum Science Initiative and an associate professor of Physics, is doggedly pursuing it. In her research funded by $5.5 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Energy (DOE), Terletska collaborates with scholars from places like Carnegie Mellon University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and Augsburg University
in Germany, using access to the world’s most powerful computers to research quantum materials that hold the promise of new-generation technologies that actually do mimic time travel—or, at least, particles reacting simultaneously in two places at once.
But MTSU’s quantum focus is not only about scientific breakthroughs but also teaching the science. Perfectly aligned with its original charter as a teacher training
school founded in 1911, MTSU has positioned itself as the statewide leader in preparing a “ready-towork” workforce for an inevitable future where quantum science and computing revolutionizes industries as far ranging as health care to cybersecurity.
MTSU is also becoming a national leader in training teachers how to teach quantum physics, a crucial educational component in the quest to fully realize quantum’s potential, with Terletska leading national training sessions in quantum.
From Theory to Practice
Terletska describes the discovery of new materials as “a cornerstone of human civilization and development.”
“We now live in the era of quantum materials,” she said. “The potential benefits of 21st-century technologies built on quantum materials and emerging quantum technologies are staggering.”
This includes quantum computers capable of solving complex problems in minutes, problems that currently take years to solve, as well as highly efficient solar cells and room-temperature superconductors that would generate, transmit, and store electricity with almost no loss. Hence, conquering the behavior of quantum materials can, among other benefits, bolster economies, advance quality of life, and address the unprecedented growth in global energy needs. Wired magazine once succinctly described that quantum computing “is about chasing perhaps the biggest performance boost in the history of technology. The basic idea is to smash some barriers that limit the speed of existing computers by harnessing the counterintuitive physics of subatomic scales.”
The seeming “magic” of quantum materials comes from billions of interacting electrons, which at the atomic and subatomic levels start to also
have wavelike properties. At this level, quantum physics really kicks in, and electrons start to exhibit quantum effects like tunneling, interference, entanglement, and topological order. Research in this field requires complex many-body numerical algorithms and access to powerful supercomputers.
Admittedly, at present, a lot of this is still theory. There is a race going on to create the physical processor that’s eventually going to make this type of computing possible. Companies like Microsoft, Google, and IBM are investing big in quantum technology, and announcing major breakthroughs seemingly every month. Founder and lead of Google Quantum AI Hartmut Neven stated recently that his company is “optimistic that within five years we’ll see real-world applications that are possible only on quantum computers.”
Suffice it to say, it’s coming. And when it does, it will turn established ways of doing things into primitive history. But getting from science fiction and fantasy to this new reality requires reinterpreting the math and learning new physics. It also requires teaching it to a new generation of scholars.
The future of quantum computing is indeed the stuff of fantasy and science fiction.
That’s where Terletska and MTSU enter the picture.
“We need to educate people how to use it,” said MTSU College of Basic and Applied Sciences Dean Greg Van Patten. “We need to educate people on basically a new type of science—the basic rules of quantum mechanics that lead us to be able to do this kind of processing.”
To bring about this needed change in curriculum, MTSU in 2023 launched the MTSU Quantum Science Initiative, which not only focuses on remaining at the forefront of the scientific research but outlines two other major goals. First, on quantum research in quantum materials and quantum information, and educating a future workforce ready to tackle the new realities of futuristic computing. And, additionally, becoming a leader at “training the trainers” so other institutions can fast-track the teaching of this new-age thinking.
That starts with creating a curriculum for teaching quantum mechanics and computing. The work is interdisciplinary in nature, growing out of
Home Schooled
Originally from the Drohobych, Lviv, region of Ukraine, Hanna Terletska is a firstgeneration college student who has not forgotten her roots.
Terletska—who earned her M.S. at Minnesota State, then a Ph.D. at Florida State University, followed by several postdoctoral trainings at the Brookhaven National Lab, Louisiana State University, Ames Lab, and University of Michigan, and finally the faculty position at MTSU in 2017—recently launched the STEM with UKRAINE Initiative, partnering with Ukrainian and American universities and institutions to bring and sustain quantum computing education for an international population under the burden of an ongoing war with Russia.
Since its inception, the partnership grew to include 29 Ukrainian universities and institutions, 10 U.S. institutions, and one Canadian university and successfully guided 100 participants—coming from an array of academic backgrounds and countries such as Canada, China, India, Italy, Ukraine, and the U.S.—to earning completion certificates at the end of May 2024.
The initiative is part of Terletska’s larger $800,000 National Science Foundation “ExpandQISE” grant, which she explained aims “to open up access to quantum training to all interested in quantum, welcoming participants from diverse educational backgrounds and levels of expertise, including high school teachers and seasoned faculty members, to a rich exchange of ideas and perspectives.”
CBAS Dean
Greg Van Patten
physics where these quantum concepts were discovered, but branching into computer science, mathematical sciences, and even chemistry.
It wasn’t long ago that there was no roadmap for how to educate students in this field. Academics like Terletska have changed all that. At MTSU, Terletska developed educational materials to bring students from “ground zero” and start educating them about quantum mechanics.
It placed her in the national spotlight.
“Her work in this field has been a big deal,” Van Patten said. “She did some preliminary work here, and then, based on that work and her ideas, was granted in 2020 a nearly $500,000 Early Career Development CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation—a highly respected five-year award that most often only go to junior faculty at top-tiered research institutions. . . . That’s a marker very early on in somebody’s career that they are poised to be a leader. And that’s the federal government investing in them as a leader.”
At present, quantum science is a rapidly advancing field that is beginning its transition from the laboratory to the marketplace.
Not resting on those high laurels, Terletska used her newfound attention and resources to accelerate collaborations and ensure her research and awards resulted in the education of the next generation of scientists. For starters, along with Professor Ron Henderson, head of the MTSU Physics and Astronomy Department, she built the University’s Quantum Science and Computing concentration in Physics that began in fall 2024.
“Before Hanna came to MTSU, there was no mention of quantum science outside of two courses taught in physics,” Henderson said about
Terletska’s arrival in 2017. “There is significant national interest in quantum computing, but the expertise required to contribute in this area of research is beyond the training of most faculty. Hanna took the initiative to expand her knowledge from quantum mechanics and quantum materials to quantum computing.”
Terletska has also conducted numerous “train the trainer” seminars (see accompanying sidebar ) so that the information she’s producing reaches K–12 teachers who can start preparing students with these ideas early on. And she’s provided her materials and made them available to other universities and colleges. She developed plans to create a center for quantum studies at MTSU, and her latest DOE grant proposal envisions a collaboration on quantum material research with other universities in middle Tennessee and to produce a workforce specifically aimed at supporting labs like Oak Ridge, where they need this kind of technical training that otherwise is not yet available.
The Race Is On
MTSU is currently seeking state dollars to support its Quantum Initiative. Its pitch is that the University’s strong efforts in workforce development and teacher education perfectly complement other quantum efforts now occurring at other universities in the state.
The nearby University of Tennessee–Chattanooga (UTC) has already benefitted from a significant investment made by the state of Tennessee, as well as from the city of Chattanooga. The University of Tennessee system also boasts the Appalachian Quantum Initiative. But MTSU has reached a critical mass with seven federal grant awards already that additional state support could further build upon to expand quantum efforts in Tennessee.
MTSU is poised to make even bigger contributions in other needed pillars of quantum investment, with strengths already in quantum algorithms and quantum materials along with the aforementioned creation of a quantum workforce development and training program—aka, the education piece.
Van Patten said only when all of these moving parts work together can the state of Tennessee truly become a national leader on this most groundbreaking scientific advancement in modern history.
Van Patten has put his college’s money where his mouth is, investing precious (and limited)
University capital in the MTSU Quantum Science Initiative.
So too has the MTSU Provost’s Office, which has committed significant funding to the initiative. Regarding outside investment, Terletska alone has garnered $5.5 million from seven grants in recent years, almost all of her funding sources reflecting federal investment.
But more is needed to ensure Tennessee capitalizes on its quantum head start. As such, MTSU has requested additional funding and support from the state.
“We are asking the state to recognize this leadership position and to invest in it,” Van Patten said. “We think it’s going to be great for the state of Tennessee. We think it’s going to position Tennessee as a leader in the region for quantum . . . drive the state’s economy, and drive Tennessee forward.”
Governments and large multinational companies around the world have launched significant quantum material research initiatives in recent years and have invested heavily in related technologies and education. In 2018, the U.S. government signed a Quantum Initiative Act, making quantum material research a national priority. Over the last decade, numerous quantum research centers have emerged all across the U.S.
“If we want America to be the first to explore and understand the quantum-scale frontiers of science, then we must support the excellence that exists at institutions all over our country,” said Sean L. Jones, NSF assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences. “NSF’s support for these new projects demonstrates our commitment to nurturing innovative ideas and people, wherever they are.”
Van Patten said the ongoing research on quantum materials, education, and information science at MTSU not only underscores that national priority but squarely hits all three parts of his college’s mission: preparing students at all levels for successful careers across a range of scientific and technical fields, promoting scholarship and scientific inquiry, and addressing key scientific challenges that face our nation.
“At present, quantum science is a rapidly advancing field that is beginning its transition from the laboratory to the marketplace. It has the potential to revolutionize certain computational tasks, including cybersecurity, and I’m excited that MTSU is involved in moving this field forward,” he said.
MTSU clearly wants and deserves a bigger piece of the action. Now classified by Carnegie as an R2 research university, characterized by “high research spending and doctorate production”—a recognition earned by only 3% of colleges and universities nationwide—MTSU is ready and able to expand its expertise in quantum sciences. With clear goals, a solid foundation, and a national leader in Terletska leading the charge, MTSU is also poised to help the state of Tennessee make a giant leap forward. MTSU
Training the Trainers
At the American Association of Physics Teachers winter 2025 meeting in St. Louis in mid-January, MTSU’s Hanna Terletska— along with Stewarts Creek High School teacher Robert Haddard (’14, B.S.; ’25, Ph.D.) and MTSU Department of Physics and Astronomy scholar and researcher Paulson K. George—led a successful workshop, “Train the Trainer: From Atoms to Quantum Computers.”
The four-hour session provided essential guidance on how to introduce quantum mechanics and quantum computing concepts to high school educators. This workshop was also part of Terletska’s efforts under her National Science Foundation-funded (three-year $800,000) ExpandQISE award.
The workshop attracted participants from Stony Brook University, Purdue University, the University of Denver, University of Tennessee–Chattanooga, and others.
Terletska, an MTSU associate professor in Physics, has led numerous pioneering quantum education initiatives, including STEM camps in 2023–24 for approximately 65 high school students, equipping them with fundamental quantum skills and exposure to cutting-edge quantum technologies.
She also conducted the train the trainer workshop when MTSU hosted the Tennessee section of the American Association of Physics Teachers in spring 2024, engaging faculty representatives from Christian Brothers University, the University of Tennessee, UTC, Tennessee Tech, and Austin Peay State University.
Compiled by Nancy DeGennaro, Jimmy Hart, DeAnn Hays, Drew Ruble, and Randy Weiler
A look at recent awards, events, and accomplishments at MTSU Glass House Revival
The Tennessee legislature passed Gov. Bill Lee’s $59.5 billion budget in April 2025 that included $119 million in new funding for additions and renovations to MTSU’s Murphy Center. As part of the University’s ongoing Build Blue project, a plan to upgrade athletics facilities, Murphy Center has already received a significant makeover. The antiquated glass surrounding the historic structure was replaced with an updated system that offers a better appearance and automatic dimming for glare control. Now, with the new state funding, future improvements include (at long last!) a dedicated primary entrance to the arena, as well as a main lobby. For three decades after it opened in 1972, Murphy Center was the primary live events and concert venue not only for Nashville but the mid-South. Elvis, who performed there five times, was one of dozens of top acts that drew fans by the thousands to Murphy Center in the years before Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena was built. A true community treasure—past, present, and future—Murphy Center clearly has more stories to tell in the decades ahead. Similar-sized arenas are the targets for most artists, like Billie Eilish, Pearl Jam, the Black Keys, and Chris Stapleton. Only a few North American tour stops draw 20,000 and up—for artists like Justin Timberlake and Adele.
Blue Raider Best
MTSU College of Education senior Haley Ferguson of Spring Hill was among 15 “Everyday Americans” invited as special guests by first lady Melania Trump to attend President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on March 4. Ferguson, an Elementary Education major in MTSU’s Department of Elementary and Special Education and a former foster child, received the Fostering the Future scholarship created by the first lady as part of her “Be Best” campaign, which focuses on battling cyberbullying and promoting youth well-being. Ferguson “benefitted from the first lady’s Fostering the Future initiative and is poised to complete her education and become a teacher,” Trump said in his speech.
Engineering Bright Futures
Marching In
MTSU’s Band of Blue welcomed a new director after longtime professor and director Craig Cornish retired after serving the Blue Raider community for over 20 years. Bryan Braue (pronounced BROW) was formerly the director of bands at the University of Texas–Permian Basin.
MTSU’s Engineering Technology Department’s roots trace back to vocational training established in 1912, the year after MTSU was founded. Today, the department continues its mission to prepare students for a new world of engineering, technology, design, automation, and manufacturing. Explosive growth in programs, especially in Mechatronics Engineering, was central to the University’s decision to build a new $74.8 million, 89,000-square-foot Applied Engineering Building, which is opening on the southeast side of campus in August. The Applied Engineering Building sits next to the School of Concrete and Construction Management Building, a $40.1 million, 54,000-square-foot facility that opened in fall 2022, and near the University's 257,000-square-foot Science Building, opened in 2014.
Applied Engineering Building open for fall 2025
Incoming!
MTSU’s undergraduate admissions efforts to date have resulted in a 14% increase in admitted freshmen compared to last year. The University has admitted 10,154 freshmen and transfers for the Fall 2025 semester as of March, which compares to 8,919 last year at the same time. The inaugural Admitted Student Day, held Feb. 22, helped fuel the increase. The day allowed students who committed to MTSU special access to deans, department chairs, faculty, and advisors for academic sessions. More than 1,400 prospective students—plus family members— received blue-carpet treatment at the campus event to encourage those students to complete the enrollment process.
Grammy Factory
MTSU gathered alumni, supporters, and friends Feb. 1 in Los Angeles to honor its six former students who were nominated for 2025 Grammy Awards, which were presented Feb. 2. Six MTSU-trained professionals received eight Grammy nominations this year, including Brandon Bell, who mixed Billy Strings Live Vol. 1 to earn his third Grammy win. Other alumni nominated were singer-songwriters Jessi Alexander (two nominations) and Jaelee Roberts as well as audio production engineers Jason Hall (two nominations), Bobby Holland, and Jimmy Mansfield. At the Feb. 1 event, Alexander was named an honorary professor in the Recording Industry Department.
Playoffs?! You Kidding Me?! Playoffs?!
The College Football Playoff (CFP) Management Committee appointed MTSU athletic director Chris Massaro to a threeyear term on the 13-person CFP Selection Committee. The committee is responsible for ranking the top 25 Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) teams in the nation and assigning the top 12 participants to the playoff bracket. Massaro has been head of MTSU athletics for 20 years and is the fifth-longestserving tenured FBS athletic director.
So You Think You Can Dance?
The MTSU Dance Team achieved National Champion status at The College Classic in Orlando, a national championship that draws university dance teams from across the U.S. At the April event, the team won the Spirit Showdown and also placed third in Division 1 Hip Hop and fifth in Division 1 Jazz. The MTSU Dance Team is a prominent part of the game day experience, performing at football and basketball games, as well as at campus and community events.
True Black and Blue
The MTSU hockey club had the most successful season in program history in 2025. The Blue Raiders finished with an impressive record of 26-7-1, achieved a national ranking of No. 7 in the MYHockey Rankings, and won the College Hockey South Championship. The team made the final four at the AAU Division II hockey national tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, in March.
Dedicated Support for Athletes
The $66 million new Stephen and Denise Smith Student-Athlete Performance Center not only will support all MTSU athletes and serve as the home for Blue Raider football, but also will become part of a new gateway into campus.
The three-story, 85,500-square-foot facility, open July 30, includes new athletic training, weightlifting, and nutrition areas for all team members.
“We will be able to better develop our players, attract top-notch recruits, and make our student-athlete experience second to none,” said Chris Massaro, MTSU’s director of athletics. A third-floor dining venue will be dedicated to premium opportunities for fans on game days. A new stadium videoboard is also in place as part of the project, made possible through the support of fans in the Build Blue campaign. The building is named in honor of Board of Trustees Chair Stephen Smith and wife Denise, longtime supporters of MTSU and its athletics.
MTSU’s new Stephen and Denise Smith Student-Athlete Performance Center
MTSUNEWS.COM
Not Horsing Around
The MTSU equestrian team won the 2025 National Intercollegiate Ranch and Stock Horse Association Division 2 National Champion title. Students competed in the versatility ranch horse events, showcasing their talents in ranch reining, cow work, ranch trail, and ranch riding. Team members were Marci Leath, Kenlee West, Alyssa Davis, Keira Wagner, and Simone Allen. MTSU also earned national runner-up honors in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association’s Western Competition . mtsunews.com/mtsu-stock-horseteam-wins-national-title
One of a Kind
MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment marked a historic milestone in May with its inaugural graduate from the Motion Design concentration—the first of its kind in the state. Sarah Varni was the program’s first student when the concentration was added in Fall 2022 to the Video and Film Production degree. In the expanding field, professionals create moving visual imagery for TV, film, video games, social media, websites, and more.
The MTSU debate team participated in two friendly debates against the Irish Times National Debate Champions from Ireland in March, continuing a decades-long relationship. The topic was “This House Believes NATO is Obsolete.” The Irish team typically visits five to seven universities around the U.S., with MTSU being the first stop. Pat Richey, director of forensics, has coached the Blue Raider debate team to 11 individual and team national championships.
Vishwas Bedekar, an MTSU associate professor, was awarded the same national honor for the second time in three years. Bedekar, coordinator of the Mechanical Engineering Technology concentration in the Engineering Technology program, was named one of eight Society of Manufacturing Engineers Distinguished Faculty Advisor Award winners for 2024. Bedekar’s research focuses on energy-harvesting materials and manufacturing processes. An author of more than 30 publications, he also holds a U.S. patent.
mtsunews.com/mtsu-bedekar-receivesnational-honor
A Read on Literacy
MTSU’s College of Education recently hosted nearly 200 educators from across the world at its 12th annual Literacy Research Conference, where students, scholars, and educational leaders present research and practices related to literacy to address the stagnant or declining national literacy scores across the country. Approximately 43 million U.S. adults are functionally illiterate, representing 21% of the population. In addition to a keynote speaker, there were 51 presentations from 58 educators and students.
Bob Gordon, associate professor and interim chair of the Department of Media Arts, recently received MTSU’s second Conference USA Faculty Achievement Award. Gordon, who has taught at MTSU since 2007, has made it his mission to ensure students get hands-on experiences and skills to give them a competitive advantage in the job market by managing, producing, and directing events for ESPN+, awards shows, and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.
Collage: A Journal of Creative Expression is a biannual publication of the Middle Tennessee State University Honors College. Each semester the Collage studentled committee receives entries of creative work, such as art, photography, short stories, essays, short plays, song lyrics, poetry, audio, and video from students and recent alumni. The publication is available at mtsu.edu/collage.
Video
Lucas De Freitas
Denial
Dante LaBelle
Nature's Milkmaid Photography
Alyssa Williams
Canvas by Kirstie
Frank
I am trying to practice self-love until it becomes almost as unhealthy as my self-hate and still not enough.
I want to be a mixed-media painting, watercolor that’s dripped and bled and blended, pinks and blues that make the purples accenting my under eyes. Soft yellow acrylics, brushstroking my cheeks and my thighs, the canvas texture peeking through, always, like the goosebumps on my skin. My freckles connecting like a constellation in someone’s sky; I am their whole universe, but a universe which still expands even when no one is there to observe it.
If I could hold myself up, beauty forward, my legs an easel, I could walk like an art piece worthy of preservation in a museum that will always display my value even in the afterhours.
Donuts, but I’m Gluten Intolerant
Ava Byars
Paris
Photography
Misael Avalos Madera
Acrylic paint pens on canvas
Old School
A look back at MTSU’s past from our photo archives—The acclaimed School of Nursing began sending graduates into the health care workforce in 1966 and moved from an associate’s degree program to a B.S.N. starting in 1988.
New School
Putting skills into (clinical) practice—MTSU now offers the advanced M.S.N. to train family and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, with online coursework and direct patient care, as well as a master’s program for physician assistants.
Photo
Over $1 million for True Blue Give!
Thanks to YOU and more than 1,300 fellow Blue Raiders, we made history for MTSU, surpassing our $800,000 goal by raising $1 million during True Blue Give.
Because of YOU, your gifts will directly impact student scholarships, academic programs, and athletics, making a lasting difference in the lives of MTSU students.
$300,000+ raised for Athletics, boosting support for student-athletes
$275,000+ new record in giving to the College of Liberal Arts $138,000+ in gifts pushing the College of Education to new heights $133,000+ donated for scholarships and student emergency needs, including the food pantry and mental health counseling
More info at mtsu.edu/truebluegive
1960s
John Bradford (’63), Fayetteville, was presented with a Quilt of Valor by the Lincoln County Piecemakers, recognizing his 22 years of service in the U.S. Army. Spending time in Germany and two tours of duty in Vietnam, Bradford—a retired lieutenant colonel—is among the select few to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross “for heroism and extraordinary achievement in the line of duty.” Following his military service, he owned a farm implement business and served as director of the Lincoln County finance department, where he retired in 2006.
Bud Riddle (’69), Manchester, was named board chair at Coffee County Bank. Riddle is one of Coffee County Bank’s original founders and most recently served as board secretary, a role he had held since the bank’s beginning in 1975. A successful businessman across industries including the concrete, rock, and trucking industries, Riddle is also part owner of Murfreesboro Funeral Home.
1970s
Rick Glaze (’72), Brentwood, released a new book called Eight Pieces of Eight, a treasure hunt set in
the dark limestone caves of Tennessee. He is critique manager for Sisters in Crime, Nashville, and a judge for the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award.
Greg Wade, (’77), Franklin, recently received one of four Volunteer Spirit Awards sponsored by Franklin Tomorrow, a civic organization in Williamson County. Wade founded and led the Franklin Civil War Round Table for 18 years, regularly hosting nationally known historians, authors, and preservationists on topics ranging from the Revolutionary War to World War II, as well as their social impacts on the nation and Tennessee.
Jinx Cockerham, Pat Simpson, and Chip Walters
The group has conducted more than 200 events since 2007.
1980s
Mary Tim Cook (’80), Shelbyville, was honored with the Good Scout Award for the Elk River District Middle Tennessee Council for 2024. The award is the Middle Tennessee Council of Scouting America’s highest honor for individual or corporate citizenship in local communities. Cook retired after more than 40 years of teaching third grade in Bedford County.
Gregory D. Smith (’85), Clarksville, who serves as Pleasant View city judge
Three of the eight new members inducted into the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association (TSSAA) Hall of Fame in 2025 were MTSU alumni! At Father Ryan High School, Cockerham (’70, ’73) served 40 seasons as head volleyball coach and 33 years as head girls basketball coach. Cockerham played an instrumental role in the development of volleyball as a TSSAA-sanctioned sport, expanding opportunities for female athletes across Tennessee. Simpson (’79) was a key member of Father Ryan’s state champion wrestling teams in 1971 and 1974. At MTSU, he won the 1979 NCAA Regional Championship—the only MTSU wrestler to claim a regional title and the first Blue Raider to compete in the NCAA Championships. Simpson then coached Father Ryan to 22 state titles—12 in traditional wrestling and 10 in duals. Walters (’85) has left an indelible mark on the region’s sports broadcasting landscape. The 2024–25 season marked Walters’ 33rd year broadcasting for MTSU.
Jinx Cockerham
Pat Simpson
Chip Walters
and a Clarksville lawyer, was invited to file and have his view included in a report on indigenous court systems to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Smith serves as a Native American tribal supreme court justice for multiple tribal courts throughout the U.S. Smith’s paper, along with others from across the world, was presented in June 2025 at the United Nations office in Geneva, Switzerland, as part of a report by the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.
Danny Bryan (’87), Brush Creek, was inducted into Cumberland University’s Sports Hall of Fame. Bryan launched the Cumberland wrestling program and was the team’s coach for five seasons. The program blossomed into a perennial powerhouse with four individual national champions. After 33 years of service, he retired with emeritus appointment from Cumberland University, where he served as the biology program director during 2014–21 and was awarded Cumberland University’s President’s Award in Teaching Excellence in 2015.
Gayle Dawson (’87, ’91), Murfreesboro, was selected for a prestigious summer research program in Switzerland. Now in her 24th year at Blackman High School, where she teaches chemistry, conceptual physics, and environmental science, Dawson has been invited to attend CERN (the European Council for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, where she will spend two weeks learning about current particle physics research.
Bob Kennedy (’88), Murfreesboro, announced the release of Sam Learns about Electricity Activity Book, the next installment in his “Sam the Dog” children’s book series, which teaches kids ages 6 to
10 about electricity. The series includes 17 other published titles—12 in English and five in French.
1990s
Marla Cartwright (’91, ’94), Columbia, who earned her B.S. and M.A. in English at MTSU before completing her doctorate, was named associate vice chancellor for teaching and learning for the Tennessee Board of Regents. In this newly created position, Cartwright is charged with expanding the TBR Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (faculty professional development) across the state. In addition, she collaborates closely with Centers of Teaching and Learning in Tennessee, in part to develop synchronous and asynchronous training courses.
Martina Suttle Harris (’92), Chattanooga, was honored as one of 27 distinguished nurse educators selected as fellows for induction into the National League for Nursing Academy of Nursing Education. Currently dean of Nursing and Allied Health at Chattanooga State Community College, Harris is a former assistant professor in the MTSU School of Nursing, where she received her bachelor’s degree before earning her master’s and doctorate.
Matthew Wade (’93, ’07), Bell Buckle, was named assistant commissioner for business development for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Wade previously served as assistant commissioner for Consumer and Industry Services. Prior to joining the state department, Wade served for several decades as director of MTSU’s farm laboratories.
Sheila Hodges (’94), Spencer, retired in July 2024 after 30 years with Murfreesboro Parks and
Eddith Dashiell
After more than 30 years as a faculty member and administrator at Ohio University and in the Scripps College of Communication, Dashiell (’80, ’82) was inducted into the Scripps College of Communication´s Ohio Communication Hall of Fame in 2025, the same year that she retired. Dashiell, a native of Shelbyville, was both the first woman and the first African American to be director of the School of Journalism at Ohio University.
Alan Thomas
Thomas (’87, ’98), MTSU’s vice president for business and finance since 2016, announced his retirement. His 38-year tenure with the state includes over 20 years at MTSU, including service as associate VP; controller and executive director of finance, technology, and compliance; director of accounting services; accounting manager; and Foundation accountant. Thomas earned both his B.B.A. in Accounting and M.Ed. in Administration and Supervision from MTSU.
Recreation, working at Cannonsburgh Village as the facility coordinator.
David L. Stotts (’94), Midlothian, Virginia, the creative services director of Richmond’s CBS affiliate WTVR Channel 6, was part of a team honored with a National Edward R. Murrow Award. Stotts and three of his colleagues won the award in the small-market television category of News Documentary. During the team’s investigation of the November 2022 murder case of 17-yearold Cion Carroll, the team uncovered more suspicious deaths and missing person cases dating back to 2020 in the small town of Lunenburg, Virginia.
Debra L. Jackson (’96), Greenville, North Carolina, joined East Carolina University in 2024 as dean of the Graduate School. An MTSU Philosophy graduate who later earned her doctorate, Jackson previously served for 22 years in the California State University system and on the executive board of the Western Association of Graduate Schools.
Steven Stone (’96), Strasburg, Colorado, was appointed as the new area sales manager for BioZyme Inc. in North and South Dakota. BioZyme’s family of brands aim to improve animal health and nutrition.
Ashlie Perry (’97), Clarksville, was selected as principal of Byrns Darden Elementary School in the Clarksville-
Montgomery County School System. Perry, a Child Development major at MTSU who went on to earn M.A.T., Ed.S., and Ed.D. degrees, previously served as principal at Oakland Elementary School and Minglewood Elementary School.
Scott Stroh III (’97), Lorton, Virginia, was appointed executive director and CEO of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. Stroh previously served as executive director of George Mason’s Gunston Hall, a historic home in southern Fairfax County.
Nathan Edwards (’98), Winchester, was named president of Auto Glass Now (AGN). Edwards moved to Driven Brands and AGN from Glass America, where he most recently served as regional vice president of operations.
Ed Salo (’98, ’09), Jonesboro, Arkansas, a history professor at Arkansas State University, was selected as a civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army for the state of Arkansas. Salo, who holds an M.A. in History and a Ph.D. in Public History from MTSU, teaches military history classes to ROTC cadets and is associate chair in ASU’s Department of History. In addition to his on-campus duties, Salo is a host of the “Sea Control Podcast” for the Center for International Maritime Security, serves on New America’s Nuclear Futures Working
Brian Chumney
Chumney (’98) and his team were nominated for an Oscar (Best Sound) and won a Golden Reel Award in 2025 for his technical work on the movie The Wild Robot . He was previously nominated for an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for his work on West Side Story. Chumney is a supervising sound editor at Skywalker Ranch. Previous projects include Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Angry Birds 2, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Alice in Wonderland, and John Carter
Group, and is a research fellow for the Modern War Institute at West Point and the Joint Special Operations University.
Tom Fielder (’99, ’04), Brentwood, a pilot for Southwest Airlines, recently became the Tennessee franchisee for a Murfreesboro location of Red Light Method, which uses wavelengths of red and near-infrared light to improve skin rejuvenation, wound healing, and pain relief.
2000s
James Evans (’01), Murfreesboro, Rutherford County Schools chief communications officer, was awarded the Tennessee School Public Relations Association 2025 School Communicator of the Year award.
Anna Maddox (’01), Rockvale, was named chief people officer at LBMC accounting and business consulting firms. Maddox most recently served as chief human resources officer of LBMC Employment Partners LLC.
Alana Owen Ward (’01), Clarksville, the owner and president of Baggett Heating & Cooling, was selected as one of the 2024 Top Women in HVAC by ACHR News
Dr. Kim Jones (’02), Medina, was promoted to dean of the College of Pharmacy at Union University in Jackson. A faculty member since 2007, Jones has served as the College of Pharmacy’s assistant dean for student services and professor of pharmacy practice since 2020.
Erin Hood Nunley (’02, ’10), Lascassas, was named a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring by the White House. Nunley teaches at Overall Creek Elementary in Murfreesboro.
Amy Sullivan (’02), Nashville, CEO of Kirkland’s Inc., was elected to the board of directors for the company, which
Reggie Polk
The Small Business Administration named Polk (’03) the 2025 Small Business Person of the Year for Tennessee. Polk, of Spring Hill, a former tight end for MTSU, is founder and CEO of Polk & Associates Construction Inc. The company is part of the Tennessee Builders Alliance team constructing the new $2.1 billion stadium for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
Devin Bowles
As the first national tour of MJ: The Musical continues its second year on the road, MTSU Theatre alumnus Bowles (’20) is at center stage. Bowles has the second male lead in the musical, playing the role of Joe Jackson, as well as tour manager Rob. The tour made a stop at Nashville’s Tennessee Performing Arts Center in April and May 2025.
operates both Kirkland’s Home and Bed Bath & Beyond. Prior to joining Kirkland’s, she held senior-level positions for Express, Lands’ End, Kohl’s, and JC Penney.
Gary Wiser Jr. (’03), Pendleton, South Carolina, was recently honored by his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Order, as the organization’s 36th recipient of the Accolade for Interfraternal Service. The award was presented at the annual conference of the Southeastern Greek Leadership Association, which Wiser serves as its executive director. Wiser is assistant dean of students and director of fraternity and sorority life at Clemson University.
Tachaka Pentecost-Hollins (’04, ’07), La Vergne, was selected to serve on the University of Tennessee’s College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies inaugural Board of Visitors. Following her B.B.A. in Information Systems and Master of Business Education at MTSU, she earned her doctorate and now serves as assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs at the Tennessee Board of Regents.
Elizabeth Hurst (’05), Lewisburg, was promoted to vice president of communications at Dairy MAX, a dairy council representing more than 700 dairy farm families across eight states. Hurst previously served as director of corporate communications for more than eight years. From leading a consumer rebrand to launching innovative programs such as Dairy Up Close and the virtual farm experience, the Dairy Tour 360, her efforts have strengthened trust in dairy and driven impactful results for dairy farmers.
Spring Brindley (’09), Flintville, was named the 2024–25 Supervisor of the Year for Lincoln County
Schools. Now in her 22nd year in education, Brindley spent seven years as a classroom teacher, then became an assistant principal for three years, followed by four years as a principal. For the past nine years, Brindley has served as a district supervisor, guiding and supporting educators in their pursuit of excellence in Lincoln County.
Amanda DeRosia (’09), Murfreesboro, was promoted to finance director in the Finance and Tax Department for the city of Murfreesboro. A certified public account, DeRosia served as interim finance director and city recorder since May 2024.
Nick Waynick (’09, ’17), Ashland City, joined the UT/TSU Extension–Cheatham County Office as an agricultural agent promoting educational and financial programs to assist the county, with a special emphasis on small, new farmers.
2010s
Brittany Cox (’10), Antioch, was appointed assistant commissioner of the Division of Health Disparities Elimination for the Tennessee Department of Health, providing administrative, financial, and operational leadership for division programs and staff to Minority Health, Rural Health, and Faith-Based and Community Engagement. The division works to improve the overall health and well-being of Tennessee’s racial and ethnic minority, and underserved, populations.
Josh Cross (’11), Gallatin, was named special projects director for the Gallatin Economic Development Agency. Cross previously served under House Majority Leader William Lamberth
as senior deputy press secretary for the 75-member Tennessee House Republican Caucus.
Benjamin Hayes (’11), Nashville, was appointed as superintendent of Stones River National Battlefield. For the past seven years, Hayes has served as the interpretation and education program manager at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Prior to that, Hayes served in supervisory positions at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Alaska, the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, and War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam.
Dena Oneal (’11), Murfreesboro, was promoted to director of operations and people at Stones River Consulting, a financial and retirement consultancy. Oneal also serves as MTSU’s Alzheimer’s Association liaison and is heavily involved in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
Ansley Owens Tillett (’11), Bluff City, became a member at the law firm of Gullett Sanford Robinson & Martin.
Richard Blackburn Jr. (’12), Morrison, was appointed as the faculty lead of Motlow State Community College’s new Electric Vehicle Engineering Technology program.
Jeffrey Perry (’12), Knoxville, was named chief operating officer of the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority and will lead operations at McGhee Tyson Airport and Downtown Island Airport.
Jessica Darnell (’13), Arrington, was appointed chief nursing officer of Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital. Darnell previously served in the same role at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville. In 2023, she also began her role as chair of the Nursing Executive Council for Saint Thomas Health.
Margaret Thornton Richards (’14), Nashville, was promoted to head of school at St. Bernard Academy. Richards, who earned an M.Ed. at MTSU on her way to a doctorate, has spent 11 years at SBA, first as a teacher in first and fourth levels, then as head of lower school for four years, and then as interim head of school.
Kelly Hinkle Taylor (’15), Pulaski, joined Maury Regional Medical Group’s Mid-South Gastroenterology division. Taylor boasts nearly 20 years of experience in both inpatient and outpatient settings, including as a charge nurse on the Maury Regional endoscopy unit.
Justin Farr (’16), Nashville, one of the nation’s African-American Catholic seminarians, was ordained to the transitional diaconate in 2024 in Nashville, the latest step on his path to the priesthood. Farr entered seminary for the Diocese of Nashville in 2018 and received the ministries of lector in 2021 and acolyte in 2022.
Evan Lester (’16, ’19), Smyrna, was appointed executive director of Smyrna Airport. He replaced John Black (’90, ’00), who retired after three decades in leadership roles with the airport.
Natalie Martin (’16), Christiana, was named director of membership and business development at The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute in Chicago.
Ben Wright (’16) and Valair Shabilla (’17) spearheaded the launch of a local soccer media company, SixOneFiveSoccer.com. Wright, founder and executive editor, is a national writer for multiple Major League Soccer (MLS) websites. He was voted 2024 Sports Writer of the Year in the Nashville Scene readers poll. Shabilla, founder and lead contributor, is a refugee who came to the Midstate area from Baghdad. In
2019, Shabilla helped launch what has become Nashville’s longest-running soccer podcast.
Brinley Morgan Hineman (’18), Murfreesboro, was named Travel Weekly ’s senior editor covering tours and river cruises.
Jonathan Farmer (’19), Columbia, joined Williamson Health Medical Group as a board-certified physician assistant providing primary care services in Spring Hill.
2020s
Michael McGarvey (’21), La Vergne, was appointed to the executive board of the Nashville not-for-profit Pawster, which provides temporary foster care to pets in need. McGarvey currently serves as intake coordinator for Acadia Healthcare.
Tiffany Taylor (’22), Murfreesboro, was promoted by the American Red Cross to senior communications strategist at Biomedical Diverse Communications, overseeing the organization’s diverse blood donor communications for the Sickle Cell Initiative and other lines of business.
Cliff Swoape (’23), Woodbury, retired from a 37-year career at Middle Tennessee Natural Gas Utility District that included being the service technician for Cannon County from 1990 to 1995 and safety and training manager for all MTNG personnel from 1997 to 2020. Swoape then embarked on the next phase of his natural gas career as the newly named executive director of the Tennessee Gas Association.
Karson Leighton (’24), Nashville, joined the Academy of Country Music as executive assistant to the CEO, the chief business officer, and Operations.
1940s
Lecta Walker Grace (’49)
1950s
Paul William Bastien (’56)
Betty Sisk Carter (’54, ’74)
Robert “Bob” Cass (’58)
Kenneth Wilson Cothron (’59)
Mary Wright Dean (’58, ’78)
Lillian Simms Duneer (’50)
Garner M. Ezell (’55)
Patricia Delbridge Frost (’53)
Allen Dixon Fuller (’59)
Lewis “Ted” Gobble (’57)
John K. Haralson (’57)
Flavil Ragan Hatcher (’51)
Harry Waymon Himelrick (’54)
Chase Adams Horton Sr. (’59)
Andrew M. Jarratt Jr. (’59)
Doris Pigg Lewter (’51)
Edward “Joe” Morgan (’57)
Gordon A. Traver Sr. (’52)
1960s
Elizabeth Alban (’65, ’01)
E. Faye Bloodworth Anderson (’63)
Walter Clarence Anderson Jr. (’60)
Sharon “Sherrie” Smith Atwood (’66)
Charles Bell (’63, ’72, ’74)
Norma Stonecipher Blair (’69, ’71)
Harlie J. Bodine III (’66)
Sonia Willis Bratten (’62)
Jamie Kestner Carr (’69)
Judith Dudney Chambers (’69)
Linda Cheryl White Colello (’68)
Joe Crockett (’64, ’69)
Homer “Skip” Dickens Jr. (’62)
James “Colonel” Dismukes (’68)
William “Bill” Dorris (’65)
Catherine Lakowski Fedor (’68)
Jerry L. Franklin (’62)
Killian “Buddy” Frye III (’68)
John Will Garner (’66)
Robert “Bob” E. Hardison Jr. (’61)
John Hayes (’68)
Philip Wayne Holder (’69)
Hugh Otis Holley (’68)
B. Leland Jennings (’60)
Alice Hudson (’69)
Alice Hudson, a 2011 MTSU Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement recipient, died Nov. 6, 2024. In 1970, Hudson was hired as a map cataloguer and reference librarian at the New York Public Library. The rest is not only NYPL history—it is the history of New York. By October 1981, Hudson was chief of the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division of the New York Public Library system. Its holdings include “more than 433,000 sheet maps and 20,000 books and atlases published between the 15th and 21st centuries,” according to the NYPL.
The New York Times , which once called Hudson “a poet of place,” described collection visitors as a hodgepodge of builders, developers and architects, novelists, and urban archaeologists—even “conspiracy theorists decoding the World Trade Center bombing.” According to the Times , the NYPL collection, the largest in any public library in the country with the exception of the Library of Congress, grew exponentially during Hudson’s tenure.
Shirley Tate Luckett (’64)
Bonnie Bell Mason (’69)
Michael Matheny (’68)
Jimmy Dave Maynard (’69)
Lucy Elliot Hill McLain (’65, ’69)
Ronald E. Morrell (’64)
Keith Omer Oppel (’67)
Petis Malvin Powell (’65)
G. Max Raby (’63, ’71)
Cheryl Rheinscheld Richmond (’68)
Joy Pfifer Rogers (’69, ’73)
Guy J. Rutland Jr. (’67)
Richard H. Sittel (’66)
Robert “Bobby” Timmons Jr. (’63, ’78)
Rubye Sims Todd (’69)
Richard “Dick” Greer Tune (’69, ’73)
Lawrence Doyle Wilson (’69)
Aubry J. Womack (’66)
1970s
William “Bill” Adcock Sr. (’74)
Jack Harville Allinder (’73)
Steven Bass (’73, ’75)
Alice Beets (’79)
David Randolph Brown (’73)
Barry Ray Brown (’75)
Anita Harrison Campbell (’70, ’73, ’05)
David Leon Carter (’70)
Ann Windrow Crabtree (’72)
Deborah Lynn Dickey (’75)
Donna Cooper Durkee (’70)
Jerry Wayne Eatherly (’76)
Sandra Jones Fly (’75)
Russell “Rusty” Goodson Follis II (’73)
Joyce Boyd Fort (’75, ’81)
Frank Hartman (’73)
Larry Herron (’72)
Thomas E. Howell (’74)
Donna Foley Hubbard (’72)
Jim G. Inglis (’73)
Donna Lynn Keller (’78)
Allene Bledsoe Kunaporntum (’72, ’77)
John Amos Lasseter Jr. (’78)
Mickey Duran Lawson (’76)
Kathy Lewis (’72)
Gregory B. Lintner (’76)
David Bryan London (’74)
Clyde E. Marlin Jr. (’75)
Hueston G. Marshall (’73)
Terry Apple Martin (’72)
Nancy Woodfin Massey (’73)
Kimberly Ellington Maxon (’79, ’82)
Patricia M. Murphy (’75)
Raymond Edwin “Ed” Neal (’72)
Helen Ethridge Neal (’73)
Richard “Randy” Odom (’73)
Harold Glenn Oldham (’72, ’76)
James “Jim” Harold Peden Jr. (’74)
Carolyn E. Peebles (’79)
Michael Lee Piasecki (’78)
Wanda “Jan” Wildon Sharp (’75)
Ronald John Simanovich (’72)
Thomas C. Stephens (’77)
Bobby Joe Stephens Sr. (’75)
Jean Gregory Stevens (’75)
James “Jim” Taylor (’70)
Dale Tyree (’78)
Pamela Porter Wilson (’74)
David Edward Wright (’70)
Phillip Youmans Jr. (’70, ’71)
1980s
Sherry Brown Amos (’80)
Joseph Gary Anderson (’85)
James “Tony” Anthony Arena (’84)
Sondra Wildish Barnes (’87)
Russell L. Burns (’82)
Bettye Vance Burns (’80, ’82)
Susan Harley Cardwell (’83)
Robert “Bob” Cutrer (’85)
David J. Dean (’88, ’95, ’06)
Victor Duncan (’87)
Thomas Patrick Giles (’81)
Beverly Fay Hawkins (’80)
Gina Denning Jones (’87)
Lynda Lynch King (’86)
Patricia Anne Kurtz (’88)
Horace G. “Pete” Taylor
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Horace G. “Pete” Taylor (’60), the 2004 MTSU Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, served for 33 years in the U.S. Army, including roles as commanding general of the 24th Infantry Division and the National Training Center. He died at the age of 86 in Killeen, Texas, on Nov. 4, 2024. A Lascassas native who became the MTSU ROTC unit commander, Taylor served two tours of duty in Vietnam, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bronze Star with Valor. He steadily rose through the ranks to become commander of III Corps at Fort Cavazos in 1991, then known as Fort Hood. Taylor earned a master’s from Kansas State University and was a graduate of the U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He was a well-known community leader who championed education, co-founding the worldwide Military Child Education Coalition and helping usher in the creation and development of Texas A&M University–Central Texas.
Nancy McLean (’85)
Leta Pressnell Pfieffer (’83)
Jeffrey Wayne Phillips (’86)
Debra Janet Pluck (’82)
Sandra June DuCharme Russell (’89)
John Charles Rutherford (’87)
Barbara Brown Smith (’84)
Janice T. Spangler (’81)
Michael J. Sweeny (’83)
Bryan Testerman (’89)
Michael C. Timme (’87, ’89)
Sherry Greer Tolli (’83)
John “Bentley” Trent (’87)
Robert Brian Turner (’84, ’86)
Joseph Webster (’85)
Philip R. Wright (’80)
1990s
Dawn Boeing Barbee (’96)
Jane Brion Combs (’98)
Mark Lewis Daniel (’93)
Donald V. Detwiller (’93)
Nancy Sells Dodson (’91)
Phillip Ed Duncan (’95)
Bryan “Scoot” Fearn (’97)
Jason Golden (’97)
Linda Hardymon (’95, ’98)
Kenneth Hermes (’95)
Yvette Neely Hunt (’99)
Jason T. Locke (’90, ’91)
Gina Parrish Matlock (’95)
David “Scott” McCurley (’93)
James Robert Mooney (’92)
Kevin Penney (’90)
Michelle L. Robins (’96)
Debbie Gayle Rose (’93)
Coneigh Berkley Sea (’92)
Sally Ann Sherman (’90)
Jon David “JD” Shuff (’98)
Marion Paige Wilson (’90)
2000s
Charles “Chuck” Akers Jr. (’05)
Evan Boles (’07)
Julia Grace Boyd (’00)
Kyle D. Hurt (’02)
Roxana Marquis (’01)
Bradley A. McTigue (’00)
Natalie Kristin Smith Morton (’07)
Randy Vine Parson (’00)
Robert Anthony Smith Jr. (’01)
Clay Sydney Taylor (’04)
2010s
Joshua Conley (’15)
James “Jay” Crowley III (’17)
John Carl Jennings (’10)
Savonta Johnson-Chipa (’18)
Jacqueline S. Lux (’17)
Caleb J. McLoud (’18)
Matthew Ryan Rippy (’12)
Lauren Rollins (’16)
2020s
Connor William Richey (’22)
01 Carter Davis Ezra born March 27, 2023 to Corey Ezra (’19) and Caitlyn Whitacre Ezra (’16) of Columbia
02
Adelynn Grace White born June 18, 2024 to Daniel and Jessica Fine White (’12) of Lenoir City
03 Nolan Allen Adkins born Aug. 13, 2024 to Blake (’17) and Juliana Adkins (’15) of Christiana
04 Joy Carolina Waterman (“Carolina”) born Oct. 12, 2024 to Doug and Jessica Campbell Waterman (’03, ’05) of Franklin
05
Audrey Yvonne Lowman born Oct. 18, 2024 to Nicolas Lowman and Elizabeth Stewart Lowman (’14) of Spring Hill
06 Dylan James Harris born Oct. 23, 2024 to Justin and Camiren Harris (’12, ’13) of Murfreesboro
07 Vivian Jade Polk born Jan. 15, 2025 to Reggie (’03) and Tanora Polk of Thompson’s Station
08
Phoebe Blair Lebarts born Feb. 14, 2025 to Zach (’16) and Anna Lebarts of Smyrna
A Career EDGE
University plan aims to elevate students’ readiness for opportunities and success
by Jordan Reining and Jimmy Hart
It’s only fitting that the name for MTSU’s new Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), built around career readiness, arose from a branding session with the student-powered Ever Blue Branding communications agency.
Career EDGE—with EDGE as an acronym for excellence, development, growth, and empowerment (though the verbiage could change)—emerged as the top choice in an online survey that included several names proposed by the student branding group. Under the guidance of Associate Professor Tricia Farwell, students in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media’s Ever Blue Branding agency will continue to provide marketing and public relations services for the career readiness plan.
“A program like this gives students the opportunity to make sure that their lives are secure and their futures are secure by the time they leave our university,” Student Government Association president and May graduate Michai Mosby said at a spring town hall meeting about Career EDGE.
Public Health Professor Chandra Story, the QEP director, said the goals behind the career readiness concept include helping students:
• improve critical thinking skills
• construct and work in teams
• elevate their professional skills
• enhance career and self-development
• sharpen their communication skills
A 45-member QEP Program Development Committee, which helped formulate the topic, gathered data from MTSU and around the nation about the effectiveness of career readiness programs currently in place.
“So ultimately what we wanted to do is to create a program where we could enhance . . . resources that were currently available and make them more available, more accessible to students,” said Religious Studies Professor Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand, part of the committee leadership team. “So data was showing that some students were using the things that were available on campus, but others weren’t. And we want to understand why that’s the case.”
The QEP is a requirement for the University’s accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Due to their successes, the two previous QEP efforts—MT Engage and its predecessor, Experiential Learning (EXL)—are now permanent parts of the University’s academic programming.
The goal is to launch a pilot program this fall, followed by a spring 2026 visit by accreditors to evaluate the QEP.
One suggestion at the March town hall was to tap into or scale up the “pockets of excellence” already occurring on campus—particularly through the work of the Career Development Center as well as some professional development work in the Jones College of Business and coursework within other academic colleges.
“The QEP is a lot more than a requirement or a responsibility . . . it is an opportunity,” said Mary Hoffschwelle, vice provost for planning and effectiveness. Career EDGE “is an opportunity to show our commitment to students.” MTSU
