Theme: Behind The Curtain

Our nine undergraduate, graduate, and staff speakers will engage you with talks that will take you "Behind the Curtain" of various phenomena and aspects of the human condition including the life of a disabled college student, the plight of our soldiers, the art of forgiveness, and our racial imagination. Let them take you to parts unknown.

2301 Vanderbilt Place
Sarratt Cinema
Nashville, Tennessee, 37235
United States

Amit Khandhadia

Senior, Neuroscience & English

Born outside of Detroit, I am a senior in the College of Arts and Science. Growing up, I developed an odd obsession with the idea of a person and how people can do all the spectacular things they do. This fascination drew me into two separate fields: the arts, where I could examine the human experience the human perspective, and medicine, where I could explore the physical composition of the human body. I began composing new skills and new knowledge to pursue these ideas, finding new programs and clubs to carry my interest. Perhaps most important, I became involved with Forensics, a form of competitive public speaking where performers told stories but without costume and a chair as a sole prop. Through forensics, I discovered the ability to speak and yell out the passions swelling inside me, sewing analysis of everything from the latest brain research to modernist novels.

Deepa Rajan

Sophomore- Neuroscience & English

“Harmonizing the Brain: How Music Can Help People With Alzheimer’s Disease” Deepa Rajan, a second-year Chancellor’s Scholar at Vanderbilt University, is double majoring in Neuroscience and Music. Her interest in this rather unusual combination of subjects began in 2010 when she founded Harmonies for the Elderly, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing music therapy and enrichment services for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Through this organization, Deepa has performed almost seventy concerts at nursing homes. Deepa is growing her organization on a national level and mobilizing hundreds of new student volunteers by guiding the development of new Harmonies for the Elderly chapters in different areas of the country, including Nashville. Deepa is a two-time recipient of the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for her committed efforts.

Erin Verbeck

Senior, Anthropology

Erin Verbeck is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and studies Anthropology. She hails from Minnesota, where she learned the importance of education, to hate the Packers, and to appreciate a hardy winter jacket. She is fascinated with the concept of holistic wellness, and how the world and worldly conventions influence and inform wellness. This passion motivated Erin to create and run a wellness program at Preston Taylor Ministries (Nashville) this summer, to advocate for food policy change in the Nashville government, as well as train to become a fitness class instructor! She plans to attend graduate school to study the intersection of nutrition and urban schooling; how does access to healthy foods affect a child’s ability to learn? Erin is incredibly indebted to her family and friends, her mentors, and the Ingram Scholarship program, and wishes to thank them for the invaluable opportunities they have allowed her.

Hannah Johnsrud

Sophomore, Oboe Performance

A native of Milton, Washington, Hannah Johnsrud is a sophomore at Vanderbilt University. Hannah is blending her lifelong interest in history, religion, politics, and language as she embarks on an interdisciplinary major in Middle Eastern Studies. She is also pursuing her passion for music with a secondary Oboe Performance Major. Service to others has been and continues to be an important part of Hannah’s life. In high school she frequently volunteered at the Edgewood Community Center and FISH Food Bank, as well as visiting ill and elderly members of her church community. Hannah continues this love of service as an active member of the Theta Mu chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. She also serves as Secretary for the Disability Awareness Partnership.

Heather Lefkowitz

Executive Director, ALIAS Chamber Ensemble, Adjunct Instructor, Peabody at Vanderbilt

For fifteen years, I worked in higher education: inventing programs, initiatives, and events on creative lives and careers; teaching/coaching/mentoring students on career development, and thinking strategically about communication from an organizational and an individual perspective. Now, in coaching and workshops, I use creative practices (especially improv and storytelling) to help people work with purpose and communicate with confidence. I am also the Executive Director of ALIAS Chamber Ensemble, a Grammy-nominated nonprofit chamber ensemble dedicated to an innovative repertoire, artistic excellence, and a desire to give back to the community. A two-time graduate of Vanderbilt University, I received my undergraduate degree in history and then completed a Master of Divinity in 2011. I also have a nice family and I regularly kill houseplants.

Joshua Kors

Law

Joshua Kors is an investigative reporter for The Nation, where he covers military and veterans’ issues. He is the winner of the National Magazine Award, George Polk Award, Casey Medal, the National Press Club’s Hume Award and the Military Reporters and Editors Award. He was also a finalist for the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism, Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award. Kors earned national attention for his work uncovering the veterans’ benefits scandal. His three-part series showed how military doctors are purposely misdiagnosing soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, labeling them mentally ill in order to deny them medical care and disability pay.

Mia Keeys

Graduate Student, Sociology

Mia R. Keeys is 3rd year doctoral student of the Department of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow of Meharry Medical College. She received her B.A. (Honors) in English and Psychology from Cheyney University in 2008. Before graduate school, Mia was a Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholar through the Kaiser Family Foundation, a fellow in the Philadelphia Deputy Mayor’s Office for Health and Opportunity, an HIV/AIDS researcher in South Africa, and a U.S. Fulbright Fellow to Indonesia. During the summer following her second year in graduate school, Mia held a fellowship appointment with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. Currently, Mia studies the social determinants of health, racial health disparities, health policy, and the race/health paradigms of Global Southern youth. She also enjoys surfing, yoga, and spending time with her loved ones.

Rachel King

Senior, Human Organization Development

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Rachel developed her love for others at an early age. At 14 years old, she joined a team of visionaries as a founding member of The Center for Family Solutions, a nonprofit that provides support services for victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. A survivor herself, Rachel had the chance to testify before the Ohio House of Representatives proposing a bill to increase penalties for offenders. A Truman Scholar finalist, Rachel has also been named “Young Professional Woman of Achievement” for the Ohio Hamilton County YWCA, serves as one of Vanderbilt’s two National Campaign Ambassadors to Harvard’s Institute on Politics, has been published in The New York Times, and has appeared on The Huffington Post’s “HuffPost Live” network. She plans to pursue a career in international development.

Tammy Day

Program Director, Next Steps/Postsecondary Education

Annie Sullivan was the miracle worker that opened the door for Helen Keller. She was able to help Helen learn how to communicate her desires and brilliance for the world. With Anne Sullivan as her role model, Tammy Day decided to become a special education educator in the hopes of opening “doors” for her students. After almost two decades as a classroom teacher that was always championing inclusive opportunities for her students, she was asked to join the school district’s central office team to lend her passion and dedication to students with other educators. Her passion to enroll as many students as possible and to grow more inclusive education opportunities has led her to be a regular presenter for state, regional, and national conferences. She has been on the Advisory Board of the national State of the Art Conferences hosted by George Mason University for the past four years.