Alumni

Northrop Grumman Corporation has named alumnus Kelley Zelickson, BE’79 vice president of Air and Missile Defense Systems for the Defense Technologies division in the company’s Information Systems sector on February 7. Zelickson will lead a team of professionals to provide integrated air, space and missile defense solutions to the… Read More

Steve Hays, BE ’73, chairman of Gobbell Hays Partners, Inc., has been elected as a fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). Hays was honored at a special AIHA ceremony held May 26, 2010 in Denver, Colorado. His company will celebrate the achievement with a reception in… Read More

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store named its current chief financial officer and executive vice president Sandra Cochran as president and chief operations officer on Nov. 3. Cochran, former CEO of Books-A-Million, joined the restaurant chain last year. Cochran holds a chemical engineering degree from Vanderbilt University and a master of… Read More

Vanderbilt engineering alumni Andre Churchwell, W. Hibbett Neel Jr., and J. Roy Wauford Jr. each received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering during the School’s annual Engineering Celebration Dinner held Oct. 21 at the university’s Student Life Center. The School of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award recognizes distinguished… Read More

Vanderbilt engineering alumnus Brad Jaeger, BE’07 is part of an elite group of nine vehicles from seven teams that will continue in their pursuit of a multimillion dollar prize for super fuel-efficient cars. Jaeger is the Director of Research and Development for the Virginia-based team called Edison2. The Progressive Insurance… Read More

John Leith Potter, internationally known as a pioneer in the aerodynamics of jet fighters, rockets and spacecraft, died July 20 in Homewood, Ala. He was 87. The chief designer of a unique, highly successful wind tunnel for studies of rarefied hypersonic flow, Potter was invited to give the review lecture… Read More

Cynthia Warner As the former head of global refining for BP, alumnus Cynthia Warner was one of Big Oil’s highest-ranking woman executives until she abandoned petroleum to become president of a small San Diego-based alternative-energy firm, Sapphire Energy in 2009. Warner has more than 27 years of experience in the… Read More

Steve Hays, BE’73, partner and chairman of the board of Gobbell Hays Partners Inc., is featured in the Nashville Business Journal. Gobbell Hays Partners Inc., provides architectural and environmental consulting services to a client base that spans from Aruba to Anchorage. An expert in indoor air quality and asbestos assessment… Read More

Christopher Kyser Miree (Kyser), 23,  a 2009 Vanderbilt University graduate, was found in his Mobile, Ala., apartment Friday with a gunshot wound to his head, and was pronounced dead Saturday, April 17, at the University of South Alabama Medical Center. The Mobile Police Department is conducting a homicide investigation. Read More

Billy Taylor Sumner, one of the founders of Barge Waggoner and Sumner, which later became Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon, Inc., now one of the southeast’s leading engineering and architectural firms, died Dec. 1. He was 86. Billy Sumner   Sumner was a noted environmental engineer specializing in the design… Read More