While some members of Vanderbilt’s family tree are well known around campus, others are rarely heard of, regardless of their importance to our everyday lives as students. The profiles below are designed to give you an inside look at Vanderbilt’s administrators and their lives, on and off campus.
Although students must feel that Chancellor Gordon Gee’s bowtie collection has been on campus forever, he started his job just six years ago. Although Gee is most known for serving as president of five universities, he was also president of his high school student body and the undergraduate student body at the University of Utah.
“I believe that one should attempt to make a difference in the world, and I hope that the opportunities given to me have made some differences,” Gee said.
Michael Schoenfeld
Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs
Michael Schoenfeld’s main responsibility is to be the communications director and spokesman for Vanderbilt University.
However, Schoenfeld’s real passion lies in music. He is involved in the Nashville music scene and has been working to get Vanderbilt more involved as well.
“When I was much younger, I thought that I might go into the music industry,” Schoenfeld said. “Coming to Nashville, I have been more able to connect to music.”
When Vanderbilt recruited Schoenfeld 10 years ago, he was skeptical about making the move from Washington, D.C. to Nashville, Tenn.
“Why would I leave Washington'” he said. “It’s the center of the universe.”
However, after visiting Nashville, the Schoenfelds decided to relocate.
David Williams
Vice Chancellor for University Affairs
General Counsel
Secretary of the University
As vice chancellor for university affairs, David Williams is one of the most visible faces on campus. He controls athletics, the recreation center, risk management and conflict of interest, among other things.
Williams started his career as a professor, not an administrator, and he eventually hopes to get back to teaching.
“I dislike the most that I am not teaching,” Williams said. “At heart, I am a teacher.”
Williams has four children and two grandchildren and feels that having children and working at a university go hand in hand.
“I find it so great working at a university because of the students and the youth environment,” Williams said. “The university makes me a better father, and being a father makes me better here.”
Bill Spitz
Vice Chancellor for Investments
Treasurer
As vice chancellor for investments and treasurer, Bill Spitz’s main duty is to oversee Vanderbilt’s $3 billion endowment.
Spitz said that he preferred this job to his earlier career on Wall Street. Spitz said that seeing students with scholarships and the buildings that are going up all around campus show the fulfilling results of his job.
“Working on Wall Street, I felt like I was just trading paper,” Spitz said. “ The returns on the endowment give me tangible results now.”
Spitz recently announced his retirement, effective upon the appointment of a successor.
Nick Zeppos
Provost
Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs
As provost, Nick Zeppos’s responsibilities include overseeing the Student Financial Aid office, University Registrar, Career Center and ROTC program.
Zeppos said that he met his wife while he was in law school.
“I first met her in the library – where all provosts meet their spouses!” he said.
Zeppos and his wife have two teenage sons who spent most of their childhoods around the Vanderbilt campus
“Our children literally ‘grew up’ on the campus,” he said. “One of their favorite activities was to make waffles in Rand.”
Mark Bandas
Dean of Students
Mark Bandas was recently appointed associate provost and dean of students. Bandas’s new responsibilities include housing and residential life, intercultural programs, student health and counseling, and student activities and events.
“Vanderbilt has a commitment to the education of the whole person,” he said. “We want students to take care of themselves, to make friends, to become good citizens and persons of integrity, to become leaders, to pursue their intellectual interests with passion and intensity and to enjoy their years at Vanderbilt,” Bandas said.
Bandas said that he met his wife, Director of McTyeire International House Anja Bandas, in an unusual circumstance—when he interviewed her for a position at Vanderbilt.
Frank Wcislo
Dean of Commons
“I’m a dad, a husband, an historian of Russia, a writer, a professor, a teacher, a golfer, a scholar and a dean, among other things,” said Frank Wcislo, the recently appointed dean of Commons.
Wcislo will reside in the Commons starting in 2008 and will also bring his wife, his 13-year-old twin daughters, a dog and a cat to the Peabody campus.
“As a professor, I’ve been lucky to have a job where the line between ‘work’ and ‘hobbies’ is not drawn all that firmly,” Wcislo said.As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan in 1969, Wcislo said he was there in 1969 to witness the last Vanderbilt-Michigan game played at the Big House.
Douglas Christiansen
Dean of Admissions
Associate Provost for Enrollment
Douglas Christiansen, the new associate provost for enrollment and dean of admissions, began his job at the beginning of last month.
Christiansen said he was interested in Vanderbilt because of the investment the university is willing to make on behalf of its student body.
“Vanderbilt has a commitment to undergraduate education,” Christiansen said. “There are not many schools in the U.S. who are willing to fund things like the Commons and have a commitment to education.”
Christiansen has been married to his high school sweetheart, Amy, for 17 years. He grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and like Chancellor Gordon Gee, graduated from the University of Utah.
Richard McCarty
Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Richard McCarty is in charge of recruiting faculty, retaining faculty and working with colleagues on graduate and undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Science. In addition, McCarty is involved with the Vanderbilt Visions program and teaches a first-year writing seminar.
McCarty enjoys working at Vanderbilt and said that one of his favorite things about the school is its intermediate size.
“I like the size of the university,” McCarty said. “It allows a lot of contact between faculty, administrators and students.”
McCarty grew up in Portsmouth, Va., and married his high school sweetheart soon after graduation. McCarty and his wife have four children, four grandchildren and a cat.
“My wife has a cat,” McCarty said. “I tolerate the cat.”
Mark Wait
Dean of the Blair School of Music
One would expect Mark Wait, dean of the Blair School of Music, to be a musical man. In fact, he is a classical pianist, educated at Wichita State University, Kansas State University and Johns Hopkins University.
However, the rest of Wait’s family is just as musically inclined, as his wife plays piano and his 14-year-old daughter plays the electric bass.
Wait’s love for music and Blair is evident in the way he talks about the teachers and the programs associated with the school
“I think it is important that people know that the Blair School of Music has some great teachers,” Wait said. [“Some of these Blair classes are a great part of a Vanderbilt education. Blair has these courses to show how much music contributes to our school and our society.”]
Kenneth Galloway
Dean of the School of Engineering
Kenneth Galloway, dean of the School of Engineering, is the only undergraduate dean to have actually graduated from Vanderbilt University.
Before returning to his alma mater, Galloway worked at three other universities and two government laboratories. He said that he shares his love of Vanderbilt through a commitment to his job.
“I am really proud of the faculty and students in the School of Engineering and of the terrific things that are happening in the school’s classrooms and research laboratories,” he said.
Camilla Benbow
Dean of Peabody College
Dean Camilla Benbow has always been involved in scholastic life and is now the dean of Peabody College, but what many students do not realize is that she has also raised a family of seven children, ranging in age from 18 to 30.
While Benbow said “her family is her hobby,” she said she also enjoys gardening, reading, crochet, cross stitch and traveling.
Benbow’s psychology research has been in the area talent development, an area she believes many students at Vanderbilt may be familiar with.
“Many students participated in talent searches in 7th and 8th grade,” Benbow said. “Universities are about developing talents as well; I enjoy being dean because I see it as a way to develop talent.”
