The Alumni Scholarly and Creative Achievement Award has been incorporated into the Professional Achievement Award.
Winners
Scholarly Achievement Award
Hugh E. Berryman received his BS, MA, and PhD in anthropology from UT. Berryman is a research professor with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and director of the Forensic Institute for Research and Education at Middle Tennessee State University. He served on the faculty of the Department of Pathology at UT Memphis and as director of the Regional Forensic Center in Memphis from 1980 to 2000.
While in Memphis, he taught as an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Memphis and provided lectures at the Smithsonian Institute, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy in Nashville. In 2000, he provided private consulting in forensic anthropology and was associate director of the Southern Institute of Forensic Sciences until 2005. During this time, he co-taught courses at the University of New Orleans, Colorado State University, and Missouri Western.
Berryman provides forensic anthropology consultation to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii to help identify those who died during US military actions and consults with the Office of the Metropolitan and Davidson County Medical Examiner. He has served four terms on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Forensic Anthropologists.
In addition to forensic anthropology, Berryman is a Master Tracking Instructor and for years has provided visual man tracking training to law enforcement and military in both the United States and Canada. His research interests include bone trauma and bone fracture interpretation, and he has published in excess of 50 articles in scientific journals and as chapters in books. He served as a member of a scientific research team under the direction of the Smithsonian Institute to examine Kennewick Man, a 9,300-year-old skeleton from the Columbia River Valley in Washington.
Creative Achievement Award
Steven Mauk is a native of Greeneville, Tennessee, and received his BA degree in music at UT. He earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in music at the University of Michigan. He served as professor of saxophone in the School of Music at Ithaca College from 1975 until his retirement in May 2019. During his illustrious career, Mauk has presented numerous solo, chamber music, and concerto performances in the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, Russia, and Europe. His performances in the US have included those in New York City, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, Cleveland, and Chicago. Mauk has given three recitals at Weill Hall (formerly Carnegie Recital Hall), a concerto presentation at Alice Tully Hall (NYC), four concerto performances with the United States Navy in Washington, DC, and concerto presentations in Russia and China. One of the foremost authorities on the soprano saxophone, Mauk is often invited to present lectures, recitals, and articles dealing with this member of the saxophone family. He is a founding member of the chamber groups Empire Saxophone Quartet, Troica, Remeleixo, and Tango de Cámara. Thirty works have been dedicated to him by such composers as Dana Wilson, Graham Fitkin, and David Kechley, to name a few.
Mauk has recorded 22 albums, written more than 100 articles, and authored four books. Mauk is a sponsored artist/clinician with music companies Conn-Selmer and Vandoren and presents numerous sessions dealing with saxophone performance and pedagogy. In the US he has presented master classes at many major universities and his European classes have been presented in cities including London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Pesaro (Italy), Zagreb (Croatia), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Moscow, and Beijing.
As an active member of the North American Saxophone Alliance, Mauk has held the offices of President and Director of Scholarly Publications. In 2012, he was elected an Honorary Life Member, the highest honor bestowed by this professional organization. He has received a Dana Teaching Fellowship and a Dana Research Fellowship at Ithaca College for his excellence in teaching and research, as well as an Ithaca College President’s Recognition Award. Mauk was the recipient of the 1995-98 National Artist Award from the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and received Ithaca College’s Excellence in Teaching Award for 2001-2002. Steven Mauk has had a remarkable career and is an authoritative figure in the field of classical saxophone. He presented a recital and masterclass at the UT School of Music in the 2012-13 academic year.
Scholarly Achievement Award
Wanda Rushing earned her PhD in sociology in 1998. She is Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Memphis and the author of Memphis and the Paradox of Space: Globalization in the American South. Rushing’s scholarship focuses on the political economy of development, racial and social inequality, education and economic development in the South, and urban change. Her work continues to question popular assumptions about the South. In recent research on feminism and intersectionality, Rushing encourages scholars and activists to broaden their concept of intersectionality to include place, region, and locale as well as gender, race, and sexuality in an effort to explain the existence and persistence of social inequality better. She is the former president of Sociologists for Women Society and continues to publish her work in prestigious venues, presents at academic conferences, and remains a force in the discipline despite her recent retirement. In 2014, Rushing established the Dr. Wanda Rushing Sociological Research Excellence Endowment in Sociology to recognize outstanding faculty and graduate students for research efforts.
Creative Achievement Award
Alan Gratz is a 1993 graduate of the College Scholars Program with an emphasis in creative writing and a highly successful full-time writer of young adult fiction. Since 2006, he has published 14 novels, short stories, plays, and television scripts. Gratz has created a body of work that inspires young people to read. Some of his books, such as Samurai Shortstop, are just fun and will lure the sports crazy boy to put down his glove and pick up a book. Others, such as Something Rotten, are a path into great literature, in this case Shakespeare. Recent books, Refugee and Ban This Book introduce important social issues. Gratz has received several prestigious awards for his work. His more recent novel, Refugee, was on the New York Times Bestseller list for more than three months and won numerous awards, including the Sidney Taylor Book Award for Older Readers and the NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children.
Scholarly Achievement Award
Carroll Van West (’78) received his BA from Middle Tennessee State University, MA in history from UT, and PhD from the College of William and Mary. He is a professor in the Department of History at MTSU. Carroll currently serves as Tennessee’s State Historian. He is the co-chair of the Tennessee Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission and director of The Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area. He played a central role in founding and developing the MTSU program in public history, the most important and visible such program in Tennessee, and one with a national reputation for academic excellence. He has all the accomplishments of a significant scholar in his field, including books, articles, and presentations that reflect a long and distinguished academic career. In 2013, Governor Bill Haslam appointed Carroll as State Historian.
Creative Achievement Award
Paula Pell (’86) is an outstanding and noteworthy alumna of the Department of Theatre. After graduating from UT, Paula worked for Disney as a writer and performer. In 1995, she started writing for Saturday Night Live and was nominated for an Emmy as writer of the “Saturday Night Live at 40” special. Paula is credited with some of SNL’s most enduring sketches, including “Debbie Downer” and for the performers Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, and Will Farrell. Paula’s most enduring success post-SNL came with the 2015 film, Sisters. As a performer, Paula can be seen as Tammy Zero in Parks and Recreation, and as herself in the web series Hudson Valley Ballers. Paula has received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Writing – Variety, Music or Comedy Series. Paula was recognized with the Clarence Brown Theatre Artistic Achievement Award in 2016.
Scholarly Achievement Award
John McManus (’96) earned a doctorate in U.S. history at UT. During his tenure as a graduate student, he served as the Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of War and Society He is an internationally recognized authority on U.S. military history. His a prolific an award-winning scholar whose research focuses on the human element of the history of conflict. He is invited regularly as an expert commentator on PBS, MSNBC and other national news outlets.
Creative Achievement Award
Paige Braddock (’85) graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a major in graphic design. During her time at UT she was the comics’ editor for the Daily Beacon. Following graduation she held profession positions with newspapers including the Oak Ridger, the Chicago Tribune, and the Atlanta Constitution. In 2000, she joined Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, where she is Executive Vice-President and Creative Director. Paige oversees the editorial and art direction of the “Peanuts” license world-wide, and she designed the Snoopy U.S. postage stamp issued in 2001. In addition to being the steward of the Peanuts brand, Paige is the creator of the long-running comic strip, “Jane’s World”, the first nationally syndicated gay-themed comic strip. At Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, she started her own publishing company in 2001 and produces graphic and text novels for adults and children.
Scholarly Achievement Award
Gerald Musante (’71), who received a doctorate in psychology, has dedicated his career to the treatment of obesity. Since founding Structure House, a residential weight loss center in 1977 in Durham, North Carolina, Musante and his staff have helped more than 30,000 people overcome weight issues.
Creative Achievement Award
David Keith (’85), a graduate of speech and theatre, is a filmmaker and actor who has appeared in movies including An Officer and a Gentleman, The Lords of Discipline, Firestarter, and White of the Eye, and TV shows including NCIS, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, CSI: Miami, High Incident, Hawaii Five-0, and Lone Star.