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Class Notes 1970-1979

Every VUSN graduate has exciting things happening in her or his life, both professionally and personally.  Class Notes – printed twice a year in the Vanderbilt Nurse Magazine and available online on this page – is an opportunity for you to not only learn what other alumni are doing but also share news about your life.  We would love to hear what you've been up to! Please contact us at vusn-alumninursing@vanderbilt.edu or call 615-322-4836. And, when posting on social media please tag us! #VUSN

More info may be available at www.vuconnect.com and in the Class Notes sections of Vanderbilt Nurse Magazine.

  • 1970
    • Ethel Hines Battle, MSN’70, of Nashville passed away February 29, 2024.
    • Connie Dyall Johnson, BSN’70, was interviewed by San Francisco’s ABC7 News in April 2025 in “It’s Emotional: Veterans Depart SFO for Washington D.C. on 1st Honor Flight of the Year.” She is medical director of Honor Flight Bay Area.
    • Marna Strinden Ramnath, BSN’70, was featured in The Blade in 2024 for her appointment as chair of the Toledo Alliance of the Performing Arts in Ohio.
  • 1971
  • 1972
    • Melissa Coate Hauck, BSN’72, and husband Christie, BA’70, sponsored a matching challenge during Vanderbilt Giving Day in April 2025, with Christie’s gift establishing the Melissa C. Hauck Scholarship at VUSN.
    • Joan Michael King, BSN’72, MSN’75, PhD’84, contributed to the book, Managing Heart Failure in Primary Care: A Case Study Approach, published in 2023 by Springer. She is on the advisory board of Nursing in Critical Care: The Journal of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses.
    • Stephanie Maines Roth, BSN’72, of Sparta, Tennessee, passed away July 11, 2024.
    • Carolyn Whitaker, BSN’62, MSN’72, of Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee, passed away February 9, 2024. She was memorialized later that year in the Tennessee Nurse, including a reprint of her essay, “I AM TNA” from 2012 (page 9).
  • 1973
  • 1974
    • Beth Chatham, BSN’74, MSN’89, was promoted to nursing program director of Cumberland University’s Jeannette C. Rudy School of Nursing and Health Professions in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 2024.
    • Beth Colvin Huff, BSN’74, MSN’79, is a member of the VUSN Dean’s Advisory Council (2025).
    • Libby Legett, BSN’74, of Nashville passed away September 28, 2023. She was included among notables in the Nashville Scene in January 2025, in “In Memoriam 2024: Around the City.”
    • Liza Popoff, MSN’74, of Charleston, South Carolina, passed away February 24, 2025.
    • Vaughn Gaston Sinclair, BSN’74, MSN’78, PhD’82, of Nashville, mother of Ginny Sinclair Gardner, MSN’05, passed away February 17, 2025. She taught at VUSN for 39 years, starting as pediatric and then psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner faculty. She was published in 2023 in Health Care for Women International, and retired as professor emerita from VUSN in 2021.
    • Elsie Maier Wilson, MSN’74, authored a book, Adventures of a Midwife: Finding Joy on the Journey, published by Covenant Books in 2023.
  • 1975
    • Diane Cushman, BSN’75, of Bristol, Vermont, passed away January 25, 2025.
    • Kell Toomay Douglas, BSN’75, served as VUSN’s Sarratt Society Chair for Vanderbilt Univerity Reunion held in November 2025.
    • Chita Cisneros Farrar, BSN’75, MSN’80, EdD’84, of Phoenix passed away September 2, 2025.
    • Joan Michael King, BSN’72, MSN’75, PhD’84, contributed to the book, Managing Heart Failure in Primary Care: A Case Study Approach, published in 2023 by Springer. She is on the advisory board of Nursing in Critical Care: The Journal of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses.
    • Diane Lauver, BSN’75, co-presented, “Student Health Coalition: Taking Measure of Student Activism, 50 Years Later,” at an event in Crossville, Tennessee, in March 2025. She was featured on the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing website in July for receiving Lulu Wolf Hassenplug Award for Distinguished Career in Nursing from the VUSN Alumni Association during the School’s annual awards ceremony in November. That month, she was a panelist for the Vanderbilt Commodore Classroom, “Taking Measure of Student Activism: The Student Health Coalition, 50 Years Later,” during Reunion. She is professor emerita at UW-Madison and is one of the lead sponsors of the VUSN Health Equity Faculty Fellows program.
    • Polly McClanahan McArthur, BSN’75, co-presented, “Student Health Coalition: Taking Measure of Student Activism, 50 Years Later,” at an event in Crossville, Tennessee, in March 2025, and was a panelist for the Vanderbilt Commodore Classroom, “Taking Measure of Student Activism: The Student Health Coalition, 50 Years Later,” during Reunion in November.
    • Janet White Rogers, MSN’75, of Birmingham, Alabama, passed away November 28, 2025.

     

  • 1976
    • Gail Bentley, MSN’76, of High Point, North Carolina, passed away February 2, 2025.
    • Marilyn Dubree, MSN’76, is co-author of “Effective Nurse Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Programs: A Guide for Health Care Institutions,” published in January 2025 in Nurse Leader, and was named a member of the National Agentic AI Advisory Panel for Nursing by Banyan Medical Solutions in September. She is one of 23 nurse executives invited to attend a meeting of the Chief Nursing Officer Council hosted by Get Well in 2024, and was honored for her 45 years of service at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, most recently as executive chief nursing officer, where both her DAISY Lifetime Achievement Award and the Marilyn Dubree Chief Nursing Officer Directorship were announced. In 2023, she received the inaugural VUSN Dean’s Friend of Nursing Award, was published in Ohio Nurse and Nursing Outlook, was featured by Becker’s Clinical Leadership and presented the State of Nursing Address at VUMC. She announced plans to retire as executive chief nursing officer at VUMC (here in Nashville Post) and was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. She is senior vice president of clinical enterprise administration at VUMC and serves on the VUSN Dean’s Advisory Council.
    • Margie Nicks Gale, BSN’73, MSN’76, was quoted by VUMC News in 2024, in “We’re Here for You: How to Comfort a Coworker in Grief.” She is a nurse wellness specialist at Vanderbilt Work/Life Connections.
    • Catherine Hoffman Garner, BSN’76, MSN’82, completed a Harvard-Macy Foundation fellowship in educational innovation, and is a fellow in both the American Academy of Nursing and the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship. She has a doctorate in public health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s in public administration from Tennessee State University in Nashville (2023).
    • Judith Holladay, MSN’76, of Nashville passed away March 27, 2023.
    • Anne Atkinson Moore, BSN’76, MSN’81, served as a peer reviewer for a 2023 edition of Women's Healthcare: A Clinical Journal for NPs. She is assistant vice president of women’s health services at Peppy, headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.
    • Esther Weaver, MSN’76, of Lititz, Pennsylvania, passed away May 27, 2024.
    • Nan Wetherhorn, BSN’76, is owner of Healthcare Advisor Nan (2023).
  • 1977
    • Rumay Harrell Alexander, MSN’77, was featured in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill News for her induction into the N.C. Nurses Association Hall of Fame in September 2025, and was inducted in 2024 by the National Black Nurses Association as an inaugural Luminary Fellow of the Academy of Leaders in Nursing. She co-authored a chapter in the book Mentoring in Nursing through Narrative Stories across the World published by Springer in 2023, and was on the faculty of VUSN’s inaugural Academy for Emerging Nurse Leaders. Rumay has served as professor at the UNCCH School of Nursing, special assistant to the dean of the Adams School of Dentistry at UNCCH, associate vice-chancellor at UNCCH, and president of the National League for Nursing.
    • Margaret Clark Graham, MSN’77, retired in 2023 as vice dean and associate professor at Ohio State University College of Nursing in Columbus.
    • Cathy Madigan, BSN’77, retired in 2023 as chief nurse executive for the University of North Carolina Health System, comprised of 16 hospitals throughout the state and headquartered in Chapel Hill.
    • Donna Behler McArthur, MSN’77, is listed as a nurse practitioner pioneer in the book, Advanced Nursing Practice: The Expanding Role of the Nurse Practitioner, published by Cognella in 2024, and was moderator of “Health Care and the Homeless: A Unique Role for Nursing,” in 2023, part of the VUSN Dore to Door Alumni Forum. She is an adjunct clinical professor at the University of Arizona College of Nursing and associate in the UAHS department of neurology in Tucson, as well as an adjunct professor at VUSN.
    • Beth Pulliam Meador, MSN’77, received the Excellence in Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center for 2023.
  • 1978
    • Robin Shanks Diamond, MSN’78, hosted an event in her home in Napa, California, for Dean Pam Jeffries and VUSN alumni and friends in May 2025.
    • Rosiland Senior Harris, BSN’78, is owner and lead nursing consultant at Sirrah Health Group in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and nursing instructor at Georgia State University in Atlanta (2023).
    • Janie Schablik Keith, MSN’78, of Madbury, New Hampshire, passed away July 25, 2023.
    • Pauline Hall Marable, MSN’78, of Nashville passed away December 5, 2023. She was featured in The Tennessee Tribune that year in celebration of her 104th
    • Thayer Wilson McGahee, BSN’78, retired as dean of the University of South Carolina Aiken School of Nursing in 2024 after 20 years on faculty there.
    • Angela Nannini, MSN’78, is featured on Clinton, New York’s Hamilton College website in “The Scientists of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” (2025).
    • Karin Murray Oliver, N’78, of San Antonio passed away October 23, 2023.
    • Frances Schall, MSN’78, of Bradenton, Florida, passed away October 29, 2024.
    • Vaughn Gaston Sinclair, BSN’74, MSN’78, PhD’82, of Nashville, mother of Ginny Sinclair Gardner, MSN’05, passed away February 17, 2025. She taught at VUSN for 39 years, starting as pediatric and then psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner faculty. She was published in 2023 in Health Care for Women International, and retired as professor emerita from VUSN in 2021.
  • 1979
    • Susan Roberts Cooper, BSN’79, MSN’94, was featured in the Memphis, Tennessee’s Commercial Appeal in “Regional One Executive Tapped as Only American for Global Nursing Program,” and was named an International Council of Nurses’ Global Nursing Leadership Institute Scholar, both in 2024. She is senior vice president and chief integration officer at Regional One Health in Memphis.
    • Nonie Fain, BSN’79, of Houston passed away December 19, 2022.
    • Beth Colvin Huff, BSN’74, MSN’79, is a member of the VUSN Dean’s Advisory Council (2025).
    • Ellen Rositer Kennedy, MSN’79, of Painesville, Ohio, passed away February 18, 2025.
    • Randy Rasch, MSN’79, was endnote speaker for the National Student Nurses’ Association convention in April 2025, presenting, “Serendipity on the Path to Leadership,” and he received the Loretta C. Ford Award for Advancement of the Nurse Practitioner Role in Health Care from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners in June. He was inducted in 2024 by the National Black Nurses Association as an inaugural Luminary Fellow of the Academy of Leaders in Nursing. In 2023, Randy presented to the VUSN American Assembly for Men in Nursing chapter and was a panelist for a VUSN MIN discussion hosted by the VUSN Dean’s Office. He co-sponsored a challenge gift in memory of late professor Tom Christenbery, MSN’87, PhD’04, during Vanderbilt Giving Day and presented at the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties conference. Randy is a member of the VUSN Dean’s Advisory Council.
    • Carole Ruppel Tucker, MSN’79, of Flushing, Michigan, passed away October 2, 2025.