Winter 2017

A Community’s Legacy

Douglas Ivester, center, and Kay Ivester greet attendees during the dedication of the Mary Inez Grindle School of Nursing. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

With a new name for the university’s highly regarded nursing school and the completion of a new athletics park where the Golden Tigers national championship-contending softball team commences home field play in February, the name Grindle stands to become one of the most visible fixtures is becoming increasingly on Brenau’s Gainesville campus. The eponymous Ernest […]

Nursing School Director Attends Leadership Program

Dr. Dina Hewett Director of the Nursing Department

Elation doesn’t begin to describe how Dina Hewett, Brenau Director of the School of Nursing, felt when she was accepted into the 2016 Cohort of Fellows for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Executive Leadership Program. “I about fell over when I got the email that I had been accepted,” says Hewett. “I had […]

Twin Therapy

Taylor Meadows, left, and Morgan MeadowsTaylor Meadows, left, and Morgan Meadows

In the Foundations Lab of the occupational therapy program, Morgan Meadows was assigned to do a detailed presentation analyzing another person engaged in a simple, workaday activity. “She was supposed to look at the environment, whether the activity was social or nonsocial, and explain all of the factors involved in the activity,” recalls her instructor, […]

New Hall to Call Home

Brenau's new residence hall for upperclassman students.

A $3.3 million, three-story residence hall situated along Prior Street on Brenau’s Gainesville campus opened in fall 2016, housing more than 70 upper-level students. The construction project was in the planning stages for some time and marked the end of a $6.5 million ForeverGold improvement project, which began in 2014 and included construction of four new […]

Election Takes Center Stage at Brenau

Brenau President Ed Schrader moderates while Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican pollster and strategist, , left, and Maria Teresa Kumar, Democratic commentator and CEO of Voto Latino, discuss political issues during Beyond the Talking Points: What Election 2016 Really Means to Women. The discussion was a part of the Douglas and Kay Ivester Programming Series at the university. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)Beyond the Talking Points: What Election 2016 Really Means to Women. The discussion was a part of the Douglas and Kay Ivester Programming Series at the university. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

In the tensest moments of the 2016 presidential election, two national political experts with diverse points of view agreed: Donald Trump was unlikely to win the presidency. Republican pollster and strategist Kristen Soltis Anderson, co-founder and partner at Echelon Insights, and Democratic organizer and commentator Maria Teresa Kumar, CEO of Voto Latino, were part of […]

Humble Nomad

Will Bradley, BU '09, poses for a photo inside Pearce Auditorium. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

Brenau alum Will Bradley scored what most professional actors would consider plum roles in bicoastal theater productions, feature films and in a recurring role for a popular television series. What he’s learned is this “overnight success” thing in show business sometimes takes years. He paces on stage at Pearce Auditorium. Hands in his pockets, he […]

Diaz Becomes Business Mastermind

Stefanie Diaz , WC '05 and BU '07, is the founder and CEO of Mastermind Your Launch. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

Stefanie Diaz takes the stage in Pearce Auditorium. She has a tough act to follow, as the student-filled audience is still buzzing from the lively performance by Tau Sigma dancers. Little do they know, Diaz once danced in their shoes. Diaz, founder of the company Mastermind Your Launch, graduated from the Women’s College in 2005 […]

Tending the Roots

Frank Norton Jr., chairman and CEO of the Norton Agency, poses for a portrait inside his office. Norton recently joined the Brenau Board of Trustees. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

Frank Norton Jr. bridges a legacy of art, business and education as a new university trustee Frank Norton Jr. graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology, but he spent most of his 60 years in and around Brenau University. “While my mother has been a longtime member of the Board of Trustees, my grandmother also […]

Sophomore Abigail Sandifer on Panel at National Health Conference

Brenau Scholar Abigail Sandifer

Abigail Sandifer, a sophomore health sciences major from Stapleton, Georgia, and a 2015-16 Brenau Scholar, spoke on a panel at the ImproveCareNow National Conference on Sept. 15-17 in Chicago, Illinois, as a member of the International Council of Nurses’ Patient Advisory Council. “It was my first time in Chicago – in the Midwest at all. […]

An Academic Assist

Gloria Clark, a sophomore legal studies and conflict resolution major, works on Spanish with her tutor Amy Hernandez at the Learning Center. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

Since 1983, Brenau University’s Learning Center has helped students with learning disabilities and other disorders achieve success in and out of the classroom. Under the direction, most of that time, of Brenau’s longest-serving faculty member Dr. Vincent Yamilkoski, the center typifies the open and accessible, one-on-one, superior education for which Brenau is known. By Kristen […]