Student Health Coalition Participants

Lark Hayes

John Williams

Contributed by John Williams, January 2023. My Vanderbilt Law School classmate John Kennedy told me about the Student Health Coalition in the Spring of 1972, during our third year of law school. I worked for the SHC that summer, as… Continued

John McArthur

I’m a native of Blount County in the Smoky Mountain region of East Tennessee. I grew up loving the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. I began my college career as a forestry major with the idea of… Continued

Art Van Zee

Art Van Zee, during his Internal Medicine Residency at Vanderbilt, served as a mentor for Coalition students in 1974 and 1975 when the health fairs were active in St. Charles and other southwest Virginia sites. He was very taken by… Continued

Carolyn Klyce

Contributed by John E. Davis. Carolyn Klyce joined the Student Health Coalition after her Junior year at Vanderbilt University. During the summer of 1970, she was teamed with Dick Burr, working as a community organizer in Morgan County, Tenn. The… Continued

Dick Burr

Contributed by John E. Davis and Jack Beckford. Dick Burr grew up in Lake Wales, Fla. After graduating from high school in 1967, he spent four years as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, majoring in philosophy. His years at Vanderbilt… Continued

Bill Dow

Bill Dow co-founded the Student Health Coalition while in medical school at Vanderbilt University, in 1969. His larger-than-life role in the SHC origin story and beyond warrants special telling, which we attempt in the essay that follows. Contributed by Margaret… Continued

John Kennedy

Contributed by John E. Davis, November 2019. The summer before his final year at the Vanderbilt Law School and during the summer and fall after his graduation, John Kennedy worked for the Student Health Coalition in 1971 and 1972. He… Continued

Charles Schiff

While an engineering student at Vanderbilt University, Charles spent the summers of 1970 and 1971 with the Student Health Coalition. He was 18 years old when he joined the SHC, one of the Coalition’s youngest members. He served as a… Continued

Randy Hodges

Randy graduated Vanderbilt with a degree in civil engineering in 1975. Randy first worked with the SHC helping to construct the Petros Health Clinic in 1973. He served as SHC co-director from 1973-1974 and as a community worker in Jacksboro,… Continued

Paul Joffrion

A Duke University Arts & Science graduate, and University of North Carolina Master of Social Work, Paul served as an SHC community worker in Tracy City, Tenn. in 1975. Related Content: Continued

Nancy Raybin

Nancy worked with SHC in the summers of 1973 and 1974 as a community organizer in St. Charles, Va. and then as co-director of the Coalition in East Tennessee and western Virginia. She was at that time an undergraduate student… Continued

Ann Baile Hamric

Ann participated in the Coalition in 1970, the first summer that the Coalition conducted multiple health fairs in middle and eastern Tennessee. She had just graduated from Vanderbilt School of Nursing. Ann was instrumental in the establishment of structured followup… Continued

Dana Ellis

Dana worked West Tennessee health fairs in the summers of 1973 and 1974 while a student in the School of Nursing at Vanderbilt. She served as co-director of the Student Health Coalition alongside George Smith who was in medical school… Continued

Carolyn Burr

Carolyn Keith Burr was a Vanderbilt University nursing student and graduate nurse with the Student Health Coalition (SHC) in the summers of 1970 and 1971. As a Senior nursing student in 1970, she worked at the health fairs in Smithville,… Continued

Margaret Ecker

Contributed by Margaret Ecker, August 2019 I joined the Coalition as a community organizer after graduating from Vanderbilt in Philosophy in 1970. I stayed on with the Coalition through the next school year to help with year end reports and… Continued

Jack Beckford

One of the many Philosophy majors among SHC’s early community organizers, Jack graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1971 and spent the following summer working in Mud Creek, Ky. He later founded the Georgia Agricultural Marketing Project after briefly working with… Continued

J. Thomas “Tom” John

I am a bit late in getting my bio in, best done in the earlier stages of pending dotage. I am originally from Laurinburg, N.C., a small farming and, then, textile community in the eastern part of the state. I… Continued

Diane Lauver

Contributed by Diane Lauver, February 2018 Growing up, I was close to my paternal grandparents; they lived in a pastoral valley looking at Appalachian hills in a northern state. With their 8th grade educations and practical wisdom, they taught me… Continued

Welmoet Spreij

Contributed by Welmoet Spreij, Amsterdam, 2017. I came to Nashville as a Dutch exchange-student in the fall of 1969 and took some classes at Vanderbilt University. While attending a course in philosophy, I came to know John Davis, Dick Burr,… Continued

Karen Blaydes

Contributed by John Emmeus Davis with the generous assistance of Jack Beckford, June 2017. Karen Blaydes (1948-2009) joined the Student Health Coalition (SHC) in 1970, two weeks after graduating from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. This… Continued

Bob Hartmann

Contributed by Bob Hartmann, February 2017 Rick Davidson has been badgering me for over a year to write a profile. Somehow he enlisted my wife, Mel Welsh, and now she is badgering me! As I read the profiles on the… Continued

Tish Crane Rainey

Contributed by Tish Crane Rainey, March 2017. I participated in the Student Health Coalition the summer of 1975. I had just finished my first year in nursing school at Vanderbilt with an eye on becoming a nurse midwife. That fall… Continued

Irwin Venick

Contributed by Irwin Venick, May 2016 I arrived in Nashville, Tenn. on a hot, humid day in August 1971 not really knowing what to expect. One thing for sure was that I was not in Kansas (meaning for me, New… Continued

Pete Moss

Contributed by Pete Moss and Jennifer Crane, March 2016. Dr. Pete Moss was raised on his maternal grandparents’ farm in Marshall County, Tenn., while his father fought in World War II. As the eldest of his siblings, he learned responsibility,… Continued

Dal Macon

Contributed by Dal Macon, February 2016 Working with the Student Health Coalition (SHC) during the summer of 1971, my role was to coordinate the support staff of non-medical students during each Health Fair. The background to the need for that… Continued

Joe Little

Contributed by Joe Little, February 2016 As with a growing number of past experiences, my recall is opaque and often self-serving. I don’t exactly remember how I was lured into the first summer of work in 1971 in East Tennessee.… Continued

Virginia Munford

Contributed by Virginia “Ginnie” Munford. My experience with the Student Health Coalition (SHC) was working as the first “Staff Assistant” at the Center for Health Services (CHS), from approximately 1974 – 1976. The staff of the Center included Bill Dow… Continued