UTC’s Kenyon Wilson Composes Musical Tribute in Honor of Fallen Five

Chatanooga memorial flag

The musical tribute Five was composed by UT Chattanooga associate professor Kenyon Wilson in honor of the five fallen heroes shot to death in Chattanooga on July 16, 2015: Carson A. Holmquist, Randall Smith, Thomas J. Sullivan, Squire K. “Skip” Wells, and David A. Wyatt.

Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke introduced the inaugural performance of Five on campus in February.

“You know music sometimes can lift our spirits; sometimes it can console our souls,” Berke began. “Kenyon Wilson, like a lot of Chattanoogans, asked after July 16, ‘What can I do?’ His answer was he would compose a piece of music in honor of our five fallen heroes from July 16.

“So, tonight we’re going to hear that piece. What it reminds me of is the way in which music can help crystalize the emotions that we feel and to give a moment to heal our broken hearts and also to pay tribute to heroes of our country.”

COB Graduate Max Fuller named Influential Leader by AACSB

Max FullerUT Chattanooga College of Business graduate Max Fuller recently was named one of the first 100 Influential Leaders by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB), the premier accreditation body for institutions offering undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees in business and accounting.

Fuller is founder and CEO of Chattanooga-based U.S. Xpress, consistently recognized as one of the nation’s top 100 trucking companies.

Fuller joins a host of distinguished individuals honored by AACSB including a technology pioneer working to cure cancer and the founder of a global e-commerce powerhouse.

Nursing Student Volunteers on Mercy Ship in Madagascar

Meghan Duggan
Meghan Duggan

Meghan Duggan, a graduate student in the nurse anesthesia program of UT Chattanooga’s School of Nursing, spent two weeks in 2015 aboard a “Mercy Ship” in port at Toamasina, Madagascar, helping administer anesthesia for surgeries for the local population.

Mercy Ships is a nonprofit that hosts shipboard hospitals to “provide lifesaving surgeries for people where medical care is nearly non-existent.” Students rarely are chosen to serve, and Duggan was accepted to accompany Ray Alonge, a UTC assistant clinical professor for the nurse anesthesia program, who has volunteered on Mercy Ships for 10 years.

On board ship, Duggan’s days began at 7 a.m. and ended as late as 8 p.m. She also was on-call some nights, subject to returning to the surgery deck for an emergency procedure.

Pre-surgery, Duggan worked with medical translators, noting how the pre-surgery intake form varies depending on the population being served.
“You have to ask questions in medical histories in Madagascar that you might not need to in the States,” Duggan says. “Knowing the types of questions to include depending on the culture and environment is a key component to being a good medical care provider.”

Her free time wasn’t spent gazing at the ocean, according to Duggan, who says she used spare hours to study for her UTC anesthesia coursework.