Why VDS

Camille Kammer (MDiv ’22) was one of the few VDS students whose field education at the YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee was completed in-person during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work providing pastoral care to women fleeing domestic violence served the largest domestic violence shelter in the region and was guided by Erika Callaway Kleiner (MDiv ’02). Read More

Meg Wade, a second-year MDiv student, brings her passion for helping those in mourning process their grief as a “grief doula,” while George Schmidt, a second-year PhD student in theological studies, brings his experience as an military chaplain that was present at hundreds of burial ceremonies to assist next of kin at the Arlington National Cemetery. Both highlight contrasts as well as similarities in the way society ritualizes grief. Read More

The Rev. Teresa L. Smallwood, who helped launch Vanderbilt’s Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative as associate director in 2017, is moving to Pennsylvania’s United Lutheran Seminary in January. Over Smallwood’s four years at Vanderbilt Divinity School, the Collaborative has hosted nearly 30 workshops and more than 20… Read More

Are you moving to Nashville for divinity school? Coming to visit to see if you’d like to join us at Vanderbilt Divinity? We put together a list of favorite Nashville spots recommended by VDS students and alumni. You want it? Nashville’s got it. This is not an exhaustive list – just… Read More

Guest post from The Rev. Laura M. Cheifetz (she/her), Assistant Dean of Admissions, Vocation, and Stewardship This post is part of a series titled, “Why Vanderbilt Divinity” that provides different perspectives from the Vanderbilt Divinity School (VDS) community about why VDS makes a top school to consider for… Read More