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Table of Contents

2: ETSU Trailblazers

3: Aspirational and Achievable

4: Five ETSU Student Researchers to Watch

6: Bucs Go Beyond: A Circle Closed Homer Henley Walks After 50 Years

8: Digging Up the Past with Bucky

9: $2.4 Million Grant to Expand Care for Unhoused Communities

10: 5 Questions with Joy Fulkerson11Meet the ETSU Board of Trustees

12: By the Numbers: Trailblazers

14: Bucs Go Beyond: Taking Flight

16: A Tradition Renewed17Uncovering a Hidden Settlement

18: Dr. Robert Pack Appointed Dean of College of Public Health

18: A New Generation of Healthcare Leaders19The Power of STEM

20: Trailblazing Park Paths

22: Appalachia Amplified

24: The Headlines

26: Goal Reached

28: A Place to Belong

29: ETSU Traditions: Mountain Made Brings Folk Festival Tradition Back

30: From Classroom to Clinic

32: When It Mattered Most

34: Inside the Tradition: A Student Behind Bucky

35: Tracing a Fiddling Legacy

36: Spotlight on New Programs

38: The Sound of Giving Back

39: Serving the Underserved

40: Built to Serve

41: Documenting Paths to Recovery

42: A Legacy of Compassion

43: Class Notes

45: Obituaries

49: Then and Now

ETSU President

Brian Nolan

Executive Editor

Fred Sauceman

Managing Editors

Melissa Nippe

Art Director

Jeanette Jewell

Contributing Writers

Chigozie Agwubuo; Karen Crigger; Lee Ann Davis; Kristen Early; O.J. Early; Yasmeen Elayan; Andy Fisher; Jennifer Hill; Rachel Howard; Noah Hughes; Hunter Mehaffey; Logan Mink; Ben Murphy; Melissa Nipper; Cyndi Ramsey; Jonathan Roberts; Fred Sauceman; Joe Smith; Stephen Woodward; Jess Vodden

Cover/Graphic Design

Greg Nobles; Jeanette Jewell

Photography/Art

Dan Boner; Scott Bowers; Ron Campbell; Daniele Elyse; Intercollegiate Tennis Association; Jeremy Gouge; Larry Smith; Steven May; Hunter Mehaffey; Logan Mink; Ben Murphy Robert Pierce; Fred Sauceman; Charlie Warden

Publication Date

Spring 2026

President's Message

At East Tennessee State University, the pursuit of knowledge has never been separated from the work of serving others. We study, create, and discover not for the sake of recognition, but for the patient in a rural clinic, the child in an Appalachian classroom, and the small town determined to build its future. That purpose runs through our laboratories and studios, libraries and clinics, and the many communities our faculty, students, and staff call home.

This past year, after months of listening across our campus and our region, a task force of faculty and staff completed a new five-year strategic plan for research at ETSU. The plan sets a clear and ambitious course: to be recognized, through funding, reputation — and above all impact — as one of the premier regional public research universities in the nation.

We are already well on our way to that goal. Last year, ETSU secured more than $70 million in research and sponsored program funding, and our standing in the National Science Foundation's national research survey reached the highest point in our history.

These numbers represent critical initiatives in our community. In partnership with Ballad Health and the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center, our faculty are bringing clinical trials and better, more advanced care closer to patients across the region. Others are examining the land, water, and weather of Southern Appalachia to help our towns prepare for floods and other natural hazards. Still others are helping uncover hidden or forgotten histories, ranging from the discovery of new species at the prehistoric Gray Fossil Site to the unearthing of cultural sites like Timbuctoo, a mid1800s settlement established for free Black Americans in the Adirondacks.

At ETSU, we call the scholars and researchers pursuing this sort of inquiry and innovation Trailblazers. Trailblazers are curious, driven individuals who ask hard questions and stay with them. They turn discovery into opportunities that allow our young people to build their futures close to home. And they work in service of an idea we have come to call "Rural Thriving" — our vision for communities throughout Appalachia. In this, our researchers carry forward ETSU's oldest and most enduring mission: to improve the quality of life for the people of our region and beyond.

Throughout these pages, you will meet some of these Trailblazers. You will see how their work reaches beyond our campus and into the life of the region.

Thank you for being part of this work, and for believing, as we do, in a vibrant and thriving Appalachia.

ETSU Today - Fall 2026

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