NASHVILLE — Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor and Athletics Director David Williams received a standing ovation from 500 Nashvillians who came together at a YWCA breakfast on Thursday to celebrate local leaders who have led efforts to end violence against women.
But while Williams said he greatly appreciated the gesture, he was prouder to see one of his former student-athletes, Shan Foster, the YW’s Vice President of External Affairs and AMEND Training, speak passionately about the responsibility men and boys have to eliminate domestic violence, sexual assault and the objectification of women in our community.
“It’s nice to see that a young man who came to us with a dream of basketball has been able to add another dream to that, one that will help so many people,” Williams said of Foster, who ended his Commodore men’s basketball career in 2008 as Vanderbilt’s all-time leading scorer. “Shan had a lot of people cheering for him on the basketball court, but the work he’s doing now is what deserves to be celebrated.”
In presenting the Collegiate Leader award to Williams, Nashville Predators President and CEO Sean Henry cited the early support of Vanderbilt Athletics for the AMEND Together program in Nashville, as well as Williams’ leadership in hosting educational events on violence against women for high school coaches and school leaders, for requiring Vanderbilt student-athletes to be trained in the AMEND Together curriculum, and his work on the issue at conference and national levels.
“We couldn’t be more thankful to David for becoming involved with AMEND so early in the program’s development and for taking this message to young men with such commitment,” Henry said.
Thursday’s Third Annual AMEND Experience at the Omni Hotel was a powerful and emotional gathering, with domestic violence survivors, community and corporate partners, Olympic figure skating champion Scott Hamilton and YW leaders laying out the stark realities of violence against women and encouraging everyone in the community to become involved, especially men, who are most often the perpetrators of domestic violence. Tennessee ranks among the worst states in the country in incidents of violence against women, including domestic-related homicides. Nationally, one in four women will experience domestic violence. The AMEND Together program that Foster administers was created to “challenge the culture that supports violence, cultivate healthy masculinity, and change the future for women and girls.”
Other honorees today included Teacher of the Year Thomas Francis, Community Leader Gilbert Hanke and the Macdonald-Negri Service Award honoree Cynthia Whitfield-Story. Williams was joined by a table of athletic department colleagues and his wife Gail Carr Williams, Vanderbilt’s Associate Director of Community Engagement in the office of Community, Neighborhood and Government Relations.
“It’s nice to be recognized and I appreciate that, but sometimes I wonder why they give you awards for what you should be doing anyway,” Williams said. “I believe athletics can and should be a leader in correcting and solving these problems, more so than any other unit on campus.”
Foster said it gave him special pride to see Williams receive the recognition the same week he announced his retirement as athletics director after 15 years of leading Vanderbilt Athletics.
“He’s the reason I chose Vanderbilt, he’s the reason I graduated from Vanderbilt, and he’s the reason I wanted to come back to Nashville and give back to the Vanderbilt and Nashville communities,” Foster said. “To be able to honor the work he’s done to move our AMEND program forward just means the world to me.”
For more information on the AMEND Together program, visit www.amendtogether.org.
