The School of Medicine Basic Sciences consists of a remarkable community that is dedicated to advancing the study of human biology, health, and disease. In addition to the award-winning faculty and students who are at the forefront of our cutting-edge research, a large part of our school’s success can be attributed to our staff.
Please join us in recognizing and appreciating our staff members and the hard work they do to allow our researchers to accomplish exceptional exploration into basic biomedical science.
We sat down with Stephen Doster, associate program director of academic and educational support, who told us a little about himself.
What do you do for Basic Sciences?
I assist the dean with various projects and help promote the amazing research coming out of our labs for Basic Sciences’ communications team.
How long have you been working for Basic Sciences?
In 2004 Anne Lara, senior administrative officer, hired me into the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology. I transitioned to Basic Sciences when it was created in 2016.
Why do you like about working for Basic Sciences?
Belief in the mission to improve human health keeps me coming in. My coworkers make the good days great and the worst days not so bad. Free access to thinkers who come here to give lectures at Langford Auditorium and at other schools is a huge perk.
And every time a visitor asks for directions, my coworkers and I are immediately elevated from staff members to university ambassadors. Most times I take the inquiring visitor where they need to go. It’s quicker than trying to explain how to get there, and I get to meet interesting people. I took a father and son visiting from Iowa across campus once. They were scouting medical schools. We ran into Jeff Balser, dean of the medical school, who dropped everything to spend a few minutes with them. Teamwork.
What is a project that you are looking forward to in the future?
I’m interviewing long-time employees for their memories of how things have evolved at Vanderbilt since they started working here. Some of them have been at Vanderbilt more than 40 years. One of them, Fred Guengerich, drove a farm tractor at age seven. He’s now one of the most cited researchers in his field of study. Another, Freddie Easley, plowed fields behind a mule when he was still a child. He now heads a department.
What is your favorite memory or project you have completed during your time at Basic Sciences?
Creating faculty profile videos was a fun project. Most of our faculty have interesting backstories that put them on paths that led to Vanderbilt. Different paths, same destination. I like how it all comes together.
Can you name a colleague who has had a positive impact on your work and explain how they had a positive impact?
Larry Marnett, founding dean of Basic Sciences, has had a steady hand at the helm since I got here in 2004, whether it is running a lab, running a journal, starting an institute from scratch, or creating a new school. I’ve learned a lot about managing time and projects through his example.
What is a professional or personal achievement that you are most proud of?
After the Vanderbilt University Medical Center split from Vanderbilt, I was part of a two-person team that worked with Digital Strategies to port the content of 130 websites from VUMC’s web platform to VU’s.
What is a fun fact about you?
I have a British passport. Fortunately, I’m familiar with the language, too.
What activities to do you like to do outside of work?
I like to write. Researching is fun, writing is fun, editing is work. Believe it or not, Vanderbilt’s main library has three of my non-fiction books on its shelves.
What is your favorite quote and why?
This quote was penned by a philosopher many years ago: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find you get what you need.” Amen, brother.
Go deeper
Vanderbilt’s Central Library has Doster’s books, Cumberland Island: Footsteps in Time, Voices from St. Simons: Personal Narratives of an Island’s Past, Georgia Witness: A Contemporary Oral History of the State, and Rose Bush available to check out. His full list of published works can be accessed here.