2025 Distinguished Alumna inspires students to lead with courage

Going from Harpeth Hall to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was an intimidating prospect for Megan Youngblood ‘98, Harpeth Hall’s 2025 Distinguished Alumna Award recipient. 

From her perspective, Harpeth Hall was a place that celebrated the humanities and the arts, and she was worried she would not find that in the straight-laced military school, where her primary focus would be military leadership. 

It was words from her art history and English teacher, Dr. Derah Myers, that set her at ease. 

“This is going to give you an experience that you can have nowhere else,” Dr. Myers said. “There are going to be things you love about it, and there are going to be things that you hate about it. But, everything that you get from there, you are going to learn and grow from.”

Dr. Myers then helped Ms. Youngblood design an art history final project that related to her upcoming experiences at West Point. 

“She was my biggest fan,” Ms. Youngblood shared from the stage in the Frances Bond Davis Theatre as Harpeth Hall seniors Campbell Counter and Clara Scott Harden – a future West Point student herself – interviewed her during an all-school assembly.

The support of her teachers and classmates was foundational for Ms. Youngblood throughout her journey – from Harpeth Hall and West Point to the U.S. Army and her current role as the associate vice president at Vanderbilt Health Services and Vanderbilt Integrated Providers. It gave her the confidence to feel a sense of belonging in any environment, whether at a male-dominated military academy or in her first civilian job after service. 

“Harpeth Hall is a special place,” Ms. Youngblood said. “I didn’t realize until I got to West Point, until I got to the Army, that not everybody has this, in terms of the education, the community, the friendships. …Harpeth Hall gave me the tenacity to keep going and gave me skills that I can still rely on.”

This tenacity proved invaluable when Ms. Youngblood deployed shortly after graduating from West Point in 2002 to Germany and Iraq, where she earned a Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service. 

There were nights in the deserts of Kuwait where Ms. Youngblood and her team slept in circus-sized tents where rats as big as cats would roam the tent floor. She vividly remembers a time when, with the convoy on the move, she spent the night on the hood of her Humvee in a duststorm. Navigating the desert with an old-school GPS the size of a moving box was tough. As the convoy commander in the lead vehicle, she would be given a map with a destination marked but no instructions on how to get there. Her job was to instill confidence in her team.

“It was tough and challenging because we didn’t know what to expect, and that part was exciting and a little bit scary, too, because every day we didn’t have a clear plan of what to do. We had to figure out what we were going to do. …You get a general direction, and then you’re told to drive forward, and that’s what we do.”

Through these experiences, she learned that perseverance leads to success and that fear of failure should never hold her back – another lesson she learned in the halls of Harpeth Hall. 

“I am okay if I try something and it doesn’t work out or I fail at it because, even in failure, you’re able to learn something. I have definitely failed a lot in my life or taken missteps or walked down a path and said, ‘You know, this isn’t the right path for me; let me turn around and go back.’ 

“Having the courage to do that is something that I encourage you all to have because everything is not always going to be perfect and rainbows and sunshine. Sometimes, the most important lessons you learn are from the things you are not so good at. …Figure out a way to make your own path, be curious, and just keep going,” Ms. Youngblood said.

As students listened, it was evident that Ms. Youngblood’s path was one of courage and resilience and was greatly influenced by her time at Harpeth Hall. It is a story of taking unexpected paths, making bold decisions, and maintaining a deep commitment to serving others. 

In her time as a woman in the military, Ms. Youngblood had to prove that she deserved to be there by "learning the rules of the game and playing the game." Now, with the skills and experiences the military and Harpeth Hall gave her, she is a leader at Vanderbilt, where "I get to help make the rules."

Ms. Youngblood has turned the critical thinking, confidence, and academic skills she developed at school into a career at Vanderbilt Medical Center, where she is helping shape the future of healthcare through partnerships, strategic planning, and operational leadership. Ms. Youngblood is also a founding board member of the Nashville Chapter of Women in Healthcare and has served on the board of Operation Stand Down, supporting veterans as they transition into civilian life. 

Ms. Youngblood left students with a challenge: “Stay true to your authentic self. Be you, no matter what the situation is.”