Administration & Staff

Doug Howard, an alum of Belmont, received his MBA from the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University and his JD from the George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C.  At Belmont, Doug served as the student studio manager for the campus recording studio, he was elected president of the Belmont Chapter of Alpha Chi Honor Society, he received the Wall Street Journal--Outstanding Business Student Award and was recognized in Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Howard returned to Belmont as the Dean of the Curb College in January 2015 after working on Nashville’s Music Row for over 30 years.  He served for 13 years as SR VP A&R of Disney owned Lyric Street Records, 5 years as SR VP/GM for Disney Music Publishing-Nashville, and 5 years as VP/GM of PolyGram Music Publishing-Nashville.  Doug started his career at the Welk Music Group serving as both Creative Director and Studio Manager.

Doug worked with many Grammy, ASCAP, BMI, CMA, and ACM award winning songwriter/artists and members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Country Music Hall of Fame including Ricky Skaggs, Don Williams, Toby Keith, Billy Ray Cyrus, Aaron Tippin, Rascal Flatts, SheDaisy, Love & Theft, Filmore, Bob McDill, Dickey Lee, Gordon Kennedy, Kostas, Larry Cordle, Carl Jackson, Jim Rushing, Angelo, and Johnny Russell, among many others.

Doug has served on the Board of Governor's for the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy/GRAMMYs, was elected Nashville chapter president and vice-president, and served as a Recording Academy National Trustee.  In addition, he served on the Grammy Foundation Committee, the Grammy Hall of Fame Committee, the Producer & Engineer Wing Advisory Council, and the Recording Academy Mentoring Program.  Doug is currently a board member of the Steven Kern Shaw/Gallery of Iconic Guitars and Fretted Instrument Collection and is the owner of Vandermont Music. 

Additional past service includes the board of the Academy of Country Music, the Advisory Council for the Center for Popular Music at MTSU, the Nashville Entertainment Association, the board of directors for the Nashville Vanderbilt Club, and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce Music Industry Advisory Group.  He is an alumnus of Leadership Music and the Center for Creative Leadership.  Howard was recognized as one of Nashville Business Journal's "Top Forty Under Forty," and he was the recipient of Belmont's School of Music Business "Alumnus of the year Award" (2002).  Prior to returning to Belmont, Doug served as the chair for the Curb College Advisory board and on the William G. Hall Scholarship Committee.  He is a member of the CMA, Leadership Music, the Recording Academy, and MEIEA.

Hello! I am the Director of the Advising Center in the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. I am a 2002 graduate of Belmont University with a BBA in Music Business. I knew at the young age of thirteen that I wanted to attended Belmont University. I loved it so much, I decided to stay and become a part of the family and team in the School of Music Business starting in November of 2002 (one month before I graduated).  I love working with our seniors in assisting with graduation, course planning and their future in the entertainment industry! We have a wonderful faculty & staff in which I love working with regarding curriculum and advising.

Outside of my life at Belmont, I have also had a fairly successful career in the music industry.  My first record deal was with Sugar Hill Records in 1996 (I was 17 at the time). Fast forward to 2012 and I co-founded an all-female bluegrass band called SISTER SADIE.  Since the formation of the band, we have been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Bluegrass Album Category at the 61^st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019.  In March of the same year, we were honored to get to debut on the Grand Ole Opry and have played there several times since.  Close to the end of 2019, Sister Sadie made history as being the first all-female band to win “Vocal Group of the Year” at the International Bluegrass Music Awards.  In 2020, the band, once again, made history by being named “Entertainer of the Year” – the first all-female band to win this award! We also won the Vocal Group of the Year Award for the second year.  In March of 2021, Sister Sadie will be featured in the “American Currents: State of the Music” Exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame of which I will have a lot of fun artifacts placed including one of my mandolins!

Belmont is a wonderful place to be.  It has been my home away from home for over 20 years now.  I love being able to share my current industry experience and knowledge with our students that are getting prepared to embark on similar journeys in the business. I love sharing and giving back to them as much as I can. Touring the entire time, I was attending Belmont, I feel like I couldn’t have had a better college experience anywhere else!

I am an actual native of Nashville, Tennessee.  All of my education was completed here in Nashville. I received my B. S. in Early Childhood Education and my M. Ed. in Administration and Supervision from Tennessee State University.  However, I have had a more eclectic kind of career.

My career began in education when I completed my student teaching in kindergarten and after graduation held an interim position teaching physical education in elementary school.  However, I had other interests for my life.  I experienced the medical field and worked in the Radiology department for a local hospital for several years, but didn’t stop there.  I kept adding to my interests.  I moved into the legal field and owned a process serving company for many years.  (Yes, I hunted people down and served legal documents on them!) I joined an actual family law attorney on music row where I spent many years assisting in all different kinds of cases.   I guess my heart was tugged by the fact that education was always the path I had a passion for.  My life turned back to education where I worked for a technology college in Nashville.   Before my arrival, they did not have a dual enrollment program there.  This type of program allowed high school students to get the training needed for entry into the work place while still within the walls of their high school.  I took a non-existent program and built it from the ground up and was able to establish significant relationships in 4 different counties, holding more than 300 students.  This program bridged the gap for those students not on a university or college path to the transition into the real world.  This was an amazing process. 

Today, I am thrilled and excited to be the Internship Coordinator at Belmont where I have had the privilege of watching this university grow by leaps and bounds over my lifetime.  Music has always been a strong interest of mine and now I actually get to impart my past experiences and compassion into the lives of students choosing to go through an internship through the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business.  I enjoy helping students learn and finding ways to enrich curriculum.  This is a huge passion for me.

I am involved in and volunteer with American Idol Finalist, Danny Gokey’s foundation, “Sophia’s Heart”. I live in Smyrna, love to travel, cook and spend time with my family.  I have two wonderful children, a son and a daughter.  I am also engaged to a successful photographer in town.

I look forward to many years here and am very excited to join the team of amazing talent and knowledge here at Belmont University.

Ron Romano began his career in the recording industry in the 1990’s as a recording engineer at a local studio he owned in the Midwest, just south of Chicago, Illinois. He engineered hundreds
of sessions for local and regional bands and artists over a period of 8 years. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Olivet Nazarene University, in the early 2000’s, Romano started a successful electronics integration company that specialized in high end home theater, home automation installations, classroom technology systems for higher education and large scale commercial audio/video installations. He and his company were featured in several industry publications and were selected to be the audio video contractor for an episode of ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover. In 2011, Romano sold his electronics integration company to a large commercial electrical & communications contractor whom he was also contracted by to continue designing and engineering systems.

In 2013, Ron was offered a position as Assistant Director of Broadcast & Facilities Management for Media Services at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois. During his tenure at ONU he managed audio video systems for all campus auditoriums, classrooms & arenas, as well as the campus radio station, 6 radio towers across Illinois & Indiana, the campus television network, and was responsible for rolling out technology systems in 3 remote University locations with classrooms in Northern Illinois and Indianapolis, Indiana. Additionally, he served as part of the audio engineering and video production teams for live concerts held in the University’s auditoriums.

In addition to his Bachelor’s Degree, Romano is CompTia A+ Certified, a Crestron Certified Digital Media-Designer (DM-D), an Avid Pro Tools Certified User, is a current Associate Member of The Recording Academy, and has been featured and written articles in several industry publications during his career in technology.

In early 2015, Romano accepted his position at Belmont University and moved to Nashville. He is honored to bring his technical experience and passion for the recording industry to help support its world class recording and film production facilities on campus and Music Row.

Dave joined the staff at Belmont University in 2015 after having spent over a decade working in the TV and Film industry in Los Angeles. Dave grew up in North Platte, Nebraska and received a degree in Audio Production from Emerson College in Boston, MA.  He moved to Los Angeles his final semester of college and began his career in motion picture post-production at a boutique post facility working on indie films. There, he managed the facility while working as a Sound Assistant, Sound Editor, Foley Mixer, and ADR Mixer.

In 2007 Dave joined the Post Production Sound team at NBC Universal.  As Manager of TV Sound Post Production Services, he managed the Universal Television Mix Stages, the Television and Feature Sound Editorial Staff, and the Universal Foley Stage and Foley Crews.  He also oversaw the creation of Music and Effects mixes for all NBCUniversal Television content.  Dave has worked on feature films and television shows for nearly every major studio and broadcast network and while at Universal his sound editorial and mixing crews have won multiple Emmy Awards, CAS Awards, MPSE Awards, and garnered nominations for several Academy Awards.