Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball is teaming up with Iris Medical Group and Vanderbilt Health to become the first in the Southeastern Conference to turn “NIL” into “MIL”, where “Mentorship Influences Lives.” NIL refers to the policy that allows student-athletes to receive compensation from third parties for use of their name, image and likeness.
The MIL approach was initially created for athlete Caleb Williams while he was at the University of Southern California, with the real estate private equity firm Hawkins Way Capital. The approach aims to cultivate meaningful mentorship relationships with local business leaders and provide a bite-sized “mini-internship” so the young athletes can learn-by-doing in the various industries they are representing.
Vanderbilt’s inaugural MIL deal features basketball guards Chandler Bing and Mike James being mentored by Iris CEO Joel Parker, MD, and taught about the growth and operations of the Nashville-based medical group that provides in-home care to thousands of patients across Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Alabama. Both Iris and the Vanderbilt players will also contribute time and support to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, including donations and fundraising events for the first Youth Sports Health Center (YSHC) in the country.
“This partnership is really about creating value for everyone that lasts well beyond one season,” said Shan Foster, Vanderbilt Basketball’s all-time leading scorer and director of Community Engagement at Vanderbilt Health. “MIL gives Vanderbilt athletes something more, and the Youth Sports Health Center will give young prep athletes access to the same caliber of care that our college and professional athletes receive.”
The MIL program will be managed and run by Venn Group, a collection of sports industry experts co-founded by Darren Dummit, who created the MIL framework and is implementing it across the country for prep, college and pro athletes, schools and leagues. Serving as intern for Venn Group’s MIL team is new Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph, one of the most coveted and highly paid quarterbacks of this year’s transfer portal.
“This is NIL aligned with Vanderbilt’s values,” said Dummit, a Vanderbilt Law School alumnus. “Iris Medical Group and Vanderbilt are using NIL not just to support athletes’ bank accounts, but also to give them meaningful exposure to business leaders and industries during this unique time in their lives — all while advancing the YSHC mission that benefits the broader community.”
Iris Medical Group began seeing Nashville residents in their homes for primary care in 2022 and has organically grown to see over 3,000 patient visits per month in their homes and in skilled nursing facilities around Tennessee. It has since expanded from primary care to wound care, psychiatric care, palliative care, and cardiology consults, providing continuity of care for patients and decreasing hospital readmission rates across multiple states in the Southeast.
Iris will be donating its time and its direct financial support to the expansion of Vanderbilt’s Youth Sports Health Center, which has brought together a collection of sports health care experts to provide prep and high school athletes with on-call access to sports-specialized health care typically reserved for collegiate and professional athletes.
“Having become so engrained in the lives of our patients across Tennessee, we were looking for a way to be involved in the things our patients care about — so we are thrilled to help enrich the lives of Vanderbilt athletes and help enhance the medical care all youth sports participants in Tennessee receive,” said Parker. Created by longtime Vanderbilt team physician Alex Diamond, DO, MPH, the YSHC has already treated hundreds of young athletes during the last two years. Vanderbilt is now expanding its fundraising efforts to enhance these services to the greater community of youth athletes in Tennessee — positioning it as a national model for youth sports health around the country.
