Seacrest Studios at Vanderbilt Celebrates 10 Years

Miracles happen every day at Monroe Carrell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt — but many take place outside of recovery rooms and inside a broadcasting studio. 

Seacrest Studios makes it possible for a child to call down from his hospital room and exclaim to country singer Dierks Bentley that he just got a new heart. Or for a patient to form a band and put on a show with her cardiologist. 

“They don’t have to worry about being poked and prodded,” says Nicole Mead, Ryan Seacrest Foundation senior vice president of operations and communications. “They truly can just be a kid.” 

RSF builds state-of-the-art broadcast media centers in pediatric hospitals across the United States, giving children the chance to unlock their creativity and find their voice through radio, television and new media. 

This year, Nashville’s own Seacrest Studios is celebrating 10 years of impact, encouragement and healing. “My hope is that when people cross the threshold of Seacrest Studios, they can leave their worries at the door for just a minute and feel a normal piece of life,” says Mamie Shepherd, senior program manager for Seacrest Studios at Vanderbilt. 

Creative Healing

Entertainer extraordinaire Ryan Seacrest dreamt up RSF after visiting several pediatric hospitals, where he learned that many patients wanted more activities to keep them occupied during recovery. He decided to create a foundation that would provide such a distraction, using the two things he knew best: radio and television.

In partnership with his parents and sister, Meredith Seacrest Leach, Ryan opened the first Seacrest Studios location in Atlanta in 2010. The foundation sought to create something that could be the heartbeat of a pediatric hospital — a place where kids could hang out, learn about broadcast journalism, have fun and be the stars of their own shows. 

Serving as executive director and CEO, Meredith moved RSF’s headquarters from Los Angeles to Nashville in 2018. While building the Nashville studio, she served on the board of ACM Lifting Lives, and she thought Music City would make a perfect home for the foundation. “Life was just taking me to Nashville all the time,” she says. 

It quickly became clear to Meredith and Ryan that Seacrest Studios’ creative activities weren’t just an escape from tests and procedures — they were essential for the healing process. “Hospitals are deeming this as a must-have — not a nice-to-have,” Meredith says.

Mamie, who runs the Nashville studio, sees this every day. She remembers a child coming in and reporting a pain level around eight or nine. But after spending some time in the studio, their pain dropped to a two. 

“When you’re going through hard things, sometimes the voice that’s inside of you can get lost,” she says. “It’s a pretty magical thing to watch a child rediscover that again.” 

Meredith has also watched the studio help kids reach physical milestones. “We’ve seen the studio used in many ways, like for physical therapy, where a kid may … get motivated to walk to the studio, even if [they’re doing] it [in] a wheelchair,” she says. 

Lasting Impact

The studio’s programming is geared toward children of all ages and abilities, giving patients the chance to create content, throw dance parties and play games (Bingo is a favorite nationwide). 

Those who can’t physically make it to the studio can still enjoy the feed from their hospital bed — and even call down if they’d like to be on air. Team members also bring the full experience up to a patient’s room so they can host a show from their bedside. 

“When we’re able to reach up into the rooms, it is less of an isolating feeling,” says Mamie. “It makes everybody feel included, and we learned a lot of great things during the pandemic about how to better that experience.” 

Interactive video calls were another such innovation spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Every Wednesday, the Nashville studio plays a game with studios in Atlanta and Cincinnati. “It is fun for our patients to get to see kids in similar situations in another state,” Mamie says. 

Throughout her time in the studio, Mamie has experienced firsthand the positive power of celebrity. Seacrest Studios helps kids meet their heroes, who both inspire and are inspired by them. “In 10 years, we’ve done so much,” says Mamie. “Dolly Parton has been here — and so much of our music community and our sports community. We’ve taken kids to outer space and talked to astronauts on the International Space Station.” 

Special guests — which range from Tim McGraw to The Muffin Man — provide patients with joy and hope while they experience the highs and lows of recovery.

“There was one patient who had been struggling from a mental and behavioral health perspective and gone through some really tough things,” says Nicole. “And I remember Halsey taking the time to be like, ‘I’ve gone through a lot of those things too, and you’re braver and stronger than you think you are.’”

Future Innovations

While celebrating accomplishments from the past 10 years, Meredith and her team are also looking at the next decade — and how they’ll further impact children across Nashville and the nation. 

RSF is gearing up to open its 15th location in New Orleans. Meredith wants to keep expanding across the country while staying focused on sustainability and quality. Nicole oversees renovations, ensuring Seacrest Studios facilities are stocked with up-to-date equipment. 

Mamie has begun outreach at the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital across the street, identifying a more isolated patient population that deserves attention, too. She intends to bring Seacrest Studios programming to the facility to help its patients feel more connected. 

“It’s been a really special project [that] has touched my heart in ways I didn’t expect it to,” Mamie says. “We get to see how much entertainment and music can contribute to the healing process, and I’m certainly seeing it across the street as well.”