COMMUNITY NOTES

50s

Claudette Weston ’59 was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the YWCA’s 2020 Women of Vision Luncheon. She is recognized for harnessing her knowledge, creativity and leadership for the betterment of the community. Claudette was also named the recipient of the 2020 Ann Spencer Sports Connector Award, presented by the National Sports Media Association, in recognition of a person who has helped to connect the local community through sports.

70s

Keith Holliday ’75, former Greensboro Mayor, was announced as a part-time Development Associate for Downtown Greensboro Inc. High School 2019-2020 Athletics Hall of Fame.

Richard Inscore ’77 was inducted into the Starmount

80s

Jon Hoots ’82 was inducted into the 2020 Hall of Fame for Forbush High School in East Bend, N.C.

Rhonna W. Phillips ‘83 celebrated 10 years in private practice as a Licensed Professional Counselor, Supervisor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

Andrea Surratt ’89, a North Carolina native who was previously City Manager in Bozeman, Mont., was confirmed for her new role as Sandy Springs, Ga., City Manager by the Sandy Springs City Council.

90s

John Lilly ’90 was named the new Tight Ends Coach for UNC Chapel Hill.

Shane Handy ’92 was hired by Clayton High School to take over the school's football program. He spent the last 12 seasons as the Head Football Coach at Randleman High School in Randolph County.

Greg Loughlin ’93, English major and former Guilfordian writer, published an article about his time at Guilford on the rugby team in the 90s. The article was featured in the PS I Love You section of Medium.

Marc Tyrey ’94 was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper to the Guilford County District Court to fill the seat left vacant in August after the unexpected death of Chief District Court Judge Tom Jarrell ’85.

Molly Sawyer ’95 was among the 50 artists invited into the Asheville Art Museum’s “Appalachia Now!” exhibition and opened solo shows at Revolve in Asheville, N.C., and at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.

Addison Davis ’99 was named the new Superintendent of Hillsborough County Schools in Tampa, Fla.

Dan Drossman ’99 was featured in an article in The Denver Post. Dan was commissioned to paint an outdoor mural in a Denver neighborhood. The completed mural has turned into an interactive community art project that invites passersby to add color to the piece.

00s

Hannah Little ’00 was named Managing Partner of Garfinkel Immigration Law Firm in Charlotte, N.C. She represents employers and employees in a variety of industries, including pharmaceutical, manufacturing, information technology, food service and specialty chemical.

Jenny Craige Riffe ’00 filed as a candidate for Radford City School Board.

Crystal Waitekus ’03 was sworn in as a U.S. Diplomat and will serve in Beijing starting this year.

Doug Robertson ’04, whose team won a state championship at Reidsville and reached a state final at Eastern Guilford, was hired to take over the Page High School Pirates' program as the new Head Football Coach.

Alisha Wielfaert ’04, a leadership, life and creativity coach, was chosen by the Triad Business Journal to its 2020 class of 40 Under 40 young professional leaders. Alisha is the founder of Yoke and Abundance, her coaching business, and is Program Director for Triad Local First, a network of locally owned and independent businesses.

Arminta Fox ’05 published her book Paul Decentered: Reading 2 Corinthians with the Corinthian Women. Her book is available through Rowman & Littlefield.

Stephen Dotson '06

Photo courtesy of the Keene Sentinel

Stephen Dotson '06 is looking forward to delving into issues around energy, food, housing, wastewater and water pollution. As the first Sustainability Coordinator for Brattleboro, Vt., Stephen has mostly been involved in communications roles in more than a decade of work related to sustainability and social action. In recent years in the Brattleboro area, he has served as Director of Communications and Marketing for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, Corporate Sustainability Operations Associate for OneReport, Inc. and Associate Director of the Rich Earth Institute. Mostly recently, he has helped Brattleboro Savings & Loan get special certification for being a socially and environmentally responsible business, and Friends of the West River Trail with connecting trails along the West and Connecticut rivers.

Jennifer King ’06 was hired by the Washington Redskins to become the NFL's first full-time female AfricanAmerican Coaching Intern.

Rania Campbell-Bussiere '08

Photo courtesy of Cloud 9 Rooftop Farm

Rania Campbell-Bussiere '08 continues to live out the values of stewardship and sustainability in her post-Guilford career. In 2012, she founded Cloud 9 Rooftop Farm, a nonprofit organization working to bring functional farms to rooftops across Philadelphia. As the Executive Director, Rania works with building and community groups to foster environmental stewardship through community-led rooftop farming, training and educational programming. Cloud 9 successfully opened its first rooftop farm in 2013 and now supports two garden sites and a food pantry for low-income seniors. A portion of the food grown at these sites is donated to the food pantry run by residents in the buildings, while the rest is sold at a farmers market and other local businesses.

10s

Ann Ferguson ’10 was named an Assistant Coach for the prestigious McDonald's All American game in Houston, Texas, which showcases the top high school basketball players across the nation.

Jabari Sellars '10

Jabari Sellars '10 delivers innovation in the classroom by exploring beyond the standard literary canon in his curriculum. After graduating from Guilford and spending some time teaching in the public school system in Washington, D.C., Jabari earned his Master’s degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. While earning his degree, Jabari sought out strategies to increase student engagement during lessons and found that incorporating pop culture, such as comics, graphic novels, manga, anime and video games, inspired and helped students with the concept of literary analysis. His passion for alternative storytelling tools earned him the Intellectual Contribution Award from Harvard and led him to an English teaching position at The Siena School, an independent school in Maryland for students with diagnosed language-based learning differences.

Mark Guillen ’11 and his wife welcomed the birth of their child, Matthew Nolan Guillen, this February.

Gia Gaster '16

Photo courtesy of the Career Safari

Gia Gaster '16's story is proof that it is never too late to take a chance on education. Undiagnosed dyslexia caused her to drop out of community college as a young adult, but after a 20- year career as a bus driver for special needs children, Gia decided to give learning another try. Gia found the Peace and Conflict Studies program at Guilford and graduated with honors. After Guilford, Gia attended law school, graduated in 2018 and passed the Bar Exam on her first try in 2019. She was sworn into the state and federal court in May 2019 and now works as a personal injury lawyer covering issues such as wrongful death, police brutality, premises liability and social security disability.

Share your news with classmates and friends! Go to www.giving.guilford.edu to submit your Community Notes online through our Alumni Directory. The deadline for the August 2020 issue is May 31.