ALUMNAE CLASS NOTES
1960s Congratulations to alumna Susan Willingham Simons ’60 and her husband, Luke, who were awarded the Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award by The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Susan and Luke are civic and community leaders known for their generous philanthropy in the arts and health care in Nashville and beyond. They were honored at the annual luncheon on Dec. 2, 2021, at the Music City Center. Susan and Luke have served as Harpeth Hall trustees, and Susan served as board chair from 2004 to 2008. They both currently serve as honorary trustees. G’anne Harmon ’61 launched her own website that features poems, essays, and fiction writings. Visit www.georgeanneharmon.org to read her work. 1970s Kathy Herbert Granger ’76 recently retired from 36 years in public education, most recently as the superintendent of schools for the Mountain Empire Unified School District in San Diego, California. Kathy and her husband, Rob, relocated to Rancho Mirage, California, and are looking forward to traveling and visiting with children and grandchildren. The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame included Amy Grant Gill ’78 in the class of 2021 inductees alongside Rhett Akins, Buddy Cannon, Toby Keith, and John Scott Sherrill. Lisa Ward-Smith ’78 moved to East Texas and is acclimating to country life. She has a new position as the finance secretary at First Baptist Church in Van, Texas. Nicki Pendleton Wood ’79 won a first place Tennessee Press Association award in the Coronavirus Features Coverage division for her story “Old skills revived for a strange new world.”
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1980s Classmates Nancy Graves Beveridge ’80 and Andree Akers LeQuire ’80 attended the Women’s Suffrage event at Centennial Park. Nancy represented the Joe C. Davis Foundation and Andree honored her featured-artist husband, Alan LeQuire. Penelope Logan Furry ’83 was reelected as board president of the Coppell Arts Center Foundation. The new arts center is in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and houses three performance spaces, a gallery, an artist studio space, and a reception hall. The center opened in September 2021. Elizabeth Hightower Allen ’85 developed a website for Hightower Creative. She is available for contract editing for magazines, book publishers, nonprofits, and individual writers who want coaching, manuscript editing, or a second eye. She does everything from whole book edits to magazine packages and would love to hear about your project. Her work since leaving @outsidemagazine has been very rewarding, and you can see her work at hightowercreative.com.
Nashville Business Journal named Lela Hollabaugh ’85 on its Best of the Bar honoree list, and she was also named chair of the 2020 Campaign for Equal Justice of The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. Nashville Business Journal also named Nancy Wood Stabell ’88 on its Best of the Bar honoree list. 1990s Beth Rather Gorman ’90 is the new chief development officer at Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., which is the largest social service provider in the area, second only to the government. For more than 90 years, the organization has been committed to providing access to those in need, particularly the homeless, at-risk immigrants, and persons with mental and developmental disabilities. Tara Scarlett ’91, Lissa Smith ’91, and Marcie Allen Van Mol ’92 are among 10 Nashville leaders tapped for a Harvard Business School leadership program. The Young American Leaders Program is a national project aimed at improving
