32 minute read
Class Notes
A NEW BEGINNING
Former UK athletes turn abandoned property into wine, breeding businesses
By Katie Petrunyak
Photos by Arden Barnes, UK Photo
The couple calls the farm they operate Silver Springs Farm Eqwine and Vineyard. It is the historic site of the Silver Springs Distillery.
Allen Carter ‘86 SW and Leslie Nichols Carter ‘87 AFE are the sort of couple who doesn’t do anything halfway.
The former UK running back and the UK Hall of Fame basketball player had great athletic success on campus. And, their academic success was impressive, too. Allen earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Social Work and Leslie has a bachelor’s in agriculture economics from the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
In 2010, the Carters came across an abandoned property on the north side of Lexington that was located just a few doors down from what was once Leslie’s grandmother’s house.
“We fell in love with this property,” Leslie recalled. “When we saw that it was abandoned, we would run up to the front door and put notes on the porch saying that we were interested, but we never heard from anyone. Finally, the property came on the market and we were fortunate enough to purchase it.”
They soon learned that their 20-acre plot was home to Silver Springs Distillery from 1867 until Prohibition in 1918. Water from the spring supplied limestone water that was used to produce pure hand-made sour mash whiskey. But today, wine is made from the grapes grown in a five-acre vineyard that Allen planted on the property.
Before the property was abandoned, it had a building on it that served as a bed and breakfast. After moving into what was once the distiller’s house, the Carters renovated the old cottage house into what is now a guest house.
Soon after moving in, Allen realized he would need some help with maintaining the farm’s lawn. He asked Leslie’s father about purchasing a horse. Fortunately for Allen, Leslie’s dad Harvey Nichols and her grandfather K.C. Wilson were both well-respected members of the industry.
“I’ve been around horses all my life,” Leslie said. “My grandfather was a foreman at Jonabell Farm for 20 years. He handled studs and did pretty much everything. My dad worked at Stone Farm for Arthur Hancock. He took care of Sunday Silence and a lot of other really famous horses. There were four girls in my family and so I always hung out with my dad. Allen calls me my dad’s boy. But I would go out to the farms with him and horses have just always been a part of my family.”
And as regularly happens with the Carters, one thing led to another and now the couple is involved in the breeding business.
At Allen’s request, Leslie’s father found a filly named Princess Laila who could be ready immediately, but by the time Allen had the fences fixed and ready for an occupant, she had gone back into training.
“The guy asked me if I would be willing to split the cost with him in racing the horse,” Allen recalled. “We ended up racing her a few times and she actually won a race. When she retired, I brought her to the farm to breed her.”
Princess Laila produced several foals. Her first, Wine Devine, eventually became another broodmare at Silver Springs. She also is the dam of Sellwood, who sold for $40,000 as a yearling and ended up earning nearly $200,000 as a Grade I performer.
“I’ve just been lucky,” Allen said on his fast start as a breeder. “I guess it’s a lot of listening and watching and research to make sure you’re breeding to the right stallion to get the horse that will sell well at the sales or the horse that will run well.”
Well-respected Lexington veterinarian Dr. Robert Copelan helped Allen and Leslie land their second broodmare.
“Leslie’s family is closely connected with Dr. Copelan and I was joking with him that I needed a second horse to help with the grass,” Allen recalled. “I think it was a week later, he called me up and said a guy was on his way to bring me my horse. I thought he was joking. I ended up breeding that mare as well and selling her foal at the sales.”
The mare, Jana D, produced a $20,000 yearling in 2014 and later a Midshipman gelding named Breacher that Silver Springs raced.
“The neat thing is that before this, Allen really knew nothing about horses,” Leslie said.
The Carters acknowledge that they are far from what is the typical breeder in Lexington.
“When people hear what we’re doing, especially with us being a Black couple, they seem to be very surprised,” Leslie said. “In Kentucky, you’re looking at million-dollar farms near us. People ask us, ‘What is that? Is that a house?’ and we explain that it’s a horse stable.
“I guess for us, it’s about trying to expose racing to more Black people so that they can understand that even though we only have 20 acres, it is a business that you can be a part of.”
As the vineyard prospers — Allen won awards in the 2020 Kentucky Commissioner’s Cup with his 2017 Black Type Reserve Kentucky Sparkling Wine Traminette and his White Traminette won a bronze medal — and their small broodmare band continues to thrive, the Carters officially named their property Silver Springs Farm Eqwine and Vineyard.
Allen entered his first wine competition in the 2020 Kentucky Commissioner’s Cup with his 2017 Black Type Reserve Kentucky Sparkling Wine Traminette and won double gold, a highly distinctive honor given only when all judges consider it to be an excellent wine. At the same competition, his White Traminette won a bronze medal.
Silver Springs has one more venture on the horizon — Allen is working on obtaining his distiller’s license. He is planning for a single-barrel bourbon release soon.
“Our long-term goal for the farm is to expand all the products that we are producing,” Allen said. “We have all our products on our website and a few stores around Kentucky. ■
This story first appeared in The Thoroughbred Daily News.
Allen Carter and Leslie Nichols Carter needed help to maintain their farm pastures. One thing led to another and now, they’re involved in breeding horses.
Class Notes
1960s
Paul W. Chellgren ’64
BE is the 2022 recipient of Omicron Delta Kappa’s Pillars of Leadership Award in Service to Campus and Community. Chellgren is a 1963 initiate of the University of Kentucky Circle (chapter) of Omicron Delta Kappa. He is the retired chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ashland, Inc. He is currently a partner with Snow Phipps Group, LLC, a New York City-based private equity firm.
1970s
Wayne Talley ’72 BE was recently honored for his 50 years at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Talley is the Frederick W. Beazley Professor and Eminent Scholar of Economics and professor of maritime and supply chain management in the department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences.
Richard Vari ’76 ’80 ’84
AS has been conferred the title of professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. He was professor of basic science education and senior dean for academic affairs at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, Virginia, where he was a founding faculty member in 2008. He helped establish and oversee the curriculum for the new medical school.
Cynda Hylton Rushton
’78 NUR received the 2022 Marguerite Rodgers Kinney award for a Distinguished Career by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. An international leader in bioethics and nursing, Rushton is the Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics at the Johns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics and the JHU School of Nursing.
Florence Tandy ’78 AS
is the president of the Covington Rotary Club. A Rotarian for more than 20 years, Tandy served as the executive director for the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission in the Greater Cincinnati area.
1980s
Kenneth Cundy ’84 PHA
has been appointed chief scientific officer at Anebulo Pharmaceuticals. Cundy previously held various positions at Gilead Sciences. He will lead Anebulo’s research and development initiatives.
Dennis A. Matheis ’85 BE
has been named Sentara Healthcare president and chief executive officer. He served as the president of Sentara Health Plans and executive vice president at Sentara Healthcare since 2018. Prior to that he has been in senior leadership roles within the healthcare industry for the past 30 years.
Anella Wetter ’86 AS has been named chief sales officer at 95 Percent Group. Wetter brings 25 years of education and sales leadership to the role. She most recently served as the regional vice president of sales with Carnegie Learning.
Marc Guilfoil ’87 AFE has joined the federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority as director of state racing commission relations. Guilfoil has been the executive of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission since 2016. He has worked at the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission since 1988 and is one of the longest tenured commission officials in the United States.
Ming-Tung “Mike” Lee
’87 GS, ’91 BE has been appointed interim president at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California. Lee has served in many leadership roles for 28 years at Sacramento State, prior to retiring in 2018. Since then, he has held emeritus status on campus as a professor of business administration.
Bill Ulbricht ’87 BE has been named chief executive officer of Baptist Health South Florida. Ulbricht served as chief operating and administrative officer for the Clinical Enterprise division of Baptist Health since August 2019. Prior to joining Baptist Health, he spent 23 years working with BayCare Health Systems in Tampa, Florida.
In 1957, this homecoming decoration was created by the members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. The “Wildcat Whipping Bowl” received first place in the homecoming decoration competition that year.
David Dees ’89 FA has decided to return to the classroom after having been dean and chief administrative officer at the Kent State University Columbiana Campuses, Salem and East Liverpool, since 2017. He joined Kent State in 1991.
David F. Morrice ’89 CI
has been appointed vice president of sales at Stony Creek Brewery in Branford, Connecticut. Morrice was director of sales at Yazoo Brewing in Nashville and has more than 25 years of beverage industry experience.
1990s
Larry Gillis ’90 AS was recently elected to a third four-year term on the Kentucky Personnel Board. Gillis has 30 years of state experience and is currently serving as Personnel Program Consultant at the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet.
Clifton M. Iler ’91 LAW
has been appointed senior assistant attorney general and university counsel at the University of Virginia. He will serve as the university’s lead attorney and will supervise a team of nine. He recently served as deputy general counsel for faculty, students and research at UK and associate general counsel for UK’s healthcare operations and healthcare colleges.
Julie Mix McPeak ’91 BE
has been hired as senior vice president and general counsel for insurance by USAA, a San Antonio-based insurance carrier. McPeak was senior deputy general counsel at Root, a webbased personal property and casualty insurance broker. She served eight years as insurance commissioner in Tennessee.
Bruce Neely ’91 EN
has been chosen by the Kentucky Gas Association board of directors to lead the organization as president. A long-time Somerset resident, Neely has served the city of Somerset as natural gas director.
Kathy Stumbo ’91 GS
has been named the new CEO for the Paintsville, Kentucky, ARH Hospital. A senior healthcare executive with more than 30 years of experience, Stumbo served as CEO for the ARH Our Lady of the Way Hospital in Martin, Kentucky, for the past 21 years.
Travella Free ’92 AFE is the new executive director of Elon University’s Center for Access and Success in Elon, North Carolina. Free has served as the 4-H state program leader, specialist and director of the Rosenwald 4-H youth development center at Kentucky State University in Frankfort.
Dwight Merilatt ’92 ED will join Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln,
Vivian Shipley ‘64 CI, ’67 AS was a junior at UK when she was not crowned 1963 homecoming queen and then she was. In front of a crowd of 50,000, the announcer misread the name of the winner. The error was corrected, and Shipley received her recognition on the sidelines. Nebraska, as Director of Athletics and Recreation. Merilatt has over 25 years of experience in athletics including more than 20 years in athletic senior leadership and administration positions at NCAA Division I, II and III institutions.
Rodney Vinegar ’92 BE,
’96 LAW has joined Sundyne, a designer and manufacturer of mission critical pumps and compressors, as the company’s chief human resources officer and vice president of environmental, health and safety.
E. Keith Couch ’93 EN has become the chief executive officer at Special Support Technologies, a Go Forth and Conquer Holdings Company. He retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2020 having served more than 26 years of active duty.
Michael Drescher ’93 AS
has joined XSOLIS as Vice President of Payer Strategy. Drescher has more than 20 years’ experience helping organizations succeed and navigate complex environments. He spent more than a decade with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, most recently serving as Director of Value-Based Contracting.
Bennett Knox ’93 AFE has been named director of Whatcom County Parks and Recreation in Blaine, Washington. Knox worked for Louisville Metro Parks for 20 years. He was recently
Class Notes
parks administrator for the natural areas division and Jefferson Memorial Forest.
Richard Coffey ’94 AFE
has been selected to lead the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Oklahoma State University. Coffey most recently served as chair of the Department of Animal and Food Sciences in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at UK.
Todd G. Shields ’94 ’95 AS
has been appointed chancellor of Arkansas State University. Dean of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas since 2014, Shields began his academic career as an assistant professor in political science at Arkansas in 1994.
Chrisandrea Turner ’95
AS, ’98 LAW has been named chair-elect of the Kentucky Bar Association’s bankruptcy law section. Turner is a partner at Stites & Harbison based in the Lexington office and chair of the firm’s creditors’ rights and bankruptcy service group.
Adam Wade White ’95
AS was nominated in June by President Joe Biden to become a member of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors. White is serving his 12th year as Lyon County, Kentucky, Judge Executive.
Brian F. Haara ’96 LAW
has moved his practice back to Fultz Maddox Dickens after 15 years as a partner with a commercial litigation boutique firm. Haara represents plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of business, insurance, real estate and contract disputes.
Derek Bonifer ’97 BE has joined Baird Trust as senior vice president and portfolio manager. He brings more than 24 years of experience to his new position.
Melissa Cothran ’97 BE
has become a shareholder with LBMC, a top 40 advisory and business consulting firm. She joined the firm in 1999 and leads LBMC’s family office practice.
Douglas Ohmer ’97 BE
has been appointed dean of the School of Business at Northern State University. Ohmer has worked at Northern since 1994 holding numerous positions at the School of Business including founding director of the Center of Excellence in International Business.
Dr. Neville Sarkari ’97
MED has become chief mission medical affairs officer at Empath Health of Sarasota/Clearwater, Florida. He was executive vice president/chief medical officer at Tidewell Hospice, a member of Empath Health.
Craig Farmer ’98 EN
has been named director, capital improvement program at the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority. Farmer served 15 years as chief aviation engineer for the state of Kentucky before joining the Blue Grass Airport as manager of design and construction.
Dr. Marty Odom ’99 MED
has joined Jackson Purchase Medical Center and will be offering primary care services in Mayfield, Kentucky, and the surrounding region. Odom, a Mayfield native, joined JPMC after nearly 20 years practicing medicine in Tampa, Florida.
2000s
Michelle Bean ’00 AS has been named principal of Polk County High School in Columbus, North Carolina. Bean is in her 10th year at the high school having joined the faculty as an English teacher before moving into the assistant principal role in 2016. Andy Bissell ’00 BE has opened a bakery in Frankfort, Kentucky, called Andy’s Artisan Bread. Serving European-style pastries, whole-grain sourdough loaves, desserts, coffees and teas, the bakery is in a restored 1907 building at 127 East Todd Street.
Mari Chinn ’00 EN heads the Oklahoma State University Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering within the Ferguson College of Agriculture and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. She also serves as the interim director of the Biobased Products and Energy Center. Chinn has academic experience in California, Kentucky and North Carolina.
Emily Roark ’00 LAW has been appointed to Murray State University’s Board of Regents. Roark heads the Bryant Law Center, Mass
Finishing touches were made on this float that was featured in the 1969 homecoming parade.
Tort Division, where she has spearheaded millions of dollars in settlements for clients and has developed a passion to protect those who have been harmed by drugs and medical devices.
Brandin Stewart ’00 BE
has been named senior vice president and regional manager of the broadcasting division of Nexstar Media Inc. He will oversee the television stations and digital operations in multiple markets across the country.
Jonathan Goforth ’01 BE
has been named senior vice president/credit administrator at Citizens National Bank. He has worked in the banking business for 25 years, starting as a teller while working his way through college.
Trevor Graves ’01 EN,
’04 LAW is a member of Leadership Kentucky’s Class of 2022. Graves is counsel at Stites & Harbison in Lexington. He is a patent attorney and a member of the intellectual property and technology service group. Leadership Kentucky prepares participants to take an active role in advancing the state for the common good.
Dan McHale ’01 BE has been appointed as a partner and head of U.S. collegiate sports practice at Odgers Berndtson. He will work with coaches and administrators to secure top coaching talent in the country. McHale spent 25 years leading and supporting coaching teams at top tier universities. He coached at Eastern Kentucky University and was a student basketball manager at UK.
Jennifer Wills ’01 LAW
has been named director for Claytor Nature Center at the University of Lynchburg in Lynchburg, Virginia. Wills spent 16 years as an attorney at the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, taught at Virginia Tech and formed a nature-based professional leadership coaching and consulting business.
Brad Zapp ’01 BE been appointed by Gov. Andy Beshear to the Northern Kentucky University Board of Regents. Zapp is the co-founder and managing partner of Connetic Ventures, founder and managing member of ZH Holdings, co-founder of Wendal, and co-founder of SimpleCoin.
Dr. David Hess ’02 MED is the new president and CEO of West Virginia University United Hospital Center. Previously, Hess served as the president and CEO of Uniontown Hospital in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and as president and CEO of West Virginia Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital and Medicine Wetzel County Hospital. He is board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics.
A. Catherine McCabe
’02 BE has joined Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, as dean of the Jack Welch College of Business and Technology. McCabe was formerly associate dean of Boston’s Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School.
Deana Doty Paradis ’03
BE has been appointed to a four-year term with the Financial Accounting Standards Board Nonprofit Advisory Committee. Paradis is chief financial officer at Louisville Collegiate School.
Jagannathan Ramach-
andran ’03 EN has been named vice president manufacturing at PIM Brands, a global snacks and confection maker. He has more than 20 years of experience with responsibility for manufacturing operations at the company’s Somerset, New Jersey, production facilities. He also has 11 years of experience with the Campbell Soup Company.
Tiffanie Underwood ’03
ED was named the assistant principal at McKell Elementary in Ashland, Kentucky. She brings 17 years of teaching experience to the role, 15 of which were at McKell.
Lauren Burnett ’04 FA
has been named principal at Lincoln County Middle School. She has been the assistant principal at Boyle County High School since 2017 and before that was dean of students at McNabb Middle School in Montgomery County, Kentucky.
Michael Carson ’04 ED
has been named principal at Signal Mountain Middle/High School in Signal Mountain, Tennessee. He has served as assistant principal since 2018.
Tim Robinson ’04 LAW
was presented with the 2022 Congressman Hal Rogers Beacon of Hope Award at National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit. Robinson founded Addiction Recover Care (ARC) in 2012. It now operates more than 30 programs in 21 Kentucky counties. Robinson celebrated 15 years in recovery in December 2021.
Wenwen Du ’05 BE, ’08
ED, ’15 AS is the recipient of the Glenville State University Faculty Award of Excellence. He is an associate professor of Mathematics at Glenville State in Glenville, West Virginia, where he has taught since 2014.
Eric Moyen ’05 ED is beginning in a new role as Mississippi State University’s first assistant vice president for student success. He was a professor and head of the department of educational leadership. Before arriving at MSU in 2017, he held multiple roles at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee.
by Amanda Schagane Career Corner Career Corner
INTERN OF THE YEAR OFFERS INSIGHT ON WORK EXPERIENCE
Alyssa Hargis, a first-generation college student from Cincinnati, Ohio was recognized as UK’s Undergraduate Intern of the Year by the Stuckert Career Center and the Graham Office of Career Management. Alyssa is a senior double majoring in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and Public Health. She interned at the Kentucky Environmental Public Health Tracking Network in the Kentucky Department of Public Health. Her projects focused on the Centers for Disease Control cold-related illness pilot study and chronic lymphatic leukemia research. How did you learn about the internship? I learned about the internship via my Environmental Health course for my major. In the course, our professor challenged us to connect with a health care professional in a field in which we are interested. I did and then I went through an interview process and was assigned my internship experience from May 2021-May 2022.
What skills did you develop through the experience?
I feel I have developed as a leader in the public health field. I now have the confidence I needed to step up in my field in the future. One of my tasks was leading the CDC’s pilot study on cold-related illness. I had to organize materials, learn to use data programs, including SAS, prepare a PowerPoint with graphs, and present for other pilot study states. Being pushed out of my comfort zone was what I needed to feel confident in leading public health projects and initiatives in the future.
How did the employer adapt your internship to meet
changing status of COVID-19? We met weekly via Zoom to go over the week assignments and then reflect on past experiences. My supervisor was flexible during the pandemic, but still challenged me to be proactive and perform at my best ability.
What advice do you have for other companies that are
hosting interns? Find ways to challenge your interns to be leaders. The most valuable skill I am taking away from my experience is my confidence, which I would not have gained if I was not challenged to lead projects. If every intern is challenged as I was, we will have a workforce full of confident aspiring leaders.
How did you know UK is where you wanted to be when
choosing a college? I knew that the University of Kentucky was meant to be my home because of the ways they focused on student success through everything they do. John Egbo, epidemiologist with the Kentucky Department for Health was recently quoted as saying, “Having Alyssa as part of our team at Kentucky Tracking and the Kentucky Department for Public Health has been a blessing, and she sets the bar high for all future interns. We are so proud of her for achieving this honor.”
Amanda Schagane is associate director of UK Alumni Career Services. UK Alumni Association Life/Active Members are eligible for two complimentary appointments per year with a certified career counselor. Visit http://www.ukalumni.net/career to learn more about resume critiques, career assessments, interview preparation, Central Kentucky Job Club, encore careers and other Alumni Career Services. Alumni Career Services: Celebrating 20 years of helping UK alumni advance their careers.
Class Notes
Jill H. Smith ’05 BE, ’11
AFE is a member of Leadership Kentucky’s Class of 2022. Smith serves as the associate vice president for alumni engagement and executive director of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association. Leadership Kentucky prepares participants to take an active role in advancing the state for the common good.
Liz Toombs ’05 AFE debuted her podcast “Sorority Chat” in May 2022 on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. President and owner of PDR Interiors, Toombs is a leader in the decorating industry with more than two decades of experience.
David T. McFaddin ’06 BE
was installed as the president of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky. He is the 14th president of the university. He was selected interim president in 2019. Before joining EKU he held statewide leadership posts with AT&T.
Kalin Mutter ’06 BE, ’14
HS is the clinic director at BenchMark Physical Therapy’s new outpatient clinic in Evansville, Indiana. Mutter is a certified orthopedic clinical specialist.
Katie Palmer ’06 AFE has joined the Arts Academy in Danville as a dance teacher. She has taught dance and theatre and has been a classroom teacher. Her dance experience includes having been a hip hop instructor at Danville Dance Academy, the choreographer for Centre College and a Wildcat Danzer at the University of Kentucky.
Audra Hoofnagle ’07 ED is the new principal at Elkhorn Middle School in Frankfort, Kentucky. Hoofnagle began her teaching career at Elkhorn Middle School in 2008. Most recently she was assistant principal at Winburn Middle School in Fayette County.
Anne McKnight ’07 LAW
has joined Latitude as Director of Legal Recruiting & Placement in the Nashville, Tennessee area. Latitude is a legal services company that specializes in providing experienced attorneys and paralegals to legal departments and law firms nationwide. Prior to joining Latitude, McKnight practiced employment law at Am Law 100 firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, P.C., in Nashville.
Rutherford Johnson ’08
AFE was awarded the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs Teaching Excellence Award for region four. Johnson specializes in consumer behavior and economic geography. He teaches in the business department at University of Minnesota in Crookston, Minnesota.
Robert Andrew Fleming ’09 LAW has been named to Sports Business Journal’s 2022 40 Under 40 Class. The
list is a prestigious recognition of the best young talent in sports business from across the United States. Fleming is the president and chief executive officer at Breeders’ Cup Limited.
Amy Laub-Carroll ’09 CI
has been appointed as a member to the Depository Library Council with the U.S. Government Publishing Office. She is the regional depository librarian at the University of Kentucky.
2010s
Lamar Allen ’10 AFE has been named acting program director at the Carter G. Woodson Preparatory Academy in Lexington, Kentucky. He joined Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2015. He has been the professional growth and effectiveness coach at the Woodson Academy.
Shawn Love ’10 HS is the director of sports medicine and health athletic trainer for the University of Louisville football program. Love was promoted after serving as associate football athletic trainer for the Cardinals since 2018. He joined UofL after four seasons as an assistant football athletic trainer at the University of Kansas.
Dr. Gregory Repass ’10
MED has been named chief operation officer at Baptist Health in Lexington, Kentucky. Repass, an internal medicine physician, has been with Baptist Health since 2013.
Kara Dill ’12 ’13 ED was recently selected as University of Texas at Arlington’s softball coach after spending the last six years as an assistant coach with Texas A&M at College Station, Texas. Dill was an All-SEC player and one of the top leadoff hitters in the conference during her Kentucky playing career.
Michael Quillen ’12 ED
has been elected to the board of directors of the Association of Chief Academic Officers. Quillen, the Rowan-Cabarrus Community College Vice President of Academic Programs, will begin his second term with ACAO and also serves as chair of the ACAO membership committee.
Kelsey Elizabeth Slone ’13
AS has been named vice president for sales at Prudent American Technologies. She has been with the company since its founding in 2018. Previously she served as national accounts manager.
Julie Burland ’14 PH
received a $50,000 grant from the Arthroscopy Association of North America to study female college soccer players to see how sensors and biomarkers can help predict and prevent injury on the field. Burland is the director of research at the University of Connecticut’s Institute for Sports Medicine.
Rachael High Chamberlain
’14 LAW has been promoted by Frost Brown Todd to a member of the firm. She practices tax law in the firm’s Florence, Kentucky office. She serves as the secretary of the taxation section of the Kentucky Bar Association.
Dr. Laura Cleary ’14 MED
is opening a new dermatology practice in Riverfront Medical Center at The Bend in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dr. Cleary has been practicing dermatology in the Chattanooga area since 2018.
Haley S. McCoy ’16 BE
has been president and CEO of the Kentucky Association for Economic Development. McCoy previously served as the Executive Director of Economic Development for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
Cody Spence ’16 ED has been named the director of career and technical education at East Center Community College in Decatur, Mississippi. Spence has been serving as a workforce coordinator for ECCC since 2016.
Michelle di Russo ’17 FA
has been promoted to the role of associate conductor of the North Carolina Symphony. She joined the symphony in 2021 as assistant conductor. For the 2022-23 season, she will continue to lead North Carolina Symphony’s Education and Pops Concerts in Raleigh and throughout the state.
Grant Mauk ’17 EN was recently hired as a mechanical project engineer with Prime Engineering in Huntington, West Virginia. He performs work for a variety of industries, mainly focused on oil and gas and will work with Prime’s industrial clientele.
R. Nick Rabold ’17 LAW
has joined Bowling Green, Kentucky’s Lucas, Priest & Owsley law firm as an associate attorney. He practices in the areas of general litigation, health care, government and appeals. He previously served as assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Dr. Phillip Chang ’18 BE
has been named senior vice president and chief medical and quality officer at Memorial Hermann
Gail A. Clark Gatewood ’75 ED was crowned homecoming queen in 1974. The football team played Vanderbilt and won 38-12.
Health System in Houston, Texas. Chang trained as a trauma and general surgeon. In 2016 he became system chief medical officer at UK HealthCare.
Gentry Collins ’18 LAW has joined Stites & Harbison’s trusts and estates service group and will be based in the firm’s Lexington office. Prior to joining Stites & Harbison, Collins worked in estate planning and administration practices with a small law firm in Lexington.
Blake Denson ’18 FA has been selected as a recipient of the 2022 Sara Tucker Study Grant of $5,000. Denson is a studio artist at the Houston Grand Opera and he will be making his company debut with the Des Moines Metro Opera singing Jake in “Porgy and Bess.”
Hunter Gillispie ’18 EN
recently graduated from Leadership Texarkana, completing a year-long Leadership Texarkana leadership program. He works as a quality engineer at Cooper Tires.
Abhishek Anil Kognole ’18
EN has recently been hired by SilcsBio as applications scientist, computational chemistry. Kognole is a computational chemist and biophysicist.
William Evan Nixon ’18 AS
earned his law degree from University of Notre Dame. He is a staff attorney for Chief Circuit Judge Honorable Mitch Perry in Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Katherine Perros ’18 AFE,
’20 FA has become the executive director of the Great American Brass Band Festival held annually in Danville, Kentucky. She was the assistant band director at Danville High School and has performed all around Kentucky as a saxophonist and vocalist.
William Gilbert ’19 LAW
was recently honored by the American Bar Association as the newcomer of the year in healthcare law at a ceremony in Miami, Florida. He is employed by Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis in Nashville, Tennessee.
Kristin Catherine “KC” Watt Crosbie ’92 CI was homecoming queen in 1989. The Wildcats played Rutgers on October 14 and beat them 33-26.
2020s
Natasha Davis ’21 ED has been appointed special assistant to the president for strategic planning and compliance at Houghton College in Houghton, New York. Davis has served as assistant dean for the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky.
Maira Gomez ’21 LAW has joined English, Lucas, Priest and Owsley as an associate attorney. She practices in the areas of immigration law, employment law and family law. At the UK Rosenberg College of Law, she was a member of the Trial Advocacy Board, president of the Latino Law Student Association and a student advisor for the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Student Advisory Board.
Hannah Edelen ’22 ED
was crowned Miss Kentucky 2022. She will represent Kentucky at the Miss America pageant in December where her social impact platform will be called “Read Ready Kentucky.” Edelen worked as a teacher in the Covington Independent Schools and is a doctoral student at UK. She recently published “Hank the Horse and the Case of Missing Eggs!”
Allie Wasson ’22 BE has joined the communication consulting firm of Wiser Strategies in Lexington as the Marketing and Administrative Services Specialist. She joined Wiser Strategies in 2020, first as an intern and soon after as a part-time employee. Wasson will continue her work in analytics and business development for the firm, as well as marketing for multiple clients.
Information in Class Notes is compiled from previously published items in newspapers and other media outlets, as well as items submitted by individual alumni.
Send us your class note by emailing ukalumni@uky.edu or submitting your information in the online community at www.ukalumni.net/class.
COLLEGE INDEX
Agriculture, Food & Environment — AFE Arts & Sciences — AS Business & Economics — BE Communication & Information — CI Dentistry — DE Design — DES Education — ED Engineering — EN Fine Arts — FA The Graduate School — GS Health Sciences — HS Law — LAW Medicine — MED Nursing — NUR Pharmacy — PHA Public Health — PH Social Work — SW
Alumni Feature
DISTINGUISHED COLLEGE OF PHARMACY ALUMNI RECOGNIZED FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE
By Rosa Mejia-Cruz
Three accomplished University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy (UKCOP) alumni have become the latest inductees to the College’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni. The College recognized their professional achievements at the Hall of Distinguished Alumni and Preceptors Awards Ceremony. The 2021 inductees include Young Alumni Award winner Dr. Joshua Brown (‘16) and Lifetime Achievement Award winners Dr. Eiichi Akaho (‘79) and Dr. Stephen W. Schondelmeyer (‘77). Their peers selected these three new inductees for their exceptional contributions to their respective fields and their embodiment of UKCOP values. “For more than 150 years, the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy has produced outstanding pharmacy practitioners and researchers who have changed how we think about patient health and scientific progress,” said Dean R. Kip Guy. “We are proud to celebrate the achievements of three bold innovators who have dedicated their lives to improving the way we teach and practice pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences.”
Part two of this series highlights Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award recipient Eiichi Akaho, Ph.D.
Dr. Eiichi Akaho completed pre-medicine coursework at the University of California at Santa Barbara and graduated with a B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (‘75). He obtained a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences under the supervision of Dr. Anwar Hussain at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy (‘79), where he also served as a teaching assistant. Akaho’s dissertation “Dosage form design for the continuous release of 4-hexylresorcinol” was the first dissertation overseen by Hussain. After completing his Ph.D., Akaho began a distinguished academic career at Kobe Gakuin University in Japan, where he rose through the ranks to his current status as professor emeritus. Akaho has delivered numerous invited talks at national and international scientific meetings, including the Japan Medical Association Conference and the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), the global body representing over four million pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists. Throughout his career, Akaho received generous funding from the International Corporation Research Grant in Japan (¥3.9 million), the Canadian Ambassador Research Grant ($15 million Canadian), Fundamental Research Grant C from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan (¥3.1 million), Private University Advancement Grant from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan (¥2.6 million), and the Kobe Gakuin University Corporation Grant (¥2 million), to name a few. Akaho has been selected as a nominator for the Japan International Prize, commonly referred to as the Japanese International Nobel Prize. The Japan International Prize is awarded annually to scientists and engineers from around the world who have made significant contributions to the advancement of science and technology, thereby furthering the cause of peace and prosperity for humanity. Nominators are strictly comprised of prominent scientists and researchers invited by the Japan Prize Foundation. Akaho has published 70 articles in international journals, 41 papers in scientific journals, and 12 books.
Eiichi Akaho, Ph.D.
