CLASS Notes
1970s
William “Bill” Gardner (B.S. finance, ’74) is one of 20 key contributors to Geneva Learning Foundation’s Learning and Leadership Dialogue, a global leadership program. A seasoned executive leadership coach, Gardner is founder and managing partner of Noetic Outcomes Consulting, LLC. Jim Koerber (B.S. banking and finance, ’74) authored two chapters on personal injury and wrongful death, employment discrimination and wrongful termination for Business Valuation Resources’ recently published sixth edition of “The Comprehensive Guide to Economic Damages. He is a director of the Hattiesburg office of Postlethwaite and Netterville, APAC, and is part of the firm’s forensic and valuation services team. Glenn LaRue Smith (B.A. landscape architecture, ’74) was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He is co-founder of the landscape and urbanism design firm PUSH Studio where he aims to uplift communities and upand-coming Black landscape architects. In 2021, he established the Black Landscape Architect’s Network. He earned the 2020 ASLA Outstanding Service Award.
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William A. “Lex” Taylor III (B.S. general business administration, ’77) testified before the Senate Commerce Committee during a hearing on implementing supply chain resiliency. Taylor is chairman of the board and CEO of the Louisville-based Taylor Group of Companies Inc., one of the only privately held manufacturers of industrial lift trucks operating in America. A member of the MSU Foundation board of directors and WINT ER 2021
the College of Business Alumnus of the Year in 2007, he has served as chair of the Mississippi Economic Council, the Mississippi Manufacturers Association and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. Starkville natives Barbara Alexander (B.S. zoology, ’79) and Robert Hester (B.S. biological engineering, ’75) were named Billy S. Guyton Distinguished Professors at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The award is one of the university’s highest honors. Alexander is credited as the driving force behind the center’s reputation in women’s health research. She is director of basic research for the Mississippi Center for Excellence in Perinatal Research and director of the UMMC Analytical and Assay Research Cove. Hester is a professor of physiology and biophysics and orthopedic surgery and the interim chair of data science. He also leads the Center for Computational Medicine in the development of integrative physiological models used for education, research and clinical trials.
1980s
Michelle Keever (B.S. banking and finance, '84) was appointed to the national board of directors of the Voluntary Protection Program Participant’s Association as the Department of Energy representative to provide support and guidance to safety and health professionals at more than 2,200 Voluntary Protection Program worksites. She is a senior safety and health programs specialist with UCOR, the DOE’s primary cleanup contractor for the Oak Ridge Reservation site.
John McDill (B.S. petroleum engineering, ’86) was promoted to senior vice president of utility operations Atmos Energy. A 34-year veteran of the company, he is now responsible for operations of six utility divisions in eight states, as well as gas supply. Former U.S. District Judge Debra M. Brown (B.Arch. ‘87) is now Mississippi’s first Black female chief federal judge. She presides over the Northern District of Mississippi and succeeds District Judge Sharion Aycock (B.A. economics, '77). Brown has served as a district judge since being nominated by former president Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2013. She worked professionally as an architect before pursuing law school. She practiced law at Wise Carter Child & Carraway and Phelps Dunbar law firms in Jackson. Dr. John Daniel Davis IV (B.S. biological engineering, ’88) was appointed to the Mississippi State Board of Health by Gov. Tate Reeves. He will complete the six year term of the late Dr. Ed “Tad” Barham. Davis is a graduate of both the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and School of Public Health, and he currently works as a neurosurgeon at NewSouth NeuroSpine in Flowood.
1990s
Isaac Johnson (BBA, banking and finance, ’92) was named president and CEO of TDECU, the largest credit union in Houston, Texas.
