Commit to Georgia Campaign propels UGA forward
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CONTENTS
campaign
i s s ue The University of Georgia celebrates the donors that made the Commit to Georgia Campaign successful. p. 16
the magazine of the university of georgia fall 2020
INSIDE 5
The President’s Pen President Jere W. Morehead on committing to Georgia.
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UGA to Z Accomplishments and accolades from across the UGA community.
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On the Bulldog Beat The campaign has transformed the University of Georgia, and those changes reach far beyond Athens.
38 Bulldog Bulletin The UGA Alumni Association makes sure all Georgia grads know we are in this together.
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The Business Learning Community would never have been possible without the generosity of donors. p. 25 andrew davis tucker
FEATURE 16
56 A Shared Vision Giving thanks to the many partners who supported the Commit to Georgia Campaign.
Commit to Georgia: A Shared Vision UGA surpassed its $1.2 billion goal for the Commit to Georgia Campaign 16 months early, and we never would have achieved this without supporters like you.
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Removing Barriers and Opening Doors How need- and merit-based scholarships funded by the campaign empower students and help them pursue their passions at UGA.
Class Notes UGA alumni are fighting the pandemic on the front lines in hospitals, with their businesses, and even with laughter.
ON THE COVER
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Enhancing the Learning Environment New and renovated facilities provide students with state-ofthe-art educational spaces while expanded experiential learning opportunities redefine what a classroom means.
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Solving Grand Challenges As the world continues to reckon with COVID-19, the idea of solving grand challenges has never been more important. Fortunately, UGA supporters have positioned the university to contribute to solutions.
illustrations by seth mcwhorter
Our cover, art-directed by Jackie Baxter Roberts and illustrated by Seth McWhorter BLA’11, mirrors their award-winning work on Georgia Magazine’s Spring 2017 cover, which kicked off the Commit to Georgia Campaign. How many of those university icons can you identify?
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Always in Season uga’s main campus in athens is one of the most beautiful in the nation, and fall is perhaps the best time for the home of the red and black to showcase the other colors in its palette. In 2017, the University of Georgia Arboretum was established, effectively turning the entire campus into a huge botanical garden. So while there is no doubting the beauty of this scene outside the Vet Med Building on South Campus, it’s hardly the only picturesque spot you’ll see in Athens this fall.
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fall 2020
VOLUME 99
ISSUE NO. 4
georgia magazine
Editor · Eric Rangus MA ’94 Associate Editor · Aaron Hale MA ’16 Writers · Leigh Beeson MA ’17 and Hayley Major Art Director · Jackie Baxter Roberts Advertising Director · Kipp Mullis ABJ ’93 Office Manager · Fran Burke UGA Photographers · Peter Frey BFA ’94, Rick O’Quinn ABJ ’87, Andrew Davis Tucker, Dorothy Kozlowski BLA ’06, ABJ ’10, Chad Osburn Contributing Writers · Elizabeth Elmore BBA ’08, ABJ ’08, Clarke Schwabe ABJ ’08, and Bridget Meeds Editorial Interns · Rachel Floyd AB ’19 and Madeleine Howell BSFCS ‘20
marketing & communications Interim Vice President · Kathy Pharr ABJ ’87, MPA ’05, EdD ’11 Executive Director · Janis Gleason Brand Strategy Director · Michele Horn
administration President · Jere W. Morehead JD ’80 Senior VP for Academic Affairs & Provost · S. Jack Hu VP for Finance & Administration · Ryan Nesbit MBA ’91 VP for Development & Alumni Relations · Kelly Kerner VP for Instruction · Rahul Shrivastav VP for Research · David C. Lee VP for Public Service & Outreach · Jennifer Frum PhD ’09 VP for Student Affairs · Victor Wilson BSW ’82, MEd ’87 VP for Government Relations · Toby Carr BBA ’01, BSAE ’01 VP for Information Technology · Timothy M. Chester
Change your mailing address by contacting e: records@uga.edu or ph: 888-268-5442 Find Georgia Magazine online at news.uga.edu/georgia-magazine Submit Class Notes or story ideas to gmeditor@uga.edu
advertise in Georgia Magazine by contacting Kipp Mullis at e: gmsales@uga.edu or ph: 706-542-9877 fine print
Georgia Magazine (issn 1085-1042) is published quarterly for alumni and friends of UGA. postmaster | Send address changes to: University of Georgia 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North Athens, GA 30602
andrew davis tucker
The University of Georgia does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or military service in its administrations of educational policies, programs, or activities; its admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other University-administered programs; or employment. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to the Equal Opportunity Office 119 Holmes-Hunter Academic Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Telephone 706-542-7912 (V/TDD). Fax 706-542-2822. https://eoo.uga.edu/
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correction: Because of an issue with the mailing file provided to our printer, many copies of the Summer 2020 issue of Georgia Magazine were delivered listing incorrect recipients. We apologize for the error. If you have any questions or concerns, please email gmeditor@uga.edu.
THE PRESIDENT’S PEN
Gratitude and Grit
The University of Georgia is more determined than ever to serve.
In times of uncertainty, it is comforting to know that some things never change. Among them are UGA’s dedication to providing a world-class education for our students and our commitment to improving lives across Georgia and beyond. Another is the loyalty of the Bulldog Nation. The Commit to Georgia Campaign ended on June 30, 2020, amid the unexpected challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed calls for racial justice. As we worked this summer, and continue to work, to help our country make progress on these fronts, the university’s mission “to teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things” has never been more important.
“I am inspired every day by the optimism and adaptability of the UGA community and our unwavering commitment to excellence. In the face of significant challenges, we are more determined than ever to serve.”
Thanks to the remarkable generosity of our alumni and friends, the Commit to Georgia Campaign reached $1.45 billion, far exceeding its original goal of $1.2 billion. On behalf of the university, I want to express my deep gratitude to everyone who contributed to the most successful campaign in UGA’s history. Our alumni and friends further demonstrated their loyalty this summer through their support of emergency funds to help students facing financial strain as a result of the pandemic. In addition, they are stepping up to help UGA maintain excellence across all facets of our mission as the institution manages significant state budget reductions. Their ongoing support will be essential to our continued success. As we said from the beginning of the campaign, fundraising is about more than numbers— it is about impact. The need-based scholarships created, faculty positions endowed, state-of-the-art facilities built, and life-saving research supported are already amplifying the impact that our faculty, staff, and students are having on the critical issues affecting our state, nation, and world. This fall semester looks unlike any other in the past, but I am inspired every day by the optimism and adaptability of the UGA community and our unwavering commitment to excellence. In the face of significant challenges, we are more determined than ever to serve. Thank you for your continued support of the University of Georgia.
Jere W. Morehead President
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UGA Z to
News, accomplishments, and accolades from the UGA community
TIF TUF SHAPE
UGA Bermudagrass Recognized by General Assembly This spring, the Georgia General Assembly recognized the impact of the UGA-developed bermudagrass TifTuf. The state House and Senate passed resolutions noting the success of TifTuf and the work of its developers, UGA faculty members Wayne Hanna and Brian Schwartz. Licensed through Innovation Gateway, UGA’s technology commercialization office, TifTuf is one of the biggest economic drivers for the state’s turfgrass industry, which generates an estimated $9 billion in economic impact every year.
Hanna and Schwartz, who have worked on TifTuf for almost 25 years, developed a turfgrass that uses 38% less water and retains 95% more green leaf tissue during drought compared to other varieties. TifTuf grows in some notable places at home and abroad, including UGA’s campus, Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, as well as playing fields and golf courses around the world.
andrew davis tucker
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UGA to Z IMPROVING PUBLIC HEALTH
UGA Work is Crucial to SW Georgia’s COVID Fight Health care professionals in southwest Georgia were better able to plan for their providers’ and patients’ needs during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a customized report from the University of Georgia. Produced by the College of Public Health in coordination with the Archway Partnership, a UGA Public Service and Outreach unit, the report outlined the number of weekly confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations expected for Georgia’s 14-county Southwest Public Health District—a region that stretches from Lee County to Decatur County and includes more than 340,000 people. The information included in the report provided regional hospitals with more accurate estimations than national and statewide reports to help administrators better prepare for their specific needs, says Grace Bagwell Adams MPA ’09, PhD ’13, a member of the team that developed the report and an associate professor in the College of Public Health. The College of Public Health had previously created a similar report for Athens-Clarke County, with Bagwell Adams and her team basing their work off a statewide COVID-19 simulation model developed by UGA professors John Drake, of the Odum School of Ecology, and Andreas Handel, of the College of Public Health.
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES
Volunteers Map COVID Resources A team of volunteers, including students at the University of Georgia, created a COVID-19 Community Resource Map to help people find essential services that may help ease the burdens created by the coronavirus pandemic. The online map was created by GroundBreakers, a global network of community leaders operating in 51 countries with an emphasis on local, grassroots efforts. GroundBreakers was co-founded in 2017 by Sebastian de Beurs and Rara Reines AB ’19. The tool pinpoints the locations of testing sites, meal relief, unemployment support, homeless shelters, and community networks throughout the U.S. Within the first three weeks of the effort, volunteers mapped more than 12,000 resources in the U.S. “We saw community efforts popping up around the country, and they seemed very disconnected,” Reines says. “Our goal was to make these services as visible and accessible as possible.”
graphic by lindsay bland robinson
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UGA to Z PANDEMIC POSTERS
CED Professor’s Art Promotes Awareness an
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Amitabh Verma MLA ’94, associate professor in the College of Environment and Design, has long advocated for the power of art and design to combat stress and anxiety. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Verma has turned his talents to a new kind of art: posters to promote shelter-in-place guidelines, mask wearing, and other safe practices. There is no shortage of public awareness campaigns from businesses, local governments, and health care agencies. But they’re not as efficient nor as compelling as they could be, relying heavily on text instead of images. Verma sought to change that. By injecting humor and emphasizing graphics over text, Verma’s gallery of posters encouraged healthy practices using well-known imagery like Rosie the Riveter, da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, and Egyptian hieroglyphs to communicate a modern message with classic flavor.
HISTORICAL RECORD
Collecting COVID stories The COVID-19 pandemic will be a defining event that impacts generations to come. To help both current and future scholars understand this moment in time, University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries are collecting stories and digital reflections on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the lives of Georgians in 2020. The collection will be a time capsule accessible to researchers, educators, and students at UGA and around the world, showcasing personal reflections, photos, poetry, recordings, and other media. The materials will provide context and personal stories of the positive and negative impact felt during this period, when schools transitioned to digital learning, families sheltered in place together, and people were forced to define essential services. “Our public university libraries and archives keep the record of who we are as a people. Documenting the current pandemic in real time is an essential task,” says Scott Nesbit, assistant professor of digital humanities in UGA’s College of Environment and Design. Students in the college’s historic preservation graduate program are currently creating informal archives with sources related both to today’s pandemic in their community and the pandemic of 1918.
shannah montgomery
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UGA to Z AN ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER
UNDER THE SEA
Tyson Receives Peabody Career Achievement Award
Professor Lends Talents to Video Game
The Peabody Awards named renowned actress Cicely Tyson the recipient of a Career Achievement Award. The honor is given to individuals whose work and commitment to broadcasting and digital media have left an indelible mark on the field and in American culture. With a critically acclaimed career in film, TV, and the stage, which spans more than 70 years, Tyson has been a foundational figure in the advancement of meaningful programming and social change through her performances, transforming how Black Americans are considered on and off screen. In a video tribute, Oprah Winfrey spoke to Tyson’s tremendous influence, “I thank you for not just paving the way for me and every other Black woman who dared to have a career in entertainment, but being the way—standing for the truth in your art in all ways. And allowing us to be lifted by the light of your illustrious life.”
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Over her 70 years in entertainment, Cicely Tyson has earned three Emmys, a Tony, an Honorary Oscar, and now the Peabody Career Achievement Award. For more information about the 2020 Peabody Awards and to see a list of recipients, visit peabodyawards.com
TASK FORCE
In a gaming experience that takes players into the near future to explore the mysteries of the ocean, Beyond Blue is a new video game launched by E-Line Media in conjunction with the BBC and the researchers behind its Blue Planet II series. The game allows players to become part of a research team using groundbreaking technologies to see, hear, and interact with the ocean in a meaningful way. University of Georgia Regents’ Professor Samantha Joye, a deep-sea oceanography expert who participated in the Blue Planet II documentary series, served as a consultant on Beyond Blue. “The game will motivate all players to learn more about the ocean and for some, playing will inspire engagement in ocean advocacy,” Joye says. “Surely some players will be motivated to pursue a career in ocean science.” Launched June 11, Beyond Blue presents players with the opportunity to explore the mysteries of the ocean through the eyes of Mirai, a deep-sea explorer and scientist, as she takes a deep dive with her research team to learn more about our otherworldly underwater environments.
Group to Review Building Names at USG Schools Board of Regents Chairman Sachin Shailendra and Chancellor Steve Wrigley of the University System of Georgia (USG) have asked an advisory group to review and study the names of buildings and colleges on all USG campuses, including the University of Georgia, and report any recommended changes to the board. Marion Fedrick BSEd ’94, MPA ’02, president of Albany State University, chairs the advisory group, which also includes Neal Quirk BBA ’82, JD ’87, executive vice chairman of the University of Georgia Foundation, and Michael Patrick BBA ’03, of Chick-fil-A. “It is important to the Board of Regents that USG represents the very best of our state and 333,000 students who are working to attain their degrees from our colleges and universities across the state,” says Shailendra. Recommendations from the group will be announced publicly upon completion of its work. The advisory group has established an online forum to collect feedback from those wishing to offer thoughts or suggestions. To learn more about the process, visit the USG website at WWW.USG.EDU.
Deep-sea oceanography expert and University of Georgia Regents Professor Samantha Joye had a whale of a time consulting on the development of the video game, Beyond Blue. The game gives players the opportunity to explore the ocean through the eyes of Mirai (seen here in an image from the game), a deep-sea explorer and scientist. special
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UGA to Z ART AT HOME
Museum Partners with County to Deliver Art Kits During the Georgia Museum of Art’s closure, its education staff created art kits for Clarke County students. The museum and the school district worked together to distribute them at free meal pick-ups. These interactive kits helped the museum continue to provide families with stimulating activities. Homemade projects ranged from mini animal sculptures to exhibition-themed coloring pages. Check out georgiamuseum.org for more virtual education resources.
POCKET OF PROTECTION
Tracking Gopher Habitats They’ve been called the “belligerent sausages” of the animal world, which makes perfect sense. Pocket gophers are tiny, solitary, full of anxiety, and ready to fight at a moment’s notice. J.T. Pynne, a doctoral student at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, calls them “pound-for-pound the hardest-fighting animal I’ve ever experienced.” Despite their short temper, they are also an important neighbor across South Georgia, Florida, and a portion of Alabama, where they contribute to important ecosystems and plant life. But lately, their habitat has shrunk, fragmented by development and agricultural uses. That’s according to a finding by Pynne, who has been tracking where pocket gophers are—and aren’t—over the past few years. However, with some awareness and changes in management practices, Pynne believes these small, ferocious animals can continue to have a beneficial presence across the Southeast. Pynne and his faculty advisor, Warnell professor Steven Castleberry BSFR ’93, MS ’97, are hoping to not only learn more about pocket gophers but also offer guidance to landowners who might have a place for them. Castleberry says it’s about “striking a balance” between areas that can’t support them, such as golf courses, and other habitats where they can thrive and contribute.
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Could this adorable pocket gopher really be one of the most belligerent animals in the Southeast? Apparently, yes. And they aren’t happy about their habitats shrinking. Warnell is trying to help.
LONGER, HEALTHIER LIVES
Lymphatic Study Could Impact Cancer Research A team including University of Georgia researchers has for the first time documented the regrowth of surgically removed pathways in the lymphatic system, a network of vessels designed to pump away inflammatory fluids and defend the body against infection. Published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the findings lay the foundation for a new class of treatment options for lymph-related disorders, such as chronic wound complications, and could even help prevent the spread of cancer. “This study was one of the first in fundamentally addressing a basic scientific question that has been left unanswered: If lymphatics are injured, can they remodel or heal?” says John Peroni, a professor and large-animal surgeon in the College of Veterinary Medicine and a member of the research team. Using a sheep model, the team removed one of two lymphatic vessels and discovered that the remaining lymphatic vessel later began working twice as hard to compensate for the loss.
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UGA to Z THE BULLDOG WAY
THE BUDDY SYSTEM
Student Success Holds Steady During Pandemic
Students Connect with Seniors
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a swift ending to in-person classes in the spring. The sudden shift to online instruction at the University of Georgia, however, didn’t slow students’ progress toward graduation. Data from spring 2020 show that grade point averages and withdrawal rates were comparable to previous years. The average GPA for UGA students even improved from 3.63 in spring 2019 to 3.76 in spring 2020. The average withdrawal rate was 2.5% in 2020, compared to 2.6% in 2019. “Our faculty and staff pivoted quickly to deliver outstanding online learning experiences, and our students have shown extraordinary resilience in a difficult time,” says S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “I know it wasn’t easy, but I’m proud of what everyone has accomplished.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the requests to the Athens Community Council on Aging’s Buddy Calls program started pouring in. And students with the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership pitched in to help. The Buddy Calls with Medical Partnership students began April 21. The “buddies” are paired with one or two clients and check in with them once or twice a week. Each call lasts around 30 minutes. Quinn Peragine, a fourth-year medical student in the partnership, played a significant role in recruiting student volunteers. “Just talking to seniors for a few minutes seemed to really brighten their day, which got us thinking that there may be many seniors in our own community who may not have anyone to talk to or help get them through these tough times,” he says. Some 20 partnership students have made Buddy Calls. “Social isolation can have a devastating effect on a person’s mental and physical health, and that is only compounded by the stress of uncertainty brought on by the pandemic,” says Erin Beasley BSEd ’05, director of operations for Athens Community Council on Aging. “The Buddy Calls ensure that our members have that opportunity to connect with another person and be reassured that they are not forgotten.”
FUNDING INNOVATION
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“Just talking to seniors for a few minutes seemed to really brighten their day,” says Quinn Peragine, a fourth-year medical student with the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership. Peragine was a driving force behind recruiting fellow partnership students to participate in the Buddy Calls program.
Kickstarter Students Receive $70K Over Last Two Years For the past two years, the UGA Kickstart Fund, the university’s student-led startup fund, has distributed more than $70,000 to aspiring Bulldog entrepreneurs. Housed in the UGA Entrepreneurship Program in the Terry College of Business, the donor-supported fund gives student-led business startups the chance to expand their fledgling ideas by providing $1,000 to $5,000 in capital. This year, the UGA Kickstart Fund granted more than $30,000 to seven companies to help develop their businesses. Established in 2017, the fund exists in the broad ecosystem of UGA’s Entrepreneurship Program, which sponsors multiple programs to help students refine and fund their innovative ideas. But it also gives students a chance to improve their pitches in front of other students at Studio 225, UGA’s student center for entrepreneurship. “The students truly handle the entire process, from marketing the fund to accepting applications, to viewing the pitches and deciding who receives the funding, to establishing metrics to judge the success of the selected companies,” says Cali Brutz AB ’08, lecturer and associate director of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program. “As much we possibly can, we sit back and watch the wheels turn.”
The interior of Studio 225 branded with the UGA Entrepreneurship wall mural. andrew davis tucker
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UGA to Z College of Engineering professors WenZhan Song (pictured here) and Jin Ye are working with public and private sector partners to strengthen the defenses of the country’s power grid.
A MORE SECURE FUTURE
Solar Protection A future powered by renewables promises sustainable energy and a cleaner environment— but that doesn’t mean it’s without risks. Additional points of energy generation, such as solar farms, can introduce soft access points for cyberhackers seeking to exploit weaknesses in the nation’s power grid. That’s why Jin Ye and WenZhan Song, professors in the UGA College of Engineering, are working with public and private sector partners to strengthen the defenses of the country’s power grid. Using a $3.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office, Ye and Song are part of a multilevel cyber defense project that aims to safely integrate solar power systems into the grid.
dorothy kozlowski
CANDID CAMERA
Wildlife Thrive When Humans Shelter in Place
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In late March, as communities began to issue shelter-in-place orders, animals appeared to come out of hiding. Around the globe, reports surfaced of wildlife taking to the newly deserted streets. Wildlife cameras set up by researchers at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and biologists from Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources point to a possible uptick in daytime wildlife sightings in metro Atlanta that may correspond with stayat-home orders. “We’d been starting to monitor and look at behavior of wildlife in urban Atlanta to better understand how they behave,” says Michel Kohl, an assistant professor of wildlife management and wildlife Extension specialist for Warnell. “All of a sudden, this pandemic happens, and we see this massive switch in human behavior that, across the globe, has led to anecdotal evidence that wildlife responded quite quickly.” The data provided by the cameras will show animal activity during the shutdown and what happened when the state began to reopen.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
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A coyote is captured by a wildlife camera set up by the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources in Stone Mountain.
Mentor Kim Metcalf BSEH ’93, MS ’96 (left) meets with her mentee Briana Hayes, a fourth-year student in the College of Public Health.
Mentor Program Celebrates First Anniversary The UGA Mentor Program, the university’s first comprehensive mentorship initiative, allows students to form meaningful mentoring relationships with UGA alumni. The program launched on August 21, 2019, and has far exceeded many of its initial goals. For instance, UGA outperformed peer institutions in Match Ratio (number of participants who have been matched compared to the total number of participants eligible to be matched). Surveys of mentors and mentees who completed a 16-week mentorship revealed that 98% of program participants would recommend that other students, alumni, and friends of the university take part in the UGA Mentor Program. An impressive 95% of mentors agree that the program inspired them to strengthen their relationship with the university, and 97% of mentees reported gaining an appreciation for mentoring as a personal and professional development tool. Visit MENTOR.UGA.EDU.
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CLASS NOTES
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c o m m i t t o g e o r g i a c a m pa i g n
COMMIT TO GEORGIA
A Shared
vision
Why does a fundraising campaign matter? Because it’s a foundation to build solutions to problems as big as the ones we’re facing.
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hen the Commit to Georgia friends,” says President Jere W. Morehead JD ’80. Campaign launched, the “The Commit to Georgia Campaign was a great University of Georgia called on success, as it simultaneously brought this Bulldogs everywhere to help UGA remove institution much closer to where we want to barriers to higher education, enhance our be and helped make us the institution that the learning environment, and solve the grand world needs us to be.” challenges of our state and world. The campaign included 175,488 donors, UGA leadership set an ambitious goal— who hailed from all 50 states and 62 countries. $1.2 billion by 2020—and the result was Among those donors are 93,320 alumni, 8,428 something amazing: Donors gave $1.45 billion, current and former UGA employees, and a record-breaking amount for the university. 15,321 students. Then everything changed. The COVID-19 “When you look at a campaign, there are pandemic shook the world, infecting a lot of big numbers, and while we’re proud millions and ripping safety and normalcy of those, I tend to think the most important from the daily lives of millions more. In the number is one: one professor making a midst of the pandemic, sustained protests research breakthrough, one scholarship across the country cast a harsh spotlight on making a dream come true, one donor making racial injustice in America. In the face of an the choice to give,” says Kelly Kerner, vice uncertain future, with the unknown around president for development and alumni every corner, the question naturally arose: relations. “Those individual stories are Why does a fundraising campaign matter? where you can most clearly see the impact Because it’s a foundation to build solutions to of this campaign. problems as big as the ones we’re facing. “Every person who gave has their own The campaign supports a promise to every important story that inspired them to give, student and community the university serves. and their giving created an important story Most of all, it’s proof that when Bulldogs come in someone else’s life—an effect that touches together, success is more than assured— that recipient’s family and community, future it’s historic. recipients, and the university as a whole.” “We have faced enormous challenges this One decision to make one gift, repeated year, but the University of Georgia is well 613,495 times, led to a period of significant positioned to withstand difficult moments like growth across a multitude of areas: over $80 these due to the strong support of the state of million committed to need-based aid, more Georgia and the generosity of our alumni and than 900,000 square feet of new learning and
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activity space, and 94 new endowed faculty positions, to name a few. But, for students like MiMi Tran, it’s less about numbers and more about the life that gifts allow them. “Donors are so selfless to help people they don’t know fulfill their education,” says Tran, a Georgia Commitment Scholarship recipient from Atlanta majoring in exercise and sport science. “That really changes lives, and I’m forever thankful for it.” (Read more about this program on page 18.) For many students like Tran, receiving such a transformative gift drives them to give as well. In this way, campaign donors’ impact is generational—not just through the gifts they make but also the people they help. A scholarship sent Natalie Morean BSFCS ’19 on a four-week service-learning trip to Ghana where she shadowed local health care workers. That experience inspired her to pursue a master’s degree in nonprofit management and leadership from UGA’s School of Social Work. “When you donate, it creates a cycle. Many donors were students at some point,” says Morean, who now gives to the university herself. “And while they were here, they had access to opportunities because of donations from those who came before them. I want to invest in the future. That’s very important to me.” In a world where UGA is called to remove more barriers, build new learning environments, and solve increasingly complex challenges, that cycle is reassuring. The University of Georgia reached new heights during the Commit to Georgia Campaign because the UGA community rallied like never before. Now, as the university faces unprecedented challenges, the unwavering support of its committed network of alumni and friends will continue to help sustain it and enable UGA to persevere.
SMALL GIFTS make all the difference
No gift is too small. Campaign donors gave a total of 354,504 gifts of $100 or less. The donors who made those gifts could fill Sanford Stadium nearly 1.5 times over.
Each figure represents 100 donors.
See how the Commit to Georgia Campaign changed students’ lives, empowered faculty and built today’s UGA at GIVE.UGA.EDU.
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ach year, thousands of UGA students with exceptional financial need receive federal Pell Grants. Among those recipients, more than 1,000 report a family income less than the sum of UGA tuition and fees. For many students, that means they are personally responsible for covering every aspect of their college experience—housing, food, transportation, tuition, and more. Even after receiving HOPE or Zell Miller scholarships and the Pell Grant, students from the lowest income families still face a financial aid gap of $11,500 a year on average. Removing barriers and opening doors to higher education was a top priority of the Commit to Georgia Campaign.
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Georgia Commitment Scholarships created over the course of the campaign By June 2020, more than
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donors supported the Georgia Commitment Scholarship committing over
$80M In Spring 2020,
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Georgia Commitment Scholarship students were enrolled at UGA
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REMOVING BARRIERS & OPENING DOORS
c o m m i t t o g e o r g i a c a m pa i g n
i: removing barriers & opening doors
“At the end of the day, we can’t control the uncontrollable, but what we can do is lean on each other and help in any way we can. And that is exactly what donors are doing. They inspire me to one day be able to give back to people like myself or someone in a position like mine.” m ich a e l g ay | t h i r d y e a r | m a n age m e n t
Donor support for scholarships during the campaign resulted in 1,030 new scholarship funds, and the total dollar amount of UGA Foundation scholarship awards more than doubled. Private giving also created 993 endowed scholarship funds, empowering promising students for generations to come. That figure includes 528 Georgia Commitment Scholarships, UGA’s endowed, need-based aid program launched in January 2017. The Georgia Commitment Scholarship program is one of the most successful new initiatives at the university. It was built on the largest single gift ever given to UGA: $30 million from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation in 2016. The UGA Foundation used that $30 million to match any donor’s gift of $50,000, $75,000, or $100,000 to establish an endowed undergraduate need-based scholarship. Because the scholarships are endowed, they will be awarded year after year in perpetuity. Students who receive Georgia Commitment Scholarships are supported by special on-campus programming in partnership with the Division of Academic Enhancement. The match, the chance to help generations of students, and the unique opportunities the scholarship affords combine to make the program an unparalleled tool to remove barriers to higher education.
By June 2020, thanks to more than 340 individuals who supported the Georgia Commitment Scholarship, over $80 million was committed to need-based aid at the University of Georgia. Those scholarships are already changing lives. “My scholarship was such amazing news,” says Mitzi Samano Leano, a dietetics major from Atlanta, Georgia Commitment Scholarship recipient, and first-generation student. “UGA was academically and socially where I wanted to pursue my education and reach my overall goals. My scholarship is the only thing keeping me here. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to pay for my education.” In Spring 2020, 418 Georgia Commitment Scholarship students were enrolled at UGA, adding a diverse population of students from across Georgia: 62% were from outside metro Atlanta, and 39% were first-generation college students. Spring 2020 also saw the first Georgia Commitment Scholarship graduates enrolling in graduate school and beginning their careers. The Georgia Commitment Scholarship program stands out as a bright light in the Commit to Georgia Campaign, but even in darker moments, UGA donors’ commitment to supporting students never wavered. When the novel coronavirus circled the globe and public health precautions required the suspension of normal business
1,030 new scholarship funds from donor support during the campaign
and activity, many students lost income, housing, and their ability to pay for the education that brought them to Athens. UGA supporters responded by donating $282,000 in the four months after UGA closed to in-person education. As of August, President Jere W. Morehead JD ’80 and the UGA Foundation Board of Trustees have directed a total of $900,000 in private funds to these emergency needs. “To the people who donate to this fund: Thank you,” says Michael Gay, a third-year management student from Rockmart. “You don’t understand how much of a relief it was to know that somebody had my back during these rough times. At the end of the day, we can’t control the uncontrollable, but what we can do is lean on each other and help in any way we can. And that is exactly what donors are doing. They inspire me to one day be able to give back to people like myself or someone in a position like mine.” That sentiment is the same in good times and bad. Those who benefit from the generosity of others feel a call to pay it forward. Donor impact isn’t limited to the students whose lives are changed or even the families who see their children realize their dreams because of scholarships. Removing barriers and opening doors for students creates alumni who are eager to do the same for generations to come.
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opening doors across The thousands of scholarships created by the Commit to Georgia Campaign will empower not just students but also their families, their communities, and the university itself. Campaign donors are providing promising students with new opportunities to pursue their passions at UGA.
MARY FRANCES EARLY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
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The Mary Frances Early College of Education Endowment was named in February to honor UGA’s first African American graduate. The fundraising initiative began in April 2019 and raised $3 million in one year. Those funds will provide scholarships and support diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the college and across UGA.
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SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
Over two dozen donors came together to create the Loch and Leena Johnson Georgia Commitment Scholarship. Honoring Loch Johnson, University of Georgia Regents Professor Emeritus of Public and International Affairs, and his wife, Leena, the endowed scholarship supports undergraduates with financial need. In addition to this tribute, four additional Georgia Commitment Scholarships were established by SPIA donors during the campaign.
John BBA ’90, MACC ’92 and Cindy Morris BSEd ’90 created the first-ever Georgia Commitment Scholarship for School of Social Work students, providing need-based aid for students pursuing a Bachelor of Social Work degree.
COLLEGE OF PHARMACY The College of Pharmacy received a $1 million gift from the Molly Blank Fund of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation in October 2017 to establish the Molly and Max Blank Student Enrichment Endowment. The endowment provides emergency funds, in perpetuity, to current and prospective pharmacy students experiencing hardships. To date, approximately 35 students have received support from this fund.
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SCHOOL OF LAW
TERRY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
The School of Law raised nearly $30 million in new scholarship funds during the campaign. These funds have helped reduce annual law student borrowing by more than 33% since 2013, and today, roughly 40% of UGA law students obtain their legal educations debt-free.
Robert Hoyt, long-time faculty member and department head in the Terry College of Business, created the Hoyt Family Scholarship through the Georgia Commitment Scholarship program to provide need-based aid to business students. He also established an endowed fund to support Terry’s Risk Management and Insurance Program.
FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
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Cora Nunnally Miller (left), who anonymously donated more than $33 million to UGA over her lifetime, gave a gift of $17 million upon her death in 2015. That gift created, among other things, the Cora Nunnally Miller Fine Arts Scholarship Fund, which recognizes exceptional artistic talent, fosters interdisciplinary collaborations in the arts, promotes the arts on campus and beyond, and gives special opportunities to the students it supports. The first cohort of six first-year students was named in 2018.
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DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
The Larry Leroy Golden Memorial Scholarship, established by alumni of the Zeta Pi chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, was permanently endowed thanks to donations from over 200 campaign donors. This scholarship, which honors a 1976 Zeta Pi initiate who died weeks before his graduation, will support undergraduate students with financial need in perpetuity.
While still a student, Jack Bush BSME ’20 created the Bush Engineering Scholarship to help minority students with financial need who are majoring in engineering. Before he even graduated, Bush pledged to endow the scholarship as he begins his career in engineering.
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Beating the Odds Through the Georgia Commitment Scholarship program, the generosity of alumni is helping UGA students reach their goals
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ne of only 75 people in her high school graduating class, Ana Kilgore always dreamed of expanding her horizons. When she saw the range of STEM programs offered at the University of Georgia, the Hawkinsville native set her sights on Athens. But to get here, she faced the financial cost of living away from home. “If it weren’t for the scholarship, I wouldn’t be at UGA,” Kilgore says. “It really changed my life.” Renewable for up to four years during her time at the university, the Georgia Commitment Scholarship provided Kilgore the opportunity to join the Dawg Nation. She came to the university with a love of numbers and a passion for helping people. She’s become involved in multiple units around campus since then, including the Department of Mathematics, the Division of Academic Enhancement, and the Office of Service-Learning. These activities have defined her time as a UGA student.
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“UGA draws you in and gives you a support system while at the same time pushing you toward internships and opportunities,” Kilgore says. One of her most meaningful volunteer roles has been with Experience UGA, an organization whose goal is to bring every K-12 Athens-Clarke County student to UGA’s campus through annual field trips. Prior to the pandemic, Kilgore worked one-on-one with local students to facilitate tours and talk with them about their college plans. “Coming from a small town, I didn’t get to see what big universities had to offer, so it’s cool to be able to bring kids to campus and let them see for themselves what it’s like.” Kilgore sees a reflection of herself in some of the students she meets. “Even though they live in Athens, they might feel like UGA’s not really an option for them. It’s nice to be able to say, ‘I came from a small community, and I felt the same way. But UGA is absolutely a possibility for you.’”
Bill Young BBA ’78, a partner with Atlanta-based General Wholesale Company and a UGA Foundation trustee, funded the Georgia Commitment Scholarship that Kilgore received. She and Young met for the first time during her second semester. Now, she keeps in touch through letters and emails, sharing important milestones as she prepares to graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a certificate in actuarial sciences. “College is a really important time in a person’s life. That extra support can push someone to be successful, try new things, and feel like they can achieve their dreams,” she says. Kilgore embraces giving back and encourages others to do the same. “You can make such a big impact when you reach out to others. Even if I’m not in a place to give back monetarily, there are other ways I can, like spending time with younger Scholars and helping them the way others have helped me.”
“College is a really important time in a person’s life. That extra support can push someone to be successful, try new things, and feel like they can achieve their dreams.” a n a k i l g or e | f ou rt h y e a r | m at h e m at ic s ge orgi a com m i t m e n t s chol a r sh i p r e ci pi e n t
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STRENGTHENING THE FOUNDATION
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GA’s world-class learning environment begins with its outstanding faculty and staff and is further elevated by its physical and virtual facilities. These labs, lecture halls, gathering spaces, training areas, and remote learning tools are housed within more than 1,800 buildings across the state and world. Thanks to the generous support of the governor and General Assembly, University System Chancellor and Board of Regents, and the UGA community, the university has made huge strides in enhancing its learning environment since the Commit to Georgia Campaign began. Nearly two dozen new, campaign-funded buildings have opened since 2012, creating more than 900,000 square feet of new space supported by private giving. New and renovated facilities house important educational offerings on campus while experiential learning extends those lessons into hands-on opportunities to learn, grow, and help solve society’s great challenges. To prepare society’s future leaders, a high-caliber and experience-filled environment is key. As students utilize new and upgraded facilities, they recognize and appreciate the impact it is having on their education.
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EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING • ik , spirē ’ en(t)SH(ə)l ’lərniNG The process of learning from experience. More specifically defined as learning through reflection on doing.
For Aman Bhimani BBA ’18, BBA ’18 the new Business Learning Community’s Benn Capital Markets Lab—complete with a NASDAQ ticker— assured him that the Terry College of Business was preparing him to launch a successful career. The Decatur native was majoring in finance and management information systems when these facilities were completed. Today, Bhimani is an investment banking analyst with Citi in New York City. “The collaborative classrooms create better discussions,” Bhimani said when the facility opened in 2017. “In business, you’re not sitting alone reading notes, you’re up, you’re talking, you’re interacting.” Students’ on-campus classroom and lab experiences are combined with opportunities to expand their horizons and obtain hands-on experiences to attract future employers. In 2016, UGA became the largest university at the time to require participation in experiential learning opportunities as a prerequisite to graduate. Today, more than 2,256 offerings are available, and students completed 37,350 approved activities between Summer 2019 and Spring 2020. While many of these opportunities take place on campus through research projects, internships, and more than 250 service-learning courses in UGA’s schools and colleges, there are unique benefits to experiences that send students beyond the Arch. But these experiences can come with a price tag and may be out of reach for students without the means to pay for travel or lodging, or for those who hold jobs to support their families.
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The Business Learning Community at dusk.
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Thanks to the collective efforts of the UGA community through the Commit to Georgia Campaign, more than 72 new funds (a total of $14.9 million) are supporting research, service-learning, internships, and study abroad. This funding allows more students to pursue experiential learning opportunities that might otherwise be unattainable—whether that’s studying art history or photography in Italy, presenting at a research symposium in Boston, or interning with a major entertainment company in Los Angeles. These important experiences lay the groundwork for successful careers. Maddie Dill AB ’18, AB ’18, AB ’18 is a business analyst with the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Atlanta. As a student, she conducted research on campus, interned in Washington, D.C., and was a leader of several student-run organizations. Dill studied in seven countries and interned with South Africa’s Department of Education. For Dill, studying abroad opened her eyes and guided her toward a career in international policy. an
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“Students in South Africa have low graduation and low college matriculation rates because most students don’t have the English language skills to continue,” Dill says. “I worked on policy recommendations for multilingual education, and I got to go into South African schools and analyze national testing data. I realized that the individuals with the most influence on people’s lives are the people who make the policies that politicians work to enact.” Extracurricular activities have always been an essential part of the UGA student experience. Whether it’s athletics (both as competitors and fans) or student organizations, these experiences introduce students to new views and help them develop soft skills that will serve them long after graduation. “Getting to travel and be involved in the UGA and Athens communities—those are experiences that can’t be replicated anywhere else,” Dill says. “And these experiences were possible because of the scholarships I received. UGA is working hard to make sure that any student who wants to study abroad or intern can do that.”
IMPACT OF GIVING During the Commit to Georgia Campaign, 9,988 donors gave to more than 174 funds in the Division of Student Affairs, which enhance extracurricular offerings on campus—from hands-on radio experience with WUOG-FM, to programming for student veterans, to developing leadership skills through the Center for Leadership and Service. The Commit to Georgia Campaign also raised more than $433 million for the UGA Athletic Association. Those funds improve the student experience for the more than 1,400 student athletes who have been on campus since the campaign began and also elevate athletics events for Bulldog fans everywhere. Thanks to the Commit to Georgia Campaign, UGA has one of the best learning environments in the nation. But to stay at the forefront in a rapidly evolving world, the university is committed to strategic investments in facilities and learning opportunities that will prepare students to become tomorrow’s leaders.
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enhancing the learnin UGA prides itself on giving students cutting-edge learning spaces and experiential learning opportunities to encourage their ambitions and empower them to aim even higher. Commit to Georgia Campaign donors enhanced UGA’s learning environment to help prepare students to be the next generation of innovators, thought leaders, and change-makers.
UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
WARNELL SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
In December 2019, WarnerMedia, an entertainment and media conglomerate that merged with Turner Broadcasting in 1996, made a gift toward naming a UGA Special Collections Building exhibit hall for CNN founder, environmentalist, and longtime Atlantan Ted Turner. That gift also established the Ted Turner Scholarship Fund as part of the Georgia Commitment Scholarship program.
Gifts from the estate of Harley Langdale Jr. BSF ’37 and the Harley Langdale Jr. Foundation resulted in a $3.6 million commitment to the UGA Center for Forest Business in 2014. The funding allowed the center, now named the Harley Langdale Jr. Center for Forest Business, to expand its educational efforts and research, as well as its service to the forest industry and private landowners.
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During the campaign, the UGA Athletic Association completed many facilities projects made possible by donors. Enhancements to the west end zone significantly upgraded Sanford Stadium (right), and the William Porter Payne and Porter Otis Payne Indoor Athletic Facility is a boon for many of UGA’s athletic programs. The construction of the Equestrian Center and the renovations to Foley Field, the Boyd Golf Clubhouse, and the Turner Soccer Complex have all improved their respective programs. And, to date, more than $56 million has been raised for the ongoing construction of the Butts-Mehre Expansion and Renovation project.
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GEORGIA MUSEUM OF ART The museum received 110 contemporary works of art from the personal collection of John MBA ’83 and Sara Shlesinger in March 2020. The artwork spans a variety of mediums and artists. The Shlesingers’ transformative gift signals a new and exciting initiative at the museum, one that becomes increasingly important as the century advances.
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TERRY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS The Business Learning Community (see page 25) has transformed Terry College by creating a vibrant learning environment that is second to none. Completed in 2019, the complex of six buildings— Correll Hall, Moore-Rooker Hall, Benson Hall, Amos Hall, Ivester Hall, and Sanford and Barbara Orkin Hall—is a remarkable testament to the $140 million public/private partnership that funded it.
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COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE The five-building, $97 million Veterinary Medical Center (above), opened in 2015, would not have been possible without the support of UGA donors. One such donor, the late Cora Nunnally Miller, gave more than $13 million to the College of Veterinary Medicine, a gift the college honored by naming the center’s small animal teaching hospital for her. The project included $65 million in state funds, $30 million in private donations, and $2 million from other sources.
COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN/ UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES The 2013 gift of 15.5 acres of the historic Wormsloe property in Savannah allowed for the creation of the Center for Research and Education at Wormsloe (CREW). CREW, which was first administered by the College of Environment and Design, supports UGA students and faculty studying environmental history. Now administered by University Libraries, more than a dozen units at UGA are engaged in research and education through CREW.
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Former UGA President Charles B. Knapp and his wife, Lynne, established the Charles and Lynne Knapp Endowment for Music Performance to permanently support the Performing Arts Center—the construction of which he oversaw in his tenure as president—and its efforts to bring worldclass artists to Athens.
A gift from Atlanta businessman David Ratcliffe established the Jack Ratcliffe Ag Experiential Learning Fund in honor of his father. Four Ratcliffe Scholars are selected each year for the prestigious award, which allows students in the college to take advantage of experiential learning opportunities.
GRADY COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION/ FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES In 2019, UGA announced the creation of a Master of Fine Arts in Film, Television, and Digital Media program in partnership with Pinewood Forest and the Georgia Film Academy. The first of its kind in Georgia, students take classes in an academic setting during the first year and then produce projects in a major studio setting during the second year. This interdisciplinary program will have a lasting impact on one of the state’s leading industries.
HONORS PROGRAM The Honors Program received multiple endowed gifts that will provide lasting support to crosscultural study, work, and service through the Honors International Scholars Program, and to hands-on undergraduate research work through the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities.
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A Capitol Experience Interning and studying in Washington, D.C., catapulted a student’s dreams into reality
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ahira Allen AB ’18 never imagined she’d live in Washington, D.C., or work down the street from the National Mall. While growing up in Columbus, Georgia, her family wasn’t politically inclined, so when she decided to major in international affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs, she spent some time figuring out what she wanted to do. A conversation with instructor Lee Lukoff PhD ’19 put everything into focus. He would be teaching at an innovative, UGA-exclusive program in Washington, D.C., the first semester of Allen’s senior year; it was a perfect fit for her, he said, and encouraged her to apply. Allen took Lukoff’s advice, and she’s been in the nation’s capital ever since. More than 550 students have participated in the Washington Semester Program since it began in 2008. It blends semester-long internships with classwork (often done at night since most students work during the day). “Students in the Washington Semester Program have a distinct advantage from participating in fall and spring term internships,” says program director Don DeMaria. “In addition to working for about twice the duration of a typical summer internship with fewer interns in office, students are able to leverage their work experience and networking to establish their careers in Washington. Each semester, it is common to have multiple students transition to fulltime jobs before the end of term, and about one-third of all program alumni live in and work in DC.” Adding to the program’s strengths was the opening of Delta Hall in 2015, a resi-
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dence within walking distance of the U.S. Capitol in which up to 32 UGA students live during their semester in D.C. This impressive facility is the heart of the program and is the result of generous support from alumni in the D.C. area and across the country, and from a $5 million grant from The Delta Air Lines Foundation. “They could not get me out of Delta Hall—I loved it so much,” Allen laughs. While the typical Delta Hall resident stays for one semester, Allen was there for her entire senior year. “Making the decision to go to Delta Hall changed my life.” Allen, who received a scholarship to participate in the Washington Semester Program, credits her Delta Hall experience for introducing her to the friends who still make up the core of her social network and for opening doors to an impressive career in the nation’s capital. Connections Allen made through Delta Hall helped her land an internship at Voice of America. That led to a full-time job at the VOA. After 13 months on the media resources team (where her responsibilities ranged from helping compile news pieces to interviewing members of Congress), Allen parlayed that experience to a job at NASA headquarters on Capitol Hill. Allen joined NASA in January 2019 as a social media specialist. She is the lead content creator on the agency’s Instagram page and manages its Tumblr. In September 2019, she was promoted to communications strategist, a broad title that basically means “storyteller.” “We translate the science for a general audience,” she says. “We share NASA’s stories,
but we also share the public’s stories about NASA. Not only are we trying to educate people, we are trying to inspire people. We want to inspire the next generation and give people something hopeful to think about.” That sense of hope was on display in May during NASA’s launch of the SpaceX Demo-2. The launch was a welcome reprieve from what was a difficult spring for most Americans. Allen was the social desk host during the live broadcast of the launch and served as a conduit for the social media activity surrounding the event. Her team reached out to users, retweeted their posts, and live-shared conversations throughout the day. While Allen’s job allows her to gaze constantly at the heavens, her eyes rarely stray too far from the University of Georgia. Delta Hall’s alumni network is strong. Allen learned that when she was a student. Former residents turned D.C. professionals regularly reach out to UGA students to check in on their lives and offer advice or a morale boost if needed. Now an alumna herself, Allen is excited to give back. She has served as a panelist for multiple Washington Semester Programs and is a mentor for current Delta Hall students, many of whom are balancing the same life, work, and interpersonal experiences Allen herself did just two years ago. With boundless energy and a talent for connecting with practically anyone, she is ideally suited to it. “I love this role,” Allen says. “I’m very passionate about people. Whether it’s telling people’s stories, telling NASA’s stories, my own personal friendships, I hold people very close to my heart. Just being a friend or that person a student can come to—I love it.”
“They could not get me out of Delta Hall—I loved it so much. Making the decision to go to Delta Hall changed my life.” ta h i r a a l l e n | a b ’ 18 com m u n icat ions st r at e gi st, n a s a
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AN URGENT MISSION
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he final months of the Commit to Georgia Campaign were likely not what UGA leaders envisioned when the effort launched. After years of record-breaking fundraising and significant strides in every campaign priority, the novel coronavirus presented a sudden threat that required a total re-evaluation of how people live their lives. As the world continues to reckon with COVID19 and its effects, “Solving Grand Challenges,” the third Commit to Georgia Campaign priority, has become a more urgent mission. But even now, in the face of a global pandemic, the work of UGA donors has positioned the university to better tackle crises and build a brighter future.
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UGA faculty are training entrepreneurs to create new businesses that will invigorate Georgia’s economy, improve public health internationally, and support farmers and agricultural leaders to feed the world.
Since the campaign’s launch, private support created 94 endowed faculty positions, an increase of 42%. These positions allow UGA to attract and retain world-class talents like Biao He, the Fred C. Davison Distinguished University Chair in Veterinary Medicine and a Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator, and Samantha Joye, the Athletic Association Professor of Arts and Sciences in UGA’s Department of Marine Sciences. These individuals will inspire generations of students and place UGA’s research enterprise among those of the nation’s finest public universities. UGA faculty are training entrepreneurs to create new businesses that will invigorate Georgia’s economy, improve public health internationally, and support farmers and agricultural leaders to feed the world. Thanks to the productivity of its faculty, research and development expenditures at UGA reached $477.5 million in FY19, a 34% increase over the previous five years. “As UGA grows its research enterprise, we are expanding our positive impact on the world while strengthening the economy of our home state,” says President Jere W. Morehead JD ’80. “Gains in agricultural productivity; improvements to health care; the creation of new, marketable products— these are just a few of the many benefits stemming
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ENDOWED CHAIRS Positions that receive supplemental support generated from private donations are essential to recruiting and retaining leading faculty who are committed to world-changing research and preparing the next generation of problem-solvers, pioneers, and leaders.
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from UGA’s research and development.” Support for graduate students also increased during the campaign, creating 36 new assistantship and fellowship funds. Graduate students carry a heavy academic load. In addition to teaching and mentoring, they contribute vital work to research efforts. With these funds, donors enhance UGA’s ability to continue bringing promising young scholars to Athens, which in turn enhances UGA’s impact on Georgia. The university generates an annual economic impact of more than $6.5 billion in Georgia —$1.25 billion more than at the campaign’s public launch—and research is a prime catalyst. Because of a commitment to translate research into real-world solutions, UGA has ranked among the top five American universities for bringing new products to market for five years in a row. Over 175 companies have been created based on UGA research, an increase of 150% since 2015. Efforts to connect UGA research to industry have only increased during the campaign, and an initiative bolstered by campaign giving will enable those efforts to expand even further. The Innovation Dis-
trict comprises a comprehensive ecosystem of places, programs, and people partnering to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and experiential learning. Its next phase of development will create a hub location for the program by renovating UGA’s Spring Street Building. Also, the new Student Industry Fellows Program will offer training to develop students’ innovation competencies, projects funded by a $3.5 million commitment from The Delta Air Lines Foundation. Just as critical to UGA as making and commercializing research breakthroughs is ensuring that Georgians across the state benefit from the university’s resources. From the creation of an endowment to support community leadership programs across Georgia, to an endowment established to recognize outstanding consultants with the Small Business Development Center, to a planned gift supporting the Office of Service Learning, UGA’s supporters have proved again and again that the Commit to Georgia Campaign is about committing to all of Georgia. But perhaps the best indicator of progress in the campaign’s third priority is that when
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a truly grand challenge emerged—the novel coronavirus—UGA was able to quickly join the global effort to combat it. Campaign donors believe UGA could become a national and global research leader, and their commitments empower researchers like Ted Ross, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of Infectious Diseases. Ross was awarded a National Institutes of Health contract of up to $130 million to create a universal flu vaccine, but when the pandemic hit, he and other researchers in the UGA Center for Vaccines and Immunology and the Department of Infectious Diseases pivoted their work to focus on developing and testing COVID-19 vaccine candidates and therapeutics. “Solving Grand Challenges” may feel much more urgent today than it did four years ago. And new grand challenges seem to arise every day. But because of UGA donors, and the hard work of our entire community, we are better equipped to overcome those challenges and be ready for the next one.
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solving grand challen Whether conducting research or assisting Georgia communities, every area of campus contributes to UGA’s research enterprise and public service mission. Throughout the campaign, donors have empowered university units to solve grand challenges in our state and world.
COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN
ODUM SCHOOL OF ECOLOGY
Donors took advantage of matching funds provided by the UGA Foundation (UGAF) to establish three College of Environment and Design professorships: the Rado Family Foundation/UGAF Professor of Geodesign, the Robert T. and Mary B. Hughes/ UGAF Professorship in Landscape Architecture and Planning, and the Crowley Professorship in Urban Planning and Design Fund.
To honor the memories of master’s student John Spencer and trailblazing professor Becky Sharitz, their respective families established endowed funds to support named fellowships. The John K. Spencer Fellowship supports students following in Spencer’s footsteps studying freshwater ecology, conservation, and management. The Dr. Rebecca Reyburn Sharitz and Carl Byrne Hatfield Fellowship Fund will support doctoral candidates in ecology or plant biology affiliated with the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory.
COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH
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The Karen and Jim Holbrook Distinguished Professorship in Global Health, currently held by Christopher Whalen (left), was established by the Holbrooks to build upon existing strengths in global health research throughout the college and increase international collaborations. A similarly named graduate fellowship funded by the couple will expand experiential learning activities for students in international public health. andr
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COLLEGE OF FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES
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Kathryn ABJ ’82 and Darren Ash BBA ’81, MACC ’82 established the Ash Service Award to cultivate and support a culture of locally focused community service within the UGA Honors Program. Awards support two to four Honors students who intern full-time in the summer on behalf of a service organization in Georgia, supporting programming that improves local communities.
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When Raj BBA ’94 and Shruti Chokshi established the Bluerock Professorship in Financial Planning, they funded the first-ever endowed professorship in UGA’s financial planning program. Swarn Chatterjee (left), who has been at UGA since 2007 and has won multiple awards in teaching and research, was named to the position in August 2019.
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A gift from the family of Michael and Elaine Pulliam established the H.M. Pulliam Chair, the college’s first endowed chair. In late 2019, Michael Strand (left), a professor of entomology and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, was named the inaugural chair.
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SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
The Thomas P. Holland Distinguished Professorship in Nonprofit Management and Leadership was created by gifts from School of Social Work donors to honor Tom Holland, a beloved professor emeritus, architect of two of the school’s graduate degree programs, and founder of the Institute for Nonprofit Organizations.
Over the course of the campaign, contributions from numerous donors helped create 16 new named professorships in Franklin College’s many schools, including the Carl and Sally Gable Distinguished Chair in Southern Colonial American History. Renowned historian and anthropologist James F. Brooks was named the inaugural chair in 2019.
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
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The Thomas P. and M. Jean Lauth Public Affairs Professorship, named for SPIA Founding Dean and Professor Emeritus Thomas Lauth and his wife Jeannie, was created through gifts from Maj. Gen. Arnold MA ’76 and Jan Punaro. Amanda Murdie (left) became the inaugural Lauth Professor of Public Affairs in December 2018. Murdie, head of SPIA’s international affairs department, has published over 50 articles in the Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, International Organization and more, and she is the editor-in-chief of International Studies Review. pe t
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DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS A $1.5 million gift from Jack and Nancy Fontaine to The Fontaine Center allowed the center—which provides substance misuse prevention, early intervention, counseling and recovery support services, and violence prevention services—to increase the capacity of its Collegiate Recovery Community, as well as expand its programming on campus and throughout the state. The Fontaines have provided nearly $6 million to the center since its 2006 opening.
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c o m m i t t o g e o r g i a c a m pa i g n
Finding Solutions for Deadly Diseases GRA endowment helps researchers save lives through drug discovery
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he Amoeba Summit in Orlando last year is where the importance of her work on drug discovery for deadly amoebae really hit home for Cassiopeia Russell. It was there she learned the story of an 11-year-old boy who had gone on a family vacation to Costa Rica and was having a great time going down a waterslide at a hot spring there. Days later, he started complaining of a terrible headache. Then he started vomiting. Within a week, he was dead. The cause was a microscopic organism, Naegleria fowleri, living in the warm waters of the spring. Russell, a doctoral student, had been working in the lab of Dennis Kyle, director of the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, for about a year when she was able to attend the conference thanks to a Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) endowment and learn how the research she does in the lab is making a real impact on people’s lives. The GRA was founded with the goal of expanding Georgia universities’ ability to conduct high-level research with the potential of bringing new and innovative products to market. Kyle is the GRA Eminent Scholar in Antiparasitic Drug Discovery, and his endowment enables him to run a 16-person staff of student researchers, postdocs, and research scientists. “I asked myself at the beginning if I really wanted to work on a parasite this rare,” Russell says. “But if you look at the statistics, this parasite infects mainly young children. Hundreds have died.” She thinks about that every day in the lab. More commonly referred to as the brain-
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eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri is a surprisingly common amoeba found in warm water lakes, ponds, and rivers. When water is forced up the nose—like when diving into a body of water or repeatedly riding a waterslide—the parasite travels to the brain, where it attacks the organ’s cells. Though infections are rare, the brain-eating amoeba kills almost everyone it infects. One reason Naegleria fowleri is so deadly is because symptoms of the infection resemble those of viral meningitis, a much more common and more treatable disease. “That misdiagnosis and waiting to see if the patient gets better after beginning treatment is wasting valuable time,” says Russell. She’s committed to finding faster, more effective ways to diagnose the condition so patients can get the right medications in time to stop the disease’s progression. As a member of Kyle’s lab, Russell also tests drug compounds to see which ones can kill an amoeba without destroying the human cells it infects. Current drugs used to treat the infection aren’t very effective and are highly toxic. Despite being almost 99% fatal, not many federal dollars go toward research on brain-eating and other kinds of amoebae. That’s where the Georgia Research Alliance comes in. “The Georgia Research Alliance really helped me set up this whole operation when I got here,” says Kyle. “Without the GRA, there’s no way that I could have had this team going for three years. This is something that we have concerns about in Georgia. Every summer, we hear of
Naegleria fowleri cases on the news. But we don’t have many people worldwide working on it and very few doing the drug discovery needed to come up with a new drug that could save lives. And that’s really our goal.” The other main area of research in the Kyle lab is malaria and how the parasite becomes resistant to the drugs commonly used to treat it. Additionally, a less commonly studied strain of malaria can go dormant inside its host, effectively hiding in the liver until flaring up weeks, months, or even years later. Kyle and his team were able to develop a model that simulates that dormant phase to test a variety of drugs to find a way to kill the parasite. But in order to use that model, researchers in the lab must collect parasites from the field. The endowment helped the lab send assistant research scientist Steven Maher to Asia 25 times over the past four years to work with partners in Cambodia and Thailand. “International travel has definitely changed my life,” Maher says. “Right now, we’re supporting people in Asia and their families, and I think having that human connection is really important. I think all too often we do research and we forget about ‘how is what I’m doing helping real people?’ I think a lot of researchers would benefit from that type of experience.” The Georgia Research Alliance, private donors, and the UGA Athletic Association are committed to providing researchers like Russell and Maher with opportunities to advance their work on deadly infectious diseases threatening nations around the world.
“The Georgia Research Alliance really helped me set up this whole operation when I got here. Without the GRA, there’s no way that I could have had this team going for three years.” de n n i s k y l e | ge orgi a r e se a rch a l l i a nce e m i n e n t s c hol a r i n a n t i pa r a si t ic drug di s cov e ry
Photos from left: Assistant research scientist Steven Maher (far right) with the team he works with in Cambodia.
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Doctoral student Cassiopeia Russell works at a lab station.
ON THE BULLDOG BEAT
BUILDING
Private gifts during the campaign helped build and/or renovate more than
MOMENTUM
900,000 square feet of new learning and activity space across the state and in the nation’s capital. Additional funding for these and other facilities was provided by the state of Georgia.
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1. LAKE HERRICK Athens
Lake Herrick officially reopened in Fall 2018, creating new opportunities for recreation, research, and experiential learning. For 16 years, the lake had been closed to swimming and boating due to water quality concerns. Pond improvements prevent sediment and pollutants from passing downstream to Lake Herrick and the North Oconee River. Shoreline improvements include a terraced lawn for activities; an accessible dock for launching kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards; and a walking trail through native vegetation.
The UGA Redcoat Band began using its new artificial turf practice field in August 2016. In spring 2018, the Redcoat Practice Field upgrade was completed with the addition of a multitiered teaching tower. This permanent structure replaced a temporary lift and allows directors to view rehearsals and provide feedback on the band’s drills and formations from a safe vantage point without interrupting class time to lower and raise the lift.
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3. WILLIAM PORTER PAYNE AND PORTER OTIS PAYNE INDOOR ATHLETIC FACILITY Athens
Dubbed the “House of Payne,” this facility is connected to Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall and is named in honor of two former UGA lettermen. It is approximately 140 yards long, 80 yards wide, and 76 feet tall, and is used by the football team for practices, walkthroughs and conditioning workouts. It can also be used by other sports in need of indoor space.
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4. DELTA HALL Washington, D.C.
UGA’s residential facility in the heart of Capitol Hill was purchased in 2013 and is named Delta Hall in recognition of a $5 million commitment from the Delta Air Lines Foundation. The facility underwent extensive renovations to transform the 20,000-square-foot space from a commercial office building to a residence hall and learning community. The inaugural class of students moved into the house in January 2015. andrew davis tucker
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2. REDCOAT PRACTICE FIELD Athens
5. PUBLIC SERVICE AND OUTREACH Athens
The Alice H. Richards Children’s Garden, a $5 million project funded entirely through private gifts, is a 2.5-acre interactive outdoor classroom and the centerpiece of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. The garden teaches visitors about Georgia history and natural resources, native plants and pollinators, and healthy foods.
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7. CHARLES SCHWAB FINANCIAL PLANNING CENTER Athens
A three-story house on South Campus, originally built in 1939 as a residence for students in home management courses, was renovated and renamed the Charles Schwab Financial Planning Center in May 2019. The renovation triples the space available for the financial planning program and now features client interview rooms, an observation lab for financial planning and tax filing sessions, and office space.
6. ROCK EAGLE 4-H CENTER
Eatonton Private funding helped to update the existing ropes/ challenge course and replace six cabins at the Rock Eagle 4-H Center. 4‑H is the largest youth leadership organization in Georgia, fostering the leadership and personal development of more than 243,000 young people across the state.
8. ANDREWS VISITOR AND EDUCATION CENTER, COASTAL GEORGIA BOTANICAL GARDENS AT THE HISTORIC BAMBOO FARM (CGBG)
Savannah For more than 100 years, the CGBG has provided education, public outreach, and research in horticultural and environmental sciences from its 50-acre bamboo-studded location on the Georgia coast. The garden is a top attraction, drawing more than 100,000 annual visitors. This building serves as a focal point for the garden, housing its information center, gift shop, film/lecture room, and large meeting space.
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9. STUDIO 225 Athens
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The following facilities are also among those partially funded by private gifts during the Commit to Georgia Campaign:
Studio 225, named for its West Broad Street address, is the first physical manifestation of UGA’s deepening focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. The home to UGA’s Student Center for Entrepreneurship opened in March 2019 where North Campus meets downtown Athens. It houses faculty offices, conference rooms, study nooks, a maker space, and the SunTrust Foundation Pitch Deck.
• Business Learning Community (see page 25) • Sanford Stadium West End Zone (see page 26) • Veterinary Medical Center (see page 27) • Grady College Peyton Anderson Forum • Dundee Community Association Mule Barn Café in Griffin • Carnegie Library on the Health Sciences Campus • Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library Building • Structural Engineering Testing Hub andrew davis tucker
• Main Library Annex Study Rooms • Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plant Study
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news and events
A Message from the Executive Director
For months, our country and university have grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing concerns about racial injustice and its effect on our Black communities. I have had heartbreaking and inspiring conversations with alumni, colleagues, family, and friends about the crises we’ve faced this year, and I am comforted knowing that our UGA family Never Barks Alone. Thank you to our passionate volunteers— the Alumni Board, chapter leaders, Black Alumni Leadership Council, Women of UGA Leadership Council, Young Alumni Leadership Council, and Student Alumni Council—for helping us to assess the Alumni Association’s role in fostering a welcoming and supportive community for everyone. I also want to thank those who have donated to the Commit to Georgia Campaign (see page 16). Your support is the foundation of success for UGA students and alumni. And to the Class of 2020: Welcome to your alumni family! We’re so proud of your achievements. Please take care of yourselves and each other.
—Meredith Gurley Johnson BSFCS ’00, MEd ’16
executive director, uga alumni association
from the uga alumni association
Let’s Get Virtual
Virtual events will continue to form the core of our programming this fall, meaning that no matter where you live, you can participate. That means if you’d like to participate in an event hosted by the Colorado Chapter, but you live in Macon, you can. Events include the Between the Pages virtual book club, Ask Me Anything Q&A with UGA faculty and alumni, casual chapter networking meetings on Zoom, career development webinars, and more. ALUMNI.UGA.EDU/VIRTUAL
Continuing to Remove Barriers
Thank you to our scholarship fund donors during the Commit to Georgia Campaign—especially those who supported efforts spearheaded by UGA volunteers. The Women of UGA affinity group raised more than $50,000 to establish a Georgia Commitment Scholarship (see page 18) and is working on a second. UGA’s 90 alumni chapters raised more than $117,000 to fund an Alumni Chapters Scholarship—exceeding the original goal of $25,000. Members of The 1961 Club, launched by the Black Alumni Leadership Council to continue the legacies of UGA’s first Black students and graduates, contributed to the campaign by securing over $313,000 for the Black Alumni Scholarship Endowment and a Georgia Commitment Scholarship. And members of the Student Alumni Council continue to educate and engage their peers in giving, especially through UGA’s Senior Signature class gift program. Students need our support now more than ever—and your commitment is already making a difference. GIVE.UGA.EDU
A BULLDOG BARK TO ... Welcome to the three newest members of the UGA Alumni Association Board of Directors. These proud graduates will help guide and plan alumni programming alongside President Brian Dill AB ’94, MBA ’19 and other alumni. ALUMNI.UGA.EDU/BOARD • Kevin Abernethy AB ’99, Atlanta, GA • Elliott Marsh BSA ’02, MAL ’11, Statesboro, GA • Charlita Stephens-Walker ABJ ’89, Decatur, GA
CHAPTER SPOTLIGHT CHAPTER NAME: Austin, Texas CHAPTER PRESIDENT: Crystal Weigle BBA ’12 NUMBER OF ALUMNI IN THE AREA: 1,349 Find your chapter: ALUMNI.UGA.EDU/CHAPTERS
The Austin Dawgs strive to create a welcoming and inclusive community for alumni in the Lone Star State. From rocking out to their own DJ during game-watching parties, to volunteering to clean up local parks, this group of spirited alumni are connecting with both fellow graduates and visitors. The chapter has grown their events from 50-70 attendees to 450+ as they expand their program offerings to foster meaningful connections between Bulldogs of all ages and backgrounds. If you ever find yourself in Austin, join the chapter for a taco and a “Go Dawgs!” special
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Stay connected with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. #AlwaysADawg // ALUMNI.UGA.EDU/SOCIAL Thanks to Michelle Blue BBA ’13 for hosting an online personal and professional development event for alumni in June. More than 100 alumni from around the country participated in “The Power of You” session.
When the Alumni Association’s annual Dawg Day of Service was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Forsyth County Alumni Chapter gave back by donating nearly 600 food and supply items to a local nonprofit organization. More than 40 local alumni participated in the community service project. @ugablackalumni
Steve Minster BBA ’02 posted the steps he took to prepare for the UGA Alumni Association’s first virtual Attack the Day 5K in June. From Minster’s home in Nashville, to Los Angeles and Augusta, alumni laced up to get active with 1,000+ fellow Bulldogs.
When Caitlin Murphy Zygmont ABJ ’02 and Devon Moore Tarter BBA ’96 became neighbors, they also became friends with a shared passion for photography. During the pandemic, the pair participated in The Front Steps Project, raising more than $9,000 for The Giving Kitchen and Table & Aid. Zygmont safely photographed 175 families from their front porches, and Tarter edited three photos for each family.
@sminster10
DON’T MISS OUT As events (virtual and in-person) are scheduled, we invite alumni and friends to visit alumni.uga.edu/calendar to see what is happening in their area.
@Forsyth County Chapter
Thanks to the creative efforts of Courtney Rutledge BFA ’20, a former graphic design intern with UGA’s Development and Alumni Relations team, alumni and friends can enjoy a special coloring page to remind them of the Classic City. Download yours at ALUMNI.UGA.EDU/COLORING. @ugaalumni
@womenofuga
contact us: Visit alumni. uga.edu/ calendar.
Moved? Changed your name? Added a new Bulldog to the family? Let us know! alumni.uga.edu/update or (800) 606-8786.
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classnotes Compiled by Rachel Floyd AB ’19 and Madeleine Howell BSFCS ’20
1965-1969 Jim Southerland AB ’65, MA ’67, PhD ’70 is provost emeritus at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia. George Beckwith AB ’66 is a professor at National University in San Diego. Guy Seabrook ABJ ’69 released his novel In the Nam in March. The book was inspired by his time in Vietnam as a pilot.
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TO A TEE
Shirt Relief When Showpony, an Augusta-based business specializing in creative branded merchandise, and its sister company, Wier/Stewart, began to think about ways to help those feeling the financial impacts of COVID-19, they decided to do what they do best: design. That’s what sparked the idea for We Give a Shirt, the companies’ relief initiative. Co-founded by Alex Wier AB ’97 (right, above) and Daniel Stewart BSFCS ’05, the team designs and prints shirts for businesses, schools, and causes. All each enterprise has to do is promote the design to their audiences and encourage
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them to buy it from We Give a Shirt. The tees are printed after a week on the site. “Early on in the shutdown, it allowed us to pump some cash into a lot of local restaurants and small businesses. We felt helping our community out was the duty that lay nearest. One of the first shirts raised over $4,000 for our favorite pool hall and burger joint, Sports Center,” says Wier. By the end of July, the initiative had raised more than $225,000 for local businesses impacted by the pandemic.
1970-1974 David Hirsch BBA ’71 is founding partner of Brawer Hirsch and Associates in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Claire Maddox BSHE ’74 is founder and executive director of Cross Training Sports Camp in Oakwood. Wally Sweat BBA ’74 was promoted to chief technical officer at Astadia in Boston, Massachusetts. 1975-1979 Philip Craig AB ’75, JD ’79 released his book The Bond of Grace and Duty in the Soteriology of John Owen. Pam Hill Smith BSEd ’75, MEd ’78, EdS ’97 retired from her position as associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction at the Georgia Department of Education. Steve Stephens Jr. BFA ’77, MFA
CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI
Comedy Meets Quarantine
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ovid-19 is no laughing matter. But when an entire country is forced to shelter-in-place for months, comedy offers a much-needed outlet. And it’s in lockdown where comedians like Mia Jackson AB ’00 meet their new, digital audience. “The appeal of doing stand-up is being live and having that connection with people—being able to look at someone, point something out, and feel the energy of people,” she says. Before the pandemic, Jackson performed in venues across the country. In 2018, she toured as an opener for super-
star comedian and actress Amy Schumer. The next year, she taped a half-hour special with Comedy Central. The abrupt cancelation of shows due to COVID-19 was jarring for Jackson, along with many other artists whose jobs depend on a live audience. “At first, to me, it seemed like everyone was numb, going from a full schedule to just nothing.” Initially apprehensive, Jackson adapted quickly and began appearing on podcasts and Zoom calls, headlining for faces in a gallery instead of a crowded theater. She’s performed at various digital events, including the
Mia Jackson AB ’00 Nowhere Comedy Club and Atlanta’s Red Clay Comedy Festival, drawing hundreds of attendees. “People need comedy, but this is a heavy time. So, there’s just a lot of adjustments you have to make,” she says. “I can’t start a joke like, ‘I was walking down the street the other day,’ because no, I was not walking down the street. I wasn’t walking anywhere. I was inside. So, it’s those kinds of things that you’ve got to consider.” For Jackson, being a comedian is more than just her career—it’s her identity. A fan of comedy from a young age, she attended one of her first live stand-up shows at UGA’s Tate Student Center as an undergraduate. On campus, she was described by some as “Funny Mia.” “You could not tell me I was not one of the funniest people of all time. People who knew me privately, they’d be like, ‘Oh, you are slick. You are ridiculous, and you’re very sarcastic.’ I’ve run across people over the years who’ve said, ‘Now that I think about how you were then, the stand-up doesn’t surprise me at all.’” A year and a half after earning her bachelor’s degree in speech communication, Jackson began performing standup in downtown Athens. She worked as a corporate trainer by day and a comic by night for years before going into comedy full-time in 2014. “I always like to refer to what happened to me at my last corporate job as a quit-firing. A ‘quiring’ is what I’ll call it,” she says. And less than a year later, she landed a spot as a semi-finalist on Season 9 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing. From UGA to Comedy Central, Jackson’s friends and family have played a big role in her journey. “I’m performing for the room, but I’m also performing for the people who love and support me,” she says. “And many of them are fellow Bulldogs. To share these milestones with people who have been there along the way with me—that’s been a big part of it.”
written by hayley major
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CLASS NOTES
’96 is employed part-time at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. He established the Ralph and Eugenia Stephens UGA Press internship in memory of his parents. Luann Houser ABJ ’78 is director of career services at Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University in Philadelphia. Christie Esco BSEd ’78 is a substitute teacher in Forsyth County. Debra McMahon BFA ’78 is a cross country and conditioning coach at Mount de Sales Academy in Macon. Julie Mansfield BSEd ’79 is owner of Julie Mansfield Real Estate Consulting Services in
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Columbus. Carey Phelps BBA ’79 retired from Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in Greenville, South Carolina, in July. Cindy Slaughter ABJ ’79 is a creative account manager at R.R. Donnelly & Sons. Jimmy Smith BSA ’79, MPPPM ’85 retired from Clemson University Extension Service in 2018. 1980-1984 Steve Holcombe BSEd ’80 is co-owner and operator of Certified Estate Sales in Atlanta. Terry Ryan ABJ ’80 is a captain for Southwest Airlines, based in Baltimore, Maryland. Julia Arnold BFA ’81 is a teach-
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ing assistant at King’s Ridge Christian School in Alpharetta. Vanessa Dameron BS ’81 is senior quality safety specialist at Piedmont Healthcare in Conyers. Mike Greenfeld AB ’81 is president of Bulletproof Wine & Spirits in Jupiter, Florida. Donna Wolff AB ’81 is a paralegal at Hartman Simons & Wood in Sandy Springs. Charlie Fiveash BBA ’83 is executive director of the Habersham Partnership for Growth in Cornelia. Jeff Jowdy ABJ ’83 was named to the Sorrell College of Business Executive Advisory Council. He is the president of Lighthouse Counsel, which
partners with nonprofits to develop and implement strategies that increase mission awareness, organizational effectiveness, and philanthropic support. Michelle McDonald BBA ’83 is the chief financial officer of Essential Access Health in Los Angeles. She is also the vice president of the Board of Directors of the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation and is on the Budget Advisory Committee of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. Neal Anthony BSEd ’84, MEd ’89 is an adjunct professor at Lanier Technical College in Gainesville, Georgia. Joseph Davis BBA ’84 is president of AddTran Logistics in Albany. Becky Kennedy BSEd ’84 is a physical educator at Fulton County Schools. Byron Meredith ABJ ’84, JD ’88 is president of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees. Andy Wood BS ’84 is senior architect systems engineer at MYCOM OSI. 1985-1989 Ken Griner AB ’86 is a news anchor for WTOC-TV in Savannah. Angela Carlin BSHE ’87 is program accounting specialist at the University of North Georgia in Cumming. Marlene Levine BSW ’87, MSW ’88 is a psychiatric social worker at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI
Airport Security
George Khalil DRPH ’15
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n the two months since george Khalil’s first deployment, the situation had drastically changed. The part-time UGA professor has a fulltime desk job at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, but when the organization started buzzing with news of a novel coronavirus that was bound to hit the States, Khalil DRPH ’15 knew he wanted to be on the ground. He volunteered to deploy to San Francisco International Airport, where the CDC had employees quizzing passengers flying in from Wuhan (and later all of China) about possible symptoms. The goal was clear. “We didn’t want it coming into the country at all, not even one case,” says Khalil, who teaches in the College of Public Health’s doctoral program. But by his second deployment a month later, it was clear that not only was the disease already in communities across the country, it was spreading. This time, he went to Boston Logan Airport, outfitted with an N-95 mask, a face shield, and a medical gown. Khalil spent
eight years as an EMT before joining the CDC, so chatting up ill passengers wasn’t entirely foreign to him. What was new was the fear of catching what the passengers had. “[The CDC] is honest with us—we’re in high-risk jobs,” Khalil says. “We’re seeing sick people. But honestly, our risk is probably the same as going to the store now.” All the CDC volunteers were extra sensitive to developing symptoms of their own, and the atmosphere of the airport was noticeably different than January in San Francisco. The first time, nobody departing a plane wore a mask. The second, almost everyone was masked. Flights were few and far between. The CDC called the volunteers back from Boston after a week, cutting short what was scheduled to be a monthlong deployment. Khalil spent the next two weeks at a hotel, waiting to see if he’d develop symptoms. He didn’t and was able to head home toward the middle of April. Even after getting back, he felt like he hadn’t fully processed the experience.
He’s been fielding 10 to 15 calls a day from people asking for advice, which he’s happy to give. And he’s jumped back into his role as a mathematical statistician at the CDC. But COVID-19 is never far from his mind. The refugee-focused nonprofit he founded, Route 78 Coffee Company, is donating all proceeds from its coffee sales to Ethnē Clinic in Clarkston. The nonprofit clinic serves a large refugee population and aims to treat patients’ physical and mental health, as well as their spiritual needs. When the coronavirus hit the Atlanta suburb, the clinic partnered with the city to provide free drive-through testing for community members. But like other health care facilities across the nation, personal protective equipment was in short supply. In addition to helping raise funds to purchase PPE, Khalil also reached out to the UGA College of Engineering to secure some of the medical face shields the college produced. “I want to help,” Khalil said. “I don’t want to sit at my desk and watch the world collapse.”
written by leigh beeson MA ’17
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CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI
Visualizing a Virus
Alissa Eckert BFA ’04 and Dan Higgins BFA ’93
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lissa eckert received a phone call one morning in January from her employers at the CDC. A new virus that had originated in China was spreading rapidly, the public needed to understand the gravity of the situation, and there was no time to spare. As a trained medical illustrator, Eckert BFA ’04 is an artist with a deep understanding of the life sciences and visual communications. For her, the task was clear: create an arresting visual that would give the virus an identity and make tangible something people couldn’t see with the naked eye. Eckert teamed with longtime collaborator and fellow medical illustrator Dan Higgins BFA ’93 to create what became the iconic image of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that spawned the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon, the image they developed, featuring a gray nucleus spiked with red, orange, and yellow surface proteins, was everywhere. Google “COVID-19,” and there’s a good chance their image will be the first one that pops up. Eckert and Higgins have worked together for 14 years. Before that, they both earned degrees from the Lamar Dodd School of Art, although they were more than a decade apart. Now, they are on the CDC’s eight-member Graphic Service Branch—five of whom are UGA alumni— with the goal of visually bringing the CDC’s messages to life. To get the image to the public as quickly as possible, they streamlined the process for the coronavirus project. But Eckert and Higgins didn’t cut any corners. To get started, they went to work researching and posing questions to the experts in the CDC’s labs. “We’re not experts in coronavirus, but we have a basic understanding of viral structures,” Eckert says. “We know what kind of questions we need to ask the scientists.” Armed with that information, Higgins jumped on the World Protein Data Bank written by aaron hale MA ’16
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and downloaded images of each of the three main proteins that make up the virus. Eckert then combined the pieces to begin to form the now ubiquitous image. Working with CDC scientists, they identified how much of each surface protein to show and how far apart they should be. As a final flourish, they added dramatic lighting to give the image its ominous look. “We didn’t want to scare the public,” Higgins says, “but we did want them to take it seriously.” After an intense seven straight days of work, the pair finalized the image. What they created was a high contrast image with sharp details and textures, elements that bring the virus to life and make it seem real. Since January, both have been inundated with jobs to help the CDC amplify messages during the pandemic from illustrating COVID-19 symptoms to explaining what contact tracing means. Like a lot of us, they’ve been working mostly from home “It’s pretty much non-stop, ASAP mode,” says Eckert. In that time, the duo has seen the image appear on cable news shows, websites, late-night talk shows, even recreated as cupcakes and cookies. They’ve heard anecdotes of people visualizing the graphic before they put on a facemask when going to the store. In other words, the image has bored into the public psyche. For them, that
means they did their jobs. “I think it shows the power of what an illustration can do,” Higgins says. “We sought to create an educational tool, one that hopefully would change behaviors.”
CLASS NOTES
Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins created the ubiquitous illustration of the coronavirus used by the CDC.
THE IMAGE EXPLAINED • The red protrusions are Spike or S proteins. These clumps of proteins attach the virus to the host cell. The spikes create a halo effect, or corona, around the virus. • The yellow specks are Envelope or E Proteins. They’re the smallest of the three main proteins that make up the virus. These are the proteins that punch through healthy cells’ walls to infect them. • The orange crumbs in the image are Membrane or M Proteins. The most abundant of the three proteins, this protein fuses with the membrane of the healthy cell. • The gray surface is the body. This represents the envelope that surrounds the nucleus of the virus.
Tracie Sanchez AB ’88, MPA ’11 is the tourism product development manager at the Georgia Department of Economic Development. She was appointed to the Advisory Board of State Comprehensive Outdoor Rec Plan Committee. Allison Levie ABJ ’88 married Jay Adler in January 2018. She is a senior consultant for FIS in Orlando, Florida. Catherine Ostick ABJ ’88 is a consular assistant in American Citizen Services at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. Joel Parker BBA ’88 is owner and operator of two Chick-fil-A locations in Jacksonville, Florida. Lisa Reavis BBA ’88 is owner of Sand Dollar Accounting Services and Sand Dollar Property Management in Savannah. Tracy Allison BSEd ’89 retired from her position as assistant principal of North Habersham Middle School. Guy Garrett ABJ ’89 is assistant director for the Center for Cybersecurity at the University of West Florida. Maria Novajosky AB ’89 is a freelance writer and author of An Ocean, an Airplane, and Two Countries Full of Kisses. 1990-1994 Sharyn Dickerson BBA ’90, MPA ’98 is the city manager in Watkinsville. Bryan Echols BBA ’90 is the vice president of sales for Lloyd Flanders Industries. Mary Hartzog BSEd ’90 is a third grade teacher at Seminole County Elementary in Donalsonville. Drew Mitchell AB ’90 released the book GRIT, which details the life
and death of UGA student and football player Von Gammon. Mala Sharma ABJ ’90 was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp BSA ’87 to the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Commission. Jeffrey Hollis AB ’91 is general manager at Hampton Inn East Ridge for Vision Hospitality Group. Jeffrey Miller BLA ’91 is owner of Blade and Bush Company and Wild Blue Pool Company in Atlanta. Wendy New BSFCS ’91 is founder and principal of the consulting firm New Strategies, which specializes in strategic planning, board and membership development, and special event marketing and management. Marlaina Woodward BSEd ’92 is an early intervention teacher contracted with Babies Can’t Wait, an early childhood intervention program that offers services for infants and toddlers with special needs. Kendall Dunson BBA ’93 was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is an attorney at Beasley Allen in Montgomery, Alabama. Chris Manzi BBA ’93 is the founder and executive director of North Georgia Junior Golf in Athens. Scott Plunk ABJ ’94 is an audio and video technology and film teacher at Grovetown High School in Grovetown. Scott Rockfeld BBA ’94 released his children’s book Sports Stars: Astronomy for the Sports Fan in All of Us, which introduces kids to astronomy through their love of sports.
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CLASS NOTES 1995-1999 Cynthia Culver BSFCS ’95 is the director of school nutrition for Marietta County Schools. Henry Massie AB ’96 is senior vice president of land acquisition and development at Rotunda Land and Development Group. Tommy Breedlove BBA ’97 wrote the book Legendary in February. It has since been named a USA Today and Wall Street Journal best seller. Amy Ellerbee Johnson BBA ’97 was named the 2019 District Manager of the Year for Smith and Nephew Advanced Wound Management. Mary Ann Sullivan ABJ ’97 is the principal of Restorative Christian Ministries in Fairburn. Jason King BSA ’98 is sales director at BIOMIN. Laura Ross BSW ’98, MSW ’01 is a return to work specialist at AmeriSys in Savannah. Steve Pettis Jr. BSA ’99, MPPPM ’02 is an North Carolina State University horticulture extension agent in Henderson County, North Carolina. John Raulet AB ’99 was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp BSA ’87 to the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertaining Commission. Mark Wiggins BBA ’99 is the vice president of sales at Future Plan in Franklin, Tennessee. 2000-2004 Greg Saulinskas BBA ’00 is the chief financial officer of Troutman Sanders. Jennifer Squillace ABJ ’01 is director of global meetings, conferences, and events at
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Leading the Way
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Michael Burnett BSA ’93
chamberlain smith
ou plan for the worst, but you hope for the best. That’s Michael Burnett’s mantra. As the CEO of Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center, it’s a good one to have. Piedmont Athens Regional is Athens-Clarke County’s largest hospital, and it serves a 17-county region. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, Burnett BSA ’93 and his team had already been tracking the virus for months. They were ready. They launched a command center to help with messaging and communication, not just to local staff but with other hospitals across the network. Piedmont Athens Regional had already procured enough medical supplies to respond to a surge in patients. Elective surgeries were postponed, patient visitation halted, and the entire hospital dug in for a monthslong fight. “I think the most important thing for me was making sure that our caregivers and physicians were supported and that they had the right tools to deliver the best
possible care,” says Burnett. “What can we do to take care of our employees? They are front-line workers in a chaotic environment.” Burnett and his team have been creative. For instance, Piedmont Athens Regional’s childcare center was there for employees who didn’t have other options. Also, in the early days of the pandemic, with information (and misinformation) pinballing all over the place, Burnett began a series of daily messages to staff that served as both information and motivation. Eventually video messages from Bulldog luminaries such as Kirby Smart BBA ’98 and Vince Dooley were added to the mix—more than 40 at last count. (Piedmont Athens Regional is the official health care provider for the UGA Athletic Association.) “I am proud of our team,” Burnett says. “They understand the needs of the patients. We call it our new COVID world we are living in.” Burnett always knew he wanted to work in health care. After earning his bachelor’s in biology at UGA and dual MBA/MHA at
Georgia State, Burnett joined Piedmont Healthcare in 1996. He steadily worked his way up the leadership ladder. He started in in Atlanta, then moved back to his hometown of Fayetteville, and eventually rose to CEO of Piedmont Fayette Hospital in 2014. But when the opportunity came to move to Athens in May 2019, the decision was an easy one. Burnett met his wife Amy BBA ’93 in a psychology class while they were students at UGA, and their son Michael started his first year at UGA in 2019. While Burnett was a student himself, he worked as a patient registrar at Piedmont Athens Regional (then Athens Regional Medical Center), so the move brought him full circle. “I’ve always felt that this is where I started my hospital career,” he says. Governing roles in his fraternity and with the Interfraternity Council also helped hone the leadership skills that would come in handy down the road. “You look back and realize how leading peers helped prepare me for the future.”
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CLASS NOTES HelmsBriscoe. Brian Bacon BBA ’02 is the general manager at EquipmentShare in Savannah. Noelle White BBA ’02 is senior marketing analyst at Cox Media. John Fall BBA ’03 is the chief financial officer of Suffolk Southeast Region. Brennan Leathers ABJ ’03 is an IT business analyst for the Florida Department of Education. David Phillips BSEd ’03 was named the 2020 Columbia County Teacher of the Year. Will Chappell BBA ’04 was selected as a member of the South Carolina Financial Literacy Master Teachers by the South Carolina Treasurer’s Office.
2005-2009 Dynast Amir BSA ’05 is Prince of Ororuwo, Nigeria. Latinda Dean AB ’05 is assistant principle at Clarke Central High School in Athens. Caroline Gregory BBA ’05 is a client adviser at Sterling Seacrest Partners in Savannah. Tina Helms BBA ’05 is director of operations at RE/MAX Center with locations in Braselton, Duluth, and Johns Creek. David Lamp’L BBA ’05 is co-founder and co-owner of Grove Scuba in Miami. Michael Trujillo AB ’05, ABJ ’05 was promoted to national adviser for leadership development and training for Catholic Relief Services. He received his master’s degree
from Emory University. Pamela Marie Amendola BSEd ’06, MEd ’06, EdS ’10 released the co-authored book Integrating Computer Science Across the Core: Strategies for K-12 Districts. Britt Miles BBA ’06 is senior project manager at Choate Construction Company in Atlanta. Jeremy Bennett AB ’07 was named a 40 Under 40 by the Charleston Regional Business Journal. Chad Schmookler BBA ’07 founded Southbound Provisions, a barbecue sauce and rub company, with his wife, Elisha. The company was a finalist in the 2020 UGA Flavor of Georgia contest in the barbecue sauce and seasonings categories.
Jara Butler AB ’08 is national director of training and services for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. Aimee Dershowitz BS ’08 is director of diversity enhancement for the National Psychology Training Consortium for the Great Lakes Region. She is also a psychologist in private practice in Indiana. Leah Farmer AB ’09 is an associate attorney at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton in Atlanta. Jared Hughes BSEd ’09 is head women’s basketball coach at Shorter University in Rome, Georgia. Lori Maggioni BSFCS ’09 was selected to serve as the next program manager for Army Medical Specialist Corps
WE ALL SCREAM FOR IT Safe, fresh food. The University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety, headquartered in Griffin, is dedicated to ensuring that the food we eat is free of pathogens and other dangerous microorganisms. Through a combination of innovative research and strong industry partnerships, from farm to store to table, the Center for Food Safety works every day to protect all of us.
CFS.CAES.UGA.EDU
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The Accidental Chaplain
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he man’s wife was dying, and he needed to honor her somehow before she passed. He told Chaplain Kaytlin Butler AB ’14 the story of their relationship. Years ago, the couple had split up. To patch things up, he wrote a song for her, revealing how much he loved her and his dedication to making their relationship stronger. That song saved their marriage. “There’s a lot of creativity in trying to figure out how to create a beautiful death for someone, how to give somebody a good goodbye,” Butler says. For the dying woman, achieving that beauty meant singing her the song that saved her marriage and then saying a prayer. Butler didn’t anticipate becoming a chaplain at Mount Sinai Hospital after finishing seminary. But she figured the yearlong residency would give her time
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to plan her next chapter. Instead, she found a career she loved and became the hospital’s chaplain for cancer patients. She’d finally found what she was looking for, a place where she could really make a difference. “I stumbled into chaplaincy completely by accident, and here I am,” Butler says. “And now it’s a pandemic, and the world’s on fire. Suddenly everybody knows what a hospital chaplain is.” Mount Sinai saw its first COVID-19 patient on Feb. 29. As more COVID patients were diagnosed and many rapidly went downhill, Butler had to figure out how to comfort them without physically being present in their rooms. She gave nurses rosaries or scapulars to put on the bodies of Catholic patients. She held up a phone outside of patients’ doors so their families could say what they needed to
Kaytlin Butler AB ’14 say before their loved ones passed. She FaceTimed with dying patients’ families. The scale of loss is sometimes overwhelming. “Everybody is up to their eyeballs in loss and in grief,” Butler says. “And the rituals that we use as a society to mark time have all gotten thrown out the window under pain of death—literal pain of death.” Butler isn’t a believer in the old models of grieving that say a person goes through specific stages—denial, anger, bargaining, and depression—before finally accepting that their loved one is gone and moving on. “It’s a lot messier than that,” she says. “I don’t want my patients or my families to put their dead family members in the closet and try to forget them because that pain is just going to eat them up from the inside out.” She would know. Butler’s mom died when she was only 8, and the loss shaped many of the major decisions she has made since. “I took risks. I put myself out there. My life is what it is completely because of the relationship I have with my dead mom.” For Butler, that meant pursuing a graduate degree in religion, hoping to reconcile the questions she had from her religious upbringing with her own interpretation of God before heading to law school. Instead, she found a career and will be ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian church later this year. She tells patients’ families that they too will develop relationships with the people who’ve died. “You learn to live with it, but it doesn’t go away. It becomes part of you, and it changes you.” With more than 150,000 people dead in the U.S. through July, countless families are learning how to cope with the pain of loss. For Butler, community is key to coping and living with the grief that is now saddling much of the nation. “I think it’s true pre-pandemic, it’s true during the pandemic, and it’s true post-pandemic: You need community to survive,” Butler says. “We all do.”
written by leigh beeson MA ’17
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Feeding the Frontlines
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nita Qualls and Aditya Sood don’t remember when they met. Maybe it was during a group gathering in Myers Hall, where they both lived freshman year. It could have been in one of the many biology classes they shared. Regardless of the starting point, Qualls BS ’19 and Sood BS ’19 both agree that they became close friends while taking an evolutionary biology course their senior year. So in the spring, when Qualls was looking for a way to support those fighting the written by eric rangus MA ’94
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COVID-19 pandemic, Sood was one the first people she contacted. The nonprofit they formed has helped ease the burden of thousands of frontline workers across the state. And at a time when collaboration is more important than ever, they are helping bring the UGA community closer together. When the pandemic hit, Sood was in his second semester of medical school at Emory. Qualls was in Cambridge, England, as UGA’s first-ever Churchill Scholar. The prestigious scholarship gave her the oppor-
Anita Qualls BS ’19 and Aditya Sood BS ’19 tunity to study immunology before entering medical school at the University of California, San Francisco this fall. After Qualls was forced to return to the States in mid-March, she actively sought ways to contribute to the fight against COVID-19. One of the friends she reached out to was Cali Callaway BS ’17, MS ’17, a third-year medical student at Cornell. She was involved in an effort to deliver restaurant-made meals to health care workers around New York, called NYP Healthcare Heroes. The concept created a partnership between the organization and local restaurants who made and then delivered fresh meals to health care workers in hospitals and medical clinics around the state. To minimize touchpoints, Feed the Frontlines volunteers aren’t directly involved with food preparation or delivery. Instead, they handle the logistics of connecting with health care providers and providing funding to restaurant partners. When Qualls, who was quarantining in Hiawassee but lives in Johns Creek, learned about Feed the Frontlines, she set up a similar effort in Athens. But she didn’t want to stop there, so she contacted Sood, who lives in Alpharetta. “We realized there was a need, not just with healthcare workers who were struggling but also with local restaurants that had no source of income but massive rents to pay. We realized we could join these two together, not just in Athens but across all of Georgia,” Sood says. What followed was a masterclass in networking and coordination. Qualls and Sood cast a wide net and reeled in dozens of friends and acquaintances from across Georgia who, like them, were trying to figure out a way to make an impact. Feed the Frontlines Georgia grew from four people to 80 in just two and a half weeks, and it now serves more than 40 hospitals and clinics across the state. More than 1,000 meals are delivered statewide every week. Qualls estimates that 90% of the vol-
CLASS NOTES Recruiting and Army Dental Corps Recruiting at the U.S. Army Recruiting Headquarters in Fort Knox, Kentucky. She is married to Alex Maggioni AB ’08. Benjamin Zhang BBA ’09 is a corporate communications specialist at Mercedes-Benz USA in Atlanta.
unteers are current UGA students or alumni. “We were amazed at the interest from our friends to be involved,” Qualls says. “We’ve never worked on something that has been so fast paced and growing like this. We’ve both run organizations before, and we’ve both been in leadership. But this was really unique because of the timeline and because of the eagerness of every person in our organization.” Feed the Frontlines Georgia serves not only cities like Athens, Atlanta, and Columbus, but it also provides crucial support to rural areas like Berrien County (east of Tifton) and Lanier County (near Valdosta). To date, they have raised more than $75,000, which has kept dozens of restaurants afloat. Qualls and Sood say Feed the Frontlines Georgia will continue as long as there is a need, even after they return to school in the fall if necessary.
2010-2014 Elisabeth Duffy BBA ’10 is a case team leader with Bain & Company in Atlanta. Carlye Norton ABJ ’10 is director of marketing at EdTech in Philadelphia. Justin Strickland AB ’10 is county manager in Marion County, Georgia. Chandler Bailey BSFCS ’11 is owner of B Interiors in Little Rock, Arkansas. Murali Cross BFA ’11 is a freelance designer and calligrapher in New York City. Wendi Loggins BSFCS ’11 is a special education teacher in Gainesville, Georgia. Anthony Sberna AB ’11 is an attorney at The Franco Law Firm, PC in Atlanta. Hellen Abwavo BSEd ’13 is pursuing a master’s degree in special education at Kennesaw State University. Summer Joseph BBA ’13 is founder of Amelia Island Getaways and manages over 40 properties on the island. Philip Peavy BSEd ’13 was named the 2020 State of Georgia Aspirations in Computing Educator of the Year for increasing involvement and engagement of young women and underrepresented stu-
dents in the areas of computer science and cybersecurity. Amanda Proctor BFA ’13 is owner of Amanda Proctor Ceramics, where she specializes in customized pet portrait pottery mugs and other handmade pottery. Allison Doyle BS ’14, MPH ’15 is a resident in combined internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Lindsey Rogers Cook ABJ ’14 released the book How to Bury Your Brother in May. 2015-2020 Ashley Turner BSA ’15 is pursuing a doctorate in plant pathology and microbiology at Texas A&M University in College Station. Emily Yates BSFCS ’15 is an account manager at Wier/ Stewart. Olivia Carlson BS ’16 is a registered nurse in the emergency department at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Ellery Ivester BSFCS ’17 is co-founder of Emotional Commerce, which embeds shareable video content into highly customized QR codes for marketing and CX. Kara Looby BBA ’17 is coordinator of athletic operations for the UGA Athletic Association. Catherine McCormack BBA ’17 is a portfolio management analyst at Truist Financial Corporation. Callie Driver AB ’18 is assistant manager at Draper James in Atlanta. Jonathan Carreno BBA ’19 is geo rgia maga z ine | fall 2 02 0
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Beyond the Stadium
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he triple jump isn’t something Asaph “Ace” Levy thought would prepare him to join the fight against a global pandemic. But the fighting spirit that pushed him on the track has proved invaluable in the New York City hospital where he comes face-to-face with COVID-19 almost every day. “Getting through all challenges boils down to two things: God and tenacity,” says Levy BS ’11, who is the senior chief resident of the Diagnostic and Interventional radiology at Lenox Hill Hospital on Manhattan’s written by rachel floyd AB ’19
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Asaph “Ace” Levy BS ’11 and Sarah McCloud Voth BS ’12, BSHP ’12
Upper East Side. “These are the things that have helped me get through this pandemic but also the same virtues that propelled me on the track and in the classroom at UGA. I guess you could say that it’s my inner Dawg that keeps me going.” Levy, a native of Toronto who graduated high school in Kennesaw, earned a degree in biology from UGA while also competing in the triple jump on the men’s indoor and outdoor track teams. He went to medical school after graduating and now leads a team of 16 residents that responded to one of the largest spikes of COVID cases in the world. Even amidst the pandemic, Levy has learned to love his adopted hometown. In the darkest days of March and April, he would skateboard through abandoned Times Square on his way to work and capture the stillness with his GoPro 360 camera. He has also drawn inspiration from his patients and their indomitable spirits. “I’ll never forget when they played ‘Empire State of Mind’ by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys when we discharged our 1,000th COVID patient home from our hospital,” says Levy. “I was in a patient’s room, and she cried tears of joy as we listened and acknowledged the moment together. If moments like those don’t keep you going, I don’t know what will.”
pitching in
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ressure is something sarah McCloud Voth understands. “As a pitcher, I thrived on pressure,” says Voth BS ’12, BSHP ’12, a fouryear member of the starting rotation of the Bulldogs softball team, including UGA’s first World Series squad in 2009. “Sometimes I felt like I did better in pressure situations, whether that was the bases loaded, a runner on second or anytime there was a base runner,” says Voth, who went to nursing school after graduating from UGA with a degree in health promotion. All the better preparation for her current job as an emergency room nurse. “I think that is another thing about the ER. I am used to the pressure. I am prepared.” When the COVID pandemic began placing patients into her care at Medical City Frisco hospital in Frisco, Texas, Voth recognized that her ability to work closely with her coworkers at the hospital was derived from the special bond she created with her teammates when competing to reach the World Series. “I think growing up playing team sports and then my time at Georgia, playing with a group
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of girls and being on a team, prepared me to work in the ER,” Voth says. Voth’s passion for caring for her patients is especially important because of the changes that have been made in the hospital, where no one in the ER is allowed to have family or friends in the room with them. “You have to make sure that your patients are comfortable and make sure they know they are safe. As a nurse, it should always be this way, but it is just a little different because you may check on your patients more often. Voth stresses the importance of the education she received from UGA just as much as her time on the softball field. “My biggest takeaway from UGA were the lessons I learned, the relationships I made and my education,” says Voth, who is in the UGA’s top 10 all time in both wins and strikeouts. “Those are my three big things that I am forever grateful for.”
the customer service manager for the division of lodine and lithium chemicals at SQM North America. Honor Garrett BSFCS ’19 is a staff assistant at McNeely Brockman Public Relations in Nashville. Marlynn Bohannon BSW ’20 is pursuing a master’s degree in social work at UGA. Eleanor Goldin AB ’20 is pursuing a master’s degree in international economics and strategic studies at the John Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies. Kelsey Snelgrove BBA ’20 is a financial analyst at Textron Specialized Vehicles in Augusta. Tyler Williamson AB ’20, BBA ’20 is on the marketing leadership team at Acuity Brands Lighting.
grad notes agricultural & environmental sciences Maruj Limpawatta PhD ’07 is assistant president and director of cooperative education at Siam University in Bangkok.
arts & sciences John Stewart MS ’71, PhD ’73 is an adjunct professor at Troy University.
Jere Hodgin MFA ’73 is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Actor’s Equity Association, Theatre Communications group, and the National Theatre Conference. Dan Lovingood MS ’83 is senior manager of environment, health and safety for PSC Metals southern division. Wendy Wickham MA ’94 released the book Change in 4D: A Holistic Approach to Change in June. Stacey Johnson MFA ’96 received the 2020 Visual Arts Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. Kevin U PhD ’13 is vice president of engineering, data strategy, and transformation at American Express.
business Bernd Muehlfriedel MBA ’96 was appointed by the Bavarian Minister of Science to the advisory board for the Bavarian Elite Support Act, which provides financial and non-financial support to students in the region. Mike Harden Jr. MBA ’97 was promoted to CFO at Free Chapel Worship Center in Gainesville, Georgia. Phil Slaughter MBA ’08 is a project lead at Tata Consultancy Services for Bank of America in Charlotte, North Carolina.
education Michael Gilbert EdD ’73 released Saying It Right: Tools for Deft Leadership. Marlene Kesler MEd ’74 retired from her position as a teacher at Big A Elementary in Toccoa. Luis Visot MEd ’80 received a doctorate in education at George Washington University in Ashburn, Virginia. Douglas Dixon MEd ’90, PhD ’97 released his book Beyond Truman in May. David Friend EdS ’90 is pastor of Corn View Baptist Church in Dalton. Lynn Bump MEd ’95 retired from her position as a teacher at Midway Elementary School in Forsyth County. Dixianne Parker MEd ’02 is a registered dental hygienist and fluoridation administrator for the Georgia Department of Public Health. Jacqueline Jackson EdD ’04 is the family engagement/ health services manager at the Macon-Bibb Economic Opportunity Council. Buzz Ingram MEd ’06 is senior Army instructor for the Army JROTC program at Ware County High School in Waycross.
environment & design Natalie Brown MEPd ’20 is an urban planner in neighborhood and community development in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Rocky Mountain Response
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hen Sarah Tuneberg BSW ’02 arrived at the University of Georgia from Boulder, Colorado, all she knew is that she felt a calling to help people. She is certainly doing that now. Equipped with degrees in social work and public health as well as a healthy appetite for entrepreneurial adventure, she is now the senior policy advisor for COVID-19 Testing and Containment in Colorado. Tuneberg is leading a team to organize testing, contact tracing, technology development, and support services for citizens in isolation and quarantine. Her training in emergency management began in the UGA School of Social Work. She originally explored pre-med, but one semester of organic chemistry convinced her to look for a new direction. “I met with Miriam Sabin PhD ’02, a prowritten by bridget meeds
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fessor of social work, and talked about my hope of working in international relief,” she remembers. “Miriam encouraged me to not only do social work, but to go on to an MPH.” UGA’s social work program helped her learn key insights that continue to inform her work. For her hands-on experience, Tuneberg worked at a shelter for homeless teens. “That experience helped me deepen my power of empathy,” she says, noting that a coronavirus harm reduction strategy also requires great empathy. “Not everybody has the same experiences, and in times of crisis, you need to meet people where they are.” After earning her Master of Public Heath degree at Tulane University, Tuneberg began a career as an entrepreneur and public health analyst. In 2011, she started Rock Park, a firm that provided analytical services for emergency management. Six years later, she
Sarah Tuneberg BSW ’02
co-founded Geospiza, a climate risk assessment software platform that enables global organizations to quantify and take action to reduce climate and natural hazard risks. The company assists clients in visualizing asset risk and evaluates the costs and benefits of potential actions. Visualizing risk and charting a course of action are skills in urgent demand, as the world attempts to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Tuneberg, who contracted COVID-19 in April during the course of her work and has recovered, is drawing heavily from her start-up experience in her current role. “We need to use entrepreneurial thinking and the power and speed of the private sector in the time of coronavirus,” she says. Tuneberg, who is responsible for Colorado’s testing and containment strategy, is pushing her team to automate contract tracing, perhaps via apps, and to develop data dashboards so that local leaders and community members can understand and act on complex data. “We really need to have up-to-date and accurate data to determine the efficacy of our efforts so that we can pivot our resources to where they are most needed,” she explains. She’s also using her start-up scaling skills to broaden Colorado’s supply chain for essential equipment such as personal protective equipment, while also coaching local manufacturers on retooling their operations to meet these demands. Finally, she’s using her social work training to manage a team working to make sure that when people need to isolate, they have access to essential services such as food, housing assistance, and internet. All of these critical tasks require her to draw on the foundation she built at UGA. “The University of Georgia was a community that fostered me and allowed me to take risks,” says Tuneberg, “I learned about innovation, technology, public health, emergency management, and interpersonal skills. I feel uniquely equipped to help in this moment.”
CLASS NOTES
law Carla McMillian JD ’98 was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp BSA ’87 to the Supreme Court of Georgia. She previously served on the Court of Appeals. Nate Viebrock JD ’11 joined Troutman Sanders as Counsel.
public health Stuart Barnes MPH ’18 is second lieutenant for the Army Medical Department as an
environment engineer and scientist.
Terrence James MPA ’10 is policy and projects officer at the Washington, D.C., Department of Public Works.
SafetyNet program, which provides therapeutic services for survivors of domestic violence and their children. Raffi Andonian MA ’10, MHP ’13 is author of Creating Space for Conflicted Histories: Remembering the Atomic Bomb. He is an agent at New York Life insurance company.
social work
veterinary
Brian McCarey MSW ’90 is a supervisor at HomeSafe’s
Gregory Lloyd DVM ’87 is owner of the Hebron Animal Hospital
public & international affairs
want to reach the bulldog nation?
in Hebron, Kentucky. Lisa Katz DVM ’94 is a professor of equine internal medicine and head of the veterinary biosciences section at the University College Dublin’s School of Veterinary Medicine. Caitlin Brennan DVM ’20 was promoted to captain in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps. She attended the Basic Officer’s Leadership Course and VetTrack training in San Antonio.
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c o m m i t t o g e o r g i a c a m pa i g n
THANK YOU
A Shared Vision The success highlighted in this special issue of Georgia Magazine would not be possible without the ongoing support of thousands of passionate supporters within the University of Georgia community. As we look ahead to the many challenges facing our campuses, our state, and our world, we know members of these groups will answer the call because they are Bulldogs united by a common, enduring commitment: to our future, to each other, to Georgia.
• USG Chancellor and Board of Regents • Georgia Governor and General Assembly • UGA Foundation Board of Trustees UGA Foundation Emeritus Trustees • UGA Alumni Association Board of Directors • UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors • UGA Research Foundation • UGA Real Estate Foundation • UGA Board of Visitors • Boards and Advisory Councils in UGA’s Schools and Colleges • Parents Leadership Council • UGA Alumni Association Leadership Councils • UGA Faculty, Staff and Retirees • UGA Student Alumni Council
members of uga’s giving societies
• Heritage Society • Presidents Club • The 1961 Club • Third Pillar • Philanthropy at Work Society (PAWS) Cumulative Giving Societies • Crystal Arch Society • The Abraham Baldwin Society • 1785 Society Athletic Giving Societies • The Magill Society • The Hedges Society • Silver Circle
Thank You! 56
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