The University of Georgia Magazine March 2014 by University of Georgia Alumni Magazine

GEORGIA The University of

Magazine

March 2014 • Vol. 93, No. 2

Mr.

legacy

Leonard’’s

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GEORGIA MAGAZINE Kelly Simmons, MPA ’10, Editor Allyson Mann, MA ’92, Managing Editor Lindsay Robinson, ABJ ’06, MPA ’11, Art Director Pamela Leed, Advertising Director Fran Burke, Office Manager Paul Efland, BFA ’75, MEd ’80; Peter Frey, BFA ’94; Robert Newcomb, BFA ’81; Rick O’Quinn, ABJ ’87; Dot Paul; Andrew Davis Tucker; and Courtney Rosen; UGA Photographers Chase Martin, ABJ ’13, Daniel Funke, Editorial Assistants PUBLIC AFFAIRS Tom Jackson, AB ’73, MPA ’04, PhD ’08, Vice President Alison Huff, Director of Publications ADMINISTRATION Jere W. Morehead, JD ’80, President Pamela S. Whitten, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Tom S. Landrum, AB ’72, MA ’87, Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Ryan Nesbit, MBA ’91, Interim Vice President for Finance and Administration Griffin “Griff” Doyle, AB ’76, JD ’79, Vice President for Government Relations Laura Jolly, Vice President for Instruction Jennifer Frum, PhD ’11, Vice President for Public Service and Outreach David Lee, Vice President for Research Victor Wilson, BSW ’82, MEd ’87, Vice President for Student Affairs Timothy Chester, Vice President for Information Technology Advertise in Georgia Magazine by contacting Pamela Leed at pjleed@uga.edu or 706-542-8124. Change your mailing address by emailing information to records@uga.edu or call 888-268-5442. Find Georgia Magazine online at uga.edu/gm. Submit class notes or story ideas to gmeditor@uga.edu. 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 In compliance with federal law, including the provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the University of Georgia does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or military service in its administration of educational policies, programs, or activities; its admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other University-administered programs; or employment. In addition, the University does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation consistent with the University non-discrimination policy. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to the director of the Equal Opportunity Office, 119 Holmes-Hunter Academic Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Telephone 706542-7912 (V/TDD). Fax 706-542-2822.

Dance students perform “Opening Dream Chaser” Nov. 8 during UGA’s Spotlight on the Arts festival. The free showcase featured faculty-created choreographic works performed by the UGA Ballet Ensemble, the CORE Concert Contemporary and Aerial Dance Company and the Spring Dance Concert 2014 students. Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker

The University of

GEORGIA Magazine

March 2014 • Vol. 93, No. 2

Departments 5 Take 5 with the President President Jere W. Morehead on engaging students 6

Around the Arch

Campus news and events

Closeup 12 A pathway to healing

Veterans helping veterans at UGA

Features 14 Engaging the best and brightest

Over the past decade UGA has developed programs for freshmen that keep them engaged so they stay enrolled and graduate

20 Mr. Leonard’s legacy

Former business executive is helping to create a new generation of leaders

26 The new Rutherford

New Rutherford Hall opens with same classic style, more amenities for students

30 The weather man

Marshall Shepherd is an international name when it comes to climate studies

Class Notes 38 Alumni profiles and notes ON THE COVER Senior Brittany Sink (left) enjoys lunch with Earl Leonard (ABJ ’58, LLB ’61) at the Mayflower Restaurant in downtown Athens. A Distinguished Executive-in-Residence at the Terry College, Leonard has spent numerous hours advising students and made a $2 million gift that helped create the Institute for Leadership Advancement.

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

The Russell Library provides a network of perspectives and experiences for understanding the diverse people, events, and ideas shaping Georgia and the nation’s modern political landscape as its citizens become part of a global society. •

Sustains the vital history of Georgia through state of the art preservation, instruction, reference and outreach facilities and services

•

Connects students and visitors with the rich primary history of Georgia and its people

•

Engages communities in deliberative dialogue through the Russell Forum for Civic Life in Georgia

• Gathers the first person stories of Georgians through the Russell Oral History Program •

Works to foster the economic vibrancy of the state through collaborative opportunities

Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries • 300 South Hull Street, Athens, Georgia 30602-1641 • 706-542-5788 www.libs.uga.edu/russell • Follow us on Twitter: @RussellLibrary • Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RusslibUGA

TAKE

— President Jere W. Morehead on engaging students

Q: UGA enrolls some of the brightest high school graduates from Georgia and around the country. Why is it necessary to offer them programs like First-Year Odyssey seminars and the Freshman College Summer Experience? A: We have an obligation to provide these outstanding students with an extraordinary undergraduate experience. Making sure our students have early contact with tenured and tenure-track faculty ensures that we give our students an enriching experience not always present at other major universities. As someone who has taught in the Odyssey program, I know that our students value the chance to get to know their professors in a small seminar setting. It prompts the kind of learning that sets us apart.

Jere W. Morehead

Q: The Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities is enrolling more first-year students. How does this complement their core academic curriculum? A: When I served as director of the Honors Program, I had the chance to play a role in building CURO. I had no idea then it could ever become what it is now—a first-class program that cuts across the entire campus and provides the mechanism for undergraduate students to work closely with our faculty on research projects. These sorts of out-of-class experiences complement what our faculty do in the classroom and give our students a richer academic experience. Q: Are there disciplines in which you would like to see undergraduate research expand? A: Ideally, I would like to see undergraduate research opportunities in every academic discipline. The goal is to see more of our best students choose this option. From my conversations with the faculty, I believe they find this kind of work with our students to be particularly meaningful and rewarding. It’s what a great university should be about—linking our faculty with our students at every opportunity. Q: What role does international education play in retaining and graduating students? A: Thanks to so many individuals at UGA, we have one of the broadest and largest international education programs in the country. We believe these opportunities provide our students with unique experiences to leave their comfort zones and engage in challenging and innovative programs that enrich their undergraduate education. Q: How do UGA’s freshman programs compare nationally? A: I am pleased that we were recently given a grade of A by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni for the quality of our core curriculum. This recognition provides some evidence we are doing the right things. Our 94 percent freshman-to-sophomore retention rate is further evidence that we are doing well. However, I do not think we should ever be satisfied with the status quo. We want to strive for even higher graduation rates and more programs that will ensure our students leave here as successful graduates.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Meg Babcock-Adams, a junior chemistry and marine sciences major from Athens, helps marine sciences Professor William Miller set up a FeLume flow injection machine that they used on a research cruise in the North Pacific Ocean. Babcock-Adams is part of UGA’s CURO program.

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

ARCH AROUNDTHE

PETER FREY

Graduate students Michael Levine (left) and Jessica Machacek pull a silk screen print onto T-shirts during an open house at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Part of UGA’s second Spotlight on the Arts festival, the open house also included demonstrations in painting and drawing, ceramics and other disciplines. Held Nov. 7-15, Spotlight on the Arts featured more than 60 events across campus—concerts, theater and dance performances, art exhibitions, poetry readings, film festivals, discussions on the arts and creativity and more. Student-organized events included flash mobs and a campus-wide, interactive game of Clue.

Georgia Law brings home national championship A team of UGA law school students went undefeated to bring home the first-place trophy from the Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship in Houston in January. Third-year student Utrophia Robinson of Riverdale also won second best oralist and, with teammate thirdyear Maggy Randels, of Nashville, Tenn., won third best brief. It was UGA’s first appearance in the invitational tournament, hosted for the sixth year by the University of Houston Law Center and Andrews Kurth LLC, which invites teams from the top 16 advocacy programs in the U.S. to compete. Invitations are based on each school’s recorded wins from the previous year in other moot court competitions. UGA’s team beat Seton Hall, Georgetown and South Texas to reach the quarterfinals. The team then beat Georgetown again in the quarterfinals, topped Ohio State in the semifinals and defeated South Texas again to win the tournament.

6 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

Whitten named provost Pamela S. Whitten, former dean of the Michigan State University College of Communication Arts and Sciences, is UGA’s new provost and vice president for academic affairs. Her first day on the job was Feb. 1. Whitten was selected following a national search. She succeeds President Jere W. Morehead, who held the position from 2010 until he became president July 1. Whitten began her career at Michigan State in 1998 as WHITTEN an assistant professor in the department of telecommunication, information studies and media and held numerous positions at the university. She is known internationally for her work in the field of telemedicine, specifically focusing on the use of technology in health care. She earned her bachelor’s degree in management from Tulane University, her master’s degree in communication from the University of Kentucky and her doctoral degree in communication from the University of Kansas.

Morehead receives vestment at November ceremony UGA’s 22nd president, Jere W. Morehead, was presented with the chain of office and the ceremonial breastplate emblazoned with the university’s seal during an investiture ceremony in November in Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall. Gov. Nathan Deal was among the state and local officials who spoke at the ceremony, which was attended by about 900 people. During the ceremony, Morehead restated his commitment to the university and the state. “My core belief about the University of Georgia is a simple one: What we do here matters,” Morehead said. “It is important, and not just to the students and faculty and staff; it is important to the citizens of Georgia.” An investiture is a traditional higher education ceremony in which the leader of the institution is vested with the garments, insignia or ornaments signifying the authority of the office. UGA’s breastplate, presented to Morehead at the ceremony by University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby, is the vestment worn by the university president at commencement and other university ceremonies. It is a silver medallion attached to the chain of office. The links on the chain list the current and past presidents of UGA. Morehead became university president July 1, having previously served as UGA’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost since 2010.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Gridiron academics UGA was one of four universities nationwide to receive the American Football Coaches Association’s 2013 Academic Achievement Award, given to NCAA football teams that have graduated 100 percent of their 2006 freshman class. Other universities receiving the award were Rice, Stanford and Tulane. The award is presented by the Touchdown Club of Memphis. Forty-six other institutions were recognized for graduating 75 percent or more of their football student-athletes.

UGA recognized for Fulbrights UGA was among the top producers of Fulbright scholars in 2013, according to the latest ranking from the U.S. government’s international exchange program. Of research institutions, UGA had the sixth most U.S. Fulbright Scholar Awards for the academic year 2013-14, with five UGA faculty members receiving the Core Fulbright Scholar Award to work abroad. Faculty members and the countries they are visiting are Corrie Brown, a professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine (Jordan), Melisa CahnmannTaylor, a professor in the College of Education (Mexico), Lawrence Morris, a professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources (Brazil), Paul Quick, coordinator of teaching assistant development in the Center for Teaching and Learning (Chile), and Montgomery Wolf, a lecturer in the department of history (Benin). The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program provides the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to solutions to shared international concerns in more than 155 countries. The Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program provides approximately 800 teaching and/ or research grants to U.S. faculty and professionals in a variety of academic and professional fields. Grants are available in more than 125 countries worldwide. Get more at http://www. cies.org.

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

AROUNDTHE

ARCH BEST IN SHOW A

BARK out to

… The Georgia Regents University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership Community Health program, which received a Shining Star Award for outstanding contributions to medical education on regional medical campuses from the Group on Regional Medical Campuses. … June Gary Hopps, Thomas M. “Jim” Parham Professor of Family and Children’s Studies in the School of Social Work, who was named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Workers.

HOPPS

… Debra Mohnen, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Robert A. Scott, professor of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology and associate vice president for research, both in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, who were named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

.... Julie Rushmore, a doctoral student in the College of Veterinary Medicine, who received the Volterra Award for the Best Student Presentation in Theoretical Ecology from the Ecological Society of America. … Somanath Shenoy, associate professor of pharmacy, who was elected a Fellow of the American Heart Association Council of Atherosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

RUSHMORE

… Alfie Vick, associate professor in the College of Environment and Design, who was named a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Fellow by the U.S. Green Building Council. … Robert Warren, a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor in the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, who won The Wildlife Society’s 2013 Excellence in Wildlife Education Award recognizing exemplary teaching.

WETZSTEIN

… Michael Wetzstein, professor of agricultural and applied economics in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, who received a National Teaching Award for Food and Agriculture Science by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

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DYER

MCBEE

Medal honors outstanding former faculty Former UGA faculty members Louise McBee and the late Thomas Dyer are the inaugural recipients of the President’s Medal, which recognizes long-standing, extraordinary contributions to UGA by former faculty. The medals, created by local artist Barbara Mann, were presented during the UGA Founders Day celebration on Jan. 28. McBee, vice president for academic affairs emerita, held the posts of dean of women, associate dean of students, dean of students, assistant vice president for instruction, associate and senior associate vice president for academic affairs, and acting vice president for academic affairs during her 25 years at UGA. She retired in 1988. In 1991 she was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives from Clarke County and served for 14 years. She served as chair of the Higher Education Committee from 2002-04. Dyer was a university professor emeritus and vice president for instruction emeritus. He served as director of the Institute for Higher Education from 2003 until his retirement in 2006. Dyer died in October 2013. His wife, Anna Burns Dyer, accepted the award. The medal was conceived by the UGA Emeriti Scholars to recognize the value of former faculty who have supported deserving students and meaningful academic programs, advanced research that creatively explored solutions for grand challenges of our times, and inspired community leaders to engage in enhancing the quality of life of Georgians through their support of UGA.

Initiative to bolster African-American male enrollment

Cal Powell

Toy story

Seven-year-old Ella Everett (center) examines a new toy while (left to right) UGA student Jeri Stewart-Juba, grandmother Martha Everett, UGA mascot Hairy Dawg and mother Mitzi Everett watch. Christmas came early for Ella and five other Athens-area children who received specially made toys in early December. Designed by students in an assistive technology course, the toys were tailored for children who live with motor disabilities and have difficulty operating the often small and challenging buttons found on toys. Changes to the children’s gifts included bigger switches and easy-to-manage controls made from inexpensive household items. The class was part of theFirst-Year Odyssey seminars, courses offered for one credit hour and designed for freshmen to explore topics related to faculty interests and area of scholarship. Taught by Zo Stoneman and Rebecca Brightwell, director and associate director of the Institute on Human Development and Disability, part of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the class of 16 students learned the practicality of cheap and easy homemade solutions. In their quest to enhance the children’s toys, the students gained useful skills, like the ability to strip and solder wire and reconfigure a switchboard.

Trumpet tune

SPECIAL

The principal trumpet player for the New York Philharmonic will join the faculty of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music as the William F. and Pamela P. Prokasy Professor in the Arts. Phillip Smith played with the Philharmonic for 36 years. Smith is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he was still a student when Sir Georg Solti invited him to join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in January 1975. Three years later, he was appointed co-principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic and was named the sole principal trumpet in 1988. Smith will hold the endowed position left vacant by trumpeter Fred Mills, who died in 2009.

The Office of Institutional Diversity has launched the African American Male Initiative, a program targeted at enrolling, retaining and graduating AfricanAmerican males. Nationally, four in 10 AfricanAmerican males graduate from college within six years, according to a 2012 study by the Education Trust. UGA has some of the highest rates of retention and graduation of AfricanAmerican males in the country, at 79 percent and 77 percent respectively. But African-American males account for less than 3 percent of the undergraduate population, and nearly twice as many African-American females are enrolled at UGA than males. So the problem isn’t keeping African-American males in school and getting them to graduate but getting them here in the first place. Initially, UGA will bring in prospective male African-American students for weekend events that will engage them with the campus environment. Next year, the program will be eligible for a grant of $30,000, which will fund additional recruitment activities. The AAMI has existed on other college campuses in Georgia for many years and has led to marked improvements in enrollment, retention and graduation. From 2002, when the initiative was founded, to 2011, African-American male enrollment in Georgia colleges and universities climbed from 17,068 to 30,847, an increase of more than 80 percent. The program at UGA is co-directed by the Office of Institutional Diversity and the Division of Student Affairs. Athens community partners include organizations such as the Athens Alumni Chapter of the National Pan-Hellenic Council Inc. and the Athens Area Human Relations Council Inc.

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

AROUNDTHE

ARCH Murray gets academic, athletic honors Senior quarterback Aaron Murray was named the 2013 Southeastern Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Murray was named to the College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America first team, and he was also one of 16 players nationwide who earned one of the prestigious National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Awards. The Tampa, Fla., native graduated in 2011 with a degree in psychology after posting a GPA of 3.3 and then recorded a 4.0 in his first semester of his psychology doctorate program. The three-time First Team Academic AllDistrict selection was a member of the 2012 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, and he was named one of 12 finalists for the Wuerffel Trophy, which honors the college football player who best combines exemplary community service with outstanding academic and athletic achievement. Murray set four SEC career records in his final season as a Bulldog, including touchdown passes, total offense, passing yards and completions. The 2013 SEC football individual awards were voted on by the league’s 14 head coaches, who were not allowed to vote for their own players.

PAUL EFLAND

Law symposium features retired justice Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens visited campus in November as part of the Georgia Law Review’s symposium 50 years after the resolution of New York Times v. Sullivan. In his keynote address at the Chapel, Stevens argued against relying too much on history to interpret law. Originalism—the political theory that the original intent or meaning of the U.S. Constitution or laws should be used in judicial interpretations—relies heavily on history that may not be entirely accurate. “History is, at best, an inexact field of study,” Stevens said. “Even the most qualified historians may interpret events differently.”  Stevens was appointed to the high court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. He retired from the court in 2010 at age 90.

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Football=math

PAUL EFLAND

More than 100 Dekalb County fifth graders explored the UGA campus in December, touring Sanford Stadium and Stegeman Coliseum as part of a fall math project that involved SEC football scores. Teacher Scarlett Childers had her students track the wins and losses of five teams—UGA, Louisiana State University and the universities of South Carolina, Alabama and Florida—to practice their skills with fractions, decimals, rounding, graphing and other math concepts. During their visit to UGA, the students met wide receiver Chris Conley, who stressed the importance of education. “People are going to use what you do in the classroom to see what kind of person you are,” Conley told them. “There are so many opportunities to reach goals you set in your life, but college and higher education are big ones.” The students will continue to follow the SEC teams through basketball and baseball seasons as they build their math skills.

GOING GREEN

Organic chemistry? There’s even an app for that

SPECIAL

Organic chemistry students have a new resource thanks to an app created by a UGA professor and a high school student who was part of the Young Dawgs summer research program. Associate Professor Jason Locklin and North Oconee High School junior Chuanbo Pan created the app, the “Organic Chemistry II Survival Guide,” which provides easy-to-navigate notes for organic chemistry students and is based on three binders full of Locklin’s teaching materials and notes. Pan worked with Locklin over the summer using hundreds of pages of notes to diagram more than 200 chemical reactions into a format that could be used in the application. Pan included a feature that allows students to draw out chemical reactions themselves, like they would on a sheet of paper, giving them another way to better learn the information. Students can also flag reactions for further review and add text notes. The Young Dawgs program brings high school students to campus during the summer to study with UGA researchers. The app is $3.99 for the iPhone and $4.99 for the iPad. See a video of Locklin and the app in action at http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=me0sBvDmX1w.

Secret garden

PAUL EFLAND

Vince Dooley (left) and Hubert McAlexander reveal a new historical marker commemorating the site of a 19th century UGA botanical garden, a four-acre area in Athens bordered by Broad, Finley, Reese and Pope streets. Held in October, the ceremony drew a crowd of about 100. The garden’s founder, Malthus Ward, taught mineralogy and botany at UGA and created the garden, which was one of Athens’ top attractions during its existence from 1833-1856. Research was conducted for the marker—and funds were contributed to pay for it—by Dooley, former UGA athletics director and amateur horticulturist; McAlexander, retired UGA English professor and Dearing Street resident; and Michael Dirr, retired UGA professor and nationally recognized horticulturist.

Understanding dementia Researchers at the University of Georgia are looking for new techniques to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Tianming Liu, associate professor of computer science in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is comparing brain scans of patients with mild cognitive impairment to those of healthy brains looking for clues about how much of the diseased brain is disrupted and how different levels of disruption affect cognition. Psychology Professor and BioImaging Research Center Director Stephen Miller is leading a team that uses MRI brain scans to learn how activity in the brain’s lateral temporal lobes relates to memory and cognition, an approach he hopes will result in better diagnostic tools. Initial results from his research, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, show hyperactivity in the lateral temporal lobes of patients suffering from mild cognitive impairment. Get more at http://news.uga.edu/releases/article/new-research-showspromise-for-earlier-better-dementia-diagnosis/ and http://news.uga.edu/releases/ article/uga-researchers-use-new-map-of-human-brain-to-study-dementia/.

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLOSE UP

A pathway to healing Veterans helping veterans at UGA by Emily Williams Growing up, Bill Huff (BBA ’65) always knew he wanted to serve in the military. When he started college at UGA, he pledged Kappa Alpha and later, on a dare, joined the Platoon Leaders Class of the U.S. Marine Corps. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and would serve active duty for the next three years, leaving as a captain. His job, running convoys across Vietnam, risking sniper attacks and land mines, was “hell on earth,” he says. Coming home, however, was its own hell. Anti-war sentiment was strong, and Huff felt it immediately. On the plane from Los Angeles to Tampa passengers turned their backs and wouldn’t speak to him. He was called a baby killer. He couldn’t wear his uniform in public. Huff was haunted by his experiences in combat. Nightmares accompanied his sleep. Rather than facing his fears, he bottled up his emotions in an unhealthy manner. It was, he says, “a pathway to disaster.” But he found help through a program at a mental health center in Columbus where he was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. He learned to talk about the horrors of the war and began meeting other local veterans with similar experiences. “People that have not been in combat, that have not smelled or tasted, felt or understood what combat is, you can’t really explain it to them,” Huff says. “You can only explain it to somebody who would understand it—who had been there.” Now he is reaching out to help student veterans at UGA. Huff is chairman of the endowment campaign for the Student Veterans Resource Center, a unit of the division of student affairs, which opened last spring in the Tate Student Center. Money raised

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DOT PAUL

Former U.S. Marine Bill Huff of Columbus is leading the charge to raise money for programs and support services for veterans who are enrolled at the University of Georgia.

for the endowment will pay for support services, scholarships, programming and other needs that help military veterans at UGA succeed. There are more than 200 student veterans from all branches of the military enrolled at UGA and they range in age from 21 to 64, says retired Air Force Lt. Col. Ted Barco, the center’s director. They served in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq. Some are reservists and some are active duty or retired service members who have served in domestic and international disaster zones. Through the SVRC they are connected with services and programs on campus, as well as in the Athens community, that help them deal with

physical, emotional and psychological issues as well as financial problems that could derail their degree plans. “We are getting the cream of the crop. We have to offer a tapestry of opportunities for them,” Barco says. “These are the ones who have the greatest potential to shape business and culture in the nation going forward because their military experience makes them uniquely capable compared to their peers.” Matt Fowler, a senior political science major, is president of the Student Veterans of America (SVA) UGA chapter. When he enrolled in 2012 he was surprised to find few services for veterans on campus. “When I came to the university, I kind of felt out of place among the

CONTRIBUTED

Huff as a second lieutenant during his deployment to Vietnam in the late 1960s.

PETER FREY

The SVRC provides a small space for student veterans to congregate. From left: Clay Shelley, a senior biology and pre-med major from Athens who serves in the Army National Guard; Matthew Fowler, a senior political science major from Loganville and Navy reservist, who served four years of active duty; and Matt Rowenczak, an MBA student from Nashville, Tenn., who spent five years in the Navy.

During a visit to campus, Huff chats with retired Air Force Lt. Col. Ted Barco, who directs UGA’s Student Veterans Resource Center.

traditional students,” says Fowler, a U.S. Navy operations specialist. “When there wasn’t a veterans student organization, I saw a need for it and I really wanted to step in.” He and Mike Lancaster (AB ’13) of Gainesville, Ga., who served eight years in the Navy, initiated the student organization for veterans at UGA. Their work led to the SVA chapter, and then to the SVRC, which is housed in a small space formerly occupied by the U.S. Postal Service. Student veterans use the space to study, learn about support services and meet with other veterans, like Huff, who returns to UGA periodically. In time, Huff hopes the center can move to a larger space and offer more to students. “[These veterans] need help. I am fighting for what I believe in for this center, because we owe it to them,” Huff says. “I am here today by the grace of God. And I was given the chance to make a difference.” —Emily Williams is the director of communications for the UGA Office of Development.

GET MORE dos.uga.edu/svrc

Want to give?

DOT PAUL

Contact Brad Bell, director of private gifts for the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, at 706-542-3564 or bradbell@ uga.edu or visit giving.uga.edu.

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Engaging the

best and

brightest Over the past decade UGA has developed programs for freshmen that keep them engaged so they stay enrolled and graduate

by Kelly Simmons

14 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

hen Austin Garner leaves UGA in May he’ll have completed a research project in genetics and have presented his work at several regional and national scholarly conferences. In addition to his degree, he’ll take with him the confidence he developed in running his own research project and working alongside UGA’s team of geneticists. Not bad for an undergraduate. “I’ve learned so much about who I am as a person, who I am as a scientist. It really changes how you think about things,” says Garner, who is majoring in genetics and hopes to pursue graduate degrees in evolutionary ecology. Garner is taking advantage of CURO, the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities, which allows students to work alongside UGA’s top faculty members on research projects often afforded only to students in graduate programs. The CURO program began as an opportunity for students in the Honors Program, but since 2010 has officially been offered to all undergraduate students, across all majors and disciplines.

Austin Garner works in the lab of genetics Assistant Professor Andrea Sweigart, studying the reproduction issues of the Mimulus wildflower. Garner is one of a growing number of students taking advantage of undergraduate research opportunities.

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CURO is one of several initiatives at UGA that works to better engage undergraduate students earlier in their college careers to improve retention and graduation rates. In addition, UGA: • in 2011 rolled out its First-Year Odyssey Program, which provides small class seminars (15 students per class) with tenured or tenure-track professors for all first-year students. Students must complete a one-hour Odyssey course before the first semester of their second year. • since 2001 has offered the Freshman College Summer Experience, which brings admitted students to campus for a month-long residential experience before the start of their freshman year. Students earn six hours of academic credit and participate in programs and events that introduce them to the diverse resources available at UGA. • since 1997 has worked to extend opportunities for

international study for all students, either through monthlong Maymester programs or more traditional semester abroad programs. In the past decade, UGA’s four-year and sixyear graduation rates have increased significantly and administrators credit programs like these with the difference. “We are very serious about our students’ academic experience,” says David Williams, associate provost and director of UGA’s Honors Program. “By providing highimpact experiences such as undergraduate research, faculty mentoring and study abroad we can ensure that they have every opportunity to succeed.” Garner’s introduction to undergraduate research was through Andrea Sweigart, an assistant professor of genetics, who he met following a panel discussion on science research opportunities. Sweigart was impressed by Garner’s interest

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ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

Ahn Nguyen, a freshman from Gainesville, Ga., participates in an interactive exercise as part of ecology Associate Professor Sonia Altizer’s First-Year Odyssey class.

Freshman Selin Odman, left, got to know Altizer through a fall 2013 First-Year Odyssey course. This spring she is working in Altizer’s lab as part of the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) program.

ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER

“The nice thing about doing research earlier is it gives them them time to experience things and do independent projects.”

—Sonia Altizer

in her work—how species evolve to become reproductively isolated—and offered him an opportunity to assist in her lab. Sweigart encouraged Garner to apply for a CURO summer fellowship, which would provide him a stipend to stay on campus and continue his research. And she set him on course to look at an area that she had not gotten to, measuring the strength of hybrid lethality as a reproductive barrier between two subspecies of Mimulus, a wildflower that grows primarily in the western United States. “He’s doing at this point essentially graduate-level work,” says Sweigart, who has since taken on another CURO student. “It helps them (realize) they’re doing something that is really valued.”

t’s a beautiful fall day and Sonia Altizer has her First-Year Odyssey class outside the classroom in the garden next to the ecology building. The seminar, “Hidden arms race: Rapid evolution of pathogens in a changing world,” is on infectious disease and today the students are learning how pathogens can spread through networks of populations. Altizer, an associate professor of ecology and associate dean of academic affairs for the Odum School of Ecology, has her students stand in a circle. The person on either side of you is in your network, and you pass your infections on to them, she tells them. “Each of you have two and only two contacts,” she says. Using colored streamers and construction paper she then connects the students to others in the group, forming a colorful web design in their circle. In this scenario, some of the students will have only a few contacts while others will have a lot of connections. These are “super spreaders,” she says. Now she introduces the vaccine. “If you only had enough vaccine for 20 percent of the population, you’d want to give it to the super spreaders,” she says. “Who would you choose?” Students suggest heavy travelers, children in school populations, healthcare practitioners. “That might be the rationale for the way vaccinations are given out in real life,” Altizer says. One of the students from Altizer’s Odyssey course is working in her lab this spring. Selin Odman, a freshman from Johns Creek, came into UGA with plans to pursue a medical degree. However, learning about opportunities to explore infectious disease from a research perspective caught her interest. MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

18 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

Seth Euster, a sophomore from Dunwoody, was one of those. During an Honors Program history course in his first semester at UGA, Euster began doing research on the history of slavery at the Shields Ethridge farm in Jefferson. Once the class ended, he continued working on the project through CURO. He is working with Christopher Lawton, a Digital Humanities Fellow in the Willson Center for Humanities and the Arts, to include his research in the Georgia Virtual History Project, which Lawton cofounded and directs. The project uses new and interactive technologies to record the history of the state of Georgia and make it available to the public. Euster also has been invited to participate in a panel discussion for the spring meeting of the Georgia Association of Historians. While he considered other schools, such as Emory and Tulane universities, Euster says the opportunity to do his own research as an undergraduate was the selling point for UGA. “It puts me leagues ahead in so many areas,” he says. “I wouldn’t be doing anything like this in any of the other programs I was looking at.”

ANDREW DAVIS tCUKER

“I saw how it affects lives and how it infects the environment,” says Odman. Odman says she didn’t think she would have the qualifications to work in a lab with a UGA faculty member so early. But the opportunities at UGA, like being in a class led by a tenured professor, gave her confidence, she says. “You start doing things you didn’t think you could do,” she says. “You see your real potential.” Altizer has hired two freshmen to work in her lab since 2007. Prior to that, the undergraduates she worked with were juniors or seniors. “The nice thing about doing research earlier is it gives them time to experience things and do independent projects,” Altizer says. “Both (previous freshman assistants) turned their projects into Honors theses.” According to the Association of American Colleges & Universities, first-year seminars, undergraduate research, writing-intensive courses, diversity and service-learning programs are among ways to improve undergraduate retention and graduation rates. Since 1999, UGA’s six-year graduation rate has climbed from 75.8 percent to 83.3 percent (for the freshman class of 2005, the last year records are available). Programs like CURO and First-Year Odyssey can also be a draw for students who are looking for opportunities to do research but don’t want to go to a private school or a smaller institution, where opportunities might be greater.

Seth Euster, right, visits with Susan Chaissan, a descendant of the Ethridge family, in the family home in Jefferson. Euster is documenting the history of the Shields Ethridge farm for the Georgia Virtual History Project.

To donate to these or other UGA programs, go to www.bit.ly/1dO6zcP

56.5%

54.8%

58.8%

57.5%

83.3%

51.1%

49.1%

51.3%

52.6%

73.3% 79.4% 32%

29%

38.6%

36.1%

55.3%

46.9%

20 0

U.S. Public

UGA All U.S. Public

4-year graduation rate

5-year graduation rate

UGA

All U.S.

year student entered college

2000 2005

Source: University of Georgia and the National Center for Education Statistics

U.S.

UGA

All U.S.

U.S. Public

6-year graduation rate

Non-Honors participants boost CURO Year

CURO students

Non-Honors

2010 2011 2012 2013

314 346 353 384

NA 51 74 91

Bettina Love, an assistant education professor, center, talks with students after class about the culture of hip hop music. Love’s research focuses on the ways in which urban youth negotiate hip hop music and culture to form social, cultural and political identities.

PAUL EFLAND

Want to give?

100

77.3%

Comparison between UGA and national graduation rates

atchet is the word for the day in Bettina Love’s First-Year Odyssey seminar, “Exploring the history of hip hop and why it matters.” “What is ratchet?” asks Love, an assistant professor of educational theory and practice in the College of Education. “Have you called somebody ratchet in the last 24 hours?” They’re talking about a new song by Beyoncé, the lyrics of which seem to contradict Beyoncé’s high-class personality. Ratchet, according to the New Urban Dictionary, means a diva from urban cities and ghettoes that incorrectly thinks she is “every man’s eye candy.” On the screen is a picture of Beyoncé, wearing a Houston Rockets cap turned to the side, and large hoop earrings. The song playing is “Bow Down,” with uncharacteristically tough, foul lyrics about her hometown of Houston. “It demands respect from a feminist point of view,” Love says of the song. Over the 16-week fall semester, students in Love’s seminar—a mix of males, females, whites and minorities—will use the culture and history of hip hop to talk about politics, racism, sexism, cultural differences and music. One class centered on whether influential African Americans have a responsibility to speak up on social issues, such as the Trayvon Martin shooting. Claire Childers, a first-year student from Perry, says Love has forced students in the class to think about things differently. “She helps you speak up so that your opinions are at least heard,” Childers says. “It’s taught me to speak up and it’s given me a new respect for the hip hop culture.” Many students often stay after class to show Love a new hip hop video on YouTube or to continue the class discussion. While the music may be the draw, Love says the course is preparing the young students for the rest of their college careers. “I’m trying to get them to be critical thinkers,” she says. “We can use hip hop to have an intelligent conversation. They can take that critical lens and apply it to their (other) classes.”

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Mr.

legacy

Leonard’’s

20 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

Former Coca-Cola executive Earl Leonard (ABJ ’58, LLB ’61) and wife Bebe (ABJ ’63) gave $2 million to establish the Bebe and Earl Leonard Leadership Scholars Program, based in UGA’s Institute for Leadership Advancement at the Terry College of Business. Led by Director Mark Huber, the program offers a two-year leadership development curriculum for undergraduates.

Former business executive is helping to create a new generation of leaders by Allyson Mann (MA ’92) photos by Andrew Davis Tucker MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

GA senior Sarah Beatty’s future seems bright. The finance and accounting major completed an internship with Goldman Sachs last year, and she has a position there waiting for her when she graduates. But Beatty, who’s from Roswell, is worried about moving to New York City and leaving behind everything she knows. Luckily she’s having lunch on this November day with Earl Leonard (ABJ ’58, LLB ’61), a former Coca-Cola executive who knows exactly what to say. “It’s going to give you a new dimension,” he says. “You don’t want to ever stay in the same place for the rest of your life. That’s not good.” Downtown Athens’ Mayflower restaurant—“putting the South in your mouth since 1948”—might not seem like the ideal place to discuss big life questions, but it’s one of the places where Leonard regularly meets with students. Over hamburger steaks or

22 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

During a one-on-one advising session in November, Leonard tells junior Derek Hammock that he’s pleased with the changes he sees. “You are learning and becoming aware of things you didn’t think about this time last year and maybe six months ago. That’s great. That’s growth,” he says. “That’s this program,” Hammock replies.

a vegetable plate, he talks with them about whatever’s on their minds, sharing the wisdom acquired during his 40-year career. Conversation varies from the serious to the lighthearted, but either way Leonard demonstrates sincere interest in their lives. He encourages them to follow their hearts, expects them to work hard and answers their questions honestly. It’s an approach that’s made him extremely popular. Another guest at today’s lunch, Brittany Sink, a senior accounting major from Birmingham, Ala., interned last summer with Aegis London. “I bet you enjoyed London,” Leonard says. “Tell me about it.”

arl Leonard’s relationship with the University of Georgia began nearly 60 years ago when he entered as a freshman. After earning a degree in journalism, he served on the journalism faculty while earning a second degree in law. Post graduation he became press secretary to U.S. Sen. Richard B. Russell, then joined Coca-Cola in 1964. Leonard spent 35 years with the soft drink giant, becoming senior vice president in 1983 and leading the corporate affairs division before retiring and serving five additional years as a consultant. Though he settled in Atlanta, Leonard stayed involved with his alma mater. He took on a number of roles with the Alumni Society (now

the UGA Alumni Association) before becoming president. He got involved with fundraising, serving as chairman of the Annual Fund and helping to start the President’s Club (giving level of $1,000 or more). Leonard served on hiring committees, the School of Law Board of Visitors, the Journalism Dean’s Advisory Committee, the Athletic Board and the UGA Foundation board of trustees. These years of service followed from the belief that his accomplishments were a direct result of the training he received. “I wanted to do something to [give] back to the University of Georgia, which I credit with making me a successful person,” he says. UGA President Jere Morehead was a young faculty member in the late ’80s when Leonard invited him to CocaCola for a visit. “Over the years, I would just periodically pick up the phone and say, ‘I need some advice,’” Morehead says. “He’d either give it to me then, or he would invite me to come see him. That’s one of his favorite lines: ‘Come see me.’” In his last decade at Coca-Cola, Leonard noticed that

the job candidates he met were lacking leadership skills and began thinking about how higher education might train future generations. “You have got to have leadership abilities for a 21stcentury success in business,” he says. After retiring in 1999, Leonard and his wife pledged $2 million to establish the Bebe and Earl Leonard Leadership Scholars Program, a two-year leadership development curriculum for Terry College of Business undergraduates. The gift helped to establish the Institute for Leadership Advancement, and the program has since expanded to offer leadership development training to non-Terry students. And Leonard continues to give his time, serving as a Terry Distinguished Executive-in-Residence. He visits campus every two to three weeks, scheduling one-on-one meetings with students from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., which is when his voice usually gives out. “He has contributed thousands and thousands of hours to students and has truly impacted one class after another of Leonard Leadership Scholars over the years,” Morehead says.

Seniors Sarah Beatty (left) and Brittany Sink accompany Leonard back to campus after eating at the Mayflower Restaurant in downtown Athens. During lunch, Leonard emphasized the importance of learning about the cultures, religions and traditions of other countries. “We are guests in other countries, and their consumers honor us with their business,” he says. “And so you want to be very respectful and appreciative of that.”

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

“T

hinking is hard work, but thinking about yourself is the hardest work of all,” Leonard tells a group of students in November. He’s visiting the ILA class Leadership, Personal Development and Organizations, taught by Instructor Vikki Clawson, one of three required courses for Leonard Scholars. The students are working on the Personal Development and Leadership Portfolio, a series of journals, exercises, interviews and assessments that helps them identify personal values, develop a leadership vision, assess strengths and weaknesses, and create an action plan. “One [part] I really enjoyed was having to write our eulogy. That was an eye opener,” says Ambreia Curry, a junior from Valdosta majoring in finance. “I always thought financial gain was one of my big driving points… [but] I didn’t mention money at all.” This kind of thoughtful work is required of students when their training is rooted in servant leadership, a philosophy that embraces shared power and emphasizes helping others develop and perform well. When ILA was established in 2001, it was built on a core set of values— responsibility, stewardship, excellence, integrity and purpose—that drives the curriculum. “To have such a personal class in the middle of a research university is a gift,” Clawson says, “and the gift [came] with Mr. Leonard saying we need to have value-based leaders.” Each year 30 juniors, all Terry students, are chosen as Leonard

While visiting an ILA class, Leonard asks about student internships. He advises a student interning with General Electric to call Trey Paris (BBA ’84, MBA ’85), who works in government relations for GE. “You call him and tell him I told you to call him and that he is to look after you and take good care of you,” Leonard says as the students laugh. “And if you don’t, it’s his fault and I’ll talk to him.”

Leadership Scholars, joining 30 more in the senior class. An additional 60 students are named ILA Fellows, who are not required to be Terry majors. Both Leonard Scholars and ILA Fellows earn the Certificate in Personal and Organizational Leadership. Leonard doesn’t help select the Leonard Scholars, but once they’re chosen he studies their résumés and photos so he can call them by name. He speaks to each incoming class of Scholars, offering a welcome that is affectionately referred to as “Pearls from Earl.” Some examples: • “Leaders should not be afraid of the strengths in their colleagues.” • “Go to the side of those who make a mistake, particularly the young. They will follow you forever because you did not shun them.”

“I think he’s part parent, part teacher, part corporate businessman and an absolutely genuine, authentic human being.” —Vikki Clawson

24 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

• “Life is a one-act play. There are no encores.” • “You are not entitled to anything you have not earned.” “He not only talks to them about business, but more importantly, he talks to them about being an effective human being and being men and women of integrity and character,” Clawson says. “I think he’s part parent, part teacher, part corporate businessman and an absolutely genuine, authentic human being.”

n August 2005, Earl Leonard received a letter that brought him to tears. It was from Holly Isdale, a managing director at Lehman Brothers, who thanked him for sending Drew Fulton (BBA ’06) to serve as an intern in their analyst program. They were so happy with Fulton’s performance that the firm offered him a position. It was a breakthrough moment for Leonard. He’d campaigned hard to get a Wall Street firm to look outside the Ivy League for interns, and Fulton was his first successful placement.

“Our kids are just as good as any kid from Harvard,” Leonard says. He keeps up with “my kids” long after they graduate, displaying photos in his office in Terry’s Executive Education Center in Buckhead. His bulletin board is overflowing so new items are attached to nearby wall space, and his files are full of cards and letters sent by Leonard Scholars thanking him for speaking to their classes, meeting one on one and providing scholarships to support summer internships. With more than a decade of Leonard Scholars out in the world, ILA can boast 300-plus graduates working at places including KPMG, AFLAC, Chick-fil-A, Ernst & Young, Google, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Coca-Cola. Fulton, now at Maverick Capital in New York City, says the program helps UGA graduates compete not just with students from Georgia but from

around the world. “It is an invaluable experience to have access to that type of training… and every year that goes by I appreciate that fact more and more,” he says. Morehead wants future UGA students to have the same access, so establishing an endowment for the Leonard Leadership Scholars Program is a priority for the university. “That’s one way to ensure that the work of Earl Leonard will go on for a very long time,” he says.

“T

hat’s a jam-up tie,” Derek Hammock, a junior accounting major from Vidalia, tells Leonard. The two are posing together for a photo before starting their one-on-one meeting. “This is a terrific young’un right here,” Leonard announces. “He’s a good one.”

At 77, Leonard is bridging a 50-plus year gap when he meets with students. “I learn from them as much or more than they learn from me,” he says. He believes that today’s young people worry more than they should about knowing what they want to do for the rest of their life. “I tell them there’s no way you can know exactly what you want to do right now because you are still in the process of becoming,” Leonard says. “You’re not who you are yet.” In the meantime, he has some recommendations: • “Travel—you learn every hour you’re out there. You absorb things.” • “Be yourself, number one. You’re there to learn.” • “Ask why questions.” These “Pearls from Earl” give students something to think about while discovering who they are and figuring out who they want to become. No doubt they will change as they examine principles of leadership, engage in study abroad and explore the professional world through internships, but a few things will stay the same. Earl Leonard will root for their success now and after they graduate; he’ll share his wit and wisdom with future classes of Scholars; and he’ll begin meetings by asking about them, as he does today with Hammock. “Now,” Mr. Leonard says, “what’s on your mind?” GET MORE www.terry.uga.edu/academics/non-degreeprograms/leonard-scholars

Junior Ambreia Curry expresses concern about finding a way to balance work and family in the future. It’s a fear Leonard has heard from many students. “Listen to your heart, and do what your heart tells you to do,” he says.

Want to give? To contribute to the endowment for the Leonard Leadership Scholars Program, go to http://bit.ly/1a8Y6zO

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

The new Rutherford photos by Dot Paul

he new Rutherford Hall opened to students in August with 261 bedsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;100 more than the previous residence hallâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and an additional 80,000 square feet of living space. The original Rutherford, built in 1939 as a federal project with the Public Works Administration, was razed in summer 2012 after an analysis showed the building would be too difficult and expensive to renovate. In reconstructing the building, steps were taken to preserve the memory and the historic aesthetic of the Myers quadrangle, of which Rutherford is a part. Like its predecessor, the new Rutherford has monumental stairs leading from the Quad, signature columns, subtle arch work, Georgian brick details and traditional window design. It also features two fireplace mantels, preserved from the previous building, that serve as the focal point of parlors located at the entrance to the second floor. The mantels are decorated with mosaic tiles that residents added to the original Rutherford Hall. Several four-paneled doors taken from student rooms in the old hall are at the entrance to the new multipurpose room equipped to accommodate programs or events. 26 GEORGIA MAGAZINE â&#x20AC;˘ www.uga.edu/gm

The new residence hall offers double and single rooms with private bathrooms, multiple laundry and kitchen facilities, study rooms, a computer lab and individual room temperature controls. The building, named for Athens writer and educator Mildred Rutherford, also houses the Franklin Residential College. Modeled after Ivy League programs, the FRC integrates a close-knit community of students with faculty members to create the feel of a small college within a large university. In addition to nearly 160 students, a faculty family lives at Rutherford and regularly hosts students in their home, bringing intellectual excitement into residential life through interaction and engagement with ideas. The FRC is open to any student majoring or minoring in one of the 30 Franklin College of Arts and Sciences departments or schools and includes freshmen through seniors. GET MORE https://housing.uga.edu/residence/tour/myers/rutherford

Spacious rooms with private baths offer comfortable living for students. Sophomore Brittany Savoie, from Gwinnett County, studies on one side of the room while roommate Kristen LaFevers, also a sophomore from Gwinnett County, brushes her hair in the background. Opposite page: The library on the hallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first floor provides meeting space for students. Clockwise from lower left, Chandria Person, a sophomore from Columbus; Chandler Machemehl, a senior from Johns Creek; Harrison Cloud, a sophomore from Woodstock; Andrew Plaskowsky, a sophomore from Suwanee; Tess Watson, a sophomore from Kennesaw; and Will Murphy, a sophomore from Marietta. Right: Students enjoy an afternoon game of soccer on the Myers quadrangle in front of Rutherford.

PETER FREY

MARCH 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ GEORGIA MAGAZINE

Above: A bigger, better-equipped laundry room makes washing clothes easier for students like Sarah Cunningham, a sophomore from New Jersey. Left: Franklin Residental College members at the FRC Cookie night, hosted weekly by the FRC Residential Dean. Below: Lots of light makes the front lobby a comfortable place to study for Paul Serwotka, a sophomore from Germany.

Left: Sophomore Rand Pope, of Brooks County, plays the piano, which was a staple in the original Rutherford Hall. It was tuned and repaired before being returned to the new building.

28 GEORGIA MAGAZINE â&#x20AC;˘ www.uga.edu/gm

Above: Fourth floor resident Plaskowsky talks with Murphy, a resident assistant.

Clockwise, from top left: An iron railing lines the main staircase between the first and second floors; the front and back of the building feature unique light fixtures; a fireplace mantel with mosaic tiles was preserved from the original building; signature columns offer ornate detail.

Below: The hallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main public study room provides space for Rutherford residents to work together.

MARCH 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ GEORGIA MAGAZINE

by Denise H. Horton (ABJ ’83, MPA ’11) photos by Peter Frey (BFA ’94)

Marshall Shepherd is an international name when it comes to climate studies

THE

MAN 30 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

Geography Professor Marshall Shepherd has become a media go-to guy when it comes to climate issues.

MARCH 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ GEORGIA MAGAZINE 31

he football banter begins as Marshall Shepherd enters the classroom on a warm Tuesday in October. “I hope they ran back up the hill and kicked the rock,” Shepherd, a Florida State graduate, says of his alma mater’s shellacking of Clemson the Saturday before. As he moves into the overview for the day’s class—a lecture on convection—senior Ella Dorsey raises her hand. “I don’t want to go completely off-topic,” she says, “But I think there may be an omega block forming in the upper Northwest.” Shepherd’s focus is immediately diverted and the energy in the room increases as he claps his hands in excitement before beginning to search the Internet for appropriate satellite views. “What level of the atmosphere do omega blocks form in?” he asks. “What kind of map should I pull up?” As the students chime in with advice on how to quickly locate the appropriate satellite

images, Shepherd continues peppering them with questions about omega blocks, one of several patterns that tend to keep weather static for several days and, occasionally, lead to weather extremes, including flooding and droughts. “There’s definitely some kind of cyclonic low there,” he says, studying a 500 millibar map that is particularly good for studying winter weather patterns throughout the Northern Hemisphere. He returns to Dorsey. “Ella, what evidence do you see that there’s an omega block?” he asks. “Come on up here.” Dorsey points out a low-pressure system over the Pacific Ocean, a possible ridge of higher atmospheric pressure and another possible lowpressure system. “That could be a rex block and it could be a hybrid of the two,” he says, identifying a weather pattern that features a strong high-pressure ridge adjacent to a strong low-pressure trough. “It definitely shows atmospheric motion. You

Shepherd directs students to a map of a weather system during a class on satellite meteorology and climatology.

32 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

can see the low is retrograding which may be the early formation stage of a blocking pattern. “It’s a really interesting low pattern,” he concludes, praising Dorsey and the other students for looking at satellite images outside of class. Shepherd pauses as though he might be prepared to return to the day’s assigned topic. “Let’s keep looking at this,” he says as the students laugh, recognizing their professor’s interest in exploring atmospheric changes and their likely effect on the climate and weather. Shepherd’s love of meteorology and atmospheric science dates back to his childhood, but it was actually his second career choice. He originally planned to be an entomologist, but a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting forced him to reconsider. As a sixth-grader, Shepherd created a science project titled, “Can a Sixth-Grader Predict the Weather?” that included a collection of weather instruments he constructed using household items and instructions found in a library book. The project was a winner and Shepherd’s career plans were established. “I created a monster because I told him he could do whatever he wanted to do, and then he did it,” says Frankie Shepherd, Marshall’s 70-yearold mother, chuckling at her son’s accomplishments, including being the first UGA Athletic Association Professor of Social Science, immediate past-president of the American Meteorological Society, director of UGA’s growing atmospheric sciences program and a recurring guest on CNN, “Larry King Live,” Fox, CBS and NOVA, in addition to being quoted in myriad print publications and testifying before Congressional committees. Frankie Shepherd, an elementary school teacher and principal, recalls Marshall as an avid reader who used the

Stickers and decals from NASA and other space missions cover a shelf in his UGA office.

local library to find references for both academics and recreation. “He came in one day and said he wanted to play tennis. He said, ‘Let me get a book,’” she says. After reading a library book on the sport, Shepherd and his mom began playing at the local high school courts and, before long, entered local tournaments. Ultimately, he lettered in tennis all four years of high school. Shepherd’s parents divorced before he was born and his mother raised him in her family home in the historic African-American Pearidge Community near Canton. Shepherd’s mother says her son was popular both in Pearidge—an area that has seen many young people convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison—and at Cherokee County High School, where he was elected president of his freshman class, but also was frequently the only African American in the school’s advanced courses. As a high school senior—and valedictorian of his class—Marshall began searching for colleges. “I wanted to go to Georgia Tech,” he says, “but they didn’t have an atmospheric

sciences program.” Instead, he only applied to Florida State University, which has a national reputation in meteorology. “I wasn’t aware he hadn’t applied to other colleges,” his mother recalls. “I asked him, ‘What would have happened if they had turned you down?’ He said, ‘I knew they wouldn’t.’” As an undergraduate Shepherd continued to excel both socially and academically. He joined Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and was elected president of his senior class. He did so well academically that he earned one of the first American Meteorological Society fellowships, which allowed him to continue with his master’s degree at FSU. While working on his master’s degree, Shepherd met Warren Washington, a senior atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who provided sage advice. “Dr. Washington told me, ‘You’re going to be sought after. Establish your science credentials first,’” Shepherd says. Shepherd embraced Washington’s

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

advice and has published more than 70 research articles since beginning his career in 1994, first as a NASA contractor and within months as a research scientist with NASA’s Earth-Sun Division at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. In 2004 then-President George W. Bush presented him a Presidential Early Career Award for pioneering scientific research. While at NASA, Shepherd’s research first focused on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, which provided a starting point for using satellites, radars and improved computer models to more accurately measure precipitation in the tropics. Later he served as deputy mission scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, an ongoing project that uses multiple satellites to collect rain, snow and other precipitation data worldwide every three hours. In early 2014, NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will launch a “core observatory” satellite that will take the GPM mission to yet another level by combining the data from all of the participating satellites into one global dataset. It was while working for NASA that Shepherd earned his Ph.D., his third degree from Florida State University, and met his wife, Ayana, who was earning her master’s degree in urban and regional planning. By the early 2000s, Shepherd was beginning to make a name for himself both for his research and his ability to communicate with the general public. During that time, 34 GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

At his kitchen table, Shepherd helps his children (from left) Arissa, 10, and Anderson, 6, prepare to make a barometer using a jar, a balloon, a rubber band and a straw. The project is in a book, Dr. Fred’s Weather Watch: How to Create and Run Your Own Weather Station, co-authored by Fred Bortz and Shepherd, based on Shepherd’s sixth-grade science fair project.

he began working with Thomas Mote, the head of UGA’s geography department, who suggested the possibility of Shepherd joining the faculty. “NASA had been my dream job,” Shepherd says, “but this was an opportunity to be closer to the grandparents and to take the atmospheric science program to a new level.” Since joining UGA in 2006, Shepherd has continued his research while taking on the added duties of building the atmospheric sciences program. In addition to opportunities for graduate school and jobs in the private sector, students who earn an atmospheric sciences certificate are qualified to work for the federal government as meteorologists and to take the comprehensive test needed to earn the Certified Broadcast Meteorologist seal, a growing requirement for those who want to work on TV. He shares his interests with his two children, 6-yearold Anderson and 10-year-old Arissa. He helped establish monthly Skype sessions that allow fourth-graders in Dacula’s Alcova Elementary School, including Arissa, to video chat with scientists from NASA, the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service and university faculty members. He also is developing an e-book from a text he co-authored earlier that demonstrates how to create the atmospheric instruments he made many years ago as a sixth-grader. Back in his UGA classroom, Shepherd discusses how hurricanes develop and how their intensity is measured. Drawing up a satellite photo of Ethiopia from 2003, he points to a cloud cluster that became Isabel, a hurricane that knocked out power to the Washington, D.C., area for five days. He also goes on a brief rant. “Seventy percent of hurricane forecasts come from numerical guidance,” he says. “Our track forecasting has gotten very good. But there

is still what is known as the ‘cone of uncertainty’ when it comes to measuring intensity. I hate that term. Uncertainty connotes that we don’t know. I like ‘cone of probability.’” Throughout his lecture, Shepherd emphasizes the importance of conveying to the public the overall accuracy of weather reports (“It’s amazing the number of people who don’t understand what a 20 percent chance of showers means.”) and the vital role meteorology and atmospheric science plays in our future. “We have to be more engaged,” he says of atmospheric researchers. “There’s both a public and a policy interest in understanding our climate. But when I speak, I present the science. I don’t have a political agenda.”

Alexandra Horst, a senior geography major from Atlanta, is Shepherd’s undergraduate researcher, collecting data on urban climates. She will be included as a co-author on Shepherd’s paper about the subject.

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

NOTES CLASS

PETER FREY

Lemuel LaRoche (BSW ’02, MSW ’03) speaks to Prophet Noel, 9, as opponent Angelique Black-Smith, 12, looks on during Chess & Pizza Nov. 15 at Little Italy in Athens. The monthly event is part of Chess & Community, a nonprofit created by LaRoche and dedicated to teaching kids to “think before you move.” The program uses chess as a model to help enhance critical thinking skills, a technique LaRoche has utilized in his job as a social worker. “We replace the chess board with the real-life board and then say, ‘Ok, now what’s your next move? How do you plan to get through this?’” he says. For more, visit www.chessandcommunity.org.

CLASS NOTES

Compiled by Chase Martin

1955-1959

Bill Shipp (M ’56) of Acworth was inducted into the Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame.

1960-1964

James Eugene Bottoms (BSEd ’60, EdD ’65) of Tucker was honored with a 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School.

1965-1969

William B. Jones (BBA ’66, MEd ’70) of Jackson was honored with a 36

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School. Carl E. Swearingen (ABJ ’67, MA ’69) of Atlanta was honored with a 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School. William Marcus “Mark” Reed II (BBA ’69) of Dawsonville received the Founder’s Award from Sigma Pi Fraternity International, the fraternity’s highest honor.

1970-1974

Wade McKinnon (BS ’70, BSPh ’76) of Reston, Va., retired in November after practicing military and civilian pharmacy for almost 38 years. Tommy Sasser (BSF ’70) of

Eatonton was named the Warnell School’s Distinguished Alumnus. Devron R. Averett (BS ’71, MS ’74) of Cardiff-By-The-Sea, Calif., was honored with a 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School. Bill Hart (BBA ’71) of Columbus was named Builder of the Year by the Greater Columbus Home Builders Association. Thomas L. Lyons (AB ’71, MS ’71) of Atlanta was honored with a 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School. Jim McClearen (BSA ’71, DVM ’74) was named Veterinarian of the Year by the Georgia Veterinarian Medical Association. Maxine

Hubbard Burton (BSEd ’72, MEd ’78) of Bogart was honored with a 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School. Stan Pethel (BMus ’72, MFA ’73) of Armuchee was awarded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Plus Award. Inez Tenenbaum (BSEd ’72, MEd ’74) of Lexington, S.C., joined the law firm of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. From 2009 until accepting her current position, Tenenbaum led the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. N. Kirby Alton (BS ’74, PhD ’81) of Thousand Oaks, Calif., was honored with a 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School. Richard T. Cupitt (AB ’74, MA ’78, PhD ’85) of Washington, D.C., was honored with a 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School.

1975-1979

Avery Sledge (BBA ’75) of Beavercreek, Ohio, was ordained as a pastor in the U.S. Church of Christ in November. Karl E. Wycoff (AB ’75, MA ’77) of Herndon, Va., was honored with a 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School. Bill Eichenberger (ABJ ’76) of Huntington, N.Y., was named special projects editor for Bleacher Report, the website purchased by Turner Sports that has become the sole sports content provider for CNN. Anne Byrn (BSHE ’78) introduced her new line of cake mixes, The Cake Doctor’s Mix, available in Publix stores. Philip Goldstein (BBA ’78) of Marietta was re-elected as Ward 7 councilman for the City of Marietta. He has served as a councilman continuously since May 1980. Hala Moddelmog (AB ’78, MA ’81) was named interim chief executive officer of the Women’s Foodservice

ALUMNI PROFILE

All in the family The Courts legacy continues at UGA by Lori Johnston (ABJ ’95) Dinner at the dean’s house was an event that Richard W. Courts IV enjoyed while attending UGA. Former Terry College of Business Dean Al Niemi would invite Courts (BBA ’95) and a few other students to his home a couple of times a year for what Courts calls “meaningful adult conversations.” “It meant so much to me as a student at the time,” says Courts, principal at SPECIAL RICHARD W. COURTS IV Atlantic Realty Co., an Atlanta privately held real estate investment company his greatuncle founded in 1936. “I’ve encouraged each of the deans that I’ve had relationships with to do the same type of thing.” Now, Courts says he is going back to school in his new role, as an advisory trustee of the University of Georgia Foundation. As the only one of his siblings to attend UGA, Courts is continuing a family legacy that began with his late great-uncle, Richard W. Courts Jr. (AB ’18), who was a Foundation member 1945-1970. Courts’ father, Richard W. Courts II (BBA ’59), chaired the Foundation from 1990-1992 (a scholarship in his name established the first two Foundation Fellowships) and his mother, Lynda Courts (AB ’63), was chair in 2003. His grandfather, Malon C. Courts (AB ’29), also is an alumnus. A display etched in glass fills a wall in the Buckhead offices of Atlantic Realty Co., telling the story of the family’s history in real estate as well as its commitment to philanthropy. One of the younger Courts’ earliest memories was performing magic shows at then-Egleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta. The elementary school-age magician would share his tricks with hospitalized children and their families, and even bring his show to the bedside for kids too sick to travel to the lobby. “I was raised in a family that promoted and encouraged giving back,” he says. Courts served on the Terry College of Business Alumni Board for 10 years (he also chaired Terry Third Thursday, a breakfast speaker series at the Executive Education Center in Buckhead) and the UGA Foundation’s Board of Visitors. It’s been a “natural progression” to the role as advisory trustee with the foundation. “I’ve got my mom’s and dad’s passion for Georgia,” he says. “My mom was a great role model for me to kind of find something that I’m passionate about. I’m passionate about education.” As Courts represents the next generation of his family’s involvement at UGA, he’s also been pleased to see an upward shift in alumni giving time and resources to mentor and network with students. “You get the opportunity to meet and try and influence students,” he says. “You’re kind of a dot connector. Nothing makes me happier than being able to help connect a student with a prospective employer. Hey, what a great thing.” —Lori Johnston is a writer living in Watkinsville.

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLASSNOTES

® This winter was a busy time for the UGA Alumni Association. In January, UGA celebrated its 229th anniversary as the nation’s first state-chartered higher education institution. The Founders Day Lecture this year, presented by Regents Professor Loch K. Johnson, was accompanied by the presentation of the inaugural President’s Medal to former UGA faculty members Louise McBee and, posthumously, Thomas Dyer, who died in October. The medal recognizes extraordinary contributions by former employees who supported students TIM KEADLE and academic programs, advanced research and inspired community leaders to enhance Georgians’ quality of life. Also in January, the fifth annual Bulldog 100 Celebration took place in Atlanta. Congratulations to this year’s fastest-growing business, Social Empowerment Center, owned by Shelly (MSW ’00) and Edward (MEd ’09) Hutchinson. You can view this year’s ranked list at www.alumni.uga.edu/b100. After years of guest lecturing at UGA, I am now in the classroom as an adjunct professor of accounting with the Terry College of Business. I find it invigorating to interact with UGA’s exceptional students and accomplished faculty members each day. I can tell you from firsthand experience they are the best of the best. With the weather slowly warming up, I invite you back to campus to connect with each other, your alma mater and current students. The Diamond Dawgs, other athletic teams and student organizations are in full swing, offering plenty of weekend and evening entertainment for visitors. And, of course, the UGA Alumni Association will organize a number of spirited events. On April 11, the Alumni Association will host its annual Alumni Awards Luncheon at The Classic Center. This year’s honorees include outgoing Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Tom Landrum (AB ’72, MA ’87), former head of the Department of Housing and Consumer Economics Anne Sweaney, Doug Ivester (BBA ’69), Charlayne Hunter-Gault (ABJ ’63) and the Massey Family of Gainesville, Ga. I hope you will join us for this special luncheon. The Alumni Association is accepting 40 Under 40 nominations for the Class of 2014. This program highlights the professional, philanthropic and personal achievements of UGA’s outstanding graduates under the age of 40. Visit www.alumni. uga.edu/40u40 to submit your nomination by April 11. Finally, be on the lookout for the 2014 UGA Days event in your area. The UGA Alumni Association and Athletic Association will bring top university administrators and coaches to cities across the Bulldog Nation as part of the 2014 tour. These events are the result of these two organizations working together to “bring Athens to you.” Visit www.alumni.uga.edu/ugaday to locate the UGA Day event closest to you and mark your calendar to attend. UGA Days are spirited gatherings for Bulldogs of all ages! Always a Dawg, Tim Keadle (BBA ’78), president UGA Alumni Association

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Deborah Dietzler, Executive Director ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFICERS Tim Keadle (BBA ’78) President, Statham Ruth Bartlett (BBA ’76) Vice President, Atlanta Jennifer Chapman (BBA ’97, MAcc ’98, JD ’02) Treasurer, Athens Bonney Shuman (BBA ’80) Assistant Treasurer, St. Simons Island Julie Reynolds (BSHE ’81) Secretary, Lawrenceville Steve Jones (BBA ’78, JD ’87) Immediate Past President, Atlanta

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION WEBSITE www.alumni.uga.edu 800/606-8786 or 706/542-2251 ADDRESS CHANGES Email records@uga.edu, call 888/268-5442 or visit www.alumni.uga.edu/myinfo

Forum and president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. Kristine Cato (ABJ ’79) of Columbia, S.C., joined the Babcock Center board of directors. Cato is an attorney for Rogers Townsend & Thomas.

1980-1984

Paul Pierce (BFA ’80) of Columbus celebrated his 25th anniversary as CEO of the Springer Opera House, the State Theatre of Georgia. Roger “Bo” Ryles (BSA ’80, MAEx ’88, EdD ’96) of Bogart was named to the National 4-H Hall of Fame. Liz Smith (AB ’82) launched Creative Media Experiences LLC, which aims to provide creative direction for media sales organizations.

1985-1989

Dan Forster (BSFR ’86, MS ’88) of Atlanta was named president of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Julie Holloway (BSEd ’88) of Eatonton was nominated for Putnam County’s Teacher of the Year. Kim Ritchie Spencer (AB ’89) of Savannah has helped to create The Thinking Moms’ Revolution, an initiative dedicated to providing information to the parents of children with developmental disabilities. Initially a blog, the group has published their first book, The Thinking Moms’ Revolution: Autism beyond the Spectrum: Inspiring True Stories from Parents Fighting to Rescue Their Children.

1990-1994

Kimberly Ballard-Washington (AB ’90) of Lawrenceville was named interim president of Albany State University. Jay Hallinan (BBA ’91) of Charlotte, N.C., was appointed CEO of Tenex Health. Allison Dykes (AB ’92) was named vice president and secretary of Emory University. Michael Giarrusso (ABJ ’92) of Phoenix,

ALUMNI calendar Saturday, March 22 Dawg Trot 5k Stegeman Coliseum 7:30 a.m. Fun Run (Ages 6 and under) 8:00 a.m. 5k Join hundreds of UGA alumni, students and friends for a scenic walk, jog or run across the university’s beautiful campus. Pre-registration is encouraged at www.alumni. uga.edu/dawgtrot, but walk-up registration will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. March 20-22 Return to the Arch: 2014 Alumni Seminar UGA Hotel and Conference Center UGA alumni and friends are invited back to campus to enjoy seminars and interactive presentations by the university’s accomplished faculty members. This all-inclusive, three-day gathering will fully immerse participants in the best that UGA has to offer. Register at www.alumni.uga.edu. Friday, March 28 TEDxUGA Tate Student Center UGA faculty, alumni and students will present “ideas worth spreading” during the second annual TEDxUGA. This year’s theme is: [insert your idea here]. For more information, please visit www.tedxuga.com. Saturday, March 29 Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter Night at the Mavs American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas 7:30 p.m. Join the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the UGA Alumni Association for an evening with local alumni and friends as the Dallas Mavericks take on the Los Angeles Kings.

Friday, April 11 UGA Alumni Awards Luncheon The Classic Center, Athens, Ga. For more than 60 years, the UGA Alumni Association has annually recognized distinguished alumni, faculty and friends who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to the university. For a complete list of this year’s honorees and registration information, visit www.alumni.uga.edu/calendar. Friday, April 11 40 Under 40 Nominations Deadline Each year, the UGA Alumni Association recognizes 40 outstanding alumni under the age of 40. Nominations for the Class of 2014 are open until midnight on April 11 at www.alumni.uga.edu/40u40. Saturday, April 12 G-Day Tailgate Tate Student Center Plaza Enjoy crafts, food, giveaways and performances by the UGA Redcoats and cheerleaders during this spirited tailgate immediately prior to the annual spring football scrimmage. 2014 UGA Days The UGA Alumni Association and the UGA Athletic Association will bring prominent campus administrators and coaches to cities across the Bulldog Nation. For a complete list of cities on this year’s tour and registration information, please visit www.alumni.uga.edu/ugaday. To learn about these and other events, please visit www.alumni.uga.edu/calendar.

Saturday, April 5 UGA Ring Ceremony UGA Hotel and Conference Center UGA Alumni Association President Tim Keadle (BBA ’78) will present students with their official UGA rings in front of friends and family members.

For more information: alumni@uga.edu (800) 606-8786 www.alumni.uga.edu

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLASSNOTES

WHY give “I was interested in building up and strengthening programs in education,” he said. “When I graduated from the University of Georgia, the programs for teachers were almost nonexistent. Over the years they have become very strong. As an alumnus, I am giving back what it gave me.” —Stan Singleton (ABEd ’32, MA ’36), UGA professor emeritus of education

STAN SINGLETON

SPECIAL

At age 103, Singleton is one of UGA’s oldest and most consistent donors, having contributed money to the university for 44 consecutive years. Singleton retired in 1978 after 41 years of teaching at UGA. He spent the last nine years of his career directing the in-service teaching program that he helped develop. A Double Dawg, he also holds a Ph.D. from Ohio State University and served in the Navy during World War II. His wife of 58 years, Margaret Slaton Singleton (AB ’34), died in 1997. He has two children, Betsy Singleton Fussell (M ’64) and Stanton Singleton Jr. (AB ’69, JD ’72). Want to give? Go to give.uga.edu.

Ariz., was named global sports editor for the Associated Press. R. Mitchell Wickham (AB ’92) of Charlotte, N.C., was recognized on the 2013 REP. “Top 10 Wirehouse Advisors” list. Wickham is currently a managing directorwealth management in the private banking and investment group at Merrill Lynch and co-manager of Wickham Cash Partners. Amy Kathryn Gleaton (BSEd ’93) of Dalton was named Dalton Teacher of the Year. Meredith Ann Blackburn (BSEd ’94, MEd ’98, PhD ’11) of Watkinsville was named assistant principal at North

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

Oconee High School. Thomas Moffett Flournoy III (BBA ’94) of Columbus was appointed the six-county Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit’s chief public defender.

1995-1999

Aimee M. Driver Dean (BBA ’96) and Donnie Parker Dean of Athens welcomed their first child, Virginia Parker, in September. Melissa Tymchuk (ABJ ’96) of Gainesville was named one of Georgia Trend’s 40 outstanding Georgians under the age of 40 for her work as a PR specialist for Northeast Georgia Health System. Alyssa

“Aly” Montooth (BSEd ’97) of Atlanta was named DeKalb County School System Teacher of the Year. She teaches British literature at Druid Hills High School. Jocelyn Rogers (BS ’97) was elected to the executive committee for the board of the Georgia Technical College Directors Association. Angela Dotson (BBA ’98, MAcc ’99) of Atlanta was named one of Georgia Trend’s 40 outstanding Georgians under the age of 40. She provides financial planning advice for small businesses and volunteers with breast cancer patients through Turning Point Women’s Healthcare. Ashley Harris Groome (ABJ ’98, AB ’99) of Atlanta was promoted to senior vice president of state government relations at McGuireWoods Consulting. Matthew Perkins (BLA ’98) of Canton directed “The Little Tin Man,” written by Dugan Bridges (ABJ ’06) of Hollywood, Calif., and starring Aaron Beelner (MFA ’05) of Decatur. The film premiered at Ciné theater in Athens in October. Kevin S. Rose (BBA ’98) of Chattanooga was promoted to member at Henderson Hutcherson & McCullough PLLC.

2000-2004

Jessica Langston McClellan (AB ’00) of Washington, D.C., received the Young Alumnus Award from UGA’s Blue Key Honor Society. Conner Atkinson Poe (AB ’01) of Cumming was named to the 2014 class for Leadership Georgia. Callie Burt (AB ’02, MA ’04, PhD ’09) of Phoenix, Ariz., was named the 2013 W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow by the National Institute of Justice. Otis Brumby III (BBA ’03, JD ’06) was named one of Georgia Trend’s 40 outstanding Georgians under the age of 40 for his work in overseeing The Marietta Daily

Diabetes advocate launches foundation Phil Southerland (BSA ’05) launched the Team Type 1 Foundation on Nov. 14, World Diabetes Day. The nonprofit aims to address disparities in diabetes care around the world. The Foundation’s first U.S. initiative is a scholarship program for NCAA athletes with Type 1 diabetes. Up to seven scholarships of $5,000 Team Novo Nordisk each will be awarded to help DR. BILJANA AND PHIL SOUTHERLAND student-athletes and their families offset the cost of diabetes care. The program is modeled on Macedonia’s national diabetes program developed by Southerland’s wife, Dr. Biljana Southerland, who serves as program director, medical and governmental affairs, for the Team Type 1 Foundation. Phil Southerland is co-founder and CEO of Team Novo Nordisk (formerly Team Type 1), a global sports organization home to more than 100 endurance athletes with diabetes, spearheaded by the world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team. The cycling team’s goal is to reach the Tour de France by 2021, the 100th anniversary of the invention of insulin. For more information, visit www.teamtype1.org.

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MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

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CLASSNOTES ALUMNI PROFILE

The play’s the thing Playwright Catherine Trieschmann explores contemporary topics by putting them onstage by John W. English “Comedy has been in my tool box, but it wasn’t until I turned 40 and had kids that I turned to writing comedy,” playwright Catherine Trieschmann (MFA ’01) muses. “For me, comedy is the way characters perceive themselves versus how they really are; that gap about their delusions is funny.” Trieschmann’s latest play—a comedy about SPECIAL CATHERINE TRIESCHMANN small-town church life, politics, gossip, amateur artists and a $20,000 prize, titled “The Most Deserving”—premiered at the Denver Theatre Center in October with an off-Broadway production already slated. Over the past decade, Trieschmann has written eight plays that have been performed at venues all over—from the Bush Theatre of London to the New Theatre of Sydney (Australia), from the South Coast Repertory in Orange County, Calif., to the New York International Fringe Festival and such mid-America venues as Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and the American Theatre Company in Chicago. Her work confronts contemporary hot-button issues. “How the World Began” is about the firestorm that results when a new teacher makes an offhand comment about the origins of the universe in a small Kansas town recently felled by a tornado. “My plays are concerned with theological issues,” she says, “questions I’m concerned with in my own life. For example, if God exists, how do we explain natural disasters and suffering? I wrestle with that issue.” Even though Trieschmann’s plays plunge into controversies, she doesn’t take ideological stances. Though she shares feminist concerns, she says her plays don’t make statements about gender: “When I’m writing, I don’t think about it. Geography affects my writing more; my characters come from where I live.” Trieschmann’s work was featured in the Best New Playwrights of 2009, and she won the 2012 William Inge Theatre Festival’s New Voices in the American Theatre Award. “She has a special knack for creating characters who are slightly quirky and capable of doing things we almost anticipate, but that we relish as thorough surprises,” says Stanley Longman, UGA drama professor. And she’s had the good fortune of patronage from some major theatres, including commissions from the Denver Center Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club and South Coast Repertory. “Nonprofit theatre is my bread and butter,” she says, “It’s a hybrid between commercial, Broadway-style theatre and the literary world. It’s great to have them invest in me over time.” Trieschmann’s theatrical scripts are published in the U.S. and the U.K., she wrote the screenplay for the film “Angel’s Crest” and she’s currently writing a regular column called “Parenting & Playwriting” for American Theatre. A native of Athens, Trieschmann now lives in Hays, Kan., with her family. Her children are now occupied during the day, one in day care and the oldest in first grade, so she’s able to write full time. Her latest commission is a new adaptation of Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was set in Kansas in 1900. “I’m going to explore Kansas history and images of those days when it was written and put my own take on the material. It should be fun!” —John W. English, a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Georgia, is a frequent contributor to GM.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

Journal, Neighbor Newspapers and the Cherokee Tribune in suburban Atlanta. Larry Dougherty (BS ’03) of San Antonio, Texas, was nominated for the New Dentist of the Year Award by the Texas Academy of General Dentistry. Mitchell A. Foster (BBA ’03) of Saint Paul, Minn., received his master of science in law degree from Champlain College and was promoted to second vice president at Travelers Companies Inc. Catherine Morrison Harris (ABJ ’03, JD ’06) of Memphis, Tenn., is one of 10 young professionals elected as members of “Young Memphis 2013” by the Memphis Chamber of Commerce. Patrick N. Arndt (AB ’04, JD ’08) of Atlanta joined the firm Nall & Miller LLP. Adam Goldberg (BS ’04) of Augusta was named one of Georgia Trend’s 40 outstanding Georgians under the age of 40. He practices dentistry and serves on the

2014 Alumni Association Awards Luncheon Friday, April 11

The ClassiC CenTer

For reservations, please visit alumni.uga.edu

2014 Honorees Alumni Merit Award Faculty Service Award Doug Ivester (BBA ’69) Tom Landrum (AB ’72, MA ’87) Charlayne Hunter-Gault (ABJ ’63) Anne Sweaney

Alumni Family of the Year The Massey Family

Nominations are now open! A program that recognizes and celebrates UGA’s outstanding young alumni. Nominations will close APRIL 11 alumni.uga.edu/40u40 MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLASSNOTES

NEWBOOKS The Second Bud: Deserting the City for a Farm Winery Mercer University Press (2013) By Martha M. Ezzard (ABJ ’60) This memoir tells the story of Ezzard and her husband, John (BS ’58), leaving the city to save a Southern family farm and delve into the world of fine wine. An Anthology of Sisterhood Eargasmic Ink (2013) Co-edited by Francene Breakfield (BS ’95) and L.D. Wells A collection of more than 100 poems, essays, short stories and lyrics commissioned from 22 women who are joined in sisterhood through Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

The Joy of Nada CreateSpace (2013) By Sue Genaro Legacy (MSW ’91) A memoir about growing up with insecurities and anxieties, but finding ultimate joy in a very real but unexpected place. Reawakening Rebekah: The Gift of the CLAMOR Girls Deeds Publishing (2013) By Deidre Ann Delaughter (MEd ’07) A story that celebrates triumph over great loss and testifies to the resilience of the human spirit, revealed not in grand acts but in the many small decisions to get even by learning to live well.

Romancing the Brand: How Brands Create Strong, Intimate Relationships with Consumers Jossey-Bass (2014) By Tim Halloran (MMR ’94) Shows how to start, grow, maintain and troubleshoot a successful relationship between brand and consumer, sharing the secrets behind establishing a mutually beneficial “romance.”

Gifts in Time Outskirts Press (2013) By David C. Tribby (DVM ’64) A book of poetry whose lines were influenced by the diversity of people, animals and places and the beauty of the natural world.

What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?: A Memoir Oneworld Publications (2013) By David HarrisGershon (AB ’97) This memoir tells the story of the author’s search to uncover the reasons for a terrorist attack that almost killed his wife, and his consequent visit to the terrorist and his family.

The Courage to Kill Cliff Edge Publishing (2013) By Ron Argo (ABJ ’68) As Janice Parrish stands charged for murdering the father she loved, crime reporter Ray Myers investigates her case and finds multiple murders linked to long-ago sexual crimes against children.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

I Dare Me: How I Rebooted and Recharged My Life by Doing Something Every Day Penguin (2013) By Lu Ann Cahn (ABJ ’78) This memoir/ self-help book explores how first-time experiences large and small, from a polar bear plunge to planting an herb garden, can reinvigorate life. On the Organic Law of Change: A Facsimile Edition and Annotated Transcription of Alfred Russel Wallace’s Species Notebook of 1855-1859 Harvard University Press (2013) By James T. Costa (MS ’88, PhD ’92) Offers an edition of the “Species Notebook” of 1855-1859, which Wallace kept during his legendary expedition in peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia and Western New Guinea. Repeat the Remarkable McGraw-Hill (2013) By Perry Holley (BBA ’80) A toolbox for organizational leadership that drives remarkable performance and keeps it running full throttle—an ability shared by great companies. ONLINE Find more books by UGA graduates at www.uga.edu/gm SUBMISSIONS Submit new books written by UGA alumni to gmeditor@uga.edu. Please include a brief description of the book and a hi-res pdf or tiff of its cover.

Symphony Orchestra Augusta board. Erin Shaw Washington (BMus ’04) of Spartanburg, S.C., was named director of the Learning Resource Center and librarian for the Marie Blair Burgess Library at Spartanburg Methodist College.

GO DAWGS!

™

2005-2009

Will Carr (ABJ ’06) of Los Angeles took a position as a national correspondent with Fox News. Lelia Howze King (ABJ ’06) of Charlotte, N.C., was named Young Professional of the Year for the Charlotte chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Kevin Kisner (BBA ’06) of Aiken, S.C., won the Pebble Beach Invitational golf tournament. Andrea Marie Simrell (ABJ ’06) of Simpsonville, S.C., was named public relations representative at Jackson Marketing Group, South Carolina’s second largest integrated marketing communications agency. Blake Tillery (AB ’06) of Vidalia was named one of Georgia Trend’s 40 outstanding Georgians under the age of 40. He practices trial law at Smith & Tillery, teaches at Brewton-Parker College and volunteers for the local Boys and Girls Club. Audrey Irwin Marrow (AB ’07) and Jason Marrow (AB ’05) of Cartersville welcomed their second child, Audrey Marrow, June 10. Jessica Black (AB ’08, BS ’10) of Garfield was sworn in as the newest member of the Middle Judicial Circuit’s Bar Association. Ben Colley (BBA ’08, BA ’08) and Melanie Watts Colley (BBA ’08) of Marietta welcomed their first child, Nick Colley, in May. Ben Erwin (BSBE ’08) and Jamie Wigginton were enaged Sept. 27 and will be married Oct. 25 at Big Canoe. Aaron Jongko (BSEd ’08,

4/C

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CLASSNOTES

ALUMNI PROFILE

Making news First female AJC publisher leads paper in digital age by Lori Johnston (ABJ ’95) Amy Glennon would hang out of the windows at the old Red & Black student newspaper offices in downtown Athens whenever she heard sirens, hoping they would lead her to another story for the newspaper. Glennon’s experiences as a student journalist propelled her into a career in media. She’s now the first female publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the South’s largest newspaper. “I was given opportunities to do some things,” says Glennon (ABJ ’90), during an interview in her corner office at the AJC headquarters at Perimeter Center in Atlanta. “Was it because I was a woman or not? I don’t think so. It was because I was here.” She first experienced the industry at the Red & Black, learnANDREW DAVIS TUCKER ing the importance of deadlines, ethics and management. It was AMY GLENNON (right) the best experience she could have had at UGA, says Glennon, who was the fall 2013 undergraduate commencement speaker. “The decisions you make as a student editor at the Red & Black are the MEd ’09) of Suwanee was named same journalistic decisions you make as you get out here,” says Glennon, an Clarke County School District’s emeritus member of the Red & Black board of directors. Teacher of the Year. Marie Plishka Through her classes with the late Grady College Professor Conrad Fink, a (AB ’08) of Albany took a position at former Associated Press foreign correspondent and executive, Glennon grew the Council on Competitiveness in fascinated with the intersection of strong journalism and the business side of the Washington, D.C. The organization industry. She joined the AJC in 1992, serving in a variety of editorial roles, such creates public policy solutions as features editor, and business positions, including vice president of circulation, for bolstering U.S. economic before being named to publisher in 2012. competitiveness. Brooke Bates It almost didn’t happen. At one point early in her career Glennon was considering a job with Microsoft, which she thought would offer her the management (ABJ ’09) joined Bradley Arant Boult opportunities she desired. Then-AJC editor Ron Martin told her if she stayed, he Cummings LLP as an associate in would help introduce her to those opportunities at the newspaper. A “mini internthe corporate and securities practice ship” enabled her to spend a week at different intervals in circulation, advertising group. Nathan Hertzog (AB ’09, and other departments. MPA ’09) of Signal Mountain, Tenn., Like other working moms, she struggles with “work-life navigation,” as she joined the corporate department of calls it. Glennon credits her husband, Mike, for taking a stronger role in parenting Miller & Martin PLLC in the firm’s their girls, Kate, 12, and Abby, 10. Chattanooga office. While she can’t attend all of her kids’ activities, Glennon commits to at least one activity, such as helping coach her daughter’s fourth-grade basketball team. “It’s the highlight of my week” she says. “It’s the most fun thing I do.” 2010 The newspaper industry still hasn’t found the slam dunk for making money Lauren Sophia Leighton (ABJ online, and the 146-year-old paper—which reaches 1.7 million people daily— ’10) of Denver, Colo., has begun wrestles with its business model changing to print/digital. Glennon says her a master’s program in clinical and management style encourages transparency, collective thought and teamwork. As mental health counseling at the she’s learned in her own career, timing is everything. University of Colorado. Julianna “Everybody’s habits are changing. Our challenge is to be in the right place as McCarthy (AB ’12) and husband that’s changing,” she says. “It forces us to be ahead in our thinking, ahead in our development, but trying to be right on time with the delivery of what that product Kevin McCarthy (BSFCS ’12) is that they want right now.” renovated the bankrupt Bloody —Lori Johnston is a writer living in Watkinsville, and a frequent contributor Point Golf Club on Daufuskie to the AJC.

Island, S.C., into a beach resort.

GEORGIA MAGAZINE • www.uga.edu/gm

“I desperately searched for reliable information to help us through our cancer journey, if only GeorgiaCancerInfo.org had been available then, what an amazing and timely resource.” — Angie Patterson

CANCER RUNS IN THEIR FAMILY SO DOES SURVIVAL. Cancer can run in families, but so can the journey to survivorship. Doris was a smoker who faced lung cancer twice. Daughter Angie battled—and beat—breast cancer. Their lives took a detour, but their shared journey gave them fuel to embrace life beyond being cancer-free. Read their stories and those of others to gain insights into life after cancer at GeorgiaCancerInfo.org. Survivorship is about healing the whole patient for a whole lifetime—not just eradicating cancer.

A SERVICE OF

IN COLLABORATION WITH

MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLASSNOTES

ALUMNI PROFILE

Cancer fighters UGA grads partner to lead Georgia CORE by Lori Johnston (ABJ ’95) Angie Patterson didn’t just celebrate being a breast cancer survivor. She brought her experiences as a patient and as a corporate manager to Georgia CORE (Center for Oncology Research and Education), which turns 10 this year. “It completely shaped everything that I knew I wanted to do,” says Patterson (AB ’78), director of Georgia CORE, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2001. “It changed my whole life to give me an opportunity to actually have a job where you follow your passion.” Relying on her computer science background and 17 years with BellSouth, she began to work with Georgia CORE Chief Executive Officer and President Nancy Paris (AB ’75) to SPECIAL develop innovative ways to support and to show compassion NANCY PARIS AND ANGIE PATTERSON for patients and their families, and to help them make the best decisions about treatment. A website—GeorgiaCancerInfo.org—includes information on more than 790 GRAD NOTES oncologists, 595 clinical trials and 285 cancer treatment sites in Georgia. Another CORE-supported effort, the Cancer Patient Navigators of Georgia, connects and Arts & Sciences educates the 300 navigators who guide cancer patients through their care and Richard J. Cebula (MA ’68) of help eliminate barriers to treatment, working with the Georgia Society of Clinical Jupiter, Fla., was honored with a Oncology. 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in Georgia. Georgia CORE is from the UGA Graduate School. working to unite the state’s cancer community—clinicians, scientists, educators, Ronald L. Vaughn (PhD ’75) of research professionals and those affected by cancer—to increase access to clinical Tampa, Fla., was honored with a trials, discover more effective treatments and improve the quality of care. The organization reported a 65 percent increase in Georgia-based clinical trials from 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award 2009 to 2012. from the UGA Graduate School. “Through Georgia CORE, people can come together and work together. It’s kind Donald K. Ingram (MS ’77, PhD of a free zone,” Paris says. “We don’t really think there’s anything else like this in ’78) of Baton Rouge, La., was the nation.” honored with a 2013 Alumni of In fact, Paris says, people from other states have asked for Georgia CORE’s Distinction Award from the UGA model. The independent organization was created with funds the state received Graduate School. Joel D. Haber from a court settlement with tobacco companies and has an annual $3 million (MS ’81, PhD ’83) of Golden Bridge, budget. In 2013, $275,000 came from state funds. Funding also comes from government grants, clinical trials contracts and revenue, foundation grants and N.Y., was honored with a 2013 scholarships, corporate sponsors (such as Aflac) and private donors. Alumni of Distinction Award from Georgia CORE’s research network—recognized by the National Cancer the UGA Graduate School. Peter Institute—includes 24 oncology practices (nine out of 10 oncologists in the state), C. Griffith (PhD ’88) of Baltimore, competing hospitals and academic centers providing care to two-thirds of all new Md., was honored with a 2013 cancer cases in the state. Alumni of Distinction Award from Patterson and Paris took different paths to Georgia CORE and were three years the UGA Graduate School. Doyle apart at UGA. Patterson studied computer science, while Paris majored in sociology Wade Srader (PhD ’03) of Eugene, and served as president of Saint Joseph’s Mercy Care Services and vice president of Ore., was promoted to professor of the Georgia Baptist Health Care System prior to joining Georgia CORE. They are confident they have more accomplishments ahead in the speech communication at Northwest organization’s second decade, as they seek to use more technology, research and Christian University in Eugene, therapies and treatments to elevate the quality of cancer care. Ore. Philip G. Bartley (PhD ’04) “We’ve created something with a small amount of state funding,” Patterson of Athens was honored with a 2013 says. “We still have big dreams.” Alumni of Distinction Award from —Lori Johnston is a writer living in Watkinsville.

the UGA Graduate School.

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Education

Irby Sullivan (EdD ’91) of Carrollton was selected as the president of Alfred State College. Ann Levett (EdD ’92) of Macon is the chief academic officer of Savannah-Chatham County Public School System. Brendan M. Carr (MEd ’12) of Athens was elected student representative for the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

Environment & Design

Charles Brent Runyon (MHP ’05) of Thomasville was named executive director of the Providence Preservation Society.

Forestry & Natural Resources

Josh Harrell (MFR ’03) received the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award from the Warnell School of Forestry.

Law

Lawton Jordan III (LLB ’64) of Augusta was appointed to the state ethics commission by Gov. Nathan Deal. Thomas E. Jones (JD ’74) of Atlanta was named to the 2014 list of the Best Lawyers in America in the Trusts & Estates practice area. Don L. Waters (JD ’78) of Savannah was inducted into the Savannah Business Hall of Fame. D. Albert “Bert” Brannen (JD ’82, MBA ’82) of Atlanta was named the new managing partner of the Atlanta office of Fisher & Phillips LLP. Carla McMillian (JD ’98) of Tyrone became the first AfricanAmerican judge appointed to the Georgia Court of Appeals. Maria Waters (JD ’99) joined the law firm of attorney Lester Johnson III in Savannah. Richard G. Douglass (JD ’02) of Evanston, Ill., was selected as one of the 40

Courtesy of Bisig Impact Group

Terry grad gets award for green home

Luis Imery (MBA ’03) in October won the EarthCraft Platinum House of the Year Award from Atlanta’s SouthFace Institute, the top green building organization in the Southeast. The net-zero energy home was the highest scoring home to date as determined by EarthCraft. Built by Imery and Co. LLC, the 2,600-square-foot house is located in the Serenbe community in Chattahoochee Hills. Get more at www. ProudGreenHome.com.

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MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLASSNOTES

ALUMNI PROFILE

Making Moonshine For three alumni, starting a business together made scents by Allyson Mann (MA ’92) Moonshine is bottled in a flask and stored in a wooden box stuffed in a burlap sack, but it’s not actually bootlegged whiskey. It’s a cologne created by UGA graduates Charlie Holderness (BSFCS ’05), Matt Moore (BBA ’05) and Colin Newberry (AB ’05). After graduation, the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brothers settled in different cities but kept in touch. Holderness moved to Greensboro, N.C., where he worked as an insurance salesman and started modeling; Moore pursued work in music and publishing in Nashville, Tenn.; and Newberry settled in Austin, Texas, after finishing law school. Sharing the details of their lives by email, they gradually began discussing the idea of starting a business together. “We certainly did not start out as friends thinking that we would ever start a fragrance company, but you know life works out that way,” Moore says. The three considered themselves Southern gentlemen—man’s man type of guys—and saw a void in the fragrance marketplace, which was dominated by brands like Polo and celebrities like David Beckham. “We just thought it was ridiculous,” Moore says. “We thought you could be a man and smell good without really having to be associated with a brand or a model.” To create their product, they partnered with French fragrance company Galimard, choosing a scent with hints of black pepper, tobacco, leather, gin and patchouli. The three bottled it themselves in the basement at Holderness’ parents’ house in Greensboro, launching Moonshine in 2011. Moore, who’d published a cookbook (Have Her Over for Dinner), handled sales and marketing while Holderness oversaw insurance and product liability and Newberry handled the legal side. They named their company EastWest Bottlers, paying tribute to a favorite Athens restaurant. Since then the company has expanded its product line, adding Moonshine soap and after shave balm as well as Speakeasy, a women’s fragrance. For Speakeasy—named after another Athens establishment—the trio wanted to sweeten some of the same notes found in Moonshine. The resulting scent has hints of pink peppercorn, white moss, sapphire gin, patchouli and nutmeg. EastWest products are available at more than 500

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SPECIAL

For friends (left to right) Matt Moore, Colin Newberry and Charlie Holderness, staying in touch after graduation turned into starting a business together—EastWest Bottlers, which launched its signature men’s fragrance, Moonshine, in 2011.

retailers nationwide, including Belk and smaller, local stores like Onward Reserve in Athens. This year the company will reach $1 million in sales, which means they’re long past the days when they could bottle it themselves. “The thing that I miss most is spending time together,” Moore says. “We’d spend three or four days together just sitting in the basement drinking beers and eating pizza and bottling fragrance, which is so funny to me.” Despite their company’s success, Holderness, Moore and Newberry have kept their full-time jobs. They’ve taken EastWest earnings and reinvested in the company, focusing on growing their brand while staying true to the Southern heritage that inspired their vision. “We’re just three guys working really hard to create a product that we’re proud of,” Moore says.

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Some kind of spark

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Filmmaker Ben Niles (M ’88) is putting the finishing touches on his latest work, “Some Kind of Spark,” a documentary film about inner-city kids in the Julliard School’s Music Advancement Program in New York City. Niles has been following the children, including these in a still from the film above, in the program for three years and plans to use the film to promote music education. Niles’ previous film, “Note by Note (the Making of Steinway L1037),” aired on PBS in the fall. Learn more about “Some Kind of Spark,” including when it will debut, at www.somekindofspark.com.

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CLASSNOTES

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LEAH BROWN

Courtesy of Lt. Cmdr. Leah Brown

Shining Star Lt. Cmdr. Leah Brown (BS ’98), shown above in Afghanistan, was awarded the Bronze Star for her humanitarian efforts during deployment. The former Gym Dog and All-American, who led her team to two national championships in the 1990s, became an orthopedic surgeon after graduation and joined the Navy. After eight years as a doctor in San Diego, she was deployed first to Iraq and then to Afghanistan. There she treated combat wounds and IED injuries that often resulted in amputations. During her last months in Afghanistan she specialized in humanitarian assistance in the Tarin Kowt district of Uruzgan province, caring for troops but also for local children. She headed an all-female team that earned the trust of the community. They were then allowed to treat Afghan women who, according to custom, normally would not be allowed to see American medical personnel. Now back in the United States, Brown is stationed at Naval Hospital Bremerton in Bremerton, Wash.

most talented young attorneys in Illinois by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Benjamin Vinson (JD ’02) of Brookhaven was named one of Georgia Trend’s 40 outstanding Georgians under the age of 40. He was appointed to the Immigration Enforcement Review Board by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2011 and is also a board member of the Federalist Society. Francys Johnson (JD ’04) of Statesboro was elected president of the Georgia State Conference NAACP.

Public & International Affairs

Matt Bishop (MPA ’99, PhD ’12) of Athens was named one of Georgia Trend’s 40 outstanding Georgians under the age of 40 for his community outreach work with the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership at the University of Georgia.

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Veterinary Medicine

Charles E. Hamner Jr. (DVM ’60, MS ’62, PhD ’64) of Chapel Hill, N.C., was honored with a 2013 Alumni of Distinction Award from the UGA Graduate School. MARCH 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE

CLASSNOTES

Alumnus is first recipient of new prize Daniel Streicker (PhD ’11), shown holding a common vampire bat in the Peruvian Andes, was named the first grand prize winner of the new Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists. He received the prize, which includes a $25,000 honorarium, Dec. 9 in Stockholm. A research fellow at Claudio Mondalgo DANIEL STREICKER the University of Glasgow, Scotland, Streicker studies the ecology and evolution of emerging infectious diseases. Working with rabies virus in bats, he explores questions about when, where and how viruses jump from one host species to another. His findings not only answer basic scientific questions but have real-world implications for public health, agriculture and wildlife conservation. The award was created by Science, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and SciLifeLab, a center for molecular bioscience focused on health and the environment.

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BACK

PAGE “When I was at [Makerere University] I realized how blessed we were. At the time the country was looking at us as an investment. They paid for our university education and in turn … were creating people who were going to manage the economy. Coming from my humble background, I saw the people who owned the small plots of land, how much they were giving in terms of taxes, the things government took from them to support us in the university… I wish all of us who were benefitting from this would give back. The one way we can say thank you to these people is to do things that increase their incomes. The most wonderful thing is that I have been able to do this together with my undergraduate students.” — William Kisaalita on why he focuses much of his work on innovations that benefit the poor. His most recent grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID will enable him to work with women in sub-Saharan Africa to create a device that will speed up the process for making ghee, a commonly used butter substance from whole milk, and to field test a milk cooler that is powered by renewable energy (biogas) for small acreage farms with no access to grid electricity.

William S. Kisaalita Professor and biological engineering program coordinator, College of Engineering B.Sc., mechanical engineering, Makerere University (Uganda) M.A.Sc., bio-resource engineering, University of British Columbia Ph.D., chemical engineering, University of British Columbia Distinguished member, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, 2013 Inaugural recipient of the UGA Scholarship of Engagement Award, 2008 Photo shot by Andrew Davis Tucker at the UGA photography studio in the Georgia Center. 56

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The Georgia Center’s UGA Hotel and Conference Center provides a stimulating environment where academic, business and civic groups share information and exchange ideas. In the heart of the UGA campus, this unique educational enterprise is designed to enhance learning and professional development by maximizing the effectiveness of collaborative training. The Georgia Center helps bring together some of the world’s most influential industry leaders as well as organizations and associations seeking to grow their businesses and address specific challenges and opportunities. Visit us at UGAHotel.com to book your next event.

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