University of Georgia Magazine Winter 2019 by University of Georgia Alumni Magazine

winter 2019

h au t e dawg see how uga alumni are redesigning the fashion industry

CONTENTS

Find out why this chameleon looks so uncomfortable on p. 34.

the magazine of the university of georgia winter 2019

INSIDE 5

The President’s Pen President Jere W. Morehead on making influenza a disease of the past.

Learn more about UGA combatting invasive species. p. 22

UGA to Z Accomplishments and accolades from across the UGA community.

peter frey

On the Bulldog Beat UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine will treat just about any animal that comes through the door. There have been some interesting cases over the years.

36 Bulldog Bulletin News, events, and photos from the UGA Alumni Association.

Class Notes UGA alumni are helping you manage your money, leading major universities, and polishing their Academy Awards.

56 Faculty Focus Get to know Karen Whitehill King, Jim Kennedy Professor of New Media.

FEATURE

ON THE COVER

16 Startup 101

As the university commits to a promise of innovation, one program is helping entrepreneurs get their startups off the ground.

18 Outstanding Review

Since 1947, The Georgia Review has been one of the country’s elite literary magazines. With a new editorial team inheriting this legacy, the publication’s future looks bright.

22 Unwelcome Visitors

UGA’s Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health is battling all of the creatures, bugs, and weeds that don’t belong here.

28 Haute Dawg

Photo by Peter Frey

A sea of red clothes and accessories are shown on a display rack from Agora Vintage in Athens. The featured pieces were gathered from UGA staff who follow this sage piece of fashion wisdom: When in doubt, wear red.

The University of Georgia has always been fashionable. So are our alumni, many of whom are leaders in the trillion-dollar global fashion industry.

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Red Alert

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the soldout crowd that greeted notre dame on its first visit to Sanford Stadium on Sept. 21 was treated to a stunning light show just before the start of the fourth quarter. The flashlights from tens of thousands of phones added to the effect. On the field, the Bulldogsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performance was just as thrilling as the home team triumphed, 23-17. Georgia is now 3-0 vs. the Fighting Irish.

andrew davis tucker

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winter 2019

VOLUME 99

ISSUE NO. 1

georgia magazine

Editor · Eric Rangus MA ’94 Associate Editor · Aaron Hale MA ’16 Writer · Leigh Beeson MA ’17 Art Director · Jackie Baxter Roberts Advertising Director · Kipp Mullis ABJ ’93 Office Manager · Fran Burke UGA Photographers · Peter Frey BFA ’94, Rick O’Quinn ABJ ’87, Andrew Davis Tucker, Dorothy Kozlowski BLA ’06, ABJ ’10, Chad Osburn Contributing Writers · Elizabeth Elmore BBA ’08, ABJ ’08 and Mary Koon Editorial Interns · Rachel Floyd AB ’19, Mary Calkins, and Madeleine Howell

marketing & communications Vice President · Karri Hobson-Pape Executive Director · Janis Gleason Brand Strategy Director · Michele Horn

administration President · Jere W. Morehead JD ’80 Senior VP for Academic Affairs & Provost · S. Jack Hu VP for Finance & Administration · Ryan Nesbit MBA ’91 VP for Development & Alumni Relations · Kelly Kerner VP for Instruction · Rahul Shrivastav VP for Research · David C. Lee VP for Public Service & Outreach · Jennifer Frum PhD ’09 VP for Student Affairs · Victor Wilson BSW ’82, MEd ’87 VP for Government Relations · Toby Carr BBA ’01, BSAE ’01 VP for Information Technology · Timothy M. Chester

Change your mailing address by contacting e: records@uga.edu or ph: 888-268-5442 Find Georgia Magazine online at news.uga.edu/georgia-magazine Submit Class Notes or story ideas to gmeditor@uga.edu

advertise in Georgia Magazine by contacting Kipp Mullis at e: gmsales@uga.edu or ph: 706-542-9877 fine print

cydney bish

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

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The University of Georgia does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or military service in its administrations of educational policies, programs, or activities; its admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other University-administered programs; or employment. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to the Equal Opportunity Office 119 Holmes-Hunter Academic Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Telephone 706-542-7912 (V/TDD). Fax 706-542-2822. https://eoo.uga.edu/

THE PRESIDENT’S PEN

Taking a Shot at the Flu

UGA is leading efforts to make influenza a disease of the past

In a bad year, influenza kills more than twice the number of individuals in the United States as motor vehicle accidents. The University of Georgia has signed a contract with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for up to $130 million—the largest research award in UGA’s history—to lead the development of a universal flu vaccine that would fight a number of influenza strains at once, for several years at a time.

“As we continue to build the research enterprise at the University of Georgia, we are increasing the ability of our faculty to make a profound impact on the world.”

Dr. Ted M. Ross, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of Infectious Diseases in UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine and director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology, is heading one of the NIH’s new, prestigious Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers with Dr. Stacey Schultz-Cherry at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. They and their team members from other universities and research institutes are working to identify vaccines that are broadly protective, meaning they will protect against most of the versions of the influenza virus that infect humans. They are especially interested in developing a vaccine that protects the most vulnerable in our population, including children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems. The university’s investments in biomedical sciences, particularly in the area of infectious diseases, make us eminently qualified to play a key role in this national initiative. UGA’s contract with NIH includes a base budget of $8 million for the first year of work. With NIH approval, the project is expected to continue at the same base amount per year through 2026. In addition, UGA and NIH have negotiated 33 expanded budget options that NIH may exercise for up to the full amount of the contract over the seven years of the project. This project is one of many helping UGA’s research enterprise to reach new heights. UGA faculty received a record amount of sponsored research awards in FY19, increasing by more than 8% over the previous year. Sponsored research expenditures also rose to record levels in FY19, growing by more than 5% over last year. These numbers continue a strong upward trend in research activity for UGA faculty. In the past five years, research expenditures have risen more than 37%, and awards have risen nearly 44%. As we continue to build the research enterprise at the University of Georgia, we are increasing the ability of our faculty to make a profound impact on the world.

Jere W. Morehead President

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UGA Z to

News, accomplishments, and accolades from the UGA community

SOLVING GRAND CHALLENGES

Making Flu a Disease of the Past UGA signed a contract with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for up to $130 million to develop a new, more advanced influenza vaccine designed to protect against multiple strains of the virus in one dose. UGA faculty will lead one of NIH’s new prestigious Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers and collaborate with teams from 14 other universities and research institutes to create and test new vaccines that may one day replace seasonal vaccines administered every year during flu season. The university expects that over the sevenyear contract span, the project will be the largest award ever received by the University of Georgia. The project will be led by Ted M. Ross, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of Infectious Diseases in UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine and director of UGA’s Center for Vaccines and Immunology. “The main goal of our project is to identify vaccines that are broadly protective, meaning that they will protect people against most of the versions of the influenza virus that infect humans,” said Ross. “But we are particularly interested in developing a vaccine that protects the most vulnerable people in our population, including children, the elderly or people with weakened immune systems.”

peter frey

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INNOVATION AT UGA

UGA to Z FACULTY INNOVATION

First Innovation Fellows

Faculty members Jenay Beer and Hitesh Handa were selected as UGA’s inaugural Innovation Fellows for fall 2019. Throughout the semester, the pair received a crash course in technology commercialization and learned how they can shape their research programs to more effectively align with industry priorities and, ultimately, serve the public’s needs. Beer, an assistant professor in the Institute of Gerontology, with joint appointments in the College of Public Health and the School of Social Work, designs assistive technologies for older adults to help them manage life and health transitions as they age. Such technologies include assistive robots, personal monitoring or communication systems, and other innovations. Handa, assistant professor in the School of Chemical, Materials, and Biomedical Engineering, focuses on developing new biocompatible coating materials for medical implants. The recipient of an Early Career Scholar Award at UGA’s 2019 Research Awards, Handa and his research group have generated 12 patent disclosures in a three-year period. In 2018, he founded his own startup, inNOveta Biomedical.

ALUMNI INNOVATION

dorothy kozlowski

Startup Mentor Named

Success in the realm of startups and innovation is not easy. No one knows that better than David Salyers BBA ’81, a co-founder and board member of several startup companies and a former marketing executive at Chick-fil-A. This fall, Salyers was named UGA’s first Startup Mentor in Residence. He met with faculty and students on campus to provide expertise, new insights, and encouragement to those looking to start new businesses and nonprofit ventures or to otherwise commercialize their inventions and ideas. This role builds on the growing support system for faculty and student entrepreneurs through the Innovation Gateway and the Entrepreneurship Program. “David has a huge range of experience in innovation and entrepreneurship,” says Ian Biggs, director of UGA Startups at Innovation Gateway. “To sit in a room and talk with him about starting successful businesses is fascinating and—I don’t use this word lightly—inspiring.”

An artist’s rendition of the Spring Street Building, which is slated for completion in 2021.

Innovation fellows Hitesh Handa and Jenay Beer.

Former Chick-fil-A executive David Salyers has co-founded several startup companies.

graphic by lindsay bland robinson

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special

INNOVATION DOWNTOWN

New Hub for Creativity and Entrepreneurship

The University of Georgia’s Innovation District Initiative is rolling. The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents approved the renovation of the Spring Street Building, which will be transformed into a creative and dynamic space to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry engagement at UGA. The $4.4 million project is expected to be completed by January 2021 through the support of private donations. Located at the corner of Spring and South streets, a block off Broad Street in downtown Athens, the building will provide flexible workspace, conference rooms, and presentation areas to support UGA’s growing pipeline of faculty startup companies. The renovated facility will also offer space and programming to enable students and industry partners to collaborate on company-based research and development projects. This project follows the completion of Studio 225— named for its West Broad Street address—which opened in March 2019. Studio 225, also funded by private donations, supports UGA’s rapidly growing, student-focused entrepreneurship program. Launched with one instructor and 33 undergraduates just a few years ago, the program has quickly transformed into a campus-wide initiative that reaches more than 1,000 students each year and includes a wide variety of academic and experiential opportunities. Over time, the Innovation District will include an integrated set of facilities, programs, and services all designed to inspire innovation, entrepreneurship, industry collaboration, and experiential learning, ultimately making the university a more powerful driver of economic development locally and across Georgia.

UGA to Z BULLDOGS AROUND THE WORLD

12 Earn Fulbright Grants

The University of Georgia once again hit double digits in the number of international travel-study grants awarded to its students and recent alumni through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. With 12 students selected, this marks the sixth straight year—and 10th time in the past 11 years—that UGA has received 10 or more offers. Of the 12 recipients, nine were able to take advantage of the opportunity. Four received academic and arts grants, and five will be teaching English. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers research, study, and teaching opportunities in more than 140 countries to recent college graduates and graduate students. As the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, it is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and countries worldwide.

Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship Georgia Museum of Art November 16, 2019 through March 15, 2020

WELL DECORATED

New Exhibition Highlights Material Culture

Need decorating inspiration? Visit the Georgia Museum of Art through March 15 to see the exhibition “Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship.” While the objects span 167 years and include furniture, basketry, pottery, textiles, paintings, and silver, the show highlights 20 years of scholarly research conducted by the Henry D. Green Center for the Study of Decorative Arts at the museum. Curator of decorative arts Dale L. Couch aims to place Georgia decorative arts in relation to broader regional art history. The museum has also published a companion book edited by Couch that delves further into the history of Georgia material culture and synthesizes the research done on it.

HEED AWARD

UGA Earns National Award for Diversity and Inclusion

For the sixth consecutive year, the University of Georgia’s far-reaching commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion has been recognized with a national award. The INSIGHT Into Diversity Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award is the only national award that honors colleges and universities for their outstanding efforts and successes in diversity and inclusion. Georgia’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion include programs to recruit and support historically underrepresented and first-generation students; recruit and retain diverse faculty; and promote a living, learning, and working environment where differences are respected and celebrated. “The University of Georgia proudly embraces the diversity that is found in our faculty, staff, and students,” says Michelle Cook, vice provost for diversity and inclusion and strategic university initiatives.

IMPROVING PUBLIC HEALTH

Battling the Opioid Epidemic

1.4

million

This Department of Health and Human Services grant will help grow the state’s opioid-related behavioral health workforce.

The nation’s opioid epidemic has been deemed a public health emergency by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Through research and experiential training, the University of Georgia is stepping up to combat this crisis. UGA was awarded a $1.4 million grant to enhance community-based training for students preparing to become behavioral health professionals focused on opioid and substance use disorders. The award will bring an interdisciplinary team of UGA researchers to grow the state’s opioid-related behavioral health workforce as part of the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration’s Opioid Workforce Expansion Program.

shannah montgomery

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UGA to Z BACK TO BUSINESS

Terry College Completes Final Phase

The University of Georgia dedicated the final two buildings of the Business Learning Community in a ceremony on the Coca-Cola Plaza on Sept. 6. The new buildings, Sanford and Barbara Orkin Hall and M. Douglas Ivester Hall, complete the nearly 300,000-square-foot home of the Terry College of Business. Totaling $140 million, the Business Learning Community represents one of the largest capital projects in the history of the University System of Georgia. Construction of the six-building complex—built in three phases over six years—was funded through a 50-50 split of state and private support. “This project is a great example of how a public-private partnership can invest in the future of our state,” said Gov. Brian Kemp BSA ’87. “Terry College alumni and graduates of the University of Georgia make a positive impact on communities across our state and nation. Our state is better today because of students who have chosen this college and university as the place to start their careers.”

andrew davis tucker and dorothy kozlowski

The final phase of the new Business Learning Community was dedicated on Sept. 6.

Wait to Date

ACADEMIC POWERHOUSE

UGA Ranked among Top Public Universities

no.

The University of Georgia continues to rank among the nation’s top universities, according to the U.S. News & World Report, which placed UGA at No. 16 in its latest list of Best Public Universities. UGA has ranked in the top 20 for four years in a row. National rankings are only one of many measures of academic quality in higher education. While rankings fluctuate from year to year, a more precise measure of performance can be found in academic outcomes such as retention, degree completion, and career placement rates. In these areas, the university continues to excel. In 2018, UGA’s six-year graduation rate increased by 1 percentage point to 86%, while the retention rate held steady at 95%. The first-year retention rate and graduation rate account for 22% of the university’s overall score in USNWR’s ranking criteria.

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MODERN ROMANCE

best public university

New research from the University of Georgia found that adolescents who were not in romantic relationships during middle and high school had good social skills, low depression, and fared better or equal to peers who dated. “The majority of teens have had some type of romantic experience by 15 to 17 years of age, or middle adolescence,” says Brooke Douglas MPH ’16, a doctoral student in health promotion in UGA’s College of Public Health and the study’s lead author. “This high frequency has led some researchers to suggest that dating during teenage years is a normative behavior.” If dating was considered normal and essential for a teen’s individual development and well-being, Douglas began to wonder what this suggested about adolescents who chose not to date. So, Douglas and study co-author Pamela Orpinas analyzed data collected by Orpinas during a 2013 study, which followed a cohort of Northeast Georgia adolescents from sixth through 12th grade. “In summary, we found that non-dating students are doing well and are simply following a different and healthy developmental trajectory than their dating peers,” says Orpinas, a professor of health promotion and behavior.

UGA to Z BREAKING GROUND

New Veterinary Medical Center Planned for Tifton Campus

andrew davis tucker

OLYMPIC ASPIRATIONS

Dawgs Named to Team USA

Nine current and former University of Georgia swimmers were named to the 2019-20 USA Swimming National Team. Sophomores Andrew Abruzzo and Dakota Luther qualified for the team, along with UGA alumni Nic Fink BSAE ’16, Hali Flickinger BBA ’17, Chase Kalisz BSEd ’19, Jay Litherland AB ’19, Melanie Margalis BSFCS ’14, Allison Schmitt BS ’14, and Olivia Smoliga BS ’18. Eight of the nine Bulldogs named to the team are coached by UGA’s Jack Bauerle, Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving Head Coach, joined by associate head coaches Stefanie Williams Moreno BSEd ’03 and Brian Smith. The national team comprises the top six swimmers in each individual Olympic event. Qualifying times come from USA Swimming or FINA sanctioned meets during the period of Jan. 1, 2019, through Aug. 25, 2019. In addition to earning them spots on the national team, the UGA swimmers’ times qualify them for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, to be held June 21-28, 2020.

Lisa K. Nolan, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine says the new center will “increase our students’ exposure to the unique needs of South Georgia.”

The UGA College of Veterinary Medicine broke ground on a new facility on the Tifton campus aimed at improving the college’s ability to serve the state’s animal agricultural industries and strengthen the South Georgia region overall. The UGA Tifton Farm Animal Veterinary Medical Center is expected to be completed in early 2020. The 9,000-square-foot facility will feature space for clinicians to perform both routine and specialized food animal medical procedures with the help of a large hydraulic tilt chute and enclosed treatment room. The new center will also bring advanced reproductive technologies to smaller producers who may not have had access to these technologies in the past. “The goal of this new facility is to strengthen our support of farmers and producers in this area and increase our students’ exposure to the unique needs of South Georgia,” said Lisa K. Nolan, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

ENGINEERED FOR SUCCESS

First Round of Driftmier Renovations Debut

Students study in a common space in the newly renovated Driftmier Engineering Center.

UGA’s College of Engineering opened new instructional and lab space this fall as part of ongoing renovations at the Driftmier Engineering Center. A second round of renovations at Driftmier is scheduled to begin in January 2020. This phase of the project will include new classrooms and instructional spaces, including a modern auditorium. The Driftmier Engineering Center has served as the home of engineering at UGA since 1966. The 110,000-square-foot building was designed to house biological and agricultural engineering programs. Now, it serves as the instructional hub for the university’s rapidly growing engineering program. The college’s research enterprise has expanded with enrollment, logging a 300% increase in external funding over the past five years.

dorothy kozlowski

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c o m m i t t o g e o r g i a c a m pa i g n : g e o r g i a c o m m i t m e n t s c h o l a r s h i p

GEORGIA COMMITMENT SCHOLARSHIP

In just one SCHOLARSHIP, there are ENDLESS opportunities

n a dining room at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education and Hotel in September, five UGA students were getting to know a group of UGA donors who established scholarships for undergraduates from their hometown in Colquitt County. At the table was Toriona Stewart, a first-year

challenge head-on. As part of the program, the UGA Foundation matches gifts of $50,000, $75,000, or $100,000 to endow undergraduate need-based scholarships. “Because of the dollar-for-dollar match, whatever I invest in the morning is doubled by the afternoon,” says Jimmy Jeter, one of

“The Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program is benefiting students—and communities—in every corner of our state. Students who earn their degrees from UGA positively impact the trajectories of their families, local businesses, civic organizations, and more.” — jere w. morehead, university of georgia president

student and Moultrie native who plans to major in journalism. “After being notified that I was a Georgia Commitment Scholarship recipient, my mom and I were at a complete loss for words,” Stewart says. “The only thing that came out was tears of appreciation. Without this generous group of donors, I would not have had the opportunity to attend my dream school—the University of Georgia.” Stewart’s remarks reflect a reality for many across the state who dream of pursuing a college education at UGA. The Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program, announced in 2017 by UGA President Jere W. Morehead JD ’80 and launched with a lead gift of $30 million from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, is tackling this

the individuals who established a Moultrie-Colquitt County Alumni Scholarship Fund. “I’m not used to getting returns like that.” More than 320 donors also have found the program attractive and have established 470+ Georgia Commitment Scholarships. This support is essential for nearly a quarter of UGA undergraduate students, who can still face a gap of up to $11,500 to cover housing, books, meals, and other expenses even after the HOPE Scholarship, federal Pell Grant, and other financial aid are considered. “The Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program is benefitting students—and communities—in every corner of our state,” says Morehead. “Students who earn

As of Oct. 21, there is just $1.75 million remaining in matching funds through the Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program. If you are interested in establishing an endowed, need-based scholarship for an undergraduate UGA student, visit GIVE.UGA.EDU/GEORGIA-COMMITMENT.

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their degrees from UGA positively impact the trajectories of their families, local businesses, civic organizations, and more.” These scholarships enable students without much, if any, family financial support to enroll at UGA and then help them succeed by providing academic support that includes seminars, tutoring, and strategic networking opportunities with alumni. During a first-year seminar, students focus on acclimating to campus life—especially important for the 39% of the scholarship recipients who are first-generation collegians. A third-year seminar focuses on career preparation and resume development. “One of the most powerful reasons we’ve been able to retain 98% of GCS scholars from 2018 to 2019 is because they have abundant on-campus support systems to help them navigate college life,” says Rahul Shrivastav, UGA vice president for instruction. “These students are incredibly resilient—and they don’t plan to take a second of their time at UGA for granted.” For Jeter, that resilience was evident when he and his friends from Colquitt County met the first recipients of their scholarships. “These students are destined to be among the most productive members of our society’s next generation,” he says. For Stewart, this scholarship has opened doors for her—and she plans to pay it forward. “I was overjoyed to know that the donors of my scholarship were from Colquitt County, just like me,” says Stewart. “Their generosity inspires me to give back to my community as they have given to me.”

c o m m i t t o g e o r g i a c a m pa i g n : g e o r g i a c o m m i t m e n t s c h o l a r s h i p

“Without this generous group of donors, I would not have had the opportunity to attend my dream school—the University of Georgia.” — toriona stewart

60.9MILLION 418 144 321 473

raised for scholarships*

* Includes $30 million in matching funds.

students on campus for fall 2019

scholarship donors

first-year students on campus for fall 2019

total scholarships established

GEORGIA COMMITMENT SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS RETENTION RATE

98%

FIRST GENERATION STUDENTS

39%

TOP 5 MAJORS

By the numbers as of October 2019 shannah montgomery

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As UGA commits to the promise of innovation, one program is helping entrepreneurs get their startups off the ground. by aaron hale ma ’16

he illuminated light bulb. It’s the symbol of a great idea come to life. Erico Mattos’ big idea doesn’t reinvent that iconic bulb exactly but reimagines how it can be used. Around the globe, greenhouses grow fruits and vegetables to provide a healthy food supply year-round. But as reliable as the sun is for providing light and energy for plants to grow, a rainy day or just a cloudy afternoon can slow a plant’s growth little by little. Those cloudy days add up and can affect how quickly a plant grows—including how deep its roots take hold—and how much it can produce. Some greenhouse growers use artificial lighting. But to shine a light on a plant that’s already getting ample sunlight is a waste of energy … and money. After finishing his doctorate in bioengineering at the University of Georgia, Mattos PhD ’13 teamed up with Marc van Iersel, the Dooley Professor of Horticulture, to develop a lighting controller that can respond to sunlight and provide just enough supplemental light to keep plants happy. The lights dim under sunny conditions and get brighter under cloudy conditions. “We provide the plants just the amount of light that they need,” says Mattos. “No more. No less.” The idea has the potential to give the nearly $15 billion greenhouse farming industry a reliable, energy-saving process, which could ensure peak growth and profit margins and provide a more stable global

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food supply. Or at least that’s what Mattos suspected. Still, he wasn’t entirely sure if his lab work would translate into the real-world needs of greenhouse growers. This could have been “a really cool idea and a bunch of academic papers,” van Iersel says. Instead, Mattos and van Iersel committed to bringing the idea to market by creating a startup. They named their company Candidus, Latin for “radiant.”

FINDING A PATH TO SUCCESS Mattos and van Iersel turned to a UGA program that’s helping faculty and students take their big ideas and entrepreneurial aspirations and pressure test them for the market. Innovation Corps, or I-Corps, was developed by the National Science Foundation to help scientists and engineers in the U.S. extend their academic research for economic and societal benefits. At UGA, teams go through a six-week accelerator program to identify market need and potential customers for their idea. It’s an important step, says Ian Biggs, director of the Startup Program within UGA’s Innovation Gateway, the university’s instrument for commercializing UGA research. Across industries, the failure rate for startup companies is grim, 90% by some estimates. But data show 40% fail because customers don’t need—or at least think they don’t need—what’s being sold.

dorothy kozlowski

“You are going to fail if you have something that nobody cares about,” says Biggs. If he sounds blunt, it’s from years of experience in entrepreneurship and startups on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Before coming to Athens, the Oxford-educated Biggs worked in finance for several international banks and was part of a handful of animal breeding startups—including the team that brought the world’s first cloned sheep, Dolly, to life.

“Having a good idea is something very different from developing a sustainable business. In university education, you typically don’t learn much about how to start and run a business. That’s why programs like I-Corps are really valuable. They force you to think, not so much about the product you want to develop, but how to build a business around that product.” —marc van iersel, co-founder candidus dooley professor of horticulture college of agricultural & environmental sciences

Erico Mattos (above and right) co-founded Candidus with Marc van Iersel (below left). The company uses lighting sensors to improve greenhouse farming production.

A FLOURISHING ECOSYSTEM

dorothy kozlowski

As rapidly as technology seems to be evolving, the process for bringing university ideas to consumers has gotten more complex, Biggs says. Years ago, big industry partners would shop around for the best ideas in academia and then buy the rights to take those ideas, potentially prototype them, and then determine if they were market ready. These days, companies are less likely

to invest in ideas unless they are sure things. Through its Innovation District Initiative (see page 8), UGA is stepping up to help faculty and students develop their research to have the greatest impact on society. The success in this effort speaks for itself. Last year, UGA ranked first among 193 U.S. institutions for the number of commercial products reaching the market, according to

a survey released by the nonprofit AUTM, which tracks technology transfer. In the same survey, UGA ranked fourth in the number of new intellectual property licenses executed to industry. So far, the bulk of that success comes from existing companies licensing UGA technology, but the university is strengthening its efforts to support startup companies based on university research.

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Katherine Shayne, right, cofounded and developed an artificial intelligence-based system to educate consumers on what can or cannot be recycled in their area and how to do it properly.

l tyler danie

The University of Georgia is

in the U.S. for new products in market edwin hammond

top

in the U.S. for new licenses/ options for

CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS I-Corps is a key first step for faculty entrepreneurs, and it’s the perfect Startup 101 course for academics. Hour after hour, year after year, scientists painstakingly commit to their research and their ideas. For Mattos, it was time spent understanding how plants respond and grow in light and how to measure and monitor that response. “When you are really passionate about something, you think your work, your technology, will save the world,” says Mattos. “That doesn’t mean the market is ready for it yet.” Since 2017, 62 groups have gone through the I-Corps program. The ideas are diverse, ranging from using drone technology to assess animal health to using recycled plastics for modular homes, from a vaccine additive to reduce side effects to a better delivery system for probiotics. One graduate of the

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years in a row

program is the all-female team of engineers that launched Can I Recycle This? Co-founder Katherine Shayne BSEE ’16, MSEE ’18 developed an artificial intelligence-based system to educate consumers on what can or cannot be recycled in their area and how to do it properly. Shayne and the rest of the team were able to determine a potential path to create a sustainable company. They’re currently developing their software and working with potential municipal and industry partners to help consumers understand what’s recyclable. “Without this program, you would have research and innovation that just sits there and isn’t used,” says Shayne. “Without the lessons we learned in I-Corps, I don’t think it would be what it is today as a company. We knew we had a support system.” For Mattos, I-Corps was an opportunity to get out of his labs and connect with greenhouse growers so he could figure out if the adaptive lighting system would be useful to

them. He found that growers were intrigued by the system but seemed to be drawn to different benefits. Some wanted the accelerated crop cycle it could provide, others wanted a predictable crop schedule, and still others wanted to reduce their energy consumption. For Mattos, those conversations emphasized that his growers were diverse, and the more people he could learn from, the better. That’s how he was able to construct a revenue model and business plan. Like a researcher devising the perfect conditions for an experiment, he kept pitching new ideas to growers and getting their input. “It was the exercise of making a hypothesis, getting feedback, validating, and then repeating,” says Mattos. “I-Corps didn’t provide the answers. It helped us ask the right questions.” Since then, Candidus has won funding from the Georgia Research Alliance and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for project development and commercialization. They’ve been testing their system with a handful of Georgia growers and are poised to offer their services to a broader market. There’s still so much work to be done before Candidus can reach its potential. But Mattos believes he’s developing the business sense to match his technical expertise. And who knows? Maybe his idea can change the world. GM

@ Innovation Gateway I-Corps is just one of the first steps offered in UGA’s Startup Program, part of the university’s Innovation Gateway. The Startup Program helps UGA faculty and students launch and grow startup companies. These startups typically are built around intellectual property arising from UGA research and student project. Groups that graduate from I-Corps with a clear market demand can seek additional funding and incorporate into companies. With the assistance from Innovation Gateway staff, UGA startups can use the university’s incubation space and other resources to cultivate them into functioning company.

Ian Biggs, center, and the Startup Program team at the intersection of campus and downtown Athens.

dorothy kozlowski

To learn more about UGA’s thriving Innovation District visit INNOVATION.UGA.EDU. geo rgia maga z ine | winter 2 019

outstanding review Following the retirement of longtime editor Stephen Corey, The Georgia Review, UGA’s award-winning literary magazine, is entering a new phase. Meet the creative team guiding the publication through it.

written by eric rangus ma ’94 photographs by peter frey bfa ’94

n june 2018, cj bartunek found her calling. She’d been close to it before. As a doctoral student in English at UGA, Bartunek PhD ’14 served as a graduate assistant for The Georgia Review, the university’s literary magazine. For two years, she edited copy, read submissions for The Review’s four annual issues, and learned a lot about a manuscript’s journey through the editorial process. Then, she graduated and moved on. In early 2018, the managing editor’s position at The Georgia Review came open. Bartunek, who was teaching college English, didn’t hesitate. She applied and was hired that June. “Opportunities like this don’t come along often. It was just a dream job for me as a writer and an editor and as someone who is interested in what’s happening in the world of literature right now,” says Bartunek, a North Dakota native who is very happy to be in Athens. “Some of my professors and classmates are now UGA colleagues, and

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that’s a nice bonus.” “One of the things that I think is exceptional about a print journal is that it is capable of cultivating a community that is more mobile and long-lasting than what the internet can do,” says editor-in-chief Gerald Maa, who is even newer to The Review than Bartunek. The magazine’s Winter 2019 issue is his first in the editor’s chair. Before coming to The Georgia Review, he had served as editor-in-chief of the Asian American Literary Review, a Washington, D.C.-based publication he co-founded in 2009. “There are poets and fiction writers exploring exciting areas,” Maa continues. “And when I seek out writers, it’s to say, ‘I see this conversation you are starting. We need to provide more space for it. Let us help you out.’” Bartunek is one of several staff members who have joined The Georgia Review within the last two years, and they are continuing the legacy of one of the country’s most popular and well-respected academic literary magazines.

“to

entrusted w i t h pa s s i n g a judgment on artistic

creations— in my life, on poems,

stories, and e s s ay s — i s

no small t h i n g .”

—s t e p h en co r ey, ed i t o r em er i t u s o f

the georgia review

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Gerald Maa co-founded the Asian American Literary Review in 2009. The Winter issue of The Georgia Review will be his first as editor-in-chief.

The Georgia Review was founded in 1947 by John Donald Wade AB 1914, a UGA English professor and descendent of Georgia’s first governor. After graduating from UGA, Wade earned his master’s at Harvard, served as an officer in the Army during World War I, and then got his doctorate at Columbia. He started the graduate programs in literature at both UGA and Vanderbilt and founded The Georgia Review in part to address what he saw as the “sad and swift submergence” of college graduates’ intellectual vitality. In its early years, The Review focused on high-

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lighting Georgia writers, but beginning in the late 1970s, under the leadership of editor and UGA English professor Jim Colvert, the publication expanded its scope by highlighting national and eventually international writers and artists. The Review has twice won the top prize at the prestigious National Magazine Awards competition, and many writers aspire to be published in it. They certainly work hard to get in. Each year, staff sift through some 10,000 poetry, fiction, and essay submissions of which fewer than 100 will be published. That so much more good writing exists than there is space to publish makes the job tough for the editors. Every single manuscript is read, and many are discussed at length. Reading so much copy can cause eyes to cross and typeface to pulsate, but the editors love the work. Most art features are solicited, with a focus on emerging artists. For instance, shortly after Colombian-born artist María Berrío was featured in the Spring 2019 issue, a solo exhibition of her work premiered in the Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, followed by a group exhibition at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London. Copies of The Review were on hand in both locations. The community that Maa describes transcends The Review’s print presence. The Review’s event schedule is one of the most robust on campus. Readings and other arts performances celebrate the release of each issue. Since 2009, The Review has co-sponsored an Earth Day celebration with several other programs and departments on campus and the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. Another highlight of each year is the announcement of The Review-sponsored Loraine Williams Poetry Prize. The prize has become highly prestigious, and it draws literary royalty to Athens. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States Natasha Trethewey AB ’89 was a judge for the 2018 competition and a speaker at the event honoring the prize recipient, Ama Codjoe. Taking the lead on planning events and outreach is another new staff member, marketing and circulation manager, Kyla Sterling. Like Bartunek, she came to The Review in 2018. “We have folks who have been subscribers for 20 years. The Georgia Review is part of their lives,” Sterling says. “We occupy a very special place in their hearts, and it’s a privilege to be able to produce something that we know will have that kind of lasting impression.”

CJ Bartunek, left, joined The Georgia Review staff as managing editor in 2018 and is infusing the long-respected publication with fresh ideas and new energy. Above: The Fall 2019 issue of The Review, Stephen Corey’s final one as editor-in-chief.

“ e v e ry

issue becomes my fav o r i t e .” — cj ba rtun ek

m a nag i n g ed i t o r, the georgia review

“I’m inheriting a long, illustrious history,” Maa says. Indeed, much of that history is embodied by longtime editor Stephen Corey. He held that title since 2008 and began his career at the publication back in 1983. The Fall 2019 issue was his final with The Review and included a goodbye essay, a postscript, as it was titled, to readers upon his retirement. It was one part thank you to readers, one part an acknowledgment of his hypercritical eye, and one more part understanding the gravity of the role he played for the better part of three decades. “To be entrusted with passing a judgment on artistic creations—in my life, on poems, stories, and essays—is no small

thing, at least to my way of thinking; so, no matter how strong my reactions may be to a piece of writing, whether strong positive (or much more commonly) strong negative, I have to recognize the inner circle where I am being allowed, being privileged, to stand,” he wrote. That understanding of privilege, mixed with a healthy dose of excitement, is not lost on the staff responsible for leading The Georgia Review into a new era. “It’s been a joy to work here,” Bartunek says. “We receive so much amazing writing, and it means a lot to have a hand in helping present it to the world.” She pauses, searching for the right conclusion. “Every issue becomes my favorite.” GM

Give the gift of art and literature this holiday season. Subscribe to The Georgia Review at THEGEORGIAREVIEW.COM. geo rgia maga z ine | winter 2 019

UGA’s Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health is working to track—and eliminate— some 4,300 non-native insects, plants, and animals that are wreaking havoc on the environment and the economy.

UNWELCOME VISITORS

by eric rangus ma ’94 photographs by peter frey bfa ’94

ARLIER THIS YEAR, CHUCK BARGERON LEARNED HOW TO catch a Burmese python. The co-director of the University of Georgia’s Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health was at a conference of the Everglades Invasive Species Cooperative Management Area, a consortium dedicated to advancing science-based understanding and enhanced management of the insects, plants, fish, and animals that are invading the Everglades. Bargeron is on the steering commitee of the group and an expert in combating invasive species. There was a captured python in attendance and when Bargeron’s turn came to subdue it, he did as instructed and took hold of the snake just behind its head. The python was understandably agitated and as a defense mechanism began wrapping itself around Bargeron’s forearm. Bargeron was surprised by his own reaction. Or, rather, his lack of one. “I didn’t grab it,” he recalls. “My first thought was that I didn’t want to hurt it.” Before the six-foot-long snake, a mere juvenile version of a species that can grow up to 18 feet in the wild, could make any mischief, its handler unwound the python from Bargeron’s arm, which was none the worse for wear. When it comes to invasive species in North America, pythons, which have devastated the delicate Everglades ecosystem, are public enemy No. 1. But they’ve got strong competition. Asian carp, should they swim their way into the Great Lakes, would create an environmental disaster that could cripple the economies of two countries. The emerald ash borer is a beetle that threatens every one of the country’s 38 million ash trees, and the $25 billion-a-year lumber industry that goes along with it. From nearly microscopic aphids to wild boars the size of refrigerators, invasive species of all sorts are wreaking havoc on the environment, the economy, and a whole host of unsuspecting and vulnerable native species. And there is a small office in the Administration Building at the UGA Tifton campus with its eyes on them all.

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Entomolgy professor and center co-director Michael Toews and his graduate student team of Lauren Perez, Sarah Hobby, and Apurba Barman (left to right) inspect sorghum plants near Tifton, for signs of invasive sugarcane aphids. Above right: The infamous emerald ash borer, Burmese python, and Asian carp, three of the U.S.’s most troublesome invasives.

InformationWarfare The Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health draws its origins from a partnership in the mid-1990s between two UGA Tifton professors, Keith Douce in entomology and Dave Moorhead in forestry. They were looking for ways to enhance their work using information technology. The result was the Bugwood Image Database, a collection of high-resolution photos focused on forestry, integrated pest management, weeds, and other invasives. “It all started with these two professors and the technology they had on hand,” says associate director Joe LaForest. “They had a vision of what was coming down the road and were able to provide the tools and content that extension personnel could use.” One of their first employees was Bargeron, who took a part-time job the summer after he graduated from Tift County High School and kept it as he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science. He designed and built the infrastructure behind the image database and has been involved in each expansion. The memorable Bugwood name (which references its founders’ backgrounds in entomology and forestry) has stuck. Bugwood.org launched in 2001, bringing the growing collection online for easy access. Even after the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health was formed in 2008 as a UGA Cooperative Extension and Outreach Center, its URL has remained. In 2014, the center’s mission was expanded to include graduate student teaching and research. Administratively, the center is jointly housed in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Bargeron’s snake encounter notwithstanding, the majority of the center’s work

is done on the UGA Tifton campus. The center’s 13-person staff is generally not out in the field hunting down invasive species, although by and large, they have the expertise to do exactly that. Rather, their role is to provide thousands of forest rangers, naturalists, scientists, and others around the country with the information they need to do their jobs better. “Our work revolves around defining sustainability,” says Michael Toews, a professor of entomology who joined the center in 2014 when it expanded its research offerings. “Our job is to document changes over time and to provide a means to address problems.” As of 2019, the database included more than 300,000 images. Thousands more are received each year, creating one of the most diverse and complete archives of invasive species and economically important species in the world. And then there’s EDDMapS. A webbased mapping system that tracks the spread of invasive species and agronomic pests. Since its launch in 2005, it’s logged more than 4.2 million reports covering over 4,000 species. The tool gives experts real-time information about the spread of invasive species and helps them predict—and possibly prevent—them from spreading elsewhere. Other center-led IT projects include a suite of more than 75 smartphone apps that are used to document forest health and the spread of invasive species. The center’s most recent partnership (with the U.S. Forest Service and the nonprofit Wildlife Forever) is WildSpotter.org, an identification and mapping app aimed at outdoor enthusiasts. “Maybe reporting every kudzu patch or Japanese honeysuckle patch is not important in the big picture,” Bargeron says. “But if you get people reporting the common things, when they see something new or unusual, they will be more likely to report that.”

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Communications coordinator Sarah Jean Swift sorts slides to add to the Center for Invasive Species image archive. The collection currently includes more than 300,000 images.

ACollectionofBadIdeas It’s estimated that about 50,000 nonnative species have been introduced to the United States. Not all of them are considered invasive. To earn that dishonor, a species must cause some sort of harm to the environment, the economy, or public health. By that definition, the country’s invasive species number about 4,300. Exact numbers are hard to pin down, but it’s estimated that invasive species cost the U.S. economy more than $120 billion each year. Those species get here in a variety of ways. Many hitch rides on cargo ships or stow away in bushels of imported agriculture. Perhaps the most frustrating are those that were deliberately introduced. Pythons either escaped from breeding facilities during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 or were pets deliberately released into the Everglades after growing too large. Domestic pigs are a staple of American agriculture, but their invasive, wild cousins, were first brought to the continent by Spanish explorers in the 1500s and the destruction the animals brought to native species and agriculture continues nearly unabated today. Another of the earliest instances of errors regarding invasive species was the European Gypsy moth. Imported into New England in the 1860s, the idea was to create a new home for silk manufacturing in North America. Then the moths got out. Gypsy moth larvae feed on more than 300 species of trees. The adults can defoliate entire forests. “These invasive species in the U.S. are not pests at all in their native lands,” Toews says. “We simply don’t have the ecosystem that’s evolved with that particular species to manage it.”

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SuccesswithanAsterisk In 1911, cogongrass came to Mobile, Alabama, riding along on some packing material on a ship from Japan. It quickly made a new home in the South and started choking out native grasses and shrubs. It was tough to manage, nothing eats it (not even wild pigs), and it burns so hot that prescribed fires are more dangerous than practical. Cogongrass eradication in Georgia began in the 1990s, and so far it’s been a success. The Georgia Forestry Commission, along with the center and other partners, have been leading the way. As of 2018, just 320 acres of cogongrass have been reported in the state, and the number of new reports are equal to those areas that have been eliminated. It’s even dropped off Georgia’s annual Dirty Dozen list of invasive plants (see box). That type of containment qualifies as a big success.

Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health co-director Chuck Bargeron and citizen science coordinator Rachel Carroll demonstrate the smart phone application on an invasive mimosa plant.

GEORGIA’S

DIRTY DOZEN 2019: TOP 12 NON-NATIVE INVASIVE PLANTS and the acreage they cover

644,317 2. NEPALESE BROWNTOP 90,204 3. CHINABERRY 47,757 4. NON-NATIVE LESPEDEZA 35,862 5. KUDZU 30,961 6. CHINESE TALLOWTREE 24,321 7. JAPANESE CLIMBING FERN 19,978 8. NON-NATIVE OLIVE 19,345 9. ENGLISH IVY 12,981 10. MIMOSA 11,647 11. TRIFOLIATE ORANGE 8,600 12. WISTERIA 7,874 1. NON-NATIVE PRIVET

ThenHurricaneMichaelHit In 2018, Michael struck Georgia’s far-southwest corner, where cogongrass is most prevalent, and then travelled northeast over portions of the state where cogongrass had never been seen. Now maps tracking the presence of cogongrass show a disturbing congruence to Michael’s path. Could the storm have deposited cogongrass seedlings over the area, leading to an eventual outbreak? Could utility and land-clearing equipment from outside the area help spread cogongrass? The answer might not be known for years, as the cogongrass would need to take root and then be detected. That sort of uncertainly is something the Center for Invasive Species accepts as just part of the job. Doesn’t make it any easier, though. “There is always that concern of when the next thing is going to show up,” Bargeron says. GM

To learn more about UGA’s Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health visit BUGWOOD.ORG.

geo rgia maga z ine | winter 2 019

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peter frey

Haute Dawg

UGA alumni are shaping what’s in and what’s out in the fashion industry. by leigh beeson ma ’17

ou make a statement every time you leave the house. The clothes you chose this morning—be they suit and tie or distressed jeans and a T-shirt—speak for you, telling those you encounter a story about who you are and what you value. Whether you wear vintage Gucci or brand-new H&M, there are numerous players that make your everyday sartorial choices possible. From innovative textile makers and avant-garde designers to the fashion journalists tracking down and reporting on this season’s trends, the global fashion industry is valued upwards of $2.5 trillion dollars, according to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, and employs close to 2 million people in the U.S. alone. UGA alumni are at the forefront of the industry’s niches, creating smart fabrics, building brands that resonate with modern trendsetters, and proving fashion is about so much more than just appearances.

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the innovator

t o s h a h ay s brands Tommy Hilfiger Bella Freud, London Spanx Tosha Hays Couture Brrrº AFFOA

photo courtesy of tosha hays

osha Hays wants your clothes to do more for you. Fabrics that keep you cool by dropping your body temperature several degrees. Running gear that lights up when headlights hit it. A backpack that connects to a social networking app. These are just a few of the products Hays BSFCS ’07 has had a hand in developing. “For thousands of years, textiles haven’t changed,” she says. “Why can’t our fabrics make our lives easier?” After a successful tenure helming Spanx’s creative design team, Hays was itching to do more. “I wanted to build a company that pushed textiles further than what people think they can do,” says Hays. So, she and fellow former Spanx co-worker Mary-Cathryn Kolb founded brrr!, a company that specializes in technologically advanced textiles that cool the body tem-

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photo courtesy of tosha hays

perature by 2 to 3 degrees. The company has produced not only its own line of apparel and accessories sold on QVC but also licenses its technology with apparel companies like Southern Tide, The Gap, and NinetyEight6, among others. In 2015, Hays was introduced to the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), a nonprofit headquartered at MIT with the mission of transforming fibers into networked devices and systems. (UGA joined AFFOA’s consortium in 2016.) The organization takes products from start to finish, drawing semiconductor technology through the fibers of textiles and partnering with everyone from the Department of Defense to industry giants like New Balance to create products that can change colors, monitor health, and more. The mission of the organization aligned perfectly with Hays’ belief that fabric is

much more than a commodity; it should provide a service for its wearer. “On your phone, you have the app store that offers you all these services,” she says. “What if you had a menu of fabrics that could do the same?” Hays became AFFOA’s chief product officer in 2016, leading the team that brainstorms new, advanced fabrics and product ideas and then brings them to life. “Every human is wearing textiles on their body every day of every year for the most part,” she says. “Imagine if instead of holding a cellphone up to my ear, I had fibers that were transmitting your voice to my ear through the fibers that were in the shoulder of my dress.” With organizations like AFFOA and entrepreneurs like Hays, that day is coming soon.

the alligator queen

christy plott clients Oscar de la Renta Ralph Lauren Prada Lucchese Boot Company Tom Ford

peter frey

or a family that stumbled into the alligator leather business, the Plotts are dominating the high-fashion supply industry. And Christy Plott BBA ’02, in particular, is loving every minute. The family-run, Griffin-based tannery, American Tanning & Leather, is the oldest and largest exotic leather tannery in the country and one of the final few that haven’t been bought out by haute couture fashion houses (though they do have an industry partner). Founded by Plott’s great-grandfather, the company has its roots in the 1920s fur trade. Fur season doesn’t last all year, so eventually Plott’s dad started looking for something that could complement the off-season. He had purchased some alligator skins in the ’80s and couldn’t find anyone in the U.S. to tan them.

“He had never set foot in a tannery in his life and said, ‘Well, we’ll just build a tannery!’ I think he thought it was going to be easier than it was,” Plott says with a laugh. “I don’t know how my parents stayed married.” Now, the tannery processes about 25,000 skins (alligator and crocodile) every year, selling to luxury fashion houses like Oscar de la Renta, Prada, and Ralph Lauren among others. The family eventually left the fur business altogether. Plott was key to securing the deals with high-end companies. Serving as marketing and creative director, VP of sales, and a partner, she studies fashion magazines like it’s her job, and, really, it is. “I’ve had a couple of Carrie Bradshaw moments that were pretty cool,” says Plott. One was having Oscar de la Renta himself

ask her back to his headquarters after she showed his team the range of colored skins she could have made for the company. Another was working with the then-up-andcoming designers behind Proenza Schouler to produce alligator skin leather jackets that sold for $60,000 a pop. Plott’s grown to know what each fashion house is looking for, becoming somewhat of a mind reader when it comes to which designer will want which colors of leather. “What a job for a country girl from Griffin, Georgia, to work and be out in the bayou, ride on airboats, and work with alligator farmers and hang out with them, and then get to go to Paris or a runway show and get dressed up,” Plott says. “It worked out well that I was the girl in the family because the boys didn’t want any part of this.”

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the embellishment expert

allison webb

brands Oscar de la Renta J. Crew Tory Burch

Ann Inc. JLM Couture

photos courtesy of allison webb

n high school, Allison Webb bought a dress for prom just like all the other girls. But then she asked a seamstress to cut it apart and reshape it, just how she wanted it. In hindsight, that might’ve been a sign that she was destined to work in fashion. Webb AB ’05 headed to New York’s Parsons School of Design in 2007 when she realized fashion design was what she was meant to do. Her first internship was with Chado Ralph Rucci, doing a little bit of everything from helping to hand-finish garments to assisting backstage at Rucci’s show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. That job was followed by a career-defining stint at Oscar de la Renta, where Webb perfected

her embellishment techniques while working with the designer himself and his team on the collections. When Webb’s former manager from Oscar began working for Ann Taylor, she snatched Webb up to design wedding dresses for the company, introducing her to the bridal business almost by accident. Webb fell in love with bridal, and after reaching out to JLM Couture, a New Yorkbased bridal house, she ended up with not one but two lines bearing her name, Allison Webb and Ti Adora by Allison Webb. “You’re limited in your color palette, so it forces you to become more creative in what you’re doing,” she says. “Because you’re not focused on color or print, you can really focus on the details.”

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In the Ti Adora line, those details manifest in embroidered lace, perfectly placed ruching and seams, and buttons running the entire length of a gown. The dresses are perfect for the romantic bride, the ones getting married on the beach or in rustic barn settings. Her namesake line is a bit sleeker, more modern with dramatic ballgowns and oversized bows adding black tie touches. “Meeting with brides when I go around and do shows is a really gratifying experience,” Webb says. “Seeing them choose your gowns and cry, and their moms are crying. Half the time I’m crying with them, and I don’t even know them. The dress will be in their pictures that they’ll look at for the rest of their life, so I feel like it’s an honor to be able to design their dresses.”

the trend setter

s a r a h c o n ly publications The New York Magazine Harper’s Bazaar InStyle Cosmopolitan Seventeen

photos courtesy of sarah conly

agazine editors used to be the only ones who shaped what was in and what was out, carefully selecting pieces to feature in spreads that would be pored over by fashionistas around the world. Then Instagram happened. Sarah Conly ABJ ’00 was an associate at Harper’s Bazaar when the curated, visual medium blew up. The shakeup to the magazine industry was immediate. “Before Instagram, editors were kind of a conduit taking the designer’s vision and translating it or putting a creative spin on it,” Conly says. “It’s way more democratic now because Instagram gives up-and-coming brands and designers exposure that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. But you don’t

have the luxury of time.” The popular social app also opened doors for social media darlings to develop online personas that morphed into full-time careers as influencers. Models are discovered on Instagram. And small brands are able to break out of the pack through their online presence. Magazines had to adapt quickly to the new platforms, creating content that played to digital strengths. High-impact visuals, looped videos, memes, and GIFs. More content faster. During her time at Cosmopolitan, Conly saw one of the most popular women’s magazine brands cultivate a social persona that engaged its loyal readership but also brought new followers into the

fold. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat gave magazines—and editors—the ability to react to current events and interact with readers in a way print couldn’t. “I feel lucky that I’ve been able to see both sides of the industry,” Conly says. “I think people’s relationship to media has changed, but I hope people will still take that time to spend time relaxing with a brand and kind of getting lost in magazines like we used to. I still love going to a nail or hair salon and sitting down with a magazine.” As fashion market director at Hearst Women’s Fashion Group, Conly produced content for a variety of Hearst publications, both in print and online, and also managed relationships with brands to secure clothing and accessories for photoshoots, working with fashion directors to bring their concepts for spreads to life. “It’s an interesting time in our industry,” says Conly, who recently relocated to Los Angeles to pursue freelance styling jobs for magazine editorials, brands, and red carpet events, in addition to continuing to write and consult. “People are doing more with less and still finding ways to be creative and push the creative boundaries.”

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the vintage virtuoso

airee edwards the goods Chanel Louis Vuitton Hermés

peter frey

iree Edwards wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she graduated from UGA with a bachelor’s in fabric design, but she knew she wanted to stay in Athens. So she looked for a business opening, asking herself what was missing, what did Athens not have? The answer: an open market where anyone could sell their vintage furniture, handcrafted items, art, or whatever, really. “I went to what seemed like every bank in Athens, and I heard a lot of no’s,” Edwards AB ’99 says. But with savings from waiting tables and taking money off the house she’d bought, “a risky move” as she describes it, Edwards convinced a local bank to lend her what she needed to open Agora in 2002. (Agora means “open marketplace” in Greek.) The only problem? Edwards didn’t have a business degree. But growing up, she’d followed her mother from one craft fair to the next, selling tissue box holders they fashioned from vintage fabrics. That early exposure to entrepreneurship stuck with her.

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So she learned as she went, eventually outgrowing the little shop at the corner of Clayton and Pulaski. Sellers had also begun bringing in higher-end items, including women’s clothing and accessories, and Edwards’ husband, attorney and Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Russell Edwards JD ’10, suggested she move the fashion items to a new store a few blocks away on Broad Street, right across from North Campus. For a while, the Edwards family headed both stores, an exhausting but incredibly rewarding job. But she eventually decided to focus on one of her first loves—fashion—and grow the now iconic vintage fashion store on Broad, selling the furniture store that would become Atomic Vintage. When you walk into the recently renovated Agora Vintage, you see an Art Deco-inspired cabinet lined with bags from Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Hermès, just to name a few. But there are also less expensive, gently used Coach, Tory Burch, and Marc by Marc Jacobs bags toward the back of the store. The counter display is full of beautiful, estate jewelry.

To ey r fr the left, pete rows of vintage and modern clothes, all marked significantly below retail. Designer shoes are toward the back. But what makes Agora Vintage stand out is Edwards herself. She’s almost always in the store, greeting customers, suggesting items she knows they have to have, and tracking down pieces they’ve inquired about. It’s that attention to detail that has landed Agora several times on the Bulldog 100, which lists the fastest growing buinesses owned or operated by UGA alumni. But she never forgets the place that made it all possible, regularly speaking in classes at UGA and supporting the Georgia Museum of Art. “I tell them the whole story about how I couldn’t get a loan and was eating potato chips for a year, thought I was going to get scurvy,” Edwards says. “I now own a business that allows me to live securely and enjoy some success. UGA helped me build that.”

the print master

emilio pucci

the punk professor

monica sklar expertise Modern social movements and subcultures 20th /21st century design peter frey

o Monica Sklar, fashion is about much more than just what’s in and what’s out. Fashion is where history and culture intersect. “Fashion is usually thought of as something hyperfunctional or hyperfrivolous, and it’s neither of those things,” says Sklar, an assistant professor of textiles, merchandising, and interiors in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and liaison to the Historic Clothing and Textiles Collection at the university’s Special Collections Libraries. “It’s a record of where we are in society and in the arts as much as literature, film, and photography are. And it’s extremely accessible to people to understand because everybody engages with it in some way or another.” Sklar specializes in subcultures and

social movements, with punk being an area of expertise. In addition to being a personal interest, punk is an understudied area of scholarship in fashion. When boiled down, punk is about questioning the boundaries and rules of mainstream society, but Sklar says it’s about so much more than that. “It’s a lifestyle movement with an ethos,” she explains. “It’s an umbrella term with a tremendous amount of aesthetic cues built under it that generally then would communicate pushing the boundaries of beauty standards, pushing the boundaries of production and consumption methodologies. It’s too simplified when people call it anti-fashion, and it’s too simplified when people say it’s just a rebellion.”

To learn more about UGA’s economic impact in fashion and other areas of interest, visit FCS.UGA.EDU/FASHION-MERCHANDISING.

is name connotes high-fashion royalty now, but in the 1930s, Emilio Pucci M ’36 was simply a noble-born son of a family that was heavily entrenched in Tuscany’s agriculi al tural world. Somehow, s p ec the Italian aristocrat made it all the way across the Atlantic to the University of Georgia to learn the latest agricultural techniques to benefit the family business. He created a one-man ski team at the university and was active in UGA’s chapter of the Demosthenian Literary Society. But farming wasn’t where his heart was. He left UGA and ended up at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he earned a master’s and designed his first item of clothing: the Reed College ski team uniform. When he returned to Italy in 1937, he served in the Italian air force through the war and after. He received his first commission as a designer a decade later. A commission to design a line of ski clothes followed, and Pucci became one of the first Italian designers to sell in the U.S. after the war. His domestic popularity skyrocketed when he reached deals with Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. As he built his fashion empire, Pucci’s name became synonymous with bright, colorful designs and patterns on otherwise simple cuts, characteristics that continue to be prevalent in Pucci products to this day. Pucci also maintained a presence on UGA’s Cortona campus, guest lecturing and narrating the Summer of Joy, a 1978 documentary celebrating the 10th anniversary of UGA’s partnership with the Italian town. Prior to his death in 1992, Pucci returned to Georgia to participate in a high-end fashion show to benefit a boarding school in the state and for his induction into the Demosthenian Wall of Fame. GM

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ON THE BULLDOG BEAT The University of Georgia Veterinary Teaching Hospital treats tens of thousands of animals every year. As part of the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, the hospital also provides undergraduate and graduate students with hands-on experience diagnosing, treating, and managing care regimens for a wide variety of species, including everything from parrots to lions to tortoises. Here are a few of the animal patients Stephen Divers, professor of zoological medicine, has treated during his two decades working at the hospital.

pet projects by leigh beeson ma ’17

THE LION WHO LOST HIS MANE When the safari staff brought him in, the lion had entirely lost his mane. The lion’s keeper thought he had a testicular mass. At 500 pounds, he was about average size for an adult male lion, but he was almost 100 times the weight of his domestic cat cousins. The team was lucky, though. The lion clocked in right under the CT machine’s limit. Staff at the teaching hospital determined that it wasn’t a mass but low testosterone levels that were throwing off the lion’s masculinity, meaning he’d need testosterone injections to regrow his glorious mane. Since the lion was already sedated, the hospital also arranged to have his eyes and teeth checked.

THE LIZARD WITH TOO MANY EGGS IN HER BASKET The chameleon’s abdomen was so distended that she looked like she’d swallowed a miniature football. Female reptiles don’t need a male to stimulate egg production, and the lizard’s body had been hard at work developing eggs. So hard at work that her ovaries accounted for about 20% of her 100-gram body. Successful surgery at the hospital removed the ovaries and gave the lizard her svelte figure back.

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THE MUMMY SNAKES An anaconda isn’t your typical pet, so when yours gets sick, treatment options are limited. Luckily for one such snake owner, the UGA Teaching Hospital has experts in herpetology, too. When the snake hadn’t eaten in over a year, the owner knew something was amiss. So, Divers and his team took the massive 20-foot creature into surgery to see what was going on. Anacondas give birth to live babies, and it turned out that this particular snake’s body had retained mummified fetuses in her abdomen. The veterinary team removed the mummies, and the snake started eating again in about a month.

THE FISH THAT FLEW COMMERCIAL The koi fish had a rapidly progressing fatty tumor closing in on her spine. The owner of the 33-pound fish flew her down to Georgia because UGA is one of a limited number of veterinary facilities that specializes in fish CT and surgery. The exotics team used a special operating table that kept a water-anesthetic solution continuously running over the fish’s gills while the clinicians obtained a CT scan and operated to remove the tumor.

THE BIONIC FERRET This relative of the weasel couldn’t catch a break. It had multiple disease diagnoses, including cancer and a heart condition, on top of an already weak immune system that is common in the species. But its owners were devoted and willing to do just about anything to keep their ferret alive. So, UGA surgically installed a pacemaker in the animal to regulate its cardiac activity. If you’re wondering where one obtains a pacemaker for a less than 5-pound mammal, the answer is surprisingly simple: human pacemaker castoffs they purchased and adapted for their furry patient.

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THE NATION

news and events

Never Bark Alone!

Being a Georgia Bulldog is more than making a memory or even earning a degree; it’s being a part of a community of passionate individuals who are committed to excellence. It’s seeing the G on a hat at the airport, meeting old friends on College Ave. and feeling the years vanish, and it’s helping to prepare the next generation of Bulldogs who will continue our tradition of commitment. The UGA Alumni Association is here for you—from Savannah to Seattle, Decatur to Detroit and as far overseas as your dreams will take you. No matter where you go and what your chapter in life: we’re here for you. Learn how you can connect with fellow alumni worldwide, yearround, and lifelong at alumni.uga.edu.

from the uga alumni association

UGA Mentor Program

The first UGA-wide mentor program launched in August and has been a great success! More than 1,700 alumni have signed up as mentors, and, in the program’s first semester, student response has far exceeded expectations. As of October, 780+ mentor pairs have been created, and new students are signing up every day. If you have yet to be paired with a mentee, many students will be seeking a mentor when the spring semester begins. To become a UGA Mentor, visit mentor.uga.edu.

Travel the World

The UGA Alumni Association partners with three travel companies to offer alumni and friends exciting worldwide tour opportunities year-round. Lasting friendships are made when you travel with (or meet along the way) fellow Georgia Bulldogs. View upcoming itineraries, including an October 2020 opportunity to visit Cortona, Italy, as part of the “Hill Towns of Italy” trip. More at alumni.uga.edu/tours.

A BULLDOG BARK TO ...

UGA alumna and author Delia Owens BS ’71 visited campus in September to speak with alumni and friends, and sign copies of her New York Times bestselling novel, Where the Crawdads Sing. She also spent quality time with fellow Bulldog author Malcolm Mitchell AB ’15, and even tried on his Super Bowl ring from his time with the New England Patriots.

decisive moment photography

The 40 Under 40 Class of 2019 was recognized on campus in September for their outstanding achievements both professionally and philanthropically. As always, this is an incredible group of young alumni who are leading the pack in their industries and communities. katie degenova

CHAPTER SPOTLIGHT

CHAPTER NAME: Savannah CHAPTER PRESIDENT: Amy Green AB ’95 NUMBER OF ALUMNI IN THE AREA: 5,646 The Savannah Chapter was revitalized in January and has since hosted six events and numerous game-watching parties, including a sold-out gathering at the Savannah Bananas baseball game, and a meet-andgreet with the UGA hockey team. There are 10 passionate chapter board members who are eager to have alumni and friends in the Savannah area join them for future events and programs!

Find your chapter: ALUMNI.UGA.EDU/CHAPTERS special

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SOCIAL MEDIA

Stay connected with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. #AlwaysADawg // ALUMNI.UGA.EDU/SOCIAL In August, the Nashville Alumni Chapter hosted a community service project at Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee where they packed 917 backpacks with food for kids who don’t have meals on the weekends.

DON’T MISS OUT SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8 2020 Bulldog 100 Celebration For the first time ever, the 2020 Bulldog 100 Celebration will be held in Athens. This annual gathering recognizes the 100 fastest growing Bulldog businesses of the past year. To see the companies that made the list, visit

@ugaalumninashville

alumni.uga.edu/b100.

FEBRUARY 2020 Nominations Open for Bulldog 100 and 40 Under 40 Nominate outstanding young alumni for 40 Under 40 and Bulldog-owned or -operated businesses for Bulldog 100.

alumni.uga.edu/40u40 alumni.uga.edu/b100

THURSDAY-SATURDAY, MARCH 26-28

Several black alumni in the Washington, D.C., area have gathered each summer for the past few years to host a dinner for black students who are interning in the nation’s capital. These alumni are proud to welcome students to their city and support their long-term career goals.

@liv3lovelizz

UGA Alumni Weekend

Julian Dorio BS ’04 (left), drummer for Band of Skulls, sat in for three nights with the 8G Band on Late Night with Seth Meyers in August. Pictured here with the host.

Return to campus to relive your glory (glory) college days. If you’re ready to feel like a student again, this special weekend is just for you. Grab a family member or college friend (or five!) and register for one of the most immersive campus events of the year.

alumni.uga.edu/weekend

FRIDAY, MARCH 27 TEDxUGA Hear from some of the UGA community’s leading thinkers and doers as they share their passions, stories, and “ideas worth spreading.”

tedxuga.com

For more events, visit alumni.uga.edu/calendar.

@coolranchdorio

Five Student Alumni Council members pose with Hairy Dawg in Tate Plaza during the group’s second annual 1785 Day in August. During this special event, students can join the Student Alumni Association at a discounted rate and participate in alumni networking and spirit events throughout the academic year.

Moved? Changed your name? Added a new Bulldog to the family? Let us know! alumni.uga.edu/update or (800) 606-8786. @uga_saa

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class

notes Compiled by Rachel Floyd AB ’19, Madeleine Howell, and Mary Calkins

1960-1964 Arnold Young BBA ’63, LLB ’65 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020.

John McGarity BBA ’68 received the 2019 Renaissance Award from the Georgia Cities Foundation.

1965-1969 Wayne Johnson BSCH ’65 retired from his position as laboratory director/salinity chemist at the Bureau of Reclamation Yuma Desalting Plant in Arizona. John Tatum AB ’65, LLB ’68 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Jim Gibbs BS ’66 received the 2019 Award of Excellence from the National Garden Clubs. Joe Lane BS ’66, MS ’68, PhD ’70 retired from Armstrong State University in Savannah, where he was a professor of psychology. David Sipple AB ’66, MPA ’69 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Chuck Clowdis BBA ’67 formed the Trans-Logistics Group, a consulting group specializing in various transportation fields in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Thomas Hudson BSEd ’67, MEd ’68 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Terry Turner BSA ’67, MS ’72, PhD ’75 was named the 2019 Distinguished Andrologist by the American Society of Andrology. John Hewson LLB ’68 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020.

1970-1974 David Hagins BS ’70, MS ’76 retired after 30 years of practicing obstetrics and gynecology. Jeannie Sims AB ’70 retired after 30 years of owning her own corporate event planning business. Judi Turner ABJ ’70 was inducted into the SOURCE Hall of Fame for Women Behind the Music. She is manager of communications and events at Leadership Music in Nashville and has been part of the music industry for more than 40 years. Bert Kelling BS ’72 retired from Raleigh Orthodontics in North Carolina after 40 years of private practice. Jimmy Fincher BSA ’73 is a sales representative at Henry Mitchem Equipment Company in St. Simons Island. Bill Berryman ABJ ’74, JD ’78 is an attorney at Fortson, Bentley & Griffin in Athens. Ginny Ruffner BFA ’74, MFA ’75 has her exhibition, “Reforestation of the Imagination,” on display in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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special

HERITAGE HOGS

Saving the Guinea Hogs After Cathy Payne BSEd ’77, MEd ’84, EdD ’04 retired in 2010, but her passion for learning certainly did not end there. After more than 30 years of teaching special education, she started a sustainable farm in Elbert County that bred heritage livestock. Soon after, she began specializing in guinea hogs, a rare breed of farmed hogs with substantial roots in the Southeast dating back to before the Civil War. In 2018 when Payne sold the farm, she wrote her first book, Saving the Guinea Hogs: The Recovery of an American Homestead Breed, which was released in March. As the first definitive history of the breed, the book outlines the importance of the hog and articulates the stories of the people who have raised them throughout history. Through the reporting of rare bloodlines, Payne’s research has been used to add genetic diversity to the national herd of guinea hogs, ensuring the future health of the species. Payne hopes to “educate even the non-farmer on how they can support heritage breeds like the guinea hog,” encouraging sustainability of the breeds and throughout agricultural practices.

CLASS NOTES 1975-1979 Hiram Larew BSA ’75 launched Poetry X Hunger, an initiative that encourages poets to write about issues of hunger. Fred LaSpina AB ’75 is a theological studies professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Binnie Hannah BBA ’77 is a realtor at Coldwell Banker Upchurch Realty in Athens. Doug Wren BSEd ’77, EdD ’00 released his first book, Assessing Deeper Learning: Developing, Implementing, and Scoring Performance Tasks, in August. Tom Barton ABJ ’78 writes about food and travel adventures at his blog iamnotoldnews.com. Walt Caserio BS ’78 retired after 35 years at the Miller Brewing Company in Albany. Kevin Williams AB ’78 was recently selected as a 2019 Georgia Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers magazine. 1980-1984 Dennis Blanton AB ’80 will release his book, Conquistador’s Wake, in January. David Dial AB ’80 was recently selected as a 2019 Georgia Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers magazine. Grier Hoyt AB ’80 joined the real estate practice group at Cozen O’Connor’s Washington, D.C., office. Thomas Kerr BSEd ’80, MHP ’03 is county manager of Newton County. Allen Ryan AB ’80, BS ’81, BBA ’02 received his doctorate from Louisiana State University in May. Vivian Hoard AB ’82, JD ’85 was recognized in the 2019 edition of the legal directory, Chambers USA for her work in tax practice. Chuck Copeland AB ’83 is the president and CEO of First National Bank of Griffin. He was recently elected as the chairman of the Georgia Bank-

APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI

The Minnesota Connection

Joan T.A. Gabel JD ’93

eric miller | 2018 regents of the university of minnesota

n july, joan t.a. gabel JD ’93 became the University of Minnesota’s 17th president and the first woman to hold that position. It’s a remarkable distinction in a career full of them. Gabel was the first female dean of University of Missouri’s Trulaske College of Business and the first female provost of the University of South Carolina. Being first so often has led to a lot of “what’s it like?” questions. “I don’t know how to answer that question because I’ve never not been a woman,” she said to laughs at a Women in Business luncheon in Minneapolis over the summer. But before reaching the highest ranks of academia, Gabel was an attorney. The Atlanta native trained at UGA’s School

of Law, and she has credited that legal education for sharpening her skills to think, solve problems, and communicate— skills that come in handy in any job but particularly in higher education administration. As a UGA student, she was an active member of the law school’s Moot Court program, which simulates appellate court proceedings, and she was a protégé of Jere W. Morehead JD ’80, long before he became UGA’s 22nd president. “He was and is a tremendous teacher,” Gabel says. “He taught me how to communicate, how to leverage my strengths, and how to work in a team.” Gabel took those lessons to heart. After working as an attorney, she joined the faculty at Georgia State University and later Florida State University,

where her academic interests included legal and ethical issues in businesses. And she served as editor-in-chief of the American Business Law Journal. Now, Gabel presides over five University of Minnesota system campuses and approximately 67,000 students and 27,000 faculty and staff. She has made improving campus climate, as well as strengthening research, education, and service to her new state, her priorities while in office. “I’m very honored to be the 17th president of the University of Minnesota,” says Gabel, “and I’m very grateful to the University of Georgia for the education and values that gave me the competencies for such a fulfilling personal and professional journey.”

written by aaron hale MA ’16

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CLASS NOTES Southeast regional vice president for Twitch in Atlanta.

ers Association. Christopher Phillips BSFR ’83, MFR ’85, JD ’88 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Jacqueline Bunn ABJ ’84, JD ’87 was awarded the 2019 Thomas Burnside Jr. Excellence in Bar Leadership Award at the State Bar of Georgia Annual Meeting in Orlando. Lewis Massey BBA ’84 co-founded Impact Public Affairs in Atlanta. Richard Morgan BBA ’84, JD ’87 was selected as one of the Best

Lawyers in America 2020. 1985-1989 Julie Brown ABJ ’85 is the president and CEO of the Georgia Foreign Trade Zone in Atlanta. John Hayden BS ’85 is a member of the National Advisory Council at Dixie State University in Saint George, Utah. Christie Copeland BBA ’86, MBA ’87 is a buyer at Yamaha Motor Manufacturing of America. Timothy Forrest AB ’87 assisted the leadership team at Prayasam, a food vocational

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charity he helped found in Kolkata, India, secure a one-year contract with the American Center at the United States Consulate. Tamra Bolles ABJ ’88 is a teacher at Hightower Trial Middle School in Cobb County. She is also a contributor for Animal Wellness Magazine and Georgia Backroads, and has been an author for Chicken Soup for the Soul. Richard Hackett BBA ’88, MBA ’92 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Mike Beckham BBA ’89 is the

1990-1994 Joseph Alexander BBA ’90 is the southeast United States managing partner at DLA Piper and global co-chair of the firm’s corporate and private equity practices. He was named in the Daily Report’s 2019 list of Dealmakers of the Year. Candice Branch AB ’90, MEd ’92 is the associate probate judge and full-time magistrate judge for Newton County. Jen McClain AB ’90 is a volunteer coordinator on the planning committee for Athfest and the AthHalf half marathon. Amanda Rosseter ABJ ’90 is the chief communications officer at Equifax in Atlanta. Jeff Whatley ABJ ’90 is a French teacher at Northside High School in Houston County. Kelli Pipkin AB ’91 is the marketing and communications manager at Community Health Northwest Florida in Pensacola. Mike Ashley BLA ’92 is owner of Michael Ashley Landscape Architecture, a design build company in Prairie Village, Kansas. Al Story Jr. AB ’92 is the director of threat assessment at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He previously retired from the United States Secret Service after 22 years. Shelli Wells BBA ’92 is a freelance copywriter and published author. She has written seven books. Brad Barber BBA ’93 is the president and CEO of First National Bank in Bainbridge. He was recently elected as the secretary and treasurer of the Georgia Bankers Association. Michael Burnett BS ’93 is the CEO of Piedmont-Athens Regional Medical Center. Jennifer Grout BSEd ’93 is a tech-

CLASS NOTES

APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI

Parks and Recreation

Katherine Bridges BLA ’77

peter frey

hree decades after she began working as a landscape architect with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Katherine Bridges BLA ’77 is right back where she started. Jacob K. Javits Playground in Fort Tryon Park is a 1-acre oasis at the northern tip of Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River. Bridges’ first assignment after joining the parks department in 1989 was project managing the work being done on the playground. Now, as she is about to retire, her last job is the renovation of that same playground. In between, Bridges has either led or contributed to the design of more than 50 parks scattered across New York’s five boroughs. Odds are, if you have visited New York anytime in the last 30 years, you’ve enjoyed her work. Bridges’ most well-known projects include Blue Heron Park, which she created out of a woodland and wetland area on the south side of Staten Island, the borough where she grew up; Maria Hernandez Park, the largest greenspace in Brooklyn’s bustling Bushwick neighborhood; and Canarsie Park on the Brooklyn waterfront. Prior to joining the parks department,

Bridges worked for the Central Park Conservancy, where she was on the team (whose leaders included Marianne Cramer MLA ’78) that created the 15-year master plan for the restoration of Central Park. Bridges created the master plan drawing, which was 13 feet long, and she still has it. Bridges has actually been working on Jacob Javits for several years. The design was approved back in 2017. Construction didn’t start until mid-2018 and continued throughout all kinds of weather, finally wrapping up this past fall when the playground reopened. “Jacob Javits is for everyone, from babies to senior citizens,” Bridges says. “I had to find a way to harmoniously integrate all these needs yet still create a beautiful comprehensive design that functions well.” Subtle isn’t necessarily the first word that comes to mind with regard to a playground, but Bridges incorporated a variety of features to serve Jacob Javits’ many visitors. Multiple play areas serve specific ages (6-23 months, 2-5 years, and 5-12 years), and there are separate exercise areas for kids and adults. The new design also added ample strolling space, benches, and game tables, and it even kept intact a wilderness

area. One acre isn’t a large area, but at Jacob Javits there’s space for everyone. Bridges’ early career experience with the Central Park Team gave her the expertise to subsequently develop master plans for Blue Heron Park and Canarsie Park, both award-winning projects. Over the decades, Bridges has seen most of the ideas from those master plans become fixtures of the respective parks, beginning with the landscaping of the Great Hill in the northwest part of Central Park. As Bridges looks back on her 30 years at the parks department, she says she is most proud of her mentorship of younger staff members. “I’m teaching them not only about design and the attention to detail but also the importance of listening, of process, of ecology and the continuum of landscape through time. And then there’s always that scintilla di belleza, that spark of beauty.” Bridges attended UGA Cortona as a student and worked professionally in Italy for several years before moving back to New York, so she occasionally uses Italian to drive her points home. “Everything we do has to have that spark,” she says. “I’m very happy that my work will stand the test of time.”

written by eric rangus MA ’94

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CLASS NOTES nical project manager at Comcast in Denver, Colorado. Rebecca Lerner BBA ’93 was recently recognized in both Forbes’ 2019 Best in State Wealth Advisors and Top Women Health Advisors lists. Melanie Gallo AB ’94 is the founder of Melanie C Gallo Coaching and Consulting. She is a Forbes Coaches Council Member and contributor, and specializes in personality, emotional welfare, and thinking habits in the workplace. 1995-1999 Russell Hamlin BSA ’95, MS ’98 is director of agronomy with Grimmway Farms in Bakersfield, California. Jeffery Monroe AB ’96, JD ’00 is a superior court justice of the Macon Judicial Circuit. Heather Wright BBA ’96 is the founding partner of the law firm Wright Attorneys, which has been in business in Atlanta for 15 years. Joyette Holmes AB ’97 is the district attorney of Cobb County. Susan Moss BBA ’97 is the president and CEO of Planters and Citizens Bank in Camilla. She was recently elected to the board of directors of the Georgia Bankers Association. Chris Johnson AB ’98 is the director of communications at Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network. He is also a recognized behavioral health advocate, speaking on a panel at the 24th annual Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Forum. Todd Winkleman BBA ’98 is director of human resources at Honeywell in Houston, Texas. Marissa Wilson BSFCS ’99, MEd ’07 is the principal of A. Philip Randolph Elementary School in Atlanta. Allen Yee BS ’99, JD ’03 was appointed to serve on the State Road and Tollway Authority for the state of Georgia. 2000-2004 Frank Hamrick BFA ’00 released his book of photography, It was there all along.

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CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI

Time to Shine

Marah Lidey ABJ ’11

photos by yumi matsuo

s she worked to launch her career in the challenging environment of a big city, Marah Lidey ABJ ’11 discovered something about herself and her peers. “We found that we were really good at being kind to our friends when they went through hard times or dealt with difficult emotions,” Lidey says. “But we were pretty hard on ourselves. So, we wanted to create something that made it easy and habitual for people to treat themselves better and to essentially practice daily self-compassion.” She and Naomi Hirabayashi, a colleague at a New York nonprofit where they both worked, responded in 2015 by co-founding Shine, a self-care app for millennials “that feels like a daily pep talk in your pocket.” It has gained attention from Glamour, Mashable, and other media. And Forbes named

Lidey one of its 30 Under 30 for consumer technology for 2018, saying 500,000 people in 165 countries use Shine and that the company had raised $3 million. Lidey says the aim is to address a “spiral of silence,” in which people experience anxiety or depression, blame themselves, and don’t talk about it with others. “The antidote is really self-compassion and hearing from other people how they practice self-compassion,” Lidey says. With Shine, “every day we’re giving you a daily messaging conversation, a research-backed article, and a meditation.” A text such as “Make It Happen Monday: ‘Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.’ Visualizing what we want can give us the power, motivation, and blueprint to make it happen. Dream the big dream today,

Marah. Dare you.” Lidey says that in three years, Shine has amassed 4 million users of its mobile app or text messaging. And she says a study commissioned by Shine found that using the service is correlated with decreases in anxiety and depression. The first in her family to go to college, Lidey studied public relations in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communicatoin. Lidey credits her time at Georgia for directing her toward the digital world, where she has thrived. “Going to the University of Georgia was definitely game changing for me,” she says. “What I found to be so great is that I was able to make a really strong friend group there. Those people helped shape my identity.”

written by tom kertscher

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CLASS NOTES Cory Kampfer BBA ’00 is the chief operations officer and general counsel of OnDeck. He was listed on the General Counsel 500 Powerlist in 2019. Sravanthi Meka ABJ ’00, MBA ’07 is a marketing and business development manager at Story First Creative in Atlanta. Brian Todd BS ’00, MS ’02, PhD ’08 is a professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish,

& Conservation Biology at the University of California, Davis. Russ Pennington BSBE ’01, MBA ’06 co-founded Impact Public Affairs in Atlanta. Jason Sleeman BBA ’01 is an associate managing director with CIBC Bank in Atlanta. Lance Einstein BBA ’02 is a partner at MendenFreiman in Atlanta. Benjamin Graham BBA ’02 is the

growth groups pastor at Foothills Bible Church in Littleton, Colorado. Sarah Heath BBA ’02, MEd ’05, PhD ’11 is the secretary of the SkillsUSA board of directors. SkillsUSA is a nonprofit focused on workforce training. Carrie Livers BS ’02 was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency, as the only teacher in Georgia to receive

the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators. She is an environmental science teacher at Brookwood High School in Snellville. Chris Chitty AB ’03 is a senior associate at MendenFreiman in Atlanta. Brad Wright BS ’03 is an associate professor and director of health services and outcomes research in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also the co-director of the Program on Healthcare Economics and Finance at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Kelly Cotten BSEd ’04 welcomed son Levi Roy Cotten in August 2018 with her husband Sean. John Manly AB ’04, JD ’08 was re-elected to serve on the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Georgia. 2005-2009 Alisha Cardenas AB ’05 is owner and artistic director of the Central NJ Ballet Theatre in Florence, New Jersey. The recently renovated dance studio is named the Christine Cardenas Center for Performing Arts Education in honor of her late mother. Lymari Cromwell AB ’05 is an attorney at Bass, Berry & Sims in Nashville. Kelly Garrison BSA ’05 is zoo coordinator at Bear Hollow Zoo in Athens. Dan Hudalla BBA ’05 received a master’s degree in operations research from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is an analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C. Brendan Murphy AB ’05, JD ’08 is Cobb County’s Chief Magis-

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CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI

Partnering with Purpose

here are few moments of exhilaration quite like winning a major league championship. While Tameka Rish wasn’t on the pitch when Atlanta United won the MLS Cup last December, she was in Mercedes-Benz Stadium as part of the front office staff that brought a major professional sports trophy back to Atlanta for the first time in two decades. “I can’t describe the feeling of finally getting the championship. Nothing comes close to the Cup,” says Rish MEd ’03, vice president of corporate partnerships at AMB Sports & Entertainment, the group that operates Atlanta United, the Atlanta Falcons, and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

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Rish leads a team that brings corporate partners’ brands to life in the new stadium. This architectural wonder, built around giving fans a unique experience, opened in 2017 with great fanfare. It has not disappointed, winning Sports Facility of the Year at the 2019 Sports Business Awards. Rish’s team played a key role in that success by working with corporate sponsors to build 31 engaging fan experiences throughout the stadium, including the AT&T Perch (where fans can sit on couches and watch the game from TV screens) and American Family Insurance Fan Village (where you can take selfies with a giant Falcons football helmet). In her 15 seasons at AMB Sports & Entertainment, Rish has seen some ups

Tameka Rish MEd ’03

and downs. “There’s nothing worse than a Monday after a loss to the Saints,” she says, “and nothing better than a Monday after you’ve beaten them.” As passionate as she is about her football teams (American and otherwise), she’s found a deep commitment to another cause: human trafficking. “I’ve always had a passion for fighting for people who don’t have a champion,” she says. Although Rish began her college career wanting to be a judge, she followed the path of journalism, which led her to sports publicity. She earned her master’s in sport management from UGA’s College of Education. A few years ago, Rish attended an event that opened her eyes to the problem of human trafficking, and she wanted to do something about it. In 2014, she took a trip to Thailand, where she spent time in two of Bangkok’s red-light districts trying to understand the problem and helping the women and girls affected by it. “That trip changed my life,” she says. She’s been on subsequent trips to Cambodia and the Philippines. And when Super Bowl LIII came to Atlanta in February, Rish served on a committee tasked with raising awareness around the issue of sex trafficking. She helped host an event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and became the marketing chair for the International Human Trafficking Institute, which launched a billboard campaign around Atlanta targeted at decreasing the demand for sex trafficking. She doesn’t think she would be able to do this kind of work had she taken a different path. “I’ve realized I may be able to do more through a platform of sports than I could through a career in the justice system,” Rish says. “Because people are interested in the Falcons and Atlanta United, they listen and open doors for me when they wouldn’t for people with more expertise and experience in the issue.”

written by aaron hale MA ’16

geo rgia maga z ine | winter 2 019

CLASS NOTES trate Court judge. Christopher Stripling BSA ’05, MAL ’06 is the interim head of the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. Kimberly Collins AB ’06 is the chief compliance officer, co-founder, and private client planner at Armis Advisers in Athens. Jackson Dial BBA ’06 was selected as a 2019 Georgia Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine. Michael Paupeck BBA ’06 was selected as a 2019 Georgia Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine. Matthew Wilson BSA ’06, JD ’14 is a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, where he serves on the Judiciary, Education, and Agriculture and Consumer Affairs committees. Joshua Wood AB ’06, JD ’10 was selected as a 2019 Georgia Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine. Norbert Hummel AB ’07 was installed as president-elect of the Young Lawyers Division of the State Bar of Georgia. He is an associate attorney in Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith in Atlanta. Caroline Maddox AB ’07, PhD ’17 is the director of advancement and strategy at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. Brian Mears Jr. BS ’07 is a periodontics resident at the Dental College of Georgia and Charlie Norwood VA hospital in Augusta. Kara Celeste Short BSFCS ’07 received the 2019 Ad-

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vanced Practice Excellence award at Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham. Katie Dimmick BS ’08 is the manager of ocean export documentation at Page International in Savannah. Mark Ball AB ’08 is a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. Kayde Campbell BSEd ’08 is a speech-language pathologist and therapy dog handler at SAGE Speech and Learning Associates in Sandy Springs. Alexander AB ’08 and Lori Maggioni BSFCS ’09 welcomed their second son, William Clark. Alex is a public defender with the Georgia Public Defender Council, and Lori is a dietitian for the U.S. Army. Claire Tallman BSEd ’08 married Taylor Gerber in Hawaii in May. Jonathan Post AB ’08 is an insurance broker at Brown & Brown Insurance in Lawrenceville. Margaret Vazquez BSFCS ’08 is an administrative officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Ashley Duel ABJ ’09 is an associate at MendenFreiman in Atlanta. J. Hillyer Jennings BBA ’09 is a senior associate at King & Spalding in Atlanta. Brynt Lett BBA ’09 is pursuing a doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dustin Brynton Miller BS ’09 married Bryan Miller BBA ’08, AB ’08 in Atlanta in May. Jennifer Nichols BSFR ’09 was named the 2019 Canvas High School Teacher of the Year.

2010-2014 Dan Coats AB ’10 is the 2020 Trump Victory Georgia State Director for the Republican National Committee in Atlanta. Charles White Jr. BBA ’10 is an attorney and owner of Charles White Law Firm. He received a Master of Laws degree from the Chapman University Fowler School of Law in May. Bryan Williamson BS ’10 is a consulting manager of business strategy at Accenture’s Business Strategy practice in San Francisco. Carly Cox BS ’11 is a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia. Adam Estrada AB ’11 is director of analytics at Maxar Technologies in Herndon, Virginia. Sydney Hayter BSA ’11 graduated from Mississippi State University in Starkville with a doctorate in veterinary medicine. She is now an intern at Brandon Equine Medical Center in Bloomingdale, Florida. Kelby Lamar ABJ ’11, AB ’11, MA ’14 is the Greek life and leadership coordinator at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus. Ryan Miller AB ’11, BBA ’11 is the data strategy director at Droga5 in New York. Hannah Ginn BBA ’12 is a tax manager at James Moore’s Gainsville office. Gena Perry BSA ’11, MAB ’14 is project director at AMPLIFIES Ghana for the American Soybean Association’s WISHH program. Todd Silvis BBA ’11 is an attorney at Silvis, Ambrose,

my georgia commitment

CLASS NOTES

supporting students and their families

Cortney (Touhy) Beebe AB ’98 experienced firsthand higher education’s ripple effect across generations. Now, she’s helping students become the first in their families to graduate from college.

ortney beebe’s parents began a 35-year streak as Georgia football season ticket holders in 1980—the year Herschel Walker led the Bulldogs to a National Championship. Eighteen years later, she graduated from UGA. Today, Beebe still feels fortunate to be a Georgia Bulldog. A native of Dalton, she started her undergraduate journey at Wofford College in South Carolina. Beebe was set on becoming a doctor, but after a glimpse into medical school life, she decided to go another direction. She transferred to UGA, where she found a supportive community that encouraged her to forge a new path. At UGA, Beebe developed a passion for art history that led her to earn a bachelor’s degree in the subject here, and then a master’s from the American University in Paris. She then pursued a marketing job in Ireland, an experience that serendipitously aligned with a new opportunity at former communications conglomerate Alltel. There, Beebe had the exciting job of managing marketing campaigns for major sporting events like the Super Bowl, Daytona 500, and SEC Championship. She also met her husband, Kevin, at Alltel. Looking back, Beebe realizes this chain of events was anything but random. She attributes her decision to come to UGA as “the moment that changed my whole life.” And as the daughter of two first-generation college graduates, she also recognizes that this life-altering experience was never a given. “Education is not guaranteed to everybody. If someone wants it, they should be able to have it,” Beebe says. She has supported her alma mater for years, most recently establishing the Beebe Family Scholarship Fund. This Georgia Commitment Scholarship (see p. 12) will provide financial support to first-generation students pursuing a degree from the Lamar Dodd School of Art—the very place where her journey began. “I feel lucky that I’m at a place in life where I can give back,” Beebe says. “I hope this scholarship not only changes the course of a student’s life, but their family’s as well.”

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Today, Beebe and her husband live in Florida, where she dedicates her time and expertise to several causes. She serves as a board member for the Naples Community Hospital and the Naples Botanical Garden. She also is the chairperson for Caron Treatment Center’s national capital campaign, which is raising funds to build a medical facility in southeast Florida for adults and families struggling with addiction. Though Beebe now lives a state away, she still wears her red and black with pride. “Everyone I know—even in Naples— knows that I ‘bark,’” she says. And with Beebe’s generous gifts to UGA, many more students will be able to bark as proud UGA alumni as they embark on their own successful careers.

Join Cortney Beebe in making a generations-long difference through scholarship support. Learn more about the Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program at GIVE.UGA.EDU/GCGM.

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CLASS NOTES Lindquist & Coch in Thomasville. Sara Collins BSA ’12, DVM ’17 is the exotic and small animal veterinarian at Dogwood Veterinary Hospital & Laser Center in Newnan. Katherine Mason ABJ ’12 founded SculptHouse, a spin studio with multiple locations in Atlanta, Nashville, and Dallas. Jordan Stowe AB ’12 is the southeast regional director at CSC Leasing Company in Atlanta. Trevor Booth BBA ’13 was named assistant vice president of the

Bogart branch of the Oconee State Bank. Nicollette Boydstun BFA ’13 is the creative lead at the Georgia Farm Bureau headquarters in Macon. Toi Brown BFA ’13 received a master of arts in contemporary dance performance at the London Contemporary Dance School in England. Lorianne Chapman AB ’13 is a senior project manager at Mower in Atlanta. Devon Freas BS ’13 is a graduate student at Miami University.

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During the summer, she participated in the university’s Global Field Program, studying the ecology of steppe ecosystems in Mongolia. Michael Bennett BSEd ’14 is a corporate real estate adviser at Cresa in Atlanta. He was selected as Cresa’s Rookie of the Year in 2017. He also coaches football at the Marist School. Katie Colucci BBA ’14 is the marketing coordinator at the National Christian Foundation in Alpharetta. Nadgey Louis-Charles BS ’14 is

the president of the Georgia State Society, a social nonprofit organization of Georgians and friends of Georgians living in the Washington, D.C., area. Melanie Wiggins BSEd ’14 is a third grade teacher in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Cory Yost BBA ’14 is an underwriter of U.S. cyber and tech at the Beazley Group in Atlanta. 2015-2019 Taylor Bisciotti BBA ’15, ABJ ’15 is on-air talent for the NFL Network. Tracy Couillard BSA ’15 is a dentist in Bonita Springs, Florida. Jenna Henry AB ’15, AB ’15 is a field service manager for inflight service with Delta Airlines. Traviera Sewell BSEd ’15 was awarded the Troup County School System’s Teacher of the Year. Corey Coffey BBA ’16 is a multistate territory manager in the Buidling Technologies division at Honeywell in Indianapolis. Brandon Galya BBA ’16 is credit and A/R team lead at Textron Specialized Vehicles in Augusta. Joe Hendricks AB ’16 is pursuing a degree at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville. Eric Jensen AB ’16 is corporate communications associate at HarperCollins Publishing in Nashville. Erica Lee BSFCS ’16 is assistant director of student organization development in Student Involvement and Leadership at Clemson University. Becca Meyer ABJ ’16 is an account executive with BRAVE Public Relations. Yujin Ahn BSFCS ’17 is pursuing a doctorate at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. Hannah Boyd BSW ’17 is a social worker at the Hospice and Palliative Care Center of Alamance-Caswell in Burlington,

CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI

Family Tradition

or many college graduates, the road to a successful career can lead to the bright lights of the Big Apple or the foothills of Silicon Valley. But, sometimes, it ends in their own backyard. For Leighton Liles BBA ’05 and William Liles BBA ’05, the latter proved true—much to the delight of their father, Malcolm Liles BBA ’72. From their office in Nashville’s West End neighborhood overlooking the Parthenon, the Liles Group at Baird Private Wealth Management serves more than 200 client families across 30 states. These families entrust the Liles Group with almost $1.2 billion of assets under advisement. Because they work primarily with families rather than corporations, there is a personal touch to their work that isn’t always present in other

Malcolm BBA ’72, Leighton BBA ’05, and William Liles BBA ’05

kim hargrove

areas of their industry. “We have some families where we’re working with the third and fourth generations,” Malcolm says. “Clients are important to us because they are our livelihood, but if you work with them over several decades, they become very valuable friends too.” Malcolm learned the basics of finance as a boy, working in his father’s pharmacy in his native Valdosta. He transferred to UGA after attending Valdosta State College. He majored in business at UGA because he felt it offered the best options for a good career, although he took his time finding exactly what he wanted to do. Liles worked at a textile company and then a bank before relocating to Nashville in 1976. He soon got into financial planning and began building his practice.

Malcolm and his wife, Marion, ABJ ’74, grew their family with the addition of their identical twin sons in 1982. As they got older, as families will often do, dinner conversations frequently included stories about Malcolm’s work. William and Leighton paid attention. “When we were young, we grew up spending many Saturday mornings with dad at the office,” William says. “We’d play with the typewriters and Quotron machines while he worked. His office was very collegial and we enjoyed the sense of community. He worked a lot but never missed our football or lacrosse games, so we naturally developed an interest in his work. When Leighton and William expressed interest in business careers and perhaps entering finance, their father was supportive but also didn’t want to push them one way or another. “We talked about it,” Malcolm says. “They shouldn’t work for their father right out of college. I wanted them to work for someone else first. They needed to find their own interests and build their own reputations in the business world before they joined me if that’s what they wanted to do.” That’s exactly what Leighton and William did. Each of them began their career in consumer banking after graduating from the Terry College of Business. After earning his MBA, William joined Malcolm in 2010. Leighton completed his MBA in 2011, and after several years in corporate investment banking, he came to The Liles Group as well in 2018. “The practice had grown nicely after William joined,” Leighton says. “They needed to hire someone, and the timing was right for me.” Both William and Leighton earned certified financial planner certification prior to joining the team. William is also a certified financial advisor; Leighton is a certified public accountant. Like their father, William and Leighton are married to Georgia alumnae, and with each now having two young children of their own, family gatherings include plenty of red and black. “It does make Saturdays in the fall fun,” William says.

written by eric rangus MA ’94

geo rgia maga z ine | winter 2 019

CLASS NOTES North Carolina. Patricia Duffy AB ’17 is a content marketing specialist at the NFHS Network, where she manages social media and other editorial initiatives. Houston Gaines AB ’17, AB ’17 was named the 2019 Champion of Recovery and friend of the Georgia Recovery Community by the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse for his work on House Bill 217. Lauren Herbert ABJ ’17 is a digital video producer for Access Hollywood in Los Angeles. Logan Jahnke BS ’17, MS ’19 is a software developer at Epic Systems Corporation in Madison, Wisconsin. Brett Jeffares BBA ’17, BSEd ’17 is corporate partnerships marketing coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. Martha Michael ABJ ’17 is an English language teacher and cultural assistant at Ministerio de Cultura in Spain. Shainece Miller BSFCS ’17 is a clinical NICU dietician at Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany. Mikaela Canty BBA ’18 is a logistics analyst at the Home Depot headquarters in Atlanta. Brooke Hull BS ’18 is pursuing a doctorate in molecular biology at Princeton University in New Jersey. Ethan Laughman AB ’18 released two books of compiled short stories by Flannery O’Connor, Rituals to Observe and Spinning Away from the Center, in September. Lexus Marion BBA ’18 is a merchandise analyst at Nordstrom in Seattle. Josh Mayer BSME ’18 is a

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mechanical engineer at Jordan and Skala Engineers in Atlanta. He received an Engineer in Training certification from the Georgia Board of Professional Engineers & Land Surveyors in January. Jordan Nathan BSBE ’18 is senior informatics analyst at Accenture in Orlando. Ashtyn Powell BSEd ’18 is a teacher at Manning Oaks Elementary in Fulton County. Colin Rice BBA ’18 is a management consultant at Deloitte in New York City. Elizabeth Barlow AB ’19, AB ’19 is attending William & Mary Law School, studying international criminal law. Zoe Bayer AB ’19 is a programs intern at Amal Alliance in New York. Morgan Cocca BSEd ’19, MEd ’19 is a 6th grade teacher at Pinckneyville Middle School. Brenna Coyle AB ’19 is a digital content intern at Osborn Barr Paramore in Nashville. Reed Ferguson AB ’19 is a legislative correspondent in congressman Ben Cline’s Washington, D.C,. office. Lauren Funk AB ’19 is attending law school at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Brandon Kim BS ’19 is a software development intern at Fiserv in Alpharetta. Jaspal Mahal BSHP ’19 is pursuing a master’s degree in exercise science at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Ana Maslesa BS ’19 is attending Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Anne McEachern AB ’19 is a teacher in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with Teach for America. John Michael Leuer BSFCS ’19 is a business develop-

ment consultant at Oracle in Austin, Texas. Sophia Sanders BS ’19 is pursuing a master of science degree at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Jonny Sharpton BBA ’19 is a sales development representative for Qualtrics in Orem, Utah. Hanna Tew BSHP ’19 is pursuing a master of science degree in physician assistant studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

grad notes arts & sciences Don Ethington PhD ’72 retired after more than 53 years teaching in higher education. He was a professor of mathematics and served as chair of the mathematics department at Averett University in Danville, Virginia. Vicki Crawford MA ’81 released her book, Reclaiming the Great World House: The Global Vision of Martin Luther King Jr. with Lewis Baldwin, in October. Kang Sun MS ’83 is the CEO and founder of Amprius in San Francisco. He has also founded and sold two other companies, JA Solar and RayTucker, in 2007 and 2011, respectively. Randall Patton MA ’85, PhD ’90 released his book, Lockheed, Atlanta, and the Struggle for Racial Integration, in November. Dee McKinney MA ’90, PhD ’98 is an instructional designer with the online learning staff at UGA. Kenneth Berenhaut MA ’97, PhD ’00 is a mathematics professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Sa-

CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI

Life in Pictures

ynn Appelle will be the first person to tell you that she isn’t a documentarian. A quick glance at her 20-plus year career in the TV and movie industry backs her up. A majority of Appelle’s credits are for line production (akin to being a budget director) or production management. But that one documentary short she produced in 2001—that was a biggie. Thoth chronicled the life and love of a quirky New York street musician. It was accepted into several festivals, and director Sarah Kernochan submitted it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar consideration. Thoth was nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject, and on March 24, 2002, Samuel L. Jackson announced Appelle and Kernochan as the winners. “The beauty of a documentary is that you really don’t know what’s going to happen. You experience everything live,” says Appelle BFA ’90, who is one of just two UGA alumni to win an Academy Award. Lamar

Lynn Appelle BFA ’90

peter frey

Trotti’s ABJ 1921 original screenplay for Wilson in 1944 was the other. Appelle admits to being picky with her projects. Rather than parlay her Oscar win into a career in documentary filmmaking, she instead pivoted toward a wide-ranging career that incudes line producing another Oscar-winning film (Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore) and current prestige television. Appelle’s most recent credit is producing Pop TV’s summer sleeper hit Florida Girls (which is actually filmed in Georgia). A native of Westchester County, New York, who has lived in the city for many years, Appelle majored in photography at UGA and began her career as a freelance still photographer and camera assistant for numerous TV movies, theatrical films, and commercials. One early assignment included working as a camera assistant for legendary sports documentarian Bud Greenspan during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Some of her fondest memories—along

with some of her most interesting work— sprung to life in Athens. Appelle’s days as a student in the late 1980s coincided with the peak of the Classic City’s music scene. Most every night you’d find her hanging out at the 40 Watt, Uptown Lounge, or Georgia Theatre. “It was a different world. You would just go to a show, bring a camera, and take photos,” says Appelle, who shot not only for herself but also for Flagpole magazine and The Red & Black. From the Indigo Girls to Kilkenny Cats, Ruben Kincaid, and dozens of other Georgia-based artists, Appelle chronicled them all when she was a UGA student. She has hundreds of photos in storage, most of them black and white, many of which have never been published. “I went down to Georgia in 1987, and I was very naïve,” she says. “But I was also on the cusp of what was happening at the time. It was one of the best things to ever happen to me.”

written by eric rangus MA ’94

geo rgia maga z ine | winter 2 019

CLASS NOTES lem, North Carolina. He is a recipient of the Faculty Mentor Award from the Mathematics and Computer Sciences Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research. T.C. McCarthy PhD ’98 released his book, Tyger Burning, in July. Doyle Srader PhD ’03 received the Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership award from Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Oregon. He is a professor of speech and communication. Kevin U PhD ’13 is vice president of engineering, data strategy, and transformation at American Express. Arunima Singh PhD ’15 is associate editor for Nature Methods, a science methodology journal, in New York. Larry Cox Jr. MFA ’18 is a professional choreographer for Mamma Mia in Philadelphia. He is also an instructor and musical

theatre program developer in the fine arts department at Eastern Illinois University. Kelly Petronis MA ’19 is director of programming at Flying Squid Theater in Athens.

business Al Connors MBA ’79 is the owner of Trident Places, a Pittman, New Jersey-based company that provides affordable housing for veterans. Thomas Hagley MMC ’92 published his article, Cultivating Community Schools, in the August 2019 issue of School Administrator Magazine. Scott Spence MBA ’00 is the president and CEO of The Duck River Electric Membership Corporation in Tennessee. Chris Perry MAcc ’01 is national controller at Collier International in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jason Cuevas MBA ’10 is the northeast regional vice president

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of Georgia Power. Amber Guyton MBA ’14 is a senior product marketing manager at Earnin in San Francisco. Stephen Depaul MBA ’15 is a family law attorney at Depaul Law Firm in Dallas, Texas. Anuj Aggarwal MBA ’17 is analytics leader at Ernst & Young U.S. in Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

education David Cady MEd ’76 released his book, Religion of Fear: The True Story of the Church of God of the Union Assembly, in May 2019. Mary Ellen Young MEd ’78, PhD ’86 retired from her position as professor emerita at the University of Florida in January. Dave Christy MEd ’79, PhD ’84 retired from his position as provost and professor of management emeritus at Baruch College at City University of New York. He was previously dean of the Orfalea College of Business at

California Polytechnic State University and was a faculty member at Penn State for 21 years. Sheila Jenkins PhD ’92 was elected as chair of the 2021 National Nominating Committee of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Judi Wilson MEd ’93, EdS ’95 is an associate professor and the dean of the College of Education at Augusta University. Amanda Marable MEd ’96 received the Walter Barnard Hill Award for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach from UGA. She is an extension 4-H specialist and senior public service associate with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Kimberly Osborne PhD ’06 is a professor and director of the Center for Leadership Development at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey,

CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI

Mind, Body, and Business

career in counseling wasn’t necessarily something JaNaé Taylor planned to pursue. In fact, she didn’t even know that option existed. As an undergraduate majoring in biology at Tuskegee University in Alabama, Taylor MEd ’03, PhD ’07 met some UGA doctoral students who inspired her to change her major to psychology. She soon discovered that UGA offered a master’s degree in community counseling, which she continued to build upon with a Ph.D. in counseling psychology. After spending time interning and counseling at both Mississippi State and Old Dominion universities’ counseling centers, Taylor opened her own private practice following encouragement from a group of her colleagues who were also interested in opening their own businesses. While working to establish her practice, which specializes in providing individual services to the black community, Taylor noticed a theme: some patients who were

JaNaé Taylor MEd ’03, PhD ’07

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successful black entrepreneurs struggled to manage the toll their demanding jobs had on their mental health. “Some of the very traits and skills that help entrepreneurs flourish in their business can also be damaging to their health. Working around the clock. Saying yes to everything. A lot of them tend to be creative, so they stay up all hours of the night,” Taylor says. “So while that makes your business beautiful, it’s terrible for personal life and personal health.” She created the podcast, Minding My Black Business, to provide black entrepreneurs with information on the more challenging parts of running a business, along with tips and guidelines on how to manage aspects of entrepreneurship that take a toll on not only their physical health but their mental health as well. Minding My Black Business hosts guests who discuss their lives as entrepreneurs and give advice on how to deal with the burdens that come with that career path. She says

black entrepreneurs specifically need to be aware that there are counselors like her available to them who specialize in those areas. What started as a way to market and advertise for her business eventually grew into a community of entrepreneurs and a podcast with 37,500 downloads and listeners in 38 countries. Taylor said she received outstanding support from her mentors and professors at UGA, particularly Rosemary Phelps, who gave her advice that has stuck with her throughout her career and into private practice. “There’s no way that I’m going to be able to experience everything that every client comes to me with. But there are things that are universal, such as grief, loss, sadness, and anxiety. Those are the things that I can help with. That just busted the doors wide open for me. It made me the therapist I am today.”

written by rachel floyd AB '19

geo rgia maga z ine | winter 2 019

CLASS NOTES California, in the U.S. Department of Defense. Sandria Stephenson PhD ’08 is the president of the Georgia Association of Accounting Editors and the paper chair of the Board of the Southeast Region of the American Accounting Association. She is also the founder and executive director of the Help Doctoral Student Retreat, an initiative that helps graduate students and lifelong learners complete their education. Jillian Martin MEd ’09, PhD ’17 is the assistant director of strategy and evaluation with the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement at Washington University in St. Louis. Brienne Smith MEd ’17 is an associate human resources consultant at Duke Energy Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sonia Sharmin PhD ’18 is an assistant professor of English at

East West University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Gabe Snell MEd ’18 is a captain in the U.S. Army, serving as the engineer operations officer for the U.S. Army Reserve Headquarters G-37 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Caitlin Olive MS ’19 is pursuing a doctorate in the Health, Exercise, and Sports Science department at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

face, based in San Luis Obispo, California. Evan Kropp PhD ’14 is director of distance education at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications where he oversees all online master’s and certificate programs. Katoya Fleming MFA ’18 received the 2019-2020 Oxford American Jeff Baskin Writers’ Fellowship.

engineering

law

Tofail Ahmed MS ’18 is a structural engineering doctoral student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Saunders Aldridge JD ’75 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Andrew Ernst JD ’77 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Joe Bishop JD ’82 is the president of the Georgia Association of Community Service Boards. Wade Herring JD ’83 is a fellow with the College of Labor and

journalism & mass communication Charlotte Maumus MA ’07 and her husband, Zachary Michaels BS ’04, are co-founders of memwris, a mobile UI company that is rethinking mobile user inter-

Employment Lawyers. He was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Kirby Mason JD ’89 was selected as one of The Best Lawyers in America 2020. Rebecca Davis JD ’92 released her book, Justice Leah Ward Sears: Seizing Serendipity in September. Thomas Cullen JD ’94 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Edward Henneman JD ’94 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Frank Macgill JD ’94 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Colin McRae JD ’99 was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America 2020. Alan Jones JD ’11 is an attorney at Turner Padget’s Greenville, South Carolina, office.

public & international affairs Michael Bitzer PhD ’04 was appointed as the Leonard Chair of Political Science at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he is a professor of politics and history. Anthony Crotser MPA ’10 is a member of the Gwinnett County planning commission.

social work Alexandra Pajak MSW ’11 is a mental health clinician and contemporary music composer. Her album Mind/Electric, a contemporary classical CD, was released in September. Porter Jennings MSW ’12, PhD ’19 is an assistant professor of social work at Austin Peay State University in Nashville.

veterinary medicine Emily McGarity Casey DVM ’99 released her book of essays, Made Holy, in September.

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CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI

Coming Home

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att crim’s medical journey took him around the globe, from working in labor and delivery units in Tanzania, to teaching English to medical staff in Thailand, to earning his master’s degrees in the United Kingdom. But Crim always knew he would find his way back to Athens. In some ways, Crim AB ’05, BS ’05 had a typical UGA undergraduate experience. He was active in clubs including the Accidentals, an all-male a cappella group, and was a member of a fraternity. In other ways, Crim’s experience was anything but typical. He received a Foundation Fellowship and served on medical service trips in Tanzania and Thailand during breaks. He was the first UGA student to ever receive both the Truman and Marshall scholarships, which provided him with the opportunity to earn advanced degrees in the U.K. “The impact that UGA has had on my life is just immeasurable, so I’m deeply thankful for all of the opportunities I had as an undergrad,” Crim says. “They definitely have set the course for my path.” During the summer break between completing his graduate programs abroad, Crim returned to UGA’s campus

Matt Crim AB ’05, BS ’05 to marry his high school sweetheart and fellow Bulldog, Jill Smith Crim BSEd ’04, in the Chapel. The couple spent their first year of marriage in London before moving to Baltimore where Crim received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. For his next move, Crim wanted a balance between academia and time seeing patients. He found it in a familiar place. Crim’s journey came full circle when he was offered a position as a cardiologist at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital and as an assistant professor of medicine at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership. “We had always thought in the back of our minds we might end up here eventually, but the stars sort of aligned in terms of this opportunity.” Crim practices general cardiology at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital. At the Medical Partnership, he teaches clinical skills, cardiology, medical ethics, and health system finance to medical students. “It’s really gratifying to now come back and live in this place and contribute to the students on their journeys,” Crim says. “The city has changed a lot since we were undergrads, but all in good ways.”

written by mary calkins

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Published quarterly and mailed to the household, your advertising message reaches your audience directly, giving you one of the strongest demographic buys in the region. For information on advertising in the award-winning Georgia Magazine, contact gmsales@uga.edu or 706-542-9877.

send us your notes

Help UGA and your classmates keep up with what’s happening in your life—both personally and professionally—by sending Class Notes items to one of the addresses listed below. And please include your hometown to help us keep our alumni database up to date. If you send a photo, please make sure it is a resolution of 300 dpi. Class Notes is the first section we work on, so keep these deadlines in mind: for the Spring (March) issue, submit by December 1; for Summer (June), submit by March 1; for Fall (September), submit by June 1; for Winter (December), submit by September 1. Quickest way to send Class Notes E: gmeditor@uga.edu W: ugamagazine.uga.edu

Or send a letter to: Georgia Magazine 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North University of Georgia | Athens, GA 30602-1999

UGA Alumni Association Please submit online at alumni.uga.edu/classnote

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FACULTY FOCUS

Karen Whitehill King Jim Kennedy Professor of New Media and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor Professor of Advertising, Grady College President, American Academy of Advertising

“Working in advertising gave me an appreciation for the importance of experiential learning opportunities for students. I stay connected to former students and others in the industry so that I can help students launch their careers and better prepare them by incorporating real-world experiences into my courses.”

Working in advertising gave me an appreciation for the importance of experiential learning opportunities for students. I stay connected to former students and others in the industry so that I can help students launch their careers and better prepare for them by incorporating real-world experiences into my courses.

Karen Whitehill King decided to study advertising after reading Vance Packard’s Hidden Persuaders in high school. The seminal book piqued her interest in how consumer insights can be used in more positive ways in the world of advertising. She infuses her scholarship into the classes she teaches. King recognizes the vital part her mentors in academia played in helping advance her career and strives to fill that role in the lives of her students and junior faculty members.

peter frey

Endowed chairs, positions that receive supplemental support generated from private donations, are essential to recruiting and retaining leading faculty who are committed to world-changing research and preparing the next generation of problem-solvers, pioneers, and leaders. Learn more about supporting UGA’s leading faculty at give.uga.edu/gm.

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